After our long day of flying to California, we arrived at Joe and Sharon's house just in time for dinner (and drinks, of course!) on Wednesday. We got the kids fed and settled a bit before heading to bed. The original plan was to have a relaxing Thursday morning at the house before driving to Anaheim and spending the rest of the day at the hotel pool and then Downtown Disney for dinner; we were then going to do Disneyland on Friday, and then hit California Adventure Saturday morning before driving back to San Diego.
Since the weather forecast kept changing on us and rain was predicted for Friday, we left San Diego after breakfast, checked in at the hotel, and then walked over to Disneyland to spend that afternoon at California Adventure instead. Thursday was overcast and a little cool (60 something degrees, perfect for us) which luckily for us, scared away a lot of the crowds - we had little to no wait on any of the rides!
The first Disney character we ran into was Pluto - Ellie and Maddie had no problem running up to him for a hug, but Zoe and Aidan weren't quite as crazy about the characters, so they hung back and just watched.
Our first stop was Cars Land, which was AMAZING! We truly felt like we were in Radiator Springs. We rode on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi's Flying Tires rides, both of which were very fun, even for the adults! We headed back to Cars Land later in the day to ride the Radiator Springs Racers ride, which I think ended up being the favorite ride of the day for most of us!
Next stop was A Bugs Life - we felt like we had been shrunk to the size of bugs - again, the kids had so much fun.
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| See how the bench looks like it's made of popsicle sticks? The details were incredible. |
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| Zoe "caught" in a fisherman's net like the one in Finding Nemo |
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| Goofy directing a water show |
We were heading to find lunch for the kids when the Phineas and Ferb Dance Party bus passed us on their way to do a street dance. Of course we had to postpone lunch and follow the bus; the kids even got to dance with the Fireside Girls!
Finally got some lunch in the kids!
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| Another street performance, this time by the Army Men from Toy Story - really cool! |
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| Maddie gets a hug from Woody! |
All day long, Zoe was really excited about riding the ferris wheel, Mickey's Fun Wheel. Late in the afternoon we finally made it over to the ride, and so Zoe, Maddie, Ellie, Sharon, Dave and I climbed aboard while Joe and Aidan stayed on the ground. We hadn't paid enough attention to how the ride operated, however - if you can see in the photo below, some of the buckets slide back and forth along a rail as they go up and down with the turning of the wheel. (Some are stationary, but we apparently missed that fact and underestimated how much movement there would be). Once we were underway, Zoe said very seriously,
"This was not a very good idea."
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| Radiator Springs lit up at night; Zoe held tight to Papa Joe's hand |
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| Papa Joe had to buy the kids cotton candy, of course! |
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| We got to meet Lightning McQueen! |
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| Group shot with the Tower of Terror in the background- we ran out of time to make it over there |
Next up: Disneyland!
Since the weather forecast kept changing on us and rain was predicted for Friday, we left San Diego after breakfast, checked in at the hotel, and then walked over to Disneyland to spend that afternoon at California Adventure instead. Thursday was overcast and a little cool (60 something degrees, perfect for us) which luckily for us, scared away a lot of the crowds - we had little to no wait on any of the rides! 
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