Disneyland - Day 4

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We used our Mickey's Magic Morning pass, which let us into the park an hour before anyone not staying in one of the Disneyland resorts. The morning was pretty rushed since this meant being in line to enter the park before 9 am. However, getting up and ready early was well worth it.

In the first hour we went on Astro Orbitor, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, and Star Tours (not the little kids) and got into the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. We only had a 20 minute wait for the Submarine ride, while the two days prior the line was around 45 minutes. Faith missed out on all but the Submarine ride because she was a good little baby and took her morning nap.

After, Trey and Clay left the group in order to go on Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain and some of the other rides the little kids couldn't do. the rest of us went back to Fantasyland. We road Peter Pan (we really wanted Bryce to go on this since we had already decided he would be Peter Pan for Halloween). Surprisingly the wait for this ride was about 25 minutes. While we were in Fantasyland, we rode Dumbo, the Teacups, and a couple of other kiddie rides again.

Next we went to Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. By this time it was very hot (mid 90's) and we were all getting tired and hungry. We only stayed on the island for 20 or so minutes, but the kids had a great time running around, going in the tree fort, climbing throw caves, running and the suspension bridges, and finding treasure.

We all meet back at the room for lunch and the kids took naps. Bryce took a marathon nap that I couldn't wake him up from. I tried three different times. Everyone else was ready to go to California Adventure, so Nathan picked him up and put him in the stroller. This ended up waking him up.

At California Adventure Juli, Nathan, Clay and Trey went on Grizzly River Run. Nathan ended up completely soaked, but didn't mind too much because of the heat. Next Bryce and Mandy took pictures with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater. They both thought the full size cars were pretty neat.

By this time we had close to an hour before the Pixar Parade. We went to "A Bug's Land"so the kids could go on Flik's Flyers, Francis' Ladybug Boogie, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, and Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies. All of these rides are great for the really little kids.

We found a great spot for watching the Pixar Parade. It was right at the street and there was a bench for the kids to stand on. While we waited the kids got to see California Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Nanny bought everyone caramel popcorn and graham cookies shaped like Disney characters to eat while we watched the parade and to hold us over until dinner. The parade started at 5 and only lasted about 15 minutes, but it was well worth it. Many of the recent Pixar movies were represented, including Cars, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles. As the parade went by, the various characters sprayed the audience with water.

We still had about 30 minutes until the park closed, so we went on Soarin' Over California. Technically Bryce was about a half inch too short, but they didn't measure him. Trey and Clay had done this ride while the little ones saw the cars, so Clay sat out with Mandy and Faith. Bryce really enjoyed this ride.

Disneyland stayed open an hour later than California Adventure. By the time we made it to the other park, we decided to just take the Disneyland Railroad around the park and then call it a day. The little kids had been wanting to take the train since the first day. Since everyone was tired it sounded like a nice easy thing to do to finish the day.

That night we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. I have always loved this place and thought the kids would like seeing the train cars in the restaurant. Ross and Sharon met us for dinner again. The restaurant staff was wise and gave us an entire room to ourselves.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was very late. The kids all had very quick baths and then went right to bed.