California - day 3 (Disney!!)

Once again Rose was on her Central time zone schedule, and work bright and early at 4:30am. (At this point the lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me -- I had a low-grade fever and body aches, so I quickly popped some ibuprofen to help me get through the day.) We again occupied ourselves with quiet things...until about 6am when all bets were off! That's because we planned to leave at 7am for DISNEYLAND!!!!!

(not my photo)

I presented Rose with her "special" Minnie Mouse ears, and let's just say she wasn't impressed. Not my girl who is infatuated with princesses and indifferent to mice. :)  Oh well.

Only a few (like 22, not that anyone was counting) minutes later we intended, we were out the door and on our way! Once we took the highway exit, the roads were PACKED. There were HUGE lines to enter the ginormous parking garage, and LONG lines of people waiting to get on the tram.

(I don't know how I managed this effect on my camera?!? Weird.)

And then, only two hours after packing up the car at Mitra's house, we were inside the gates!!

Our first stop, after coffee for the adults, was going to see the princesses!!!! This was the one thing that Rose was most excited about in all of Disney.  And, while it looked like a short wait with only three families ahead of us, it was a good introduction to the deceptive lines of Disney - it took about 25 min to get inside! I'm so glad we did this first, rather than waiting till later in the day when the line appeared to be 30+ families long.

killing time in line...

 Finally we were in!  The look on Rose's face when she saw Snow White was just PRICELESS.

Then we went around the corner to.... Cinderella!

The sign out front said that only two princesses were in residence, so imagine Rose's delight when we turned the corner and saw a third princess!!! She still hasn't stopped talking about how "there are actually three princesses who live in the castle!" And she truly does believe that they are the real princesses and they actually live together in that castle - so sweet!

Next up we decided to do a couple rides, since the boys hadn't been interested in seeing the princesses and had waited outside that whole time. We went to Fantasyland so we could start with something easy. The first ride we saw was Pinocchio's Daring Journey, which my guidebook had described as "a big let-down," further explaining that: "Unfortunately, the action is hard to follow, and it lacks continuity. Although the sets are three-dimensional and the attraction has a decent length, the story line is dull and fails to engage the guest."  Well, maybe that's true for adults and big kids, but it was pretty scary for little kids! Ellen refused to get on, Liam (age 5) somewhat enjoyed it, and Rose and Muir were both mildly terrified. Oops.

So we did the carousel next!

(not my photo)

And then we waited for Dumbo. I say "waited" and not "rode" because just as we were about to board, Rose frantically had to use the potty. We quickly extricated ourselves from the line, searched a ridiculously long time, and eventually found the bathrooms.

(also not my photo)

At this point I was really starting to feel like I was burning up (fever + 96-degree weather), so I insisted on getting a frozen lemonade drink. Rose, naturally, refused to drink anything more than a sip, so I had to just hope she was managing to stay cool enough with plain (warm-ish) water from her water bottle. At least they give out free ice at all the restaurants in Disneyland, so I was refilling our water bottles at every opportunity (no wonder she had to pee so frantically!).

Next up was the teacups! This was my favorite ride as a kid, so it was the one thing I wanted to make sure we fit in as well.

that's us!

(not my photo)

Having completed the two things we both wanted to be sure to get done, we settled in for a bit as we waited for the rest of the group to finish the canal boat ride they were on.

Once we all regrouped, we decided to split up for a bit. Rose was getting tired (as was I) so I wanted to rent a stroller for the rest of the day (both for her to sit in and for me to put my backpack in). Meanwhile, the other kids all wanted to check out the Star Wars stuff.

So off we went! And it was great timing, because we happened to run into Aurora!!

There was still a line, natch, but at least it was short.

the castle where all four princesses live

After renting a stroller (which happened to be OUTSIDE the gates. Ugh. Should have just done this at the beginning of the day!), we met back up with Mitra for lunch at the pizza place in Tomorrowland, then met up with all the others after the Jedi training show was done (which they had watched twice!). 

At this point Mitra just about had to leave (with baby Clara) to take Katie and Muir to the airport. So we all split up again - they did their "one last thing," while Anna and I took our kids back toward the princess area so we could watch the Frozen play. We got there a little late (as in, not >30 min early, as is recommended), because we got sidetracked by an impromptu Mary Poppins sighting/performance.

