Spencer's Baptism

My nephew, Spencer, was baptized today.  He is such a sweet little boy, and we were so glad to be able to attend his baptism.  He made a wonderful choice to be baptized!  Great job, Spencer!

Hello Dolly!

We had a great time at Hello Dolly at the Hale Theater.  The singing, dancing, and acting were all great!  Michael wasn't feeling well, so I invited my sister, Betsy, to go with us.  Andrew and Jonathan always complain about going to plays and didn't want to go, so I didn't buy them tickets.  They were so glad, lol.

After the play

With Dolly and Horace Vandergelder

Disneyland Vacation Part 4

We were all in bed around 10pm last night. The kids fell right to sleep. I think I actually got in bed at about 10:15pm, but I don’t even remember my head hitting the pillow I was so tired. I had set my alarm for 5:20am so I could get up and shower before anybody else was up. I felt like we did pretty well getting out the door by 6:45am. Today was the day we chose for Magic Morning, which means we were able to get in an hour early.  We breezed through security but the lines to get into Disneyland were pretty long.  Thankfully, it didn’t take too long. We had made plans to go to Star Wars land for Millennium Falcon and then get pictures at Toon Town, but Star Wars land wasn’t even open and neither was Toon Town. The only lands open were Tomorrowland and Fantasyland so we went straight for Space Mountain. 

After Space Mountain, we rode Buzz Lightyear. The ride stopped at the perfect spot and Daniel racked up the points. He had 588,800 points, which was the highest score so far today. It looks like Michael got zero points in this picture, but that was just a glitch because he did pretty well.  

Andrew was dying to ride the Matterhorn so they all went over there. Jonathan and I rode Buzz Lightyear three more times and walked right on every single time. I was having problems with my phone so I couldn’t contact the others, so I texted them that we would go ahead and ride the Astro Orbiter because there was no line for that either. After that, we headed over to Fantasyland and met Aladdin along the way. 

Apparently, the wait for the Matterhorn was long so they skipped that and rode the Teacups and headed over to Millennium Falcon. Unfortunately, that line was crazy too so instead they rode Big Thunder Mountain. We were finally able to contact each other and agreed to meet at the canal boats. Jonathan and I rode the Teacups while we waited and then we got in line for the Storybook Land Canal Boats. 

Our guide on the canal boat sang to us quite a bit. I don’t ever remember being serenaded on that ride so that was kind of fun. After the canal boats, we walked over to Toon Town. We got a quick picture with Pluto and then went into Mickey’s House to wait for pictures with Mickey. 

The queue for Mickey’s House is so long so you think you’re making good progress and then you make it to that last room and you still have to wait another 20 minutes. I don’t think we spent a full minute taking pictures with Mickey. 

After that, we went on Gadgets Go Coaster and then on Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. I remember that ride being a little bit more fun but it was kind of weird. By then it was time for Jonny and I to head to our reservation for Minnie’s breakfast at the Plaza Inn. Michael took the kids to brunch at Red Rose Tavern. Then they took the railroad from Toon Town to Main Street. Emily texted me and asked when we would be done but we were still eating so I told them they should go use their Fastpasses for Guardians of the Galaxy since neither Jonny nor I wanted to ride it anyway. 

Jonathan and I made it right on time to our breakfast with Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn. The breakfast buffet was very nice and had lots of choices. There was even an omelet station. As we were eating, the characters walked around to the tables to greet us. We got to see two characters I didn’t even know, Tigger, Eeyore, Captain Hook, Chip and Dale, Max, Rafiki, and finally Minnie Mouse. 

I had to look it up, but I figured out who these guys are.  They are Gideon and Honest John from Pinocchio.

Jonathan knows who is who.  Dale is the mischievous one and has a pink nose.

Chip is sweeter and has a black nose.

Max, Goofy's son

Eeyore

Tigger

Captain Hook

We finished eating and we were wondering when Minnie was going to come by, and thankfully she did. Jonathan was also pretty excited about getting a picture with Rafiki so I’m glad we got that. 

Finally Minnie came to see us!

