Our last day in Disneyland was Friday. We had determined to make sure the kids got to do everything on their list. First up, we got fast passes for Space Mountain and Indiana Jones, since big sister wanted to go on those with me. Then she and I headed over to Big Thunder while Husband took the others to the petting zoo. The line for Big Thunder was blessedly short, the park having just opened and all. After the ride we joined up with the kiddos at the petting zoo. The kids all loved petting the lambs and watching the goats. Super cute. After a good hand washing, Husband took the little's on the boat ride around Tom Sawyer's island and big sister and I used our fast passes. Loved Space Mountain, but I could do without the Halloween-ifying. It's mainly just obnoxious screaming. We then went to Indiana Jones. The line was moving fairly quickly, and the fast passes help. Unfortunately, just as we got to the front of the line, the ride broke down. We waited for about 10 minutes while sitting on the floor. Thankfully they were able to get the ride going again. Fun ride, once we made it on!
After the rides, we texted Daddy to see where he was. He had taken the kids on the ferry and they were exploring Tom Sawyer's island. So we joined them there. A good time was being had by all! The boys were kind of done and ready for a nap at this point, so we headed back to the hotel. Here's my cute girlies on the ferry.
After our pj&j's, I stayed at the hotel with the napping boys while the girls went with Daddy back to the park. Taking advantage of older kiddos who can tolerate waiting in line, they went to see Captain America. Daddy really wanted to do this one, and big sister was pretty darned excited about it, too. Little sister was happy to tag along. It was about a 40 minute wait (the longest any of us waited for anything besides a show the whole week!), but Captain America took several minutes talking to them when it was their turn. The girls told him what their favorite rides were and he told them he hadn't been on any. They made some recommendations. Cuties.
They also went to the Iron Man exhibit. Husband took their picture in front of every single suit. By the middle of the process they were getting silly:
Such strong girls! They also did the virtual experience. We supposedly got pictures of this on the photo pass, but they never showed up on our account. I did get a picture of a little Asian boy. I'm pretty sure he's not ours. haha!
Daddy had told the girls that they could only go on things they both agreed on. The Jungle Cruise is always fun, so they went on that one again.
After the boys woke up from their nap, we headed back to join up with the rest of the family. We rode the train from Main Street to Tomorrowland. At this point everyone was getting tired and feeling pretty hungry. So they weren't all the happiest of campers:
In Tomorrowland we jumped on the Monorail to head over to Downtown Disney:
I think they liked the monorail better than the train. Anyway. We had reservations at The Rainforest Cafe for dinner. We had a few minutes before our reservation time, so we took pictures at the Lego Store.
All of these displays are made entirely out of Legos! So cool! We forgot to get a picture of Beauty and the Beast. They also have Prince Phillip and the dragon from Sleeping Beauty fighting on the roof top - complete with fire coming out of the dragons mouth and hitting the prince's shield. Cool. Really should've gotten a picture of that:
Lego Hulk
Lego Aladdin, Genie and co.
The kids enjoyed playing with the legos, too.
After the lego store we headed into the restaurant and enjoyed our yummy dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The kiddos all ate really well, thankfully. Husband and I enjoyed our meals, too. The kids really liked the thunderstorms and all the animals moving. A good time was had by all.
Our plan was to go watch the parade and do a few more rides. Unfortunately, we didn't plan on how crowded it would get Friday afternoon. It took us several minutes just to get back in to Disneyland. By the time we got to the Main Street Plaza, we'd kind of already missed the Frozen float. We hightailed it up to the train platform and managed to see the parade fairly well from there. Big brother then needed to use the bathroom, so Husband took him. Then little brother adjusted himself out of his diaper and peed all over. Yay. So Husband took care of that. On Monday and Wednesday when we watched the parade, it was really not too crowded. Only 1 to 2 people deep along the parade route where we sat. Friday night it was more like 7 people deep. The train platform was great because it wasn't crowded. A little farther away, but since we'd already seen it twice that wasn't a big deal. After the parade ended, we watched that huge mass of humanity get up and start moving towards the rest of the park. Husband and I both decided that there were no rides left that we were willing to wait an hour for, and we were betting that with that crowd most of the rides the kids wanted to go on would be that long of a wait. So I suggested that we head back to the hotel and go swimming. The kids were fortunately very happy with this idea, so just like that we were done with Disneyland! The kids had a marvelous time swimming, and then we watched the fireworks one more time from our hotel window. A successful trip to Disney!
The next morning, we loaded up and drove back to Vegas. We enjoyed some more hotel pool swimming and then went to dinner at Marie Callendar's. The kids all ate well again, thankfully! We went back to the hotel and put the kiddos to bed. I had ordered a couple slices of pie to go, so Husband and I went out in their breakfast seating area and ate our pie. Date night needed to happen! It was nice to just be together as a couple and to discuss the trip. Then we went back to the room and put ourselves to bed. The next day we were up bright and early. We were all excited to get home. We arrived home around 3pm, tired but happy. Thanks to my sister for watching the house for us while we were gone. Little brother kept saying he was so excited to sleep in his own bed. Funny boy!
We had a fantastic family vacation. 5 days at Disney was perfect. We weren't rushed, and when it got crowded Friday night we had pretty much done everything. So we didn't feel bad about leaving a little early. Husband and I listened to a few books on cd while we drove, which makes the time go so much faster. The kids of course loved watching their movies. Overall, everything was successful and fun. Good memories were made. Time together as a family was SO nice!
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