I don't mean to ruin anyone's day, but did you know that Disneyland's California Adventure is making one of their greatest mistakes to date?
They are CLOSING the Tower of Terror.
Do you realize how devastating this is? It's totally one of my favorite rides!!
Granted, they're reopening it in June as some Guardians of the Galaxy thing that I'm sure is going to be the entrance to Marvel Land and will be awesome, but STILL.
Tower of Terror has to be sacrificed in the name of progress? I'm offended. As are many Disney fans, including but not limited to my husband.
When we found out what was happening, we started scheming to see how we could get over to Disneyland to ride The Tower for one last time to say goodbye. Money-wise, we knew we could handle it, thanks to a play that we helped put on and me teaching voice/piano lessons again, but we just didn't know if we were up for a trip with all four kids to Disneyland (because, whatever else it might be, Disneyland is NOT relaxing).
I didn't like the idea of going with just Steve and I, and so we came to a compromise--why not make it a tradition to take each of the kids when they're around 7 1/2 years old? We could take Jack this year, take Clark in a year and a half, etc?
It turned out to be one of the best trips I've ever had to Disneyland!
We had a lot going on (apparently December is usually a pretty busy month for us--who knew?), so this wasn't the most meticulously planned-out trip we've ever had, but it was magical.
Wanna know a secret? I actually like my kids! Especially on their own when they're not fighting with their siblings?
Jack had a BLAST. Because it was just him, we were able to totally spoil and appreciate him, and I felt like we were able to feel a lot closer at the end of the trip!
It was also fun to be able to brag on this handsome boy to the people in line around us. I know for sure Jack just thrived on the attention (my little extrovert LOVES people and excitement), and, hey, we got an awesome trip to Disneyland!
Jack had fun with the fountains:
And at one point we told him to pose in front of a fountain. We turned to look at the phone together and when we glanced up, he had climbed ON TOP of the fountain! Oops! We snapped a picture before laughingly telling him to climb back down.
We're not bad parents, right?
Our trip was planned where we got to be in Disneyland on Friday and California Adventure on Saturday. Of course, we got there before the parks actually opened, so on Friday morning while we were waiting on Main Street before the rope drop into the rest of the park, we got to meet Mary Poppins! She was very prim and polite but very nice to us, although not to the guy behind us who asked her if he reminded her of Bert.
"No," she replied simply.
We laughed pretty hard at that, and luckily the guy had a sense of humor, so he laughed too.
It was so fun to watch Steve share one of his great loves with Jack, and to see that Jack was old enough to really appreciate a lot of what Steve told him.
I loved this little interaction!
Jack waiting to get in the park:
Once we got in the park, we were busy! We hit all the main rides we wanted to, and thanks to some strategic Fast Pass usage on Steve's park, we didn't have to wait in too many ridiculous lines, even though the park was pretty crowded.
Jack loved the teacups:
And enjoyed meeting the Big Guy himself, Mickey Mouse!
Okay, Steve and I were pretty excited to meet him, too.
We did Indiana Jones:
Which was the only ride Jack
didn't like, surprisingly enough--he's seen the third movie and loved it, but he doesn't like being thrown around a lot and that ride was too bumpy for him.
We enjoyed Pirates:
Haunted Mansion:
and even Splash Mountain, which had almost NO line because it was actually pretty chilly!
Jack learned a trick from his uncle Abe that if you close your eyes on the big drops, they're not as scary--
which apparently worked, because he loved it!
After Splash, he waited in line to go meet Santa and had fun posing with snowmen made out of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.
He got to meet Santa, and apparently all had been good enough that Santa said he might get what he asked for!
The only ride we had to wait longer than thirty minutes was It's A Small World, surprisingly enough, but because it was the Christmas version, I'm glad we did. Jack and I had never seen it before, but it was really quite magical! I love hearing all the different Christmas carols mixed perfectly in with the main theme song.
And the lights were so pretty!
By the end of the night, we were EXHAUSTED. We watched the fireworks show and the Paint the Night parade, then walked back to our hotel for a rest before we did it all again!
The next morning, while we were waiting for the rope drop at California Adventure, two cast members came up and pulled us out of the crowd, then made Jack an Honorary Park Ranger for the day! They gave him a certificate and stickers which allowed us to move to the front of the line on Soarin' (Used to be over California, now it's over the world) and Grizzly River Rapids! They then escorted us to the ride and let us sit right in the middle front spot (the best place) and be the first ones to ride the ride all day. It was so fun, and Jack was so excited (as were Steve and I). We ended up riding those two rides three times each during the day, and each time it was cute to see Jack's sheepish smile as he appreciated the attention he was given.
We then ran over to Toy Story Mania (where Steve and Jack both creamed me as far as our scores), and got the obligatory yellow 3D glasses picture:
And then kind of wandered for the rest of the day. Again, thanks to some strategic Fast Pass usage, we rode every ride we wanted to at least once (Jack rode California Screamin' twice!), and still had time for the Animation Academy, as well as some character meetings!
It was funny to watch who Jack was excited to meet--I have a feeling this trip will be totally different in three years when we go with Maggie!
By the end of the day, we were happy and tired and TOTALLY done with crowds (as I posted on Facebook, walking through Disneyland is like inadvertently playing Red Rover with thousands of strangers), but we made it to the World of Color holiday show (I LOVED it!), and then headed back to the hotel right afterwards.
I'm so grateful we got to go, and I'm even more grateful to my mom and Levi (my brother) who watched the other three kiddos so we got to go on this trip! I'm looking forward to our other trips with the other three!
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