Disneyland Day 1

On Tuesday, Oct. 5, we took the hotel shuttle to Disneyland.

First ride: Teacups - a success! 

Translation: No one lost their breakfast despite the outrageous speeds Richard & the kids had us spinning.

Mistake #1: Taking all the kids on Space Mountain the first morning. James and Sarah will probably never be the same. I told James there wouldn't be any monsters. Who knew they were going to throw scary growling monster and skeleton images throughout the ride for Halloween? I immediately lost all of my credibility as a mother. Loud. Dark. Scary. Fast. And, James hadn't yet learned to just close his eyes, so he took it all in. Needless to say, James would only go on rides like "It's a Small World" and "Winnie the Pooh" after that. Sarah was slightly more brave.

Below is a picture of James and I later that day just after loading the little, baby, roller coaster in Toon Town. 

See? Never the same.

And yeah, I pretty much forced him on.

I may no longer qualify for the "Mother of the Year" award.

Buzz Lightyear thought it was pretty cool that the boys were all wearing Buzz shirts. He kept pointing to them. If only we could have made him speak... We just wanted to hear him say, "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!" 

Was that too much to ask?

Oh, and I loved how they decorated the Haunted Mansion for Halloween. This was definitely a family favorite.

In the bottom left picture below, we are on a Bug's Life ride in California Adventure. Finally, some rides James could handle. We also spent $17.50 on five churros that night. I try not to think about the groceries I could have purchased for that amount. Churros are totally worth it though, right?

During the afternoon, it started to rain. We tried to escape it by going on rides like the monorail. Not terribly exciting, but relaxing. And dry.

This one is for my Mom. A true blue California girl who was there with us in spirit. We hope she can come for REALS next time. :)

A nice lady took this picture of our entire family with Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore. Too bad it turned out kind of blurry. 

But, I thought Photoshop did a pretty good job of fixing that! I played with the coloring a bit too. Not that you couldn't tell.

Richard and the kids (except for James) are pretty wet in the above picture. Mistake #2: They decided to ride Splash Mountain right as it started to rain. I offered them some ponchos, but Richard thought they would be fine without them. Not only did it continue to rain quite hard, but they stayed in their log for a second time through the ride since there was no line. (One HUGE advantage of inclement weather.) They were pretty soaked by the time they got out. James and I, on the other hand, put on our ponchos right away and enjoyed a relaxing ride through the Adventure's of Winnie the Pooh. This turned out to be James' favorite ride.

When we slipped over to California Adventure late in the afternoon, a few of us waited while Richard and the boys rode "Tower of Terror". Sarah took a little nap in the stroller during this time. BTW, getting a stroller was a very smart choice. Between all of our crap, James, Sarah, and William, it got a lot of use.

When we got back to the hotel that night, we made some sandwiches for dinner and had a nice relaxing soak in the hot tub. aaaaaahhhhh....

To be continued...