Winter Disneyland Escape

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!

On day two of our trip we went to California Adventure. We again got up bright and early so we could get there before it opened.

This gave us plenty of time to take pictures with Walt and Mickey:

Our first ride of the day was Guardians of the Galaxy (the old Tower of Terror). We loved it!

We ran into Spiderman and had to take a picture. Brooke embraced her role as photographer which is why she’s missing in a lot of the shots:

Then we went to Pixar Pier to do the always-fun Toy Story ride:

Dallas was proud of his “Best In Vehicle” award:

The