Back to Disney- Thursday- Day7

We decided that Thursday would be our "early day", get to the park early and leave early. Despite our best efforts we couldn't drag ourselves out of bed early enough for the "Magic Morning" at 8, but arrived at the park instead at 8:45 and ended up standing in line with the throngs waiting for the park to open.
We decided to head straight over to Nemo so we didn't have to wait in such a long line. Seems like everyone in front of us had the same idea. We still ended up waiting in line for an hour, but that was OK, because we were fresh and the day hadn't warmed up yet. Was it worth it.. sure, but not if it was any longer or in the heat.
Since we spent most of Wednesday in "Tomorrow Land" we spent Thursday checking out the rest of the park.

We think this is Shawna's brother Rex in the Pluto outfit

(Shawna, did you ask Rex if he saw us?)

Sword in the stone Why you need to have 4 children... so when you are too old and get sick on the spinning rides your kids can go on their own and you get to just watch :D

We went for the "Dole Whip" break that day after our visit to the Tiki Room. Again, this was a treat I vividly remember LOVING when I went in '85 and it was still just as yummy!

I couldn't help but hear Grandma Reeder sing "In the Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room"
Must get a shot at the front entrance
I'm a pretty good shot, don't you think?

We left around 7pm, just as all the "Grad night" buses were arriving. Boy, was I glad we had decided to end the day early!
We went back to the Marriott (thanks to Brenda's super saver Friends and Family rate :D) to have a BBQ and chill out on the patio.
Phew another 12 hour day!

California Adventure Revisited and Disney Fireworks- Friday- Day 8

We decided Friday would be "Late day" since we wanted to see the fireworks, so we didn't get to the park until 10:30, but of course ended up staying until 10:30 that night.
We went back to California Adventure to see the Alladin production (thanks Becky for the recommendation) which was really well done. Soarin' Over California had been shut down the last time we were there, so we caught that, as well as another trip down the Grizzly River Run, the High School Musical show, as well as some other rides we had missed before.

While I took my turn on the roller coaster with the big kids Brad took Abby back to "Bug's World" and went to the bumper cars. Brad said to Abby "Let's go on this one" (pictured below) and Abby refused. Brad asked "Why not? What's wrong with it?' to which she replied "It has a unibrow! I don't like unibrows?" LOL, what a weirdo!

Here she is on an acceptable bumper car----) grrr... I still can't get the videos to upload... I'm working on it.)

We decided to eat at "Downtown Disney" for Friday night, and we ended up with what I believe has been our most expensive family dinner ever at Rainforest Cafe. We then had to go back to the stores to spend the remaining money the kids had left.
Overall they ended up with
Samantha- pair of Mickey Mouse crocs
Elise- a Pluto mug & Mickey mouse cap
Ethan- the long sucker, a pirate hologram "necklace", a football, and a mickey mouse watch
Abby- her Minnie Mouse hat, a princess wallet, and a sucker.

There was a cool lego store in downtown Disney with this big giraffe made out of legos

We returned to Disneyland for the fireworks, which were really great. They do a fantastic job! Again, we thought after we were done with the fireworks, we would beat the crowd and head over to Fantasyland for the "kiddie" rides, but again, everyone had the same idea and we ended up waiting for 20 min. in line for Dumbo. But I figured we HAD to go to Dumbo because a trip to Disney is not complete without a ride on Dumbo!! Right??

Best Of Disney- Start home- Day 9

Saturday we sadly had to pack up and made our last trip to Disneyland. We didn't get their until around 11 since we had to pack up in the morning and we had been out so late the night before. It was quite a bit busier since it was Saturday, but we did some no line stuff like Tom Sawyer island and the River Boat while we waited for our last run on Splash Mountain.

Our last, and I think 6th time on Splash Mountain. Abby was so brave on this last trip she put her hands up in the air like the big kids for every drop (and even as we were just floating around (LOL)) except the last one... as you can see.
Yeah! We finally figured out where to sit to get Abby in the picture!!
We had tried to get on Thunder Mountain Friday, but it shut down, so we made it on Saturday.
Bye Disneyland! It was a great trip!
We finally left around 4 pm, so we had a good 5 hour day and drove the 7 hours to Sacramento that night. Sunday we got back to Bend safe and sound, and tired. The last 2 hours of the trip the kids were driving us batty, but we survived.

