Disney Magic

Holy cow, it's been a busy three weeks, I'm going to break this into 3 seperate entries, otherwise, well, I'm not sure, I'm just going to break it down.

We left for our Christmas trip to Disneyland bright and early the morning of Thursday December 18. I was up at 4:30, got the car loaded, double checked everything at home, and loaded a sleepy Jake into the car by 6:00, I was kind of hoping he would sleep in the car, but I think once we got on the road he was too excited to sleep. Jake hasn't ever been on a long car trip (we have flew everywhere we went previously, the longest he's been in the car was 2 or 3 hours), so I'm not sure he knew what he was getting into. Mom called me a little before 8:00 to see if I had watched the news, and if we had decided to stay home. I don't ever watch the news, and it's probably a good thing. Apparently they had the first snow storm in almost 10 years in Vegas and the California state line, both the freeway and the airport in Vegas were closed. We were already to Provo by that time, it had started snowing a bit, and I figured we would keep going. It was a bit dicey until we got to Beaver, I was wondering if I had lost my mind, esp. as everywhere we stopped all they talked about was all the snow in Vegas. We didn't run into any problems the rest of the way to Vegas and by the time we got there, it was cold (by Vegas standards) but the snow was all gone. We checked into our hotel about 2:30 p.m., and then walked across the street and bought tickets for the tram to go to the strip. Not a lot for kids in Vegas now days but we walk around and looked at the hotels, Jake wanted to see the pirate ships. Then we headed to Ceasar's Forum Shops, saw the moving statue show, spend about 3 hours (literally it seemed like about 50, longer than the car ride) in FAO Swartz, and then went to dinner at Planet Hollywood. Then back to the hotel to get some sleep for our ride to California.

Friday December 19th we got up and had breakfast at the hotel (Residence Inn has my favorite breakfast, they are the only ones that have fruit, granola, and yogurt to make a parfait, which is my favorite breakfast), then headed over to get gas, and wash the car. We were on the road about 9:30 Vegas time. We did a quick lunch stop in Barstow, but otherwise we just drove straight through, and once again were at our hotel a bit before official check-in time (3:00 is check-in) time. We stayed at the Anaheim Suites, which is one of my favorite hotels in Anaheim although I would like to try staying at the Residence Inn across the street. We got all settled, and then went to dinner at Red Robin, which is one of Jake's favorite places to eat, and right across the street from the hotel (not even that probably about 500 feet across the parking lot).

Saturday, December 20th, we got up early to do our "magic morning" at Disneyland and were at the park by 8:00. I had told Jake it was just us this time at Disneyland, but he was still looking for everyone when we got to the park, like our trip in March. We immediately headed to Jake's favorite ride the Astro Blaster, Buzz Lightyear ride, then went on the Star Tours ride, and then went and had breakfast at the park, we should have done the character dining but there was an hour wait, so we just went to the place just outside of the Nemo ride, and had breakfast there, it was pretty good, Jake liked the french toast sticks, but was a bit much for my taste so I decided to get muffins at Starbucks the rest of the trip (I had $20 of Starbucks gift certificates from work). Jake had been on Nemo 3 times our last trip, and it was pretty much the only ride with the long line, so we decided to skip that and went on the Materhorn, which is the first time I've ever been on that ride. Saturday we skipped back and forth between Disney and California Adventure, hitting all the rides Jake remembered from our last trip, as well as the new Toy Story ride. Last trip to Disneyland was all about High School musical, this trip was definitely all about Toy Story. We had lunch at my favorite place, the Pacific Wharf at California Adventure, with the sour dough bread bowls, and clam chowder, in fact we had lunch there everyday, I tried every kind of soup they had (the best is the clam chowder, although the gumbo is really good). They had even added mac & cheese to the menu since we were last there, so Jake was as happy camper. We rode all the rides, and then Jake said he was tired at about 5:00 so we headed back to the hotel (we just used the bus, so we didn't have to drive and park, it was $10 for me for 3 days, and $3 for Jake, which is a lot cheaper than parking). We had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack (also across from the hotel, right next to Red Robin), then went back to the hotel for a quick power nap, at 7:00 we got up and headed back to Disneyland to watch Fanstasmic, and rode the Haunted Mansion (Nightmare Before Christmas for Christmas) again, Pirates 2 times, and did Small World (also all done up for Christmas). We headed back to the hotel at about 10:00 as they cancelled the fireworks that night because of wine.