So we were lucky to get the last of the seats - back corner, stage left, partial view. Oh well. Better than having to stand!

The show itself was pretty cute. It was a fast-paced retelling of Frozen, as narrated by these two gentlemen. Interestingly, the Anna and Elsa characters never spoke or sang, they just acted out their parts. (I suppose it would be hard for them to compete with Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell!) The the two guys were great, and the ASL interpreters (on the far right of the above photo) were phenomenal - almost more fun to watch than the show itself!

Afterward we decided it was time for ice cream!  Rose and I waited in a seemingly interminably long line for the legendary Dole Whips (for me and Anna) while Anna took Ellen and Liam to find "real" ice cream for the kids.  I have to say, after all the hype about Dole Whips, it really just tasted like... pineapple soft serve to me. "Not my favorite," as Rose would say. But at least it was cold, which helped my fever and body aches, as my ibuprofen had long since worn off by this point.  

Anyway, we rendezvoused back on the main drag, and happened to snag a bench in the shade. Just a minute or two after we sat, some workers ("cast members") asked us to get up because our bench would be moved to the curb in preparation for the upcoming (in 90 minutes) parade!  Score!  I "selflessly" offered to hold the bench for us while Anna took the other two kids on another ride. (It was actually a totally selfish offer, because I was exhausted and wanted a chance for Rose and me to rest!)

Success!  A brief nap is better than nothing.

By the time the parade started, we were all back together and Rose was awake.

so crowded!

The parade had all the classic Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, etc.) as well as all the new classics (every. single. princess.).  The kids all loved it!

Once the parade was over, we told the kids they could all pick out one special souvenir, and then we would be leaving.

 

Over an hour and countless stores later, that task was finally accomplished.

Eleven hours after we left Mitra's house, we were finally exiting the gates of Disney.

It took some extra time to return the stroller, then to walk back to the tram, then to figure out how to collapse Mitra's stroller so we could get on the tram. 
 

But eventually we were back in the care and headed home. What a day! I was SO exhausted at this point, that I was on the verge of tears until I fell asleep. But the day wasn't about me. Despite the hassle, despite the cost, and despite my own personal misery, I wouldn't have traded a single second of it if it would have meant missing these smiles from my little girl:

The look of joy and wonderment on her face was worth was completely and totally worth it.

California - day 2 (beach)

I had hoped Rose would sleep in on Sunday since we got to bed so late the night before. But instead, just like clockwork, she work at about 4:45am (the same time - 6:45 - she is typically awake at home). Since no one else was awake yet, we occupied ourselves with quiet things in the bedroom, such as a Sofia video, books, and coloring.

Eventually everyone else was awake, we all ate breakfast, we packed up our stuff, and we were off to the beach! There were so many kids involved that we had to take two vehicles - the sedan with two carseats and the minivan with three carseats.

Mitra found a good parking garage for us, and it was only about two blocks to walk to Laguna Beach.

There was a heavy "marine layer," but it was still gorgeous.

The kids were so excited to see the sand and the ocean!

We settled in for a morning / early afternoon of fun :)

After watching the "big kids" for awhile...

...Rose eventually got up the nerve to touch the water herself! Her first time touching the ocean :)

The kids had so much fun splashing and running away from the waves.

Meanwhile, we grownups took turns talking in strategic locations near the kiddos.

It was all fun and games until a HUGE wave came in, knocked Rose off balance, and she fell down. She rolled in the sand as the wave retreated, and we were both clearly terrified that she could have been swept out to sea. Luckily I was only a couple feet away and grabbed her as fast as I could. I think I'll have nightmares about that for a long time to come.

After we both dried our tears from that trauma, we stuck close to the blanket and focused on building sand castles instead.

(check out that huge wave in the background!)

After a few hours, it was time to get back to the car and head home to Mitra's for a late lunch followed by more swimming in the pool!

Rose loved climbing to the top of the water slide (turned off on this second day) and sending a little toy fish into the deep end. Then she would command one of us to fetch it for her so she could throw it again. That game never got old!

Eventually it was time for a late dinner, and then another late bedtime for us.

One episode of Daniel Tiger to get the kids wound down for bedtime.

You might have noticed that we also missed nap time again for the second day in row. Again I hoped that Rose would sleep in a little later the next morning...