Disneyland Trip Days 7 & 8

Day 7

Friday, January 19th was our last day in the Disney Parks.  It was also our coldest day and made us really appreciate the nice, warm weather we'd had the rest of the week.
We bought the Max Pass for all six of us that day because we knew it would be more crowded, being a weekend.  The best thing about the Max Pass is it makes the parks feel less crowded, because you're waiting in shorter lines most of the time!
We were lucky to spot Minnie Mouse on our way in and got a quick picture with her. 

Friday was also the reopening day of the Haunted Mansion after having the Nightmare Before Christmas decor taken down.  The last three times we've been to Disneyland, it was the Nightmare Before Christmas.  So we were super excited to have the classic ride open on our last day.   It was our first, and second ride of the day.  The line was less than five minutes the two times we went on, but by the time we got off the second time, we saw the wait time switch from 5 to 25!  Luckily, they have fast passes for this ride now.  We went on it a total of three times that day.  

(Lily's making creepy eyes on purpose for the picture.)

In order to go on the Indiana Jones ride, you have to be 46 inches.  Sophie is 45 9/10 inches, with shoes.  Despite how close she was (when I measured her at home, she was over 46"), they wouldn't let her on the ride the first day.  The second day (Thursday), we tried again.  This time, while we were in line we had the idea of putting some folded wet wipes (in bags of course) inside her shoes.  Well, it brought her up that 1/10 inch so she was tall enough to go on the ride.  So we decided to do that again the last day.  However, this was the first time they'd checked her height at the entrance of the ride, instead of right before you get on the ride, and we hadn't put anything in her shoes yet.  So she had to sit out that one.  The first time, they let us trade off right at the ride, but this time they made her and I wait outside.  So we were kind of bugged by the whole thing.  We never did try going on it again, but Sophie had fun playing in Tarzan's tree house while we waited and I was ok avoiding a headache from the ride.

We went on all of our favorite rides that day.  Pirates is definitely on the list of favorites.

The Matterhorn being one of our other favorites.

The kids were such troopers and they did really good to stay with us and keep moving.

We spent a little more time in Toon Town and did the rides there, since they were some of the few we hadn't done yet that week.  Tom refuses to go on Gadgets Go Coaster.  It is a ridiculously long wait for such a short ride.  We liked Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin though.

  We met a lot of characters on this day.  Just Goofin' around!

We heard from some dishes that we had to try the "gray stuff".  It was delicious!

Trying on hats.  This one said "I'd rather be sleeping" and has Sleeping Beauty's crown on it.

This one fit Lily perfect... "Dinglehopper hair, don't care".

We signed the three youngest up to do the Jedi Training Academy.  I was grateful we had our Max Pass pictures for this event.  The kids had so much fun learning the ways of the force.

And they even got to fight Kylo Ren!

We went into the Star Wars Launch Bay and met Darth Vader.  He was very intimidating.

We also met Kylo Ren.  Lily was withstanding his mind powers, so he finally gave up and just took a picture with us.

Lily was insistent on getting a turkey leg this trip.

She got the turkey leg while we were waiting in line to go into the Fantasy Fair and see the princesses.  Cedric wanted nothing to do with the princesses, and Jeff started teasing him about them.  So when we were up next and waiting to see Cinderella, Jeff and Cedric started getting in a big fight, which resulted in Cedric storming off and hiding.  Meanwhile, Lily was chowing down on the big, greasy, stinky turkey leg.  So Sophie was the only one that got to meet the princesses.

They have real ducks all over Disneyland.  The kids seemed more excited about seeing them than some of the rides or characters.  We also saw a few live turtles in the moat.

While wandering past Thunder Mountain, we saw a path that lead somewhere.  Being the curious family we are, we followed it.  It led to a big gate, with a big sign on it that said this was where the new Star Wars Land entrance was going to be!  It's due to open next year.

We ended the night with some shopping.  Jeff was intrigued with the Magic Shop and ended up buying a magic trick.  Sophie bought a musical bubble wand with her souvenir money. 

Cedric had bought a Praetorian Guard Double Blade weapon, from Star Wars: the Last Jedi a few days earlier.  We were a little worried about getting it home on the plane, but luckily it came apart and fit into our suit case.

We didn't think we'd last very long that day, but we didn't leave the Park until 11:00pm!  The kids were sad to have our last day end.  We took the shuttle back to our hotel, put kids to bed, and finished packing up.

Day 8

Saturday, January 20th, we got up early, again and headed to the airport.  It was still cool and windy, but sunny.

We made our way to our "Barbie Plane".

The boys got to meet the pilots, and while they were talking to them, the rest of us were walking toward our seats.  All of a sudden, we heard over the plane's intercom, "Thanks, Mom and Dad for taking me to Disneyland".  The other passengers all chuckled along with us as Cedric shared his gratitude from the cockpit.

