California Adventure

We started off day two bright and early again, but this time short two adults as Cambrie and Wes had to go back to real life. None of us had ever been to California Adventures before and we were all really excited to see what fun awaited us. 

Since we got there early we headed straight onto the rides with almost no waiting, which everybody was pretty thrilled about.  We did Soarin which made it seem like you were flying around the world and you could smell things like grass in Africa as elephants tossed it into the air, flowers at the Taj Mahal, etc. Everybody liked that ride a lot.  We also did Toy Story Ride that was like being in an arcade while on the ride.  All the big kids loved this ride, but it traumatized Timothy as it was very loud and people were wearing 3D glasses.  After that ride we just decided that he didn't have to ride any more rides. 

The biggest hit all day though was the Incredicoaster. It was a real roller coaster (no offense to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) and it was super fun.  Leona opted to not ride so she stayed back with Collin, Wyatt, Brynn, Norah, and Timothy. Collin took all of them on Jessie's Critter Carousel while Aubrey, Ella, Eliza, Clara and I rode the Incredicoaster.  It was so much fun! Everybody loved it so much that Eliza, Clara, and I immediately rode again with Collin while Aubrey took the littles.  Throughout the whole week Aubrey and Wes were extremely gracious about taking the babies so that we could ride the rides.  Without them this trip wouldn't have been even close to as much fun as it was.

Around lunch time Collin took the biggest kids on Grizzly Rapid Run, which everybody LOVED. I was happy to stay behind with the napping babies since I didn't feel like getting soaked.  Turns out that while everybody got a little wet Collin and Wyatt took the biggest hit.  Their seats flooded and they had wet pants for a while. At least that's what they claimed. It was a scary ride so who knows... We stopped in at the huge playground/ropes course that they have and ate lunch there before playing for a while. 

To me this was the scariest ride all day, but everyone (except Clara) disagreed with me.  The Silly Swings took you out over the water and the park as you felt like you were really flying through the air.  

After lunch the Harrises had to leave so it was just our little family at the park. We headed to the other side of California Adventures so that we could do some of the shows as well as some other rides. We also rode the Monsters Inc. ride which was calm and fun. Leona opted out of anything that would be objectively classified as a scary ride, but enjoyed everything that she did choose to ride.  She had an especially good time riding on the zipline at the Redwoods ropes course/playground after lunch.  I think she rode it 4 times.  It was everything that a kid could want in a playground.  Tons of space to run around, fun things to ride and climb on, and friendly Disney employees to make sure that nobody cut in line or took extra turns.

We also checked off an item on Leona's bucketlist by meeting Anna and Elsa. They were in character the whole time, asking the girls if they had seen Olaf or Sven outside playing. I couldn't tell whether the girls liked that they were in character or not.  They weren't super talkative.  Later though Leona did talk about them as if she were trying to work through the fact that they weren't really Anna and Elsa. It was akin to a kid who goes to see Santa and then talks about how they know that that wasn't the real Santa, but the underlying message is that they aren't ruling out that there is a real Santa somewhere. As you can see from the photo Timothy was not impressed. 😆

Another super fun thing that we did at California Adventures was go to an animation class.  They have real Disney animators walk you through sketching various famous Disney characters.  The class that we went to was how to draw Pluto.  I thought it was super fun.  Leona and Eliza were really into it.  Afterwards Clara claimed that she didn't like it.  Collin and I suspect she didn't like it because she fancies herself an artist and doesn't like to be told how to draw something. :) I thought it was really fun and I loved seeing how everybody's pictures came out with a personal spin on them even though we were all being instructed to draw the same way.

After that we got milkshakes at a stand and got in line to see the Frozen show.  It's basically a condensed, live version of the movie.  They did a spectacular job.  There were excellent special effects and scenery as well as fabulous acting and singing.  The girls all really loved it.  Even Clara who had been starting to moan about going admitted part way through that she liked it a lot. After that everybody was pretty beat so we scrapped any plans we'd had to ride the Incredicoaster one last time and just headed home.

California here we come! Disneyland Day 1

We flew to California on a Saturday morning and got there mid-afternoon. The kids were all really good on the flight.  We were worried about Timothy since the flight was right during his nap but after a valiant struggle against sleep he finally gave in and took a snooze with dad.  Leona sounded terrible with her cough and had a fever the day before so we got lots of looks from people fearing the coronavirus that's gotten lots of coverage in the news lately. She was still completely without energy and had to ride through the airport in the stroller, but she was a good sport about being dragged around. Ultimately we left the cold cloudiness of Seattle behind and landed in sunny warm Los Angeles.

We hung out and went to church with the Harrises on Sunday. All the kids paired up and ran off to play pretty immediately.  They have a yard and a trampoline so the getting reacquainted portion of the trip took no time at all. We hardly even saw the kids when we were at the house because they were usually outside on the trampoline or playing some other game. This photo was taken during an obstacle course that we did as part of our joint Come Follow Me lesson for the day.

Bright and early on Monday morning (6:25 am to be exact) Aunt Cambrie knocked on the Harris's front door.  She had driven down from San Jose to come to Disneyland with us.  Spirits were high and "First Time in Forever" from Frozen played (The line "Tell the guards to open up the gates!" was especially appropriate.😀) as we raced across the plaza to get in line to enter Disneyland.

