California or Bust: Day 4

Welcome to... DISNEY DAY 2!!!

(53 pictures in this post!  Wheeeee!  Go fast!  Seriously, it's okay to go fast!!)

Staying in a hotel the night before turned out to be just as awesome the next morning, when we could get ourselves ready and then make the short, 5-minute walk to the park gates.  Again, love the hotel thing.  SO GLAD WE DID IT!

Anyway, I mentioned in the previous post that Disney Day 1 was a bit... frustrating.  Weston ended up resisting rides much more than we'd anticipated.  So, Tim suggested a new strategy: Let the Wookie win!!  (Hahahahaha...)  Basically, we realized that if we were going to enjoy our time at Disneyland, we needed to let go of our own stubbornness and just let Weston have fun.  We stopped goading him to go on certain rides and we basically let him decide what he wanted to do.  (Therefore, we spent a lot of time in Fantasyland and Toon Town that second day!  He was pretty much only interested in rides where he could see everything.  He was even nervous about Alice in Wonderland, because it's partially indoors!)  However, the new strategy was totally worth it, because Tim and I were less stressed and Weston was much happier.

So, here was the rundown of fun (the fundown?) on the second day:

-Dumbo

-Breakfast at the Plaza Inn

-Storybook Land

-Mad Tea Party

-Alice in Wonderland

-King Arthur Carousel

-(Indiana Jones store... again)

-Gadget's Go Coaster (THREE times in a row)

-Buzz Lighyear's Astro Blasters

-Lunch at Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney

-(On to CA Adventure for...) Toy Story Mania

-Silly Symphony Swings

-Jumpin' Jellyfish

-(Picked up our picnic dinners and strolled...)

-It's Tough to Be a Bug

-Heimlich's Chew Chew Train

-Tuck and Roll's Buggies

-Monsters Inc.

-Turtle Talk with Crush

-Ate our World of Color picnics while it got more and more crowded...

-Little Mermaid ride

-World of Color show!!!

We started Day 2 with a requisite family picture at the giant Mickey pumpkin.  (Are you loving the cute orange shirts on the boys?  Thanks, Gangy!!!)

I had to take a picture of the giant whale at Storybook Land.  Weston is obsessed with it:

The first ride of the day?  Dumbo, of course!

He LOVED it:

Then we made our way over to the Plaza Inn, where we had reservations for the "Minnie and Friends Breakfast in the Park," which is a big buffet breakfast complete with Disney characters.

I have to admit... I'm pretty sure that this breakfast was the highlight of our Disneyland time.  The food is actually quite good (the waffles are heavenly -- how do they make them so good?? -- and the croissants are even better than the ones at the Paris -- the PARIS -- buffet.)  Plus, Weston is at an age now where he is enamored with Disney characters.  He's in that precious stage of life where he's no longer afraid of them but not yet aware that they're just people in costumes.  So, it was delightful for him to see so many characters, who came to him and talked to him and hugged him!!  Plus, he got a cool green balloon when we checked in. :-)

Here he is with Chip/Dale:

Dale/Chip also came over and stroked Cole's little head, which was cute:

Eeyore!!!

And, of course, Minnie!  (This is HER breakfast, after all.)

Quick story about the encounter with Brer Fox: this guy (who is awesome) teased Weston a little by pretending to take his green balloon.  Weston didn't know what to do, so Tim told him to chase Brer Fox to get it back.  Well, the chase ended up going ALL over the restaurant and even outside, with Brer Fox dodging tables left and right and Weston cracking up while trying to catch him.  Our whole side of the restaurant was watching and laughing at the chase!!  It was awesome.  Yes, Weston eventually recaptured his balloon.  But my hat is off to that awesome Disney cast member who made Weston's morning! :-)

Oh, and Brer Fox also played with Cole's rings for a really long time (hahaha):

I love Weston's pose with Alice and the Mad Hatter:

Outside, we also ran into Captain Hook, who dug Weston's pirate shirt:

Anywho, it was a great breakfast.  And here's a happy baby!!  (Yes, I am a Disney dork and proud of it.  Admit that you love my Minnie visor, Tim.  ADMIT IT!!!) (Tim: NEVER!)

We went on Storybook Land, and Weston was very excited to go into the whale's mouth:

As you can tell, Cole was thrilled too:

For some reason, Weston's favorite thing at Storybook Land is the Aladdin palace.  So, I took a picture solely so that it will cycle through on my computer as my screensaver, and he can enjoy looking at it again sometime when he's near my computer:

He is such a sweet little squish face!!

We rode the teacups, or as the Andersons like to call it, "Uncle T-Bag's Tea Party":

Here are the boys, gearin' to go!

He loved Uncle T-Bag's Tea Party!!

