Long Trip Report and Other Stuff

The last few weeks have been insanely busy. First we had Easter (was that more than a few weeks ago? I can’t remember). Sage sucked down all of her candy as soon as she got her little fingers on it. Roan saved (we still have some) most of hers. We had an egg hunt in our backyard. Then the kids played with bubble guns most of the morning. Sage was a nightmare most of the day. It was probably because all she ate was candy.

After Easter, I decided we had to get our hallway patched and painted by Sage’s birthday. We actually finished it pretty quick and the hallway looks a lot better. Then I decided why not repaint the living room and the kitchen. Why not? Exhaustion and aching backs? Phooey. We got it all done one or two walls at a time. I could only paint parts of the kitchen while Sage was awake, since I could stand on the counters and the paint would be out of her reach. The rest of the painting we did during nap time or after bedtime. Did I mention it took two coats?

We had Sage’s second birthday party the day after the Peep Off. Roan did pretty good at the Peep Off. I think she ate 6 or 7. I know she ate more than her dad. Sage’s party was fun. I spent about 3 hours the night before making her Sponge Bob cake. It wasn’t very hard but it was very tedious. It came out pretty good in the end. More people showed up than I expected, which was nice. Having the swing set and bubble machines out back was great and kept the kids busy. My brother took some great pictures of all the kids. By the end of the day, I could barely keep my eyes open. All I could think about was our upcoming trip to Disneyland!

I wouldn’t really consider myself a “Disney” person. Actually I’m not really sure what that means. However, I am definitely a “Disneyland” person. This was only my third trip there ever (and first to California Adventure). We got up at 5:30 on Wednesday morning and got in the van around 6:45 (with NO coffee!). About an hour into the trip Roan tells me she feels like she’s going to throw up. I was pretty sure that it was a false alarm (she didn’t really look queasy or anything) but who wants to chance a barfing episode? Davey pulled off at the next exit (still no coffee!) and let her get out of the car to walk around. We would remain vomit free for the rest of the trip.

The drive down was fairly unexciting. The kids watched the Spongebob ( I have no idea if that is supposed to be one or two words) Movie over and over. I think Roan might have a crush on David Hasselhoff. Davey and I listened to the Burning Crusade soundtrack and my mom was way in the back of the van with her iPod.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites. Check in was really fast and easy. We dumped all of our stuff in the room, got our ART passes and got on the shuttle to Disneyland. I think we got in the park around 3. It was pretty packed and the weather was sunny but windy. We rode King Arthur’s Carousel first. Sage screamed when it was time to get off. Then we got in the big line to ride Dumbo. Roan loved it. So did Sage, she screamed when it was time to get off. We then saw that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was open (it was supposed to be closed for refurb) and the line was short and in the shade. So we went on that. Big mistake. Roan is very sensitive to noise and the dark rides are really really loud. I had also forgotten how “scary” Mr. Toad’s is. I forget the details but it’s something like he blows something up then a judge sentences him to HELL and then the ride is over. Well, that was the first and last (except for It’s a Small World, which Roan didn’t like either) dark ride we would get Roan on for the trip. The only other rides she went on were the teacups (liked those okay) the Disneyland train (hated the tunnel with the T. Rex), Autotopia and the bumper cars at DCA. Couldn’t get her on Jungle Cruise. We talked her in to getting in line for Peter Pan (we got her some earplugs) but she was too freaked out when it was time to get on so Davey took her out of the line. Sage went on Peter Pan, Pirates, Winnie the Pooh and liked them. Basically anything she was big enough to ride, she was fine with.
Wednesday evening we saw the parade. Roan liked waving at the princesses and Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Then the Ursula (sea witch/octopus lady) float stopped right in front of us for what seemed like forever. Roan got frowny and covered her ears the whole time.

