Disneyland Band Trip

Even though it was exhausting, I am so glad I was able to chaperone Jonny’s band trip to Disneyland!  We had so much fun!

On Friday night, we had to be to the school by 10pm. They had a chaperone meeting, then all the kids started arriving. We had another meeting and posed for the group picture and got on the bus.

The back was so loud and it was so much quieter at the front. The only problem was there was a window or something that kept rattling and squeaking all night long at different intervals and it was really hard to sleep. A couple of the boys kept getting their phones out even after I told them not to but eventually, they all put them away and tried to get some sleep. It wasn't easy to sleep but we tried. They got us up at 5:30 AM to get ready to go into breakfast. It was raining pretty hard. I got the boys situated, or they situated themselves actually, and then I went in the bathroom to get changed and put some makeup on. The boys all said they ate well but they also had ice cream, so whatever. Thankfully, the buses dropped us off right by the door so we didn't get very wet going in and out of Golden Corral. The bus parked very far from the shuttle buses. It was really nice to go through security at the Toy Story lot and not have to do it at Disneyland, but then when we walked in, I saw that the security line was pretty short so I guess it didn't matter today.

Here we are on the shuttle bus. 

We got into California Adventure a little after 8 AM. We stopped at the bathrooms so the boys could change and we got lockers. I got a Genie plus pass for Guardians of the Galaxy so that's where we went first. 

Austin and Reid and I didn't ride it but the other boys liked it. We tried to go on Web Slingers on the way to Guardians of the Galaxy but it was closed. I went ahead and booked a Lightning Lane for it and sure enough it was open after Guardians so we went right on. The boys loved it. 

They wanted to stop in the Spiderman shop after the ride. After that, we used our Lightning Lane pass for Toy Story Midway Mania.

I was pretty proud of myself for beating all the boys on Toy Story. 

Incredicoaster wasn't available pretty much all day. After Toy Story, the boys wanted churros. Graham and I got cookie Num Nums and then a couple of the other boys saw it and got some too. 

Next, we went to Cars Land and explored it for a little bit. 

They did a little shopping and I finally had a minute to text the parents. Then we headed over to Soarin’ to use our Lightning Lane. The boys really liked that one. By then, it was around 11 AM and we were right next to Smokejumpers Grill so the boys wanted to have lunch. I did a mobile order and it was ready immediately. Everybody got burgers and fries and Jonny got chicken and fries. 

At first, the times for Rise of the Resistance didn’t seem like they would work, but then I decided to book Millennium Falcon Lightning Lane and Rise of the Resistance individual Lightning Lane because they were available pretty soon and I knew we could get it done before the boys went to their workshop. It wasn't raining at that point, but I was nervous that it was going to start raining again and they might miss out. Some of the boys were dying to do the Star Wars stuff. It had stopped raining for a little bit; it was raining on and off all day. It was nice to have a break while the boys ate. Once they were done, we walked over to Disneyland and went straight to Galaxy’s Edge. 

We went to the Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run ride. I didn't ride but I took their picture and got off the exit. 

We got a few pictures with R2-D2

And got the obligatory Millennium Falcon picture

Then we all rode Rise of the Resistance together. It was nice to walk right on both rides. By then, it was after 1 PM and the boys still wanted to look at a couple shops at Galaxy’s Edge. They also stopped to get sodas that are in cool, spherical bottles. I had to rush them so we could get to our meeting spot for the workshop. We walked the kids all the way through Downtown Disney and that's when it started raining again, right when we got to the meeting place by the Downtown Disney stage. I made sure the boys were all settled and then I headed back. They went into their workshop. I went to back to California Adventure to get some real food. I did a mobile order at Cocina Cucamonga for some QuesaBirria tacos. They don't really package things to go very well; they just put it on an open plate for you even when it's raining. I got another plate to cover it and put it in a Ziploc bag and carried it over to Avengers Campus to Pym’s Test Kitchen. The line was super long and all I wanted was a Chocosmash candy bar.  I swear there were 40 people in line. I saw that they did mobile order so I did a mobile order for it and I got it in about two minutes. I found a little table for myself where it was outside but covered and sat there and ate my tacos and half of my candy bar. 

I organized the pictures and sent them to the parents and the kids in the chaperone group chat. I read my scriptures and did my Duolingo lesson. By then, it was after 4 PM and I had to go meet the boys after their workshop at 4:45 PM. I stopped at Trolley Treats and got a sugar cookie and two bags of English toffee and then I booked it over to meet the boys. I made it in plenty of time. They were running late so we had to wait about 10 minutes for them to finish up. I had made some reservations for Tomorrowland already. First, we went to Buzz Lightyear, then Space Mountain. 

It started raining right before we walked across to Space Mountain, then I realized it was hailing! 

Then they wanted to do a little shopping. They wanted to stop to shop quite often. I can't remember all the times but it was many times that they wanted to stop and look around and get souvenirs. We spent quite a bit of time at the one outside of Space Mountain. While they were shopping, I set up a mobile order for Alien Pizza Planet because that's where most of the boys wanted to go. Then we went on Star Tours. Then I ordered the food to be prepared and it was already ready by the time we got there. Actually, at that place they serve it as you come up; it's not already ready. We found a table fairly easily and the boys ate their pizza and we decided what we were going to do next. I was getting concerned that if we didn't head over to California Adventure to ride the Incredicoaster, we might miss our chance so we decided to do that next. I asked the boys to pose for a picture on Main Street so we did that. 

