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.