Back to Disneyland we go! We're hoping to squeeze in as many trips as we can before our passes expire. I think I will add January to my list of favorite times to go.
We had another 2 day adventure at Disney. This time it was just me, Sam & the boys. The night before we left Sam got out the tape measure and gave Ryan another measure. He was 39.5" inches which is just a 1/2" shy of a lot of big rides!
We left my house shortly after 6am to make the drive and drove in to Disneyland around 10:30am. We wanted to try a few new things this time so we made time for the rafts over to Pirates Island, Indiana Jones {Nate actually liked it} & the Pixar Parade on Day 1.
Ryan has always wanted to ride Splash Mountain {one of my all-time favorites}. Sam was brilliant and took her mitten & folded it and put it in Ryan's shoe so the band was under Ryan's heel and wa-la! He was 40" tall. I had to carry him the entire way because you can imagine this isn't very comfortable but he was a trooper to be able to ride the big rides. He absolutely LOVED Splash Mountain. After the big drop he says - "more drops? bigger drops?" He was kind of disappointed there wasn't a bigger one! Nate & Sam were in the very front and they got pretty wet, which doesn’t matter in the summer but it was pretty chilly outside! Ryan and I stayed dry. It was wonderful to be able to take our entire party on a big ride. A Disneyland breakthrough!
On Day 2 we got to the park quite early so we could get in line. It paid off! After waiting behind the big rope a large crowd was slowly escorted to the Cars ride - Sam was 9th in line! We waited all of 2 minutes before getting on the ride that typically has a wait of 90 minutes. Ryan loved this one, too {thanks to the mitten trick}. He waved and said hello to all of the cars in there.
Every time we go to Disneyland Nate wants to play the arcade games over by Toy Story Mania. This time, I said yes. It was pretty fun & we won!
Natalie, Reed & Dean met us for a few hours this afternoon. We let the boys explore in the RedLands Wilderness area and it was a huge hit! There are large rope bridges, slides, etc. for the kids to run around and explore. They even had a ceremony and were crowned "Senior Wilderness Explorers". The UP characters are in there - kids loved it!
Sam & I have been waiting for Nate to want to ride some big rides. Somehow he agreed to try Tower of Terror if we'd buy him the stuffed penguin he wanted. Deal! Ryan had no clue what the ride was but is up for just about anything so he came, too. Yes - we took a 2 year old on Tower of Terror {again, thanks to the mittens}. Both kids survived but for obvious reasons did not like that ride. Ryan wimpered for a brief second but they weren't traumatized! Now Nate says he's ready for Space Mountain on our next trip.
When we went with Ali & the girls in May 2012, we got on the swinging cars on the ferris wheel and it was one of the funniest and most terrifying moments for Nate & I. Somehow we got him back on it this trip and he agreed it wasn’t so bad! I on the other hand, am perfectly fine never doing that again!
While Disneyland is fabulous and we love it - I do have to just record that even the happiest place on earth is a challenge with these boys of mine. Sam and I come back absolutely exhausted & I am in physical pain from holding Ryan. But we continue to go back because it's magical and worth it all.
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