So glad we did it! It was a great time!

Tuesday- Disneyland- Day 5

Tuesday we started our Disney adventure by starting in Disneyland. I picked up Space Mountain fast passes and the machine spit out 2 for everyone instead of 1 each. Yeah! While waiting for space mountain we took a spin at "Autotopia"

Space mountain scared Abby to death! I sat next to her and she screamed like she was being tortured the whole time. She told me "I'm not really old enough to go on that ride, it's just 'cause I have tall shoes" :D. Since I had the extra fast passes and Abby didn't want to go again the other kids got to go on space mountain 3 times in 45 min!

Ethan was totally psyched about getting character's autographs, but unfortunately our pen didn't work, but we still got a cool pic.

Abby liked Splash Mountain the first time around, but we couldn't really see her in the picture.

So the next time around she sat closer to the front and got really freaked out. At the end of the ride she kept crying "I can't do another one.. I can't do another one" (refering to the big drops). Then when we got to the end to see the picture we still couldn't see her and she said to me "Sorry mom!"

We went to the Jedi training show, which was really cool. We really wanted Ethan to do it, but he wouldn't. He told us "I don't want to have to do what they tell me to do. I want to really fight him (Darth Vader)"
Ethan's spending money was burning a hole in his pocket. He wanted to go shopping from moment we entered the park. He kept wanting to stop in every store and spend his money. Finally we told him he had to wait a couple days until he'd seen all the possibilities to try and curb his shopping.
The kids and BRAD loved the Buzz Lightyear Ride and since there wasn't hardly ever a line we went on 3 times!!
We walked right on to Star Tours (NOTHING like the line I stood in 20 years ago) I thought I might be disappointed all these years later, but I have to say... It's still pretty cool!

We had to stop for a churro break. One of the things I remembered loving last time I went to Disney and ... they were still great too!

Abby really wanted to go on the "Finding Nemo" ride, but the line was so long, I told her we would come back later in the evening when more of the little kids had gone home to bed, so the line would be shorter. Then as the day started getting later out of the blue Abby said to me "When are the babies going to go to sleep?" at first I didn't make the connection, but had to chuckle when I realized what she was getting at.

We got on a ton of rides and really maxed out the riding and minimized the waiting. It was a great day, perfect temperature too!

p.s. on our trip to Santa Monica

I forgot, until I saw Abby's scab on her back tonight... but we did have other "excitement" on our trip to the pier. As we were trying to get to the beach we had to go across the bike path. The bike path was crazy busy. We thought there was a walking side and a biking side. When we realized the bikes were going both ways we told the kids to hurry, but Abby was a bit behind. A man was approaching ringing his bell and Abby stopped to try and avoid him and as he tried to avoid her they collided. Poor Abby got ran over by the bike as the man toppled off his bike. He was very nice though and was very concerned for Abby. We were glad she at least got ran over by the man with the "Jesus Saves" plaque on his bike, not by the jerk who yelled at us to get off the path while we were trying to make sure everyone was OK.

Congratulations Samantha

Last night was Samantha's last band concert of the year which was very enjoyable. It is fun to hear the kids getting better. Best of all however was that Samantha recieved 2 certificates of achievement! The 40 kids in her band class all voted for 3 categories, Most Improved, Most Inspirational, and Most Valuable Player. 4 were chosen for most improved, Samantha was chosen as one of 3 who were "Most Inspirational" and Samantha and her friend Kaylee were voted "Most Valuable Player"!!! Her band teacher mentioned that this was the first time 2 7th graders were chosen as most valuable player, as the band consists of 6-8th graders. We are very proud of her, especially since this accolade comes from her peers! Way to go Samantha!

Here she is in her Batman costume for a bit they did of superhero tunes

Early Departure- Day 1

Although we had planned to leave Saturday morning, late Friday afternoon we decided instead to break up the drive and leave around 6pm and drive half way to Sacramento. By leaving earlier we would get to see Benji and Shawna by late afternoon Saturday, and have all day Sunday together rather than just Sunday afternoon.

After our 7 hour drive we arrived in Sacramento around 1:30am.

Abby and Ethan "got to" share this cot.