Thursday we got up super early to use our Early Entry admission. Which basically meant more Dumbo and Carousel rides. That was the day we tried Peter Pan and Roan would have none of it. We did go to a princess show and Roan liked that. At the end of the show they bring out these poles with ribbons attached and each kid can grab a ribbon and walk around the pole. The mass of kids (and their annoying parents) was much scarier than any ride at Disney, but Roan liked doing that. After the show we went to a store and the kids each got a princess toy that came with about 500 million tiny parts. Half of which are probably forever stuck in the hotel’s hide-a-bed.

Around noon, the kids were pretty cranky so we took the shuttle back to the hotel and left them with my mom and Davey and I raced back to the park. First we rode “Rockin’ Space Mountain.” It was “Rockin’” because for a limited time (promotion is over now, I think) they played the Chili Peppers “Higher Ground” and projected stupid images of people dancing or something. I like the original soundtrack better. Then we went on Indiana Jones, Buzz Lightyear, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, and the Haunted Mansion. We also grabbed lunch sometime in there. Then we went over to DCA for the first time to get the lay of the land. I think we only went on Monsters Inc. (boring dark ride) and watched “It’s Tough to be a Bug.” Davey’s reaction to one part of that movie had me in tears I was laughing so hard. Oh yeah and we went on Soarin’ over California. We both chickened out of California Screaming and Tower of Terror. After about 6 hours total between the two parks we headed back to the hotel in time for the “manager’s reception.” Yay. Free beer and popcorn!

Friday morning it was raining. We went to the park anyway. Then we spent about $30 on Mickey Mouse rain ponchos (basically shower curtains) for our group. We walked around with the kids and got fast passes for California Screamin. The kids went on the Carousel. It was raining pretty good by the time we went to bugs land where there’s a water play area. Water shoots out from the ground and is actually pretty neat. There was a strange little boy playing there and Roan joined in the fun. She ended up extra soaked and then complained about her wet socks the rest of the morning. Eventually the skies just opened up (I swear I heard thunder) and rained really hard. I took Roan on the bumper cars and Davey took Sage on Heimlich’s Chew Chew train. After that, around noon we decided to go back to the hotel and wait out the rain.

Sage took a nap, we ate lunch and went to Target and bought pink Tinkerbell backpack for Davey to carry stuff in. Sage wouldn’t ride in the stroller the first day, so we stopped bringing it to the park and didn’t have an extra backpack for the stuff we planned to throw in the stroller. The big pink Tinkerbell made him easy to find in the crowds.

The weather got much better and we went back to DCA. Davey ran to get fast passes for Tower of Terror and met us over at California Screamin. I almost chickened out. Luckily the fast pass line was really short, so before I could talk myself out of it, I was on the roller coaster. Best roller coaster ever! It shoots you out and you go up the first hill fast. The only part I didn’t like was going up the big hill. You go fast halfway up (since you just came down another hill) then in feels like you stop and you go up the rest slow. I closed my eyes. They were playing a Chili Peppers song on this one too. I don’t know what they normally play. Chili Peppers worked better on this one than on Space Mountain. It was the smoothest coaster I’ve been on though. A lot of fun.

We chickened out on Tower of Terror. Well, part chickened out and part didn’t want to walk all the way to the other end of the park. I guess we’ll have to do it next time. I really don’t like the idea of a drop ride. This one is supposed to have really good theming, which is the only reason I would consider going on it.

Later we went back to Disneyland and rode Dumbo again. Roan was really into trying to make her dad scream. We also went to Toon Town for awhile. It started raining again and we waited it out in Goofy’s house. We also bought lot’s of crap and then waited on Main street for the fireworks.

I had heard great things about the fireworks show. I had never seen it. If you go, don’t miss it. Roan liked it, but had issues with the noise. Not from the fireworks, but the soundtrack. When the Star Wars theme came on and hit the big note she jumped about an inch (I was carrying her the whole time). Anyhow, they don’t skimp on it.

I’m ready to go back. Davey just laughs at me. I wish Roan liked more of the rides. Bringing my mom worked out great. We wouldn’t have been able to ride much (at least not together) if we didn’t have someone to help watch the kids. I definitely want to go back before Sage turns 3 (and we have to buy her a ticket!)