Poor Leona didn't fully wake up until the afternoon of the first day there.  At the best of times she's not a morning person and the virus that she'd had really wiped her out. Despite what the photos look like, she was excited to be there. 😀

Although you can't see her Leona was next to me on Space Mountain.  She declared it "scary", like virtually every other ride that we went on, but she liked it. 😂 Eliza wasn't a huge fan of the roller coasters but rode every single one anyway. Clara was a huge fan of all roller coasters, although her faces in the photos all look terrified.

The first day we rode: Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters-which the girls and Collin loved because it was like playing laser tag while riding a ride at the same time; Star Tours- everybody loved hijacking a space ship with C3PO; Space Mountain; The Matterhorn- we got really wet on this ride. I was totally soaked. Leona decided not to ride and Eliza wished that she hadn't because of how scary the yeti was haha; Autopia- Eliza loved this ride and begged to go again because she could actually drive! Leona got tired of driving part way through and simply took her hands off the wheel, causing us to ricochet around the track like pinballs. Clara also enjoyed the ride but wasn't begging to go back.; Big Thunder Mountain Railroad- This was everybody's favorite ride for the day. Leona giggled throughout the whole ride and pronounced it scary at the end.; Storybook Canal Ride; Walked through Tarzan's Treehouse; Tea Cups- Only Eliza, Clara, and I rode those because everybody else was either scared of the ride or scared of the motion sickness. We had a good time and spun as fast as we could the whole time. When it was over the girls were fine and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to walk off the ride because I was so dizzy.; Jungle Cruise- everybody liked this relaxing ride although I have to say that the subtle racism in this ride has not aged well.; and lastly for that first day, Pirates of the Caribbean- this was also not a fan favorite of the kids and I will also say that while I had fond memories of it from my childhood it has not aged well in spite of several updates to make it slightly less misogynistic. 

Through out the day we also saw a bunch of characters which was fun for everybody.  It felt kind of like playing a live action game of Where's Waldo except you never knew exactly who Waldo would be.  We also took a break in the afternoon to catch a show.  We saw a Beauty and the Beast play that was really well done.  Eliza and Leona really liked it (Clara had cut out with Collin to go ride Splash Mountain while we watched the play.) but the person who enjoyed it most was Timothy.  He was enchanted with the live, and very talented, pianist accompanying the whole thing and the people putting on costumes and doing silly things.  We all really enjoyed it.  

We ended the day with a Dole Whip, since that was Aunt Cambrie's one request for the day, went home and crashed. It was an exhausting and super fun day one.  Having Aunt Cambrie with us made it even more fun. The kids were dream children, not complaining about anything and happy to do everything.  It helped that the Harris kids were with us for most of the day and Cambrie was with us the whole day. We could not have had a better time. 

Leona is 6!

Leona had the good fortune to have her dad be the Watch Dog at school on her birthday this year.  Originally she had vehemently forbidden him from coming to her class. He told her that he had planned to go to her school that day but if she really didn't want him to go to her class then he would spend the day in Clara and Eliza's classes instead. Eventually she relented and agreed that he could come so he spent the morning through lunch in Leona's class. Collin was surprised by how many people knew it was Leona's birthday at school.  Timothy and I had brought her fast food for lunch the day before to celebrate so some people knew because of that, but the rest knew because of Leona's celebrity factor at the school I guess.

After school Leona got to open presents  and we had breakfast burritos, her choice, for dinner.  Since her cake was planned for her party the next day she blew out candles in a bowl of fresh mangoes on her birthday.

The next day Leona had her birthday party with friends.  Somehow with three girls we had avoided any princess parties up to this point, but Leona changed all that.  She had a princess party with all the girls coming in their princess finery.  Leona wore a bespoke princess costume comprised of rainbow wings and a mermaid tail skirt. At the party the girls decorated tiaras with stick-on jewels and stickers, played hot and cold with Cinderella's slipper, played pin the kiss on the frog prince, freeze danced to the Frozen soundtrack, got glitter tattoos, and at cake.  It was a very full party.  I usually make the parties only an hour and a half long but accidentally scheduled this party for two hours.  Sure enough with thirty minutes left in the party Leona started losing it and had to go have some alone time up in mom and dad's room (thus leaving me to have "It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want to" in my head for the rest of the day). Introvert problems. :) 

Overall it was a really fun party and all the parents said Leona's friends gave it rave reviews afterwards. I think the favorite activities were the frog prince game, everyone thought that was hilarious, and the glitter tattoos, although honorable mention goes to the tiaras- Hannah even wore hers to church the next day.

Pearly Shells

Leona was trying to hide behind her classmates during the Kindergarten's musical number "Pearly Shells" at Heritage Night.  Even though she was hiding she still did a good job of doing the hula-style hand motions that went with the song.  I think she may have even sung a little bit of the song too. :)

Star Student

Mrs. Salmon rigged the system so that Leona got to be the star student the week of her birthday. (She got to cut in line and go a week early.) This was the poster that she filled out and got to have hung up in the classroom all week.  Apparently being a person who rescues cheetahs is all the rage in her class.  Filling out this poster was the first that I'd heard of that aspiration. Leona also got to bring in a bag of things for a special star student show and tell at the end of the week.  In her bag she brought: a tiny red cat shaped bell that a classmate passed out last year for Chinese New Year, her pink and purple stuffed leopard, and another item which I cannot recall at the moment.  She had to be restrained from bringing random bits of string and paper that she had squirreled away in her "special drawer". In the end she was thrilled with the whole experience of being star student.