Disneyland !!

On Thursday, all four of us drove down to Disneyland!! We met Heather's family there and had a great time!

FRIDAY, we explored Disneyland:
We rode the new Star Tours ride, the classic Peter Pan and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Snow White. We took the kids on Buzz's AstroBlaster ride. Both kids loved interacting with the ride and shooting the alien monsters. The ride emails the pictures to you for free. Cool!

 

The whole park was decorated for Christmas. It was amazing. There was a gigantic Christmas tree at the start of main street.

 Mickey!

The castle had "snow" on the top

My princes trying to pull the sword out of the stone.

It rained all day Friday at the park. We spent a good time in the morning with a small crowd and short lines. Around noon we were drenched and rode the train around the park and met Heather's friend for lunch.

 

 Then we went to the Lego store. Giant wizard made of Legos!

 Aladdin and Jasmine and the Genie hanging from the ceiling made of Legos!

Life-size Hulk. We bought the kids each of set of Legos and spent the rest of the rainy day at the hotel. We watched Cars 2 at the hotel, ordered spaghetti and meatballs (Gabriel's favorite dinner), and played with Legos. The kids loved it!

SATURDAY, we started the day at California Adventure park. Not really crowded first thing in the morning. We went to the Cars Land and the kids loved seeing Red, and Mater, and Lightning McQueen. He actually talked to us!

 Radiator Springs

 Luigi's ride. Hover-car tires that you steer by leaning.

We saw Sully and Frozone. We went to see Talk with Crush. It was amazing to see the 3D animated wall-size screen and have Crush come out and talk to us. He picked Gabriel out of the crowd and talked with him personally!!! Gabriel got to ask questions that Crush answered too. We went to the Bug's Life land and watched that show too.

There was a part of the California Adventure park that had a huge play structure of ropes and stairs. Gabriel really appreciated the free play (and not being dragged all over the park just to stand in a line for 20+ minutes to ride a ride for 2 minutes).

Ephraim LOVED seeing Dug the dog from the movie "Up." He was all smiles.

We had lunch at Ariel's Grotto. I've never spent so much money on a meal before!! But it was worth it. Four princesses came out and talked with us. The meal was amazing! Beautiful appetizers, elegant main course, and delicious dessert. While we were there, we saw the water show (Goofy conducting a concert set to water fountains).

The bread rolls were shaped in petals of a flower.

We rode the new Ariel ride several times too. You sit in a clam shell and see the movie briefly as sets of the songs.

Then we went back to Disneyland and my camera ran out of battery!! I was so mad! I bought the camera only a couple of months ago and didn't even think to bring the charger. The rest of the trip I had to use my phone camera. Ugh!

We went to the Jedi Academy show. By far the highlight of the trip for Gabriel. He was chosen from the crowd to train to be a padawan. They let the kids wear a robe and learn to use a lightsaber for the show.

Then Darth Vader and Darth Maul and two stormtroopers came out. Each kid got to fight with them personally. (I have a video of Gabriel's battle around here somewhere.)

We spent a short time with Heather's family here (Lynnessa & Jon & Everett, Linda & Clayton, Jason & Danielle and kids, Robb & Steph & Griffin, Josh & Jenna & Alisa). That evening, we met with Cindy & Marco and Michelle for dinner. By luck we got on the updated Pirates of the Caribbean ride with a short line! We ate dinner and stayed there to see the Fantasmic light and water show and fireworks afterward! That made our trip complete!

SUNDAY
We went back to California Adventure to try to get on the Cars ride. The ride had been shut down when we tried on Saturday. Heather went first thing Sunday morning to try to get Fast Pass tickets (first of the line tickets). When we went back to use them the ride was shut down again. So we gave up. We did splurge on the kids' first taste of cotton candy.

Gabriel was so spent. He had lost patience for this trip and was super tired. We rode the rocking ferris wheel (which produced big smiles!). We rode a few more rides, went back to Disneyland and bought a few presents and started the drive home around 1pm. The kids were asleep before we left the LA area.