Disneyland, Day 2

 

Now that they truly understood what "Disneyland" was, the boys woke up the next morning very, very excited. When the alarm clock went off, with his eyes still closed, William got a huge smile on his face. Getting the boys dressed and ready took no time at all.

Speaking of getting dressed, I decided to just have the boys wear the same shirts they wore the day before. I didn't have any other shirts that they all had and the red was perfect for spotting them. 

When we came through the tunnel into Main Street, one of those old fashioned cars that drive up and down Main street was waiting at the curb. The driver, a woman who was super nice, looked at us and asked us if we wanted a ride. I didn't realize that not only was it free, but open to anybody to ride. We climbed on and enjoyed the views of Main Street from this little cute car.

Using the travel website, I had gotten a two day plan on what to do and where to go to get the most out of Disneyland. We had veered off it a little bit to get the rides we wanted to and those that were close, but we consulted it a lot.
This second morning, instead of heading straight to the Peter Pan ride like suggested, we first made a detour. The boys had enjoyed Splash Mountain so much that we decided to go on it again (meaning I got to go on the beloved Winnie the Pooh ride once more as well).
When Grant and I were done, we went to the end of Splash Mountain to wait for the boys to get done. As we were waiting I noticed that there still weren't very many people going on the ride yet. I spotted Todd and the boys' log pull up and as Roger stood up the ride conductor asked him something. I saw a very enthusiastic "Yes!" from Roger and Todd immediately pulled out his phone. Then instead of exiting the log, the log lunged forward and they were going on the ride again. I was so happy that they were able to go again. It really is my favorite ride, enough cute things to see, enough dips and dives, and the line is usually so very long and even if it's not very long, it takes a long time to walk around to where you get on the ride.
Afterwards the boys really wanted to go on Winnie the Pooh, I mean it didn't seem fair that Grant got to and they didn't. and Grant was excited to be the expert and show them where to go. I couldn't handle the jerkiness of the ride once more, so I sent Todd while I waited for them.

Then we went on Peter Pan - a must, right?

And the Dumbo ride

 

Todd took the boys on the spinning teacups. I could not go on that, I still would feel sick and was not up for something that just spun. But the boys had such a great time spinning with their dad.

We went on several more rides. The kids really enjoyed the rides, and again did pretty well during line waiting times. It did help that I had packed some apples and oranges to keep them occupied.

 

Poor William's legs got tired so we devised a way for our single stroller to become a double stroller, even though Grant wasn't a fan of sharing his space.

After the crowds and the sun became too intense, we went over to CaliforniaLand to meet my family. We were going to an Aladdin show there. It was a great idea for CaliforniaLand is not as busy Disneyland and it was a good time to get inside for a bit.
We did have to wait in line to be let into the theater for the show, but between iPods and Baby Audrey, the boys were having a great time.

The show was great. Tavia had seen it before and said that it was Broadway quality, she was right. The costumes, the actors, the musical numbers, the special effects, were all very good and it was a good hour to get out of the heat.
After the show, we parked by a bench and let the kids play a little bit and get pictures of the cousins together.

And of course of the two brother-in-laws

My nephews were wanting to go on Tower of Terror, so we decided that Todd and the older two boys would join them. When we got to the ride, it had a long waiting time. We picked up 6 fast passes, just in case our boys and someone else wanted to go later, and continued on.
We went to Bug's Life area. The rides were carnival type, but cute-ified. The boys enjoyed it a lot.

We met up with my dad for lunch. After that the older boys saw the big roller coaster, Calilfornia Dreamin'. They got excited just seeing it. We checked Roger's height, he barely made it. The guy that helped measure him told us to make sure he stood up straight and tall for if he slouched at all, someone later on may not let him through.
Todd and older boys stood in line for the roller coaster while I went around with the younger two.
We saw the Toy Story ride, and even though the line was SUPER long, we went on it. I figured the other guys were going to be awhile, so why not. The boys liked the ride, but I'm not sure it was worth such a long wait.