Then we headed over to California Adventure. At the Incredicoaster, it said the wait was 40 minutes but it was super short, probably less than 20. Jonny and I got to sit in the very front. I don't think I've ever done that before. They asked us to use a little strap to hold our backpacks just to be safe. It was as fun as ever, but it was so cold. At least it wasn't raining right then. 

We stopped at the little store on the way out and headed to Disneyland. 

We stopped at a couple of hat stores for the boys and I stopped at Jolly Holiday for my Matterhorn Macaroons. Then we walked over to Haunted Mansion and got in the Lightning Lane. I figured Big Thunder might be closed because of the rain, but we walked over there and got right on. I had done a Lightning Lane earlier in the day but we weren’t able to use it. I tried to make another one and it wouldn't let me so we just got on it like normal even though the Lightning Lane ended hours ago. We headed to Galaxy’s Edge and passed the pretzel cart and of course I had to try the strawberry cheesecake pretzel. It was kind of underwhelming. The boys wanted to go to the Droid Depot. Reid and Elijah each bought one. 

They really wanted to ride Millennium Falcon again and the standby line was short so I waited while they did that and ate my pretzel. We walked over to Fantasyland because they wanted to take pictures of themselves trying to lift out the sword in the stone. 

By then it was almost 10:30 PM and so we went to Main Street and they looked at a couple of shops. I bought a bunch more bakery items to bring home to Michael and the boys. We went to the lockers to get all our stuff and headed out to meet the teachers. The walk to the shuttle and to the bus was kind of hard because I was carrying a lot of junk I had bought. It was such a relief to finally make it back to the bus. That night on the bus was pretty rough, but it was actually a little easier than Friday night because I was so tired. We got on the Toy Story shuttle and had to walk forever just to get to the bus and it was still raining. It took me forever to get settled because I didn't know where anything was. I had put things in different bags and I couldn't find my charging plug. Today, I discovered it was actually in my backpack that I used for the parks. Halfway through the night when we stopped at to go to the bathroom, I just got out my portable charger and used it instead. Anyway, once we got on the bus it took me forever to get ready for bed. I didn't bother washing my face and I couldn't get everything situated like I had on Friday night so it was just open at my feet and I just laid to the side. My feet were so wet it felt like there was a lake inside each of my shoes. It's like there was a time limit on the shoe covers and they just stopped working eventually. (I found out later that they had a slit in each one and I returned them to Amazon.) I took off my shoes and socks and put some fresh socks and my slippers on. Jonny fell asleep within five minutes of us getting on the bus last night. He was out. I was so relieved. I finally got myself organized and was able to get some sleep. I didn't wake up until the bus driver came over the intercom and said we're in Arizona and they were switching drivers and if you had to use the bathroom you could. Hardly anybody even woke up. The entire bus was sound asleep. One other lady and I got off the bus to use the bathroom. We were pretty far ahead of the other buses. For some reason they were 10 to 15 minutes behind us and we never did find out why. After the bathroom stop, I went back to sleep. I had to switch my position a number of times but I think I mostly slept until we were about half an hour away. There was no way I was going to wake up those boys until we were about 15 minutes away. Then she got on the intercom and gave everyone some instructions. The boys got all their stuff organized. They didn't want to get up and get their bags from the shelf above. Jonny looked at me and he was so sweet and he said, “Mom can you get me my backpack?” He didn't want to stand up while the bus was moving. So, I got all the boys what they wanted from up above. One of the boys in our group was feeling sick and vomited.  Luckily, I had a Ziploc bag to give him so it wasn’t too bad. We asked the bus driver to turn on some cool air. Anyway, he was OK after that and the mom said he was feeling better later so that was good. By the time we walked back to the car, most of the people were already gone. We got home and brought everything in. We put a few wet things away. I said good morning to Daniel and Andrew. They woke up a little bit after we got there. Jonny was so tired. I told him he needed to go to bed so I went upstairs to make sure that he did and he was already cozy in his bed and half asleep. I got in bed around 9:30 AM. I didn't set an alarm clock because I figured I would only sleep for a few hours but Michael woke me up at 6:30 PM. He sounded a little guilty, like he wasn't sure if he should let me sleep longer or if he should've woken me up earlier. Apparently, he came into the bedroom at 4 PM to sleep and I was completely out and I don't even remember that. I was shocked when he told me it was 6:30 PM. Michael made dinner so we ate and had our family home evening lesson and talked about our week. I just focused on doing the things that needed to get done and left everything else till tomorrow. Jonny was kind of moping this evening. His Wi-Fi wasn't working properly. I had sent him a bunch of pictures but he never got them. I was worried that maybe he was upset about something that happened on the trip or maybe I embarrassed him or I didn't do a good enough job. He assured me he was just tired and he wanted his Wi-Fi to work. So, I had him turn off his phone and turn it back on and suddenly the Wi-Fi worked. Later, he looked so happy and he was showing me pictures and he really brightened up. I realized that was what was bothering him all along is that he wanted to see the pictures from the trip. He was much happier once he got those pictures.

Like I said, it was exhausting but wonderful! I’m so glad I was able to go and Jonny had a blast!