California Adventure

Our third vacation day found us at Disneyland once again. As we waited for the rope drop, the three big kids went to some gift shops. That left Madison free to pose for pictures with Mom and Dad:

We knew we wanted to ride Rise of the Resistance one more time, so we decided to book it over there right at the rope drop to hopefully have less of a line. The rope dropped. We walked. And walked. And walked. Rise of the Resistance is a good walk from the rope drop. Crowds thinned around us as they went to other rides. We knew we had made a good choice. We were going to have such a short wait!

We arrived at the ride with tired legs and hopeful spirits. Sure enough, we got there and there was no line at all! There was, however, a cast member there to tell us that the ride was temporarily closed. NOOOOOOO! We were so bummed that we had walked so far and wasted time for no reason. We decided to go on Indiana Jones again and make our way across the park to Space Mountain.

We did Space Mountain three times because the line was so short, and we loved that roller coaster. Just as we were about to go on the Buzz ride, we saw that Rise of the Resistance had opened and only had a ten-minute wait. We decided to book it back over there. Unfortunately, everyone else in the park apparently decided to do the same thing and by the time we got there, the line was already super long. We knew we wanted to ride it again and we knew the wait time would always be long, so we chose to just wait it out while we had some snacks and took some photos. The line moved fast and actually wasn’t too bad.

The ride was just as fun as before and we were glad we had been able to do it again and check it off our list.

We settled in to ride some more mellow rides such as Winnie the Pooh:

Dallas took the three little kids to Tom Sawyer Island while I spent time with Brooke looking in gift shops.

We all met up again to ride more rides into the afternoon:

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and saw Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) in line. That was exciting.

As our day drew to a close I told the kids that this was their last chance to do things in Disneyland, so what did they want to prioritize? I wasn’t expecting them to unanimously declare that we HAD to stop by the Tiki Room before leaving:

Spencer fell in love with Groot when he saw it in the gift shops:

And Madison had to cuddle every Stitch she saw:

I had to document the island in our hotel room. We brought tons of snacks to keep us happy during our trip!

We went to Disneyland at the end of January and had the best time. It was so nice to leave freezing cold Utah and head to warmer climates and entertaining theme parks.

On our drive over we made a quick stop at my sister’s house. She has been living in Las Vegas for awhile now and we had never visited her, so we happily fixed that! She gave us a delicious lunch which we all enjoyed.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. We made it to our hotel after dark. The kids were dying to try out the pool. Unfortunately, it was fairly chilly outside. Fortunately it was still many, many degrees warmer than it was in Utah, so the kids braved the chill and enjoyed a brisk swim.

The next morning we got up bright and early to hit the parks! Disneyland was first on our agenda.

We decided to hit Indiana Jones for our first ride of the day.

We were able to walk right on to the ride.

While we were at that side of the park we walked through Star Wars Land and rode Millennium Falcon ride. Then we ran over to Space Mountain.

Poor Madison was a real trooper riding all of the really intense rides first thing. She was terrified during Indiana Jones and buried her head in my arm the entire time.

We spent the afternoon riding the more tame rides in Fantasyland and elsewhere.

Sometimes I made the kids recreate pictures that I remembered taking from previous Disneyland trips. Like this one.

The old picture:

And the new:

Ooh, here’s another one:

Little girl Caroline:

Big girl Caroline:

By lunchtime we were ready to rest our tired legs and have some snacks.

Dinner this day was turkey legs for everyone! Kids were getting a little bickery, so we tried to lighten the mood by doing funny poses with the turkey legs. It worked.

Brooke surprised us all by loving the turkey legs and cleaning up what others didn’t finish.

Our biggest victory of the day was riding Rise of the Resistance. I had been watching the line times on the app and this ride always had a really long wait. Near the end of the day I saw the wait time had gone down to 45 minutes. I suggested we head over that way and give the ride a try.

We saw some cast members at the start of the line and asked if this was a good time to ride. The cast member said, “Yes! We just opened it and there’s no line at all!” We walked right on the ride. It was a beautiful moment.

We loved that ride! Two thumbs up for sure!

Another highlight was Star Tours. We had our 3D glasses, and I remembered they had trashcan-like bins that we were supposed to throw our glasses into when we were done. However, as I got off the ride I saw Brooke throw her glasses off to the side of the walkway in a big black space, so I did the same thing. She saw me chuck my glasses over the edge and was like, “What did you just do?”

Turns out Brooke HADN’T thrown her glasses into the area; she had simply stopped there to look at something. I had thrown my glasses into nothingness and certainly not a glasses receptacle. Brooke did not let me forget my moment of idiocy and we laughed many times afterwards remembering my goof.

We had a very successful day. We were exhausted. Some of us wanted nothing more than to shower and go to bed. Some of us had other activities still on our agenda:

After their evening swim we all tucked into our beds and slept as soundly as Dallas’s snoring allowed.

For President’s Day, we decided to take advantage of the days off school to explore Zion National Park a little bit. We were hoping southern Utah would give us beautiful weather and gorgeous views.

Unfortunately, the further south we drove, the worse the weather got. We ended up driving through a blizzard, but finally made it to Zion in one piece.

The weather was too rainy for hiking, so we drove around a bit to take in the mountains.

The only other thing we could do was head to our hotel and enjoy the indoor pool. The kids loved having the pool almost to themselves.

After swimming we got all tucked into our beds and fell right to sleep. Unfortunately Madison didn’t STAY tucked into her bed. She fell out of the bed at least a half dozen times and I had to keep putting her back. Silly girl.

The next day was everything we hoped for! The weather was perfect. The skies were blue. Zion was ready to be explored.

We hiked Canyon Overlook Trail first. That was a nice, easy hike and Madison loved being able to scamper on rocks.

Vacationing with a teenager can be…challenging. We’re never quite sure what mood our resident teen will grace us with each day. Luckily finding a cactus was just the diversion Brooke needed to keep her mind busy and happy as she hiked.

We made it to the overlook!

I had been warning people to watch out for puddles and ended up stepping in one myself. Brooke thought that was hilarious, so she made me reenact the scene.

We planned to catch the shuttle to take it further up the canyon, but we didn’t get a spot. We decided to hike Watchman Trail instead. This was a three-mile hike. The kids’ legs were already tired from the first hike, so there was a bit more grumbling this time around, but we all hiked to the top, enjoyed the view, and made it back down in one piece.

After their long day hiking, the kids were itching to get back into the hotel pool for another evening of swimming.

The next day was our last day at Zion, so we had to be sure to get a picture by the sign:

We drove up the canyon a little bit, but most of the kid-friendly hikes were closed, so we stayed in the car and just took in the beauty and grandeur of the mountains.

We drove through Kolob Canyon and were amazed at the beauty of the snow-flecked mountains.

We had a great family getaway!