Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Get-Away Day 2

Day two was a magic morning... so we hustled to be at the park AT 7:30 to bust straight into California Adventure.  It was a great idea... until we learned that only Disneyland opens early.  Fine- we'll do some Indiana Jones first thing, then head over to California Adventure.  Wrong.  Only Fantasy-land opens early in Disneyland... so we cut our losses and headed across the street to wait in line for the opening of California Adventure.  
We waited in line at the gate, then we waited in line inside the park, then we followed a "rope" line to get to cars land.  We were the first people in line at California Adventure, and this is where we ended up in line to cars land. 

Good thing though... look how many people were behind us! 

The Cars ride was AMAZING.  The whole land was replicated perfectly, and the ride was kind of a small scale "being in" the movie.  It did have a part where you race a car next to you and go SUPER fast (like 50 mph fast).  It was really fun.  Total line time for us was about 20 minutes.  When we got off the ride total wait time was 2 hours!  CRAZY!

Here's lightning McQueen, just driving around.
Luigi's tire shop was an inflated bumper car ride, where you used your body weight to "steer" your tire.  Pretty mild and cute. 
 One of our FAVORITE things was "Bug's Life" special in 4D.  It was too fun!

 They took you into an "ant cave" for the movie.  (I'm always amazed at how well Disney themes their attractions.  Not one thing was out of character!)
 "Bug's Land" was amazing as well.  It was as if we were the ants living in the grass.  Mostly kiddie rides, but made us super excited to take the kids!
Complete with a little splash pad to keep the wee one's cool.
Stewart is standing in front of the city scape (actually just a wall).  We had to get really close before Stewart realized that we couldn't actually walk "down" the street :)

 We rode all the attractions (except the Bear River Run), then headed to the hotel for a siesta.  (So nice!)  We came back and enjoyed the carnival rides on the pier, ate dinner on the wharf (more clam chowder in bread bowls) and enjoyed the phenomenal "World of Color".  I highly recommend seeing that! We had a nice slow romantic evening, and this is where I slacked on taking pictures :)


Vacay-WHAAAT?

This May Stewart and I were able to get away ~Just the two of us!! For a whole six days!  We haven't really gone on "Vacation" since we've been married and we decided now was the perfect time to escape for a much needed anniversary trip.  

We drove to California and did the three day Disneyland/California Adventure park hopper ticket, went to the beach one day, drove to Vegas, stayed the night there, then headed the rest of the way home.  

On the way down there we ran into a couple hold ups.  We were planning on taking the shortcut route through Nevada to get to Vegas.  After driving 40 miles we learned that the road was closed due to road races and we'd have to take the long way around (and extra 50 miles or so... but don't forget to add on the 40 extra miles we have to go to get to that junction!)  I wasn't too happy, but just drove faster to make up for it. After driving through Vegas traffic was REALLY bad.  We ended up driving around 35 mph for about two hours, only to find out that someone's tire had blown out and caused a small fire on the side of the road. {Awesome}.  

After much ado- we made it to our hotel in Anneheim Sunday night, only to barely miss the fireworks show across the street.  Poor Stew.  I guess he'll have to see them when we take the kids someday.

Our hotel in Annehiem was the Castle Inn and Suits and had just been renovated.  It was really nice, and a short walk from the park. 


DAY ONE= DISNEYLAND

We think it's funny how this warning is posted on just about anything and everything... including the Disneyland Entrance!
 {Great minds think alike... awesome shoes}
 The next morning we started off bright and early.  The first thing we did was ride the train... which was closed at the first station.  (Hind sight I would have just walked across the park to where we were aiming to go)....
Our first ride of the whole trip was "It's a Small world After All".  (Pretty sure that did not excite Stewart for things to come) ;)

We visited toon town...

...walked through Chip and Dale's Tree House (Yes... we squeezed into it)

Drank Some Goofy Water
And Happened to be in Mickey's house just as he was getting there for meet and greets! 
So we waited the 20 minutes(which was short) to meet Mickey.  (The only character we waited to meet)

We just loved toon town! (Or loved the thought of our kids loving toon town :) 
 We Rode Space Mountain...

 Did the Buzz Lightyear Blaster game/ride where you hit targets with a laser gun.
I kicked Stewart's Trash (can't see it very well... but I beat him by like 100,000 points).  
We rode the Matterhorn (bobsleds)
 Monkeyed around in Tarzan's tree house

Drove the old school go-carts at Autopia
 Ate a delicious dinner of clam chowder (in a bread bowl) from New Orleans square while we enjoyed the little river and a very entertaining duck.

 THEN we rode splash mountain.  We had fast passed this earlier in the day, but it was closed when we got back.  By the time we came back it was almost eight and starting to get chilly.  "It's fine- we won't get wet because we'll be in the back".... {right}  {We'd been in the back of rides ALL DAY LONG.  Until now.  See those sweet little kids behind us?  We sat in the front so they wouldn't get so wet.  Sad story short.... soaking wet... tennis shoes, fanny pack and all was drenched!  Splash mountain was a one timer for this couple :)
 We did mosey down Main Street Disney after dark.  I love it with all the lights on... feels so romantic.  We also enjoyed these little penny shows (Basically old pictures that flipped to tell a story).  That was kinda sweet.
 We spent the whole day (7:30 to 8) at the park, and we were pooped by the end of the day.  We went back to our hotel, dropped into our beds and got ready for the next day.

Tramp- Tramp- Trampoline!

This summer we decided it was necessary to get a trampoline.  (Thank goodness we did).  It has been the best form of entertainment this summer! 

We had some great help putting it together
 Trey and Alex came to help.  (My kids LOVE Trey and Alex!)
 Grandma and Grandpa Jensen came too.

 Everyone loves a trampoline :)
 After it was all put together we had a weenie roast in the fire pit.  It was a great evening.












 Emmett even helped a little too ;)