Rafiki, from The Lion King

After breakfast, we left Disneyland and headed over to California Adventure and met the rest of them at Carthay Circle. Jonathan and I got our picture with the Headless Horseman while we waited for them. 

Then we all headed to Radiator Springs Racers to use our Fastpasses for that. 

Next, we went on Incredicoaster again. 

Then Jonathan and I used our Toy Story Fastpasses while the others took a break. Then we all walked over to Soarin’ to use our Fastpasses for that. I really like that ride. Next, we walked over to Hollywoodland. Mickey’s PhilharMagic was about to start in a few minutes so we watched that. It seems to be similar to the one in Walt Disney World, but not quite the same. After we left Mickey’s PhilharMagic, we rode Monsters Inc. and then headed over to Turtle Talk. Turtle Talk and Animation Academy both started at the same time and everyone wanted to do Turtle Talk so that’s what we did. 

Everyone was hungry again so we decided we would head toward the hotel for a break and stop at Denny’s on the way. Four of us got steaks and it was still half of what we paid at Café Orleans and the steaks were actually pretty good. Then we went back to our hotel room and got there about 4pm. Andrew and Daniel didn’t take a nap but the rest of us did. I think by the time we got ready to leave again it was about 6:45pm. We headed over to Disneyland and went to Big Thunder Mountain to use our Fastpasses. We took the train from Main Street and hopped right on and got off at New Orleans Square. It was packed over there with people getting ready to watch Fantasmic and it was only 7:30pm. We rode Big Thunder and then we walked over to the French Market because I was still dying to try the special 50th anniversary Haunted Mansion cakes. Michael and I each got a bowl of corn chowder and we also got cakes to share and fruit for the kids, but none of them seem to want to eat anything except for Andrew. 

We got back on the train at New Orleans Square and took it over to Tomorrowland. Jonathan and I went to Buzz Lightyear while the others went to the Matterhorn and it’s a small world. Jonathan and I rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters three times. The first two times we basically walked on and the third time we used our Fastpasses. He and I both had personal best scores on the second time, he had 188,100 and I had 588,800, which tied Daniel’s high score this morning. Jonny was thinking I beat Daniel and he was happy and so excited to tell him about it, but I was glad when we realized we actually tied. There was another glitch so it doesn't show our picture, but the second picture is proof that it was my score. :-)

We met up with the others and used our Fastpasses to ride Space Mountain again. 

Then we tried to get Emily a parfait at Galactic Grill, but the line was too long and I couldn’t get the mobile order to work. She said she didn’t want it that badly so we all walked across the park to Splash Mountain to use our Fastpasses for that. I’m not sure how they convinced me to ride it. My seat was already wet before I even sat in it. I had told the kids that if it was at the end of the night, I might be willing to ride it because then I could just go back to the hotel and change if I got wet. Michael and Daniel got soaked. I thought about wearing my poncho, but I just used it to cover my backpack and sweater. I stayed pretty dry. 

We thought about riding Winnie the Pooh, but by then it was about a 10:45pm so we decided we should try and ride the Millennium Falcon one last time. We made it to the line and got right on. This time Andrew and I were pilots, Michael and Emily were gunners, and Daniel and Jonathan were the engineers. Daniel says he was perfect. After the ride we headed out. We took a few more pictures around Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge for Nathaniel, and we also stopped at the shooting gallery for Michael. 

These are the views around the Millennium Falcon ride.

Some more cool views in Star Wars Galaxy's Edge

Even the restaurants look like they're in the movie

And so do the bathrooms!

This is the tunnel entrance/exit

We got one more picture on Main Street and then headed back to the hotel. 

We got to the hotel a little after 11:30pm.  

Wow, what an amazing vacation we had!!!  On Friday morning, we left around 10am and got home around 6pm.  We are grateful we made it there and back safely, and that we had such a wonderful time together!!!

Disneyland Vacation Part 3

I didn’t get to bed until about 1am last night, so I set my alarm clock for 8 am this morning and that’s when I woke up. It took us a little while to get going. It’s definitely difficult to share one bathroom and one bathroom counter but we’re making it work. We got into California Adventure at 10am. I bought the Maxpass right away and got us Fastpasses for Incredicoaster right away. We all gave a thumbs-up for the picture for Nathaniel, since that's what he does in his pictures on his mission.