Sophie didn't like her ears popping on the flight home again, but otherwise she was a good girl.

We made it back to Salt Lake City!

And we were greeted with snow!  It was weird to think just a few hours before we were looking at palm trees.

We love Disneyland, and felt this was one of our best visits yet! 

If we could, we'd go back again tomorrow.

Disneyland Trip Days 5 & 6

Day 5

On Wednesday, January 17th we spent another beautiful day in California Adventure.
We went on Jeff's favorite, Goofy's flight school a few times again.

After going on Guardians of the Galaxy Tuesday, Sophie was really nervous about going on it again.  We told her she didn't have to, but if she did, we'd get her some cotton candy (she'd been eyeing it for days).  When the moment came, she chose to go on it!  Although she cried through the entire ride, I was super proud of her for being brave.

You can see us on the back row, Sophie crying her eyes out...

But, she got her cotton candy and couldn't have been happier.  She was nice to share with the other kids too.

We went and saw the Frozen show at the big theater that day.  Disney does such a fantastic job with their shows!

Because they are redoing the pier, there were no carts on the Ferris Wheel, but it still had the iconic Mickey head.

We met Captain America that day.  I love this photo!  This is what I do and it's fun they captured it.  (We bought just one Max Pass again for pictures.)

Little Cap' & Big Cap'

Acting like Avengers.

We love California Adventure!

Cars Land is Tom's favorite.  We love how much it depicts the movie.

We'd eaten PB&J for lunch again, so later that day we got some snacks from the Cozy Cone.

We went on Guardians again, but this time we did the kid swap so Sophie didn't have to go on it again.  They let her and Tom wait right by the entrance to the ride, so as soon as the three kids and I got off, Tom and the three kids got right back on while I took Sophie.  This time, we didn't have a Fast Pass and it was probably one of our longest lines we waited in (I can't remember, but I think it was around an hour wait).

The wait gave us a chance to enjoy the cool collections though.

We ended our last day in California Adventure going on the Cars ride again.  We'd gone on it several times over the past two days, and every time we ended up going to the right for the race.  Jeff was actually really upset about it.  He really wanted to go on it again, in hopes we'd go to the left, but by the time we got off the ride, the Park was closing.

We left the Park and went to dinner.

Between being upset about the ride, his stubbornness and possibly side effects from his new migraine medicine, Jeff didn't eat dinner again.

We went to IHOP for a late dinner and the kids meals were free, so Cedric just had two meals, since Jeff didn't want one.

We got home and went to bed... Another long, but fun day.

Day 6

Thursday, January 18th we got up and had breakfast in the hotel, again.  They had a very nice continental breakfast.

We got up a little earlier to use our Magic Morning hour.  However, the shuttles weren't running that day, so we had to walk.  We got there a little after 9:00 and went to the Peter Pan ride in Fantasy Land.  It was already a half hour long when we got there.  But when does the Peter Pan ride not have a long line?

The kids tried pulling out the Sword in the Stone...

We enjoyed a few rides in Fantasy Land that we hadn't done on Sunday.

We had another beautiful day.  And our kids were still hanging in there.  They really were good kids, most of the time.  

We were worried we'd get bored spending so many days in the Park, but we never felt bored once!  

Pirates!

Lily decided to buy a MU hat with her souvenir money. She loved acting like she'd just graduated from college.  

We went to Pixie Hollow and met Tinker Bell.  Her and Jeff's interactions were pretty funny to watch.

She was a fun character to talk too.  Even if the boys are too cool for fairies.

Tom showed the kids the Shootin' Exposition in Frontier Land.  

We had dinner at the Plaza Inn.  Well, the girls, Tom and I got food there, Cedric got a corn dog and Jeff went his third night without dinner.  

 Now if you look past the kid with the corn dog, and the pouty little girl (she was mad she didn't have more noodles), you'll see a cute, older couple sitting there eating dinner.  This is Tom and I 30 years from now.  We want to be the cute, little couple, with the Mickey ears, in Disneyland someday.

Disneyland was closing early because of a private event going on that night, so we went and watched Fantasmic before we left.  Considering they were all out of Fast Passes when we tried to get them earlier, we still had a pretty good viewing spot.

The Park closed at 8pm, after Fantasmic was over.  Tom took Jeff across the street to get McDonald's, since he hadn't had dinner yet.  However, the McDonald's was closed, so they ended up walking, past our hotel that was a 20 minute walk away, to the Jack in the Box for dinner.

I took the other kids and we headed to the shuttle.  Sophie found a snail on our way and wanted to keep it.  We just took a picture of it instead.

Every night, after we put the kids to bed, I got out the bread, peanut butter and Jam and made sandwiches for the next day.  We had PB&J four days in a row.  But it cost us as much for those four lunches as it would've cost for one meal in the park, for one person.

The week was nearing the end, but despite being exhausted, we weren't done yet.