Just as we were getting off the ride Todd called to say that he had just gotten off the roller coaster, and that the boys LOVED the ride. Our Fast Passes for Tower of Terror were now usable, and since he was somewhat near there, I told him to take the boys over to the Tower of Terror.
Meanwhile, the younger boys and I got slushies and went on a spinning rocket ride.

Todd and the older boys went on Tower of Terror twice. They went on it once, loved it, and were about to leave until they realized they had 3 more Fast Passes, why not go again. The first time they went on it, Michael made a little friend with a kid his age. This is amazing for Michael doesn't get really friendly with kids he doesn't know. He even chose to sit by his new friend on the ride rather than sit by Todd and Roger.
The second time they went on the Tower, the ride operator was giving them the last minute instructions when she asked for any questions. Roger raised his hand and said, "I know what's going to happen". She looked at him very seriously and said, "Are you sure?" as she shut the doors closed. Roger panicked and looked at Todd with wide eyes.

We met up with Todd at this little Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. It was awesome. There was a huge hanging bridge/walkway thing made of netted rope - the boys loved that, I did not. I didn't mind them going on it, but I am scared of heights and it just made me uncomfortable being up there. This trail place was great, we spent a couple of hours just letting the boys run around and explore. I would love to have a park similar to this place near our house.
After it had gotten dark, we went over to the body of water at CaliforniaLand for the show, World of Color. While we were there, I got a call from Tavia. She and Roger and their kids were watching the show as well and wanted to know if we were still there. They had talked about whether we were still at the park, or even at the show. Roger guessed that we were probably up at the front, where there's a possibility of getting wet. Well, he was right. We were on the front row. It was a pretty cool show, using lots of water, color, fire, music, and movie scenes.
After the show was over we headed back to Disneyland. As we got into Disneyland, they had a fireworks show that was just ending. Part of the finale was having real snow blown into the air on Main Street - this would have been so much cooler if we didn't see so often in Ohio.
The castle looked amazing, we got to look at it for quite awhile while we waited for the fire marshal to say that it was okay for us to go by it. While waiting, William and Grant fell asleep. 

When we were traveling from Ohio, we went right from our flight into Las Vegas, were picked up by Lyndee and Nathan, and drove directly from there to California. All this was going to occur and we weren't flying out of Ohio until around 5 PM. I realized that it was going to be a LONG time of traveling. Fearing that the kids may have a freak-out, I came up with an incentive for them to behave.
I told the boys that while at Disneyland, we would buy them something, of their own choosing, but in order for them to get this they had to obey us until then. They each had three warning, and after they got the third warning they could no longer get something. This worked like a charm and we were able to keep up the "warnings" until our last night at Disneyland, so it really worked out well.
I was prepared to spend at least $30 on each boy, since the prices are usually quite high, but felt that to have them behave so well was totally worth the investment. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when they all, but Michael, chose pirate swords that were less than $7 each! I had no problem with them getting those. Michael chose a little figurine key chain that was under $10. It was an interesting little toy, but he still loves it so much.
We hadn't gone on It's a Small World, so I wanted to take the boys on that before we left. Grant slept the entire time.  While we were standing in line the boys were talking about their favorite rides. They all loved Splash Mountain, then William kept asking about going on Space Mountain. I didn't know he knew about it, but he knew what he wanted and it was to go on Space Mountain. After we got off It's a Small World, we walked over to Space Mountain. It was 10:40 PM, and though I was tired and knew that the boys were probably exhausted, and the wait time for the ride was 80 minutes, I figured that you're not at Disneyland everyday. So Todd took the older three boys onto Space Mountain while I pushed sleeping Grant over to the Main Street entrance/exit. I just sat on the bench while waiting, Grant slept the entire time.

When Todd and the boys finally came around at Midnight, I could tell they had had a good time. William had fallen asleep while waiting in line. When they got to the front of the line, Todd couldn't get him to wake up, so he just sat him down in the seat. When the ride started, William woke up very quickly. How would you like that for your wake up?! But he LOVED the ride, said it was his favorite one.
Though they were very tired, the boys didn't complain about the walk back to the hotel, and they were even able to keep up! Was a great, great day.