Tim took Weston on the carousel in Fantasyland while I had a little nursing/diaper changing time with my Coleslaw:

Oh, Matterhorn.  How Weston used to love you.  How Weston REFUSED to go on you.

We knew that Toon Town would be a winner for our not-so-fearless child:

He actually tried Gadget's Go Coaster and loved it so much that he went on THREE times! (Once with Daddy and twice with Mommy.)  We wouldn't normally go on a ride three times in a row, but... Let the Wookie win.

We eventually left Disneyland for a late lunch at Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney:

This little guy was pretty tuckered out by that point in the day:

We got to sit in the monkey area, with this feller to look at (Tim: Does anyone else think this monkey looks like a Morlock from the old Time Machine movie?):

This was another really fun meal.  Weston loved looking at all the jungle animals, and despite another day with no nap, he behaved pretty darn well:

If I bring a camera to a restaurant, there will ALWAYS be a picture like this:

Oh my China Island Chicken Salad!!!  HOW I ADORE YOU!!!!

And of course before leaving, we got a picture with the big ape on the bench... oh, look, there's a gorilla, too:

We let Weston purchase a couple souvenirs at Disneyland, one of which was a huge rubber snake from the Indiana Jones store.  I don't know why he wanted this so badly.  He carried it around with him for the rest of the trip:

After our mid-afternoon lunch, we made our way to California Adventure, where I took a picture of the new Little Mermaid ride:

Love that fabulous Paradise Pier, too:

Weston was very excited to run into Buzz:

And Jessie:

After Toy Story Mania, Weston and I went on a couple rides together while Tim stayed with the baby and took some pictures of the new dining and sitting area in Paradise Pier:

Although we'd been Annual Passholders in the past, I'd never been on Jumpin' Jellyfish until this trip!

Wheeeeeeee!

We got a nice photo of the faux red rock that surrounds the new Cars Land (under construction):

And maybe we're a little behind the times, but we were STUNNED to learn that the Mission Tortilla Factory has CLOSED!!!  Nooooooo!  We used to love getting our free, freshly baked tortillas there!  And we used to love to say "Maseca!" along with the doggie in the movie about tortillas!  And we used to love standing on the tortilla scale!!!  And we used to lie that it was our birthday to get a whole bag of tortillas!!!

WHY?  WHY???  NOOOOOO!!!!!

Anywho, we eventually recovered from our loss and headed for Bug's Land.  Here is a picture of Cole crying.  It was so surprising that I had to document it.  (If you haven't guessed, we've been blessed with a really, REALLY mellow baby.  It helps make up for our sweet little firecracker-of-a-firstborn.)

Heimlich's Chew Chew Train is one ride that Weston seemed to remember pretty well:

He was really excited to see the giant gorilla animal cracker again:

...and the giant cupcake:

After a few more rides, we headed back to Paradise Pier to claim a spot for the World of Color water show.  We decided to purchase "World of Color picnics" for our dinner, which came with tickets for a "reserved viewing area."  Unfortunately, there were about 10,000 other people who also held tickets to the "reserved viewing area," so it ended up being really cramped and crowded by the time the show started.  However, we got there early enough that we had some space to sit and enjoy our little picnics.  I was very excited that they came in a World of Color totebag, AND that Weston got a light-up bracelet with his kid's picnic meal!

Here are my "Taste of Asia" picnic and Weston's fried chicken picnic box:

Tim got the Mediterranean picnic for his part.  They were tasty meals, but a bit overpriced since the viewing area turned out to be so packed with people anyway.

After we finished eating, we noticed that there was no line for the Little Mermaid ride, so Weston and I ran off to that (LOVED IT!) while Tim saved our spots.  We had to hurry back afterwards because the crowds were starting to engulf Tim and Cole, haha!  Oh my heck, the World of Color show was AMAZING!!!!!  I am so glad that we endured the crowds to see this water show.  It is spectacular.  (And it's actually really long, which is great, too.)  Music from Disney movies blasted from the speakers while huge jets of water sprayed skyward from the Paradise Pier lake.  There were lights and images projected onto the spraying water.  It was just incredible.  I want to see it again some day!!!

About halfway through the show, Weston was starting to fall asleep on top of Tim's shoulders, so we put him in the stroller.  (Cole was already fast asleep.)  After the show, we shuffled like cattle towards the exit with all the other World of Color spectators, and eventually made it back to our hotel for some much-needed sleep.

Jump to:
CA Trip Day 1
CA Trip Day 2
CA Trip Day 3
CA Trip Day 4
CA Trip Day 5
CA Trip Day 6
CA Trip Day 7
CA Trip Day 8
CA Trip Day 9
CA Trip Appendix