California Mis-Adventure 2012

 With the opening of Cars Land, we knew we had to hit CA Adventure this year.  We chose a hot crowded summer day in August which made for a seriously exhausting day of family fun.  Here is our 1st family picture on the tram ride to the park.  I knew before we left that this was a bad day to go BUT we were in California already for the reunion and decided we would brave through it.

 After buying tickets and entering the park, we realized the stroller tires needed air.  While I took care of that at the wheel chair depot where they pump stroller tires for free - (I mean if you pay $84 to get in, they will pump them for "free"), Dave took the kids on the Tow Mater ride.  We then headed to Luigi's tire ride which was actually pretty difficult to maneuver in my opinion.  We ate lunch at Flo's V8 Cafe which was so adorable.  It was really neat to see the cars driving around town while we did some shopping too.  I was so impressed with everything!

 We got super hot around lunch time and the kids whining was in full swing.  Luckily they did pass out for some naps in the stroller.   We wandered around a few more rides, got a popsicle, and let the kids play in the water area for a while.  They loved that.

The day continued, we headed for some more rides.   We bought Ben a Mickey Mouse hat in the morning (see above pictures) and we lost it a few hours later.  20 bucks down the drain.  It's ok, what's 20 bucks when you paid over $200 to get in?  Perspective people.  For lunch we decided to hit this cute little corn dog stand.  I ordered everyone 1 corn dog, 1 drink and fries to share.  It cost me over $40.   HA!! Well I guess when a churro is $2.75 - a corn dog is 10 bucks.  Oh and Jill dropped hers.  You better believe we dusted that puppy right off and still ate it.  I am happy to report she is still alive today.

 By late afternoon - everyone was whining and crying again.  Jill didn't want to sit in the stroller, Charlie didn't want to ride on ANYTHIN; he was scared of EVERYTHING.  Ben was hungry every 5 seconds it seemed and Jill wanted to do EVERYTHING but was too short for it all.  Dave and I were like - we paid for this???  At that point I decided we should embrace the current challenges of our young family and ask someone to take our picture -and remind ourselves that we will miss this one day. At least that's what the old ladies at the grocery store tell me.  I scooped up crying Charlie and Dave held the whiny Jill and Ben - and here we are acting like we are having so much fun!

During the afternoon parade, we sat on the curb of the street with our crying exhausted kids.  It was crowded and hot and we were all tired.  A really cute couple walked up and gave our kids some brand new stuffed animals.  She said that they always buy toys at Disneyland and look for crying kids to brighten their day.  It was a very sweet random act of kindness.  My kids were grouchy and wouldn't say thank-you but I was grateful.  One day I am going to do that for someone else.  It was really sweet and a definite highlight of our day!

I should mention that at the beginning of the day we waited in line to get a pass to wait in line again.  It's called "fast pass" -uh huh - yeah right.  This fast pass line was over an hour.  We wanted to get on the new feature ride at Cars Land but our fast passes came out for 8-9pm (we got them at 9 in the morning!!).  I was giving it my best effort to keep everyone happy to hold on until night time but by around 5 or 6pm, Dave convinced me we were done for the day.  I REALLY DO NOT LIKE leaving Disneyland early.  It took him a long time to convince me to leave.  But, 3 kids 4yrs and under just couldn't hang anymore.  I gave our 4 fast passes to a cute family with kids who are old enough to stay late - and they were thrilled.  Now we have a reason to go back I guess!!   We can hardly wait!!! (insert sarcasm here).