Of course, Daniel had to get another Cookie Num Num so we got some to share. Next, we went to the Pixar Pal-Around Ferris wheel. Part of the line in the sun, but it wasn’t too bad and we had fun seeing the view from the top. All six of us were able to fit in the same gondola, and we did the non-swinging kind. 

Next, we went to the Silly Symphony Swings. Jonathan asked for that yesterday but the waits were so short for the big rides we didn’t want to do the little ones. While we waited in line for the swings, I did a mobile order at Smokejumpers Grill for lunch. After the ride, we headed right over there to get our food. Jonathan wanted to ride Grizzly River Run, so they used a Fastpass to do that and Emily and I walked over to Ghirardelli. We couldn’t resist stopping for pictures by the waterfall on the way. There was actually a Photopass photographer there, which was nice. 

At Ghirardelli, Emily got a root beer float and I got the Cookie Bits Sundae. 

When the boys were done with their ride, we met up at the Little Mermaid ride. We were worried we wouldn’t have enough time because we still had to use our Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania and get all the way across to Disneyland for our Oga’s Cantina reservation. We ended up getting through the Ariel ride pretty quickly and then went over to Toy Story Mania. Then we booked it across the park. We got out of California Adventure in about 10 minutes and we got to Oga’s Cantina by about 2:20pm or so and checked in for our reservation. There was a long line of people who had reservations, but thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long and we got a table to sit down at. A lot of the people just had to stand up at the tables by the bar. Each of the boys and Michael ordered the Blue Bantha drink, which is the blue milk. I told him we didn’t need that many because I knew they’d only want to couple sips, so we spent a fortune on a bunch of drinks that the boys didn’t like. I got a drink call Jabba Juice, but that’s only because Michael asked me to. It was pretty good. It had some little blueberry pearls in it that were cool. Emily got the Hyperdrive punch. The Blue Bantha drinks came with a cookie attached to the top, and the boys didn’t even want to eat that. It was a fun experience though and I’m so glad we did it. 

The Cantina was super cool and I had great detail and it really did look like you were sitting in a Star Wars movie. 

The time limit was 45 minutes but I think we only stayed for about 30 and then we went over to Big Thunder Mountain to use our Fastpasses. Then we took a break to put on some sunscreen and Emily got her picture in front of the Flynn Rider sign. 

Next, we headed over to Haunted Mansion to use our Fastpasses. On the way, a magician in front of the Golden Horseshoe stopped us and showed us some really awesome card tricks. The kids were amazed! I got it on video. 

Then we went on the Haunted Mansion ride. The standby waits for Haunted Mansion have been crazy. Michael prefers the classic version of Haunted Mansion and not this one with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. 

Next, we went to Pirates. The wait was really short. Daniel was annoyed with me because I insisted on sitting in the middle between him and Andrew, so they got just a little bit wet. After that we went to the Jungle Cruise which was “punny” as always. Then we headed over to the Shooting Gallery until it was time to go to dinner. We enjoyed our meal at the River Belle Terrace. We got in pretty quickly and they seated us inside. Emily said it looked like it was something from out of My Fair Lady. 

When we were done eating, we took the Disneyland Railroad from New Orleans Square to Tomorrowland and headed to Space Mountain to use our Fastpasses. 

Next, we headed over to Buzz to use our Fastpasses, but there wasn’t even any wait in the standby line. After Buzz, we headed over to Fantasyland. First, we rode Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which was Daniel’s request. Next, we went on the Teacups and then on Alice in Wonderland. 

After that, we had decided we should go back to the hotel. We took the Monorail to Downtown Disney because Andrew had wanted to ride it. We walked through Downtown Disney and stopped at Sprinkles Bakery and everyone picked out a treat and we took it back to the hotel room. Michael really wanted to have milk, so he found a little convenience store next to the Park Vue Inn as we were walking by and bought some. It’s good to know that they have that there. We came back to the room and read scriptures and had prayer and ate our treats and then sent the kids to bed. It’s about 9:20pm and Jonny’s already almost asleep.