It Happened Again

We went to Disneyland.  I can't keep my husband away.  He loves to take the kids and watch their faces.  It's like the greatest thing in the world to him.  Other than fly-fishing.

So it was a pretty fun trip full of twists and turns and all sorts of adventures.


We had some line debacles.
While waiting in one line, I saw (out of the corner of my eye) one of the kids dart out in front of us, as they had been prone to do...since they were always trying to be first.  I (quick as a wink) grabbed the runaway kid by the elbow out of sheer motherly knee-jerk reaction.  Except.  It wasn't one of my kiddos.  It was an older lady trying to get to the rest of her group.  She turned to look at me and all I could do was mutter a quick sorry and look very sheepish.  I started to explain, but I didn't think it would help much.  What would I say, "I thought you were one of my children...you are quite short."  No.  I decided that wouldn't go over too well.  So I just hung my head instead.  Jeepers.  Embarrassing.  Not too many lines after, Q prodded a nice gentleman right smack in the behind.  When questioned and chastised, he said he wanted the man to move faster.  What do you do in those situations?  I tend to either a) pretend it never happened, b) make a quick and embarrassed apology for the kid or c) make a quick and embarrassed apology and then pretend it never happened...which is what we did.

 

Q was a hoot.

Q was so stoked to go to Disneyland.  As we were loading the car to go, he said, "I have good news and I have bad news.  The bad news is we're still at home.  The good news is we are going to Disneyland!"  He was also tall enough to go on most of the bigger rides.  The funnest ride to take him on was Soarin' Over California (hands down).  He thought the simulated ride over different parts of the California landscape was quite real and utterly exhilarating.  He literally shrieked with delight as we flew over the ocean and yelled "We're fliying!"as he pointed out trees, boats and snow with enthusiasm and waved his arms through the air.  It was absolutely hilarious to watch him.  I missed the entire show because my eyes were glued to his face and the millions of expressions that flew across it.  It was pretty priceless.  He was also pretty stoked to meet Tigger and Winnie the Pooh.  When he met Pooh, he just beamed and kept hugging him. 

 

There were some transportation malfunctions.

The second day our trusty stroller broke the EXACT minute we set off from the hotel to the park.  So we ditched it and went stroller-less for the first time.  As a result, we were not on time for the opening of the park, but it was okay and Q survived and walked the whole thing.  We ended up saying goodbye to our beloved stroller of 8ish years in the dumpster in California.  It was a good stroller and served us well.

 

We tried seventy times to get a decent picture in front of the castle.

Okay so maybe it was only 7 or 8, but gosh.  First it was out of focus.  Then my eyes were shut.  Then one kid ran off.  Then another.  Then the sun was in our eyes.  Then I looked 3 months pregnant.  Then everyone got sick of picture-taking so we took a break and tried a few hours later.  Then Dennis was crazy.  But whatever.  I'll take it.

 

Purses were lost.
Well it was only one purse and it was Miss B's and it held nothing but gum (a lot of gum) and headphones. Plus she found it safe and sound on Goofy's Sky School.

And Mr. C discovered that he can't drive.
There we were.  In line for Autopia.  Mr. C was pumped as he was finally tall enough to drive a car alone. Due to his excitement, he got the first car.  We all piled in after him into our respective cars, with Q and I directly behind Mr. C.  As we started around the course, Mr. C puttered and stuttered and stopped and started over and over and over, jerking down the road.  I quickly caught up to him and had to be careful not to run into him every other second.  I kept calling to him to just hold the pedal down and go.  He would yell stuff back but I couldn't hear him.  The cars behind us piled up and we painfully sputtered around the track very, very s-l-o-w-l-y.  I continued to yell encouraging words and instructions over the roar of the engines but with not too much success.  Finally, finally we reached the end of the track and Mr. C jumped out as quick as possible.  Once the rest of us were out, we all gathered around Mr. C to see what had happened.  Miss B was quite frustrated as she had waited particularly for this ride.  Poor Mr. C proceeded to tell us that because of how hard it was to hold down the pedal and how far you had to push your leg down, he could only hold and keep it down for a few moments at a time...resulting in the aforementioned experience.  He felt so bad that he had held everyone up and I felt awful that we couldn't do anything to help him once we were on the course.  Miss B said that the people behind her were swearing and angry, but really it wasn't his fault.  I'm just glad nobody came up to him and chewed him out.  I think someday it will be a very funny story in our Disneyland memoirs.  And hopefully Mr. C will have learned to drive by then...


Disneyland/California Adventure Stats:

1 Toy Story Midway Mania
3 California Screamin' (Dennis finally got to ride and he was ecstatic.)
3 Goofy's Sky School
1 Jumpin' Jellyfish (Me and Q)
1 Bugs Life Show
1 Tuck and Roll Bumper Cars
1 Flik's Flyers
1 Francis' Ladybug Boogie
1 Disney Jr. Show
1 Tower of Terror
2 Ariel's Undersea Adventure
1 Silly Symphony Swings (I closed my eyes the whole time to prevent air sickness)
1 Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (Dennis and Mr. C earned their Wilderness Explorer Badges)
2 Soarin' Over California
1 Carousel Ride
1 World of Color Show
4 Splash Mountain (I opted out of the last two as they were at night and I was cold already)
2 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
1 Winnie the Pooh Ride
1 Jungle Cruise (Me and Q)
1 Indiana Jones (Dad and Big Kids)
2 Space Mountain (Q loved travelling to space.)
1 Dumbo Ride (I shut my eyes again.  The Dumbo ride scares me silly.  Miss B thinks I am a nut.)
2 Astro Blasters
1 Small World
1 Tea Cups
1 Autopia
2 Pirates of the Caribbean
1 Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
1 Snow White
1 Storybook Land (at night)

And we were seriously sore by the time we limped back to our car and headed home.  And then we had to stop and get a hotel part way back because of a massive dust storm and Severe Wind Advisory.  Q was of course up at 6am the next morning, even after having to walk all over Disneyland the day before.  That kid.  He wanted cereal.