Disneyland Day 2

Wednesday, September 22

Today we went to California Adventure! We hit the Hollywood Tower of Terror first and it was a blast! Bryant, Paige and Levi were the only kids we could convince to go on it. I think they all enjoyed it, when it was over Levi said, "That was fun!" When we asked if he wanted to go on it again, he quickly and decisively said, "No." Bryant, on the other hand couldn't get enough of it. He made it his mission the rest of the trip to get Porter and/or Jonas to go on it with him, to no avail.

Next we focused on the wee ones and spent a bunch of time in "a bug's land." It was awesome! Lots of fun rides for the littlest of our bunch and no wait time at all! We went on Flik's Flyers, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies (bumper cars) and Francis' Ladybug Boogie.

As we were loading up the strollers getting ready to go to lunch...

...the big kids thought it would be fun to get soaked at Princess Dot's Puddle Park. The whole area is so cool, its like you're a bug and surrounded by huge blades of grass, with a gigantic leaky hose to keep things interesting.

Of course, our boys were the most wet. It wouldn't have been bad, if it had been a hot day, however it was not. And they were cold!

On our way to the Terrace where we were eating lunch we stopped by the Mission Tortilla Factory and got a free sample. Everyone enjoyed their appetizer. After we all ate lunch, Ethan took Bryant and Jonas to buy new shirts since they were freezing. They'd been saving their money for Disneyland so this made the decision of what to buy pretty easy. Some of the crew ended up doing the bakery tour as well and Bella (my niece) got a free loaf of sour dough bread shaped like Mickey's head.
On our way to Paradise Pier we met Mickey! My first time ever!
Paradise Pier has lots of fun rides, but many of them aren't for the tots. So while some of the crew rode California Screamin' (a fun and fast roller coaster) the rest of us rode King Triton's Carousel. We rode it over and over and the kids never got tired of it. It was great! I had to include lots of pictures of it, since its indicative of how much time we spent on it.





While we were still waiting for the others to return, we saw Jesse greeting people. Then Woody came and we decided to get in line. We waited patiently for our turn, the others finished their ride so we went to ride the roller coaster leaving Grandma with the kiddos... When they were the next ones in line, Woody left and Jesse returned. They were pretty bummed! But oh well!
Anyone want to buy an action figure?
While at paradise Pier we also went on one of my favorites, Mickey's Fun Wheel! Talk about reinventing the wheel! Its a ferris wheel but some of the cars are on an oval track that moves and swings as the wheel spins. It was a crazy feeling! Loved it!

While the others went on some of the other rides at Paradise Pier Grandpa did what he spent most of his trip doing, holding the babies.
Eliza did what she spent most of the trip doing....
...raiding Richy and Kari's snacks.
And Bolton did what he spent most of his time doing, being stinking cute!
The rest of the crew was busy riding the Silly Symphony Swings (which we saw someone get kicked off of for breaking the rules), Golden Zephyr, Mullholland Madness, and Jumpin' Jellyfish.
When we finished at Paradise Pier we spent a nice, relaxing while at the Redwood Breek Challenge Trail where the kids had a blast rock climbing, exploring and especially riding the zip line over and over and over. It was relaxing for most of us anyway, some of those that went into Kenai's spirit cave freaked out a little (or a lot) and spent most of their time crying.

We ended the day in Hollywood Pictures Backlot, taking a ride through Monster Inc.
and then spending some time at Turtle Talk with Crush. It was a highlight of the whole trip for me. They have a special window into the ocean and special microphone so you can talk to Crush (from Finding Nemo). He answers questions from the audience and asks questions in return. Its totally awesome, dude!

The first person he wanted to talk to in the crowd was Jonas! He asked him where he was from, how he got there and who he was with... then he wanted to talk to his "parental units." After joking about us wanting to be as far from the offspring as possible, he asked us how many kids we had. When we said, "five" the audience audibly groaned. Crush said, "Oh man! You're just getting started!" I don't remember everything else, but I'm sure between Ethan, Richy and Kari we could figure out the rest of that conversation.

Then he wanted to talk to another adult, then let another kid ask a question, and ended with a question from Richy and Kari's daughter Paige. She asked what animal in the ocean eats shrimp. Crush said lots of animals do and asked her what her favorite food was to which she replied, "shrimp!" He stopped, looked around and said something like, "I don't see any here, dudette." It was funny! How cool that of the 5 people he talked to, 3 were with our group!

After talking with Crush, everyone explored the Sorcerer's Workshop and Animation Academy and then we walked back to the condo. Kari was a real trooper with her crew... We stayed out way too late and those kids were tired!