Sunday December 21, we didn't get up and head over to the parks until about 10:00, Sunday was the warmest day, and also the most crowded (I think because it was nice there was a lot of season pass holders). We still got to do everything we wanted to do, there are definitely advantages to having only one child, $5 here, $10 there for one kid isn't as daunting as when you have a lot of kids, we did all the rides Jake wanted to do, mostly California Adventure during the day. The last time we were at Disneyland Jake wasn't quite ready to leave the Bear Park in California Adventure, something he quite remembered, so I told him we could stay as long as he wanted. Which I didn't live up to, mom was MORE than finished after almost 3 hours, so as is our Disney tradition, I drug Jake out of the Bear Park crying. That place if just no terribly well designed, almost everything is for kids under 12, but it's pretty big, and almost impossible to see your kid, so I was a wreck the entire almost 3 hours we were there, trying to keep my eyes on my little climbing bear, he was having the time of his life. This night we went over and got our Tigger Tails, then went to sit in the same place we went last time, Jake wanted to be right on Main Street though, so we staked a claim there, and waited for the parade. Disney is magic anytime of year, but especially so for Christmas, the parade was really cute. We went on a bunch more rides (I think nighttime as Disneyland is my favorite) but Jake was too tired to hold out until 9:30 for the fireworks, and we were both hungry (and not wanting park food) so we headed back to the hotel, and had dinner at Red Robin again (by the way their garlic fries are to die for, and all you can eat frieds is NOT a good thing).

Monday December 22, rain and cold was predicted night,. and until noon the next day. It was raining pretty hard when we woke up, so we decided to stick around the hotel until noon and see what was happening. All the pools in the California hotels are outdoors, so we went shopping at the Target across the street (found a copy of Teen Wolf and Karate Kid for $5 for the ride home). It had stopped raining so hard about 11:30, so we caught the train and by the time we got to the park at 12:00 it had stopped raining. It was pretty cold which I think kept a lot of the locals home and left the park to the crazy tourists, a whole bunch of them from Utah, we kept running into people from Utah, I think a lot headed to Vegas for the BYU game and decided to Disneyland while they were more than halfway there. I think Monday was the best day, there were hardly any lines (compared to normal) anyday, but truly no lines on Monday. We were able to just run around and go on everything over and over. This day we went and visited Santa at the ranch, went on Splash Mountain as many times as Jake wanted (about 5 in a row), went on Pirates as many times as mom wanted (my favorite we did Pirates about 8 times this trip, it was also the warmest ride, despite the water, well unless you count that weird "hell" portion of Toad's Wild Ride). We saw the parade again (this time from great bench seats in the center which we only had to sit in for 20 minutes) and had an ideal front row seat to see Fantasmic and the fireworks, right directly in front of the river, we could even feel the heat from the fire on the water. It was about 10:00 on our last day, and I asked Jake if he had done everything he wanted, and he had, except get ice cream and a balloon. So we went to the ice cream parlor for chocolate and peppermint ice cream (it was cold we were about the only ones brave enough to eat ice cream), and got a big Disney Christmas Tree balloon, and said goodbye to Disneyland. We truly had a perfect trip, it was magic, and just what we both needed this year, in fact if they continue to have good deals at holiday time, I would love to make this a tradition, maybe not so close to Christmas, but it was just a perfect holiday thing to do.

Tuesday December 23, we headed out of California, and drove to Cedar City, it was a pretty mellow day, just driving all day. Jake was very concerned we wouldn't get to Grandma's in time for the Christmas Party, but he was pretty happy to see the hotel when we got there.

We finished driving home Wednesday December 24th, and we made a quick trip to check the house (and change into his Werewolf costume, apparently Jake took Teen Wolf to heart), and then went right to Grandma's for Christmas.

I will post some pictures as soon as I figure out what I did with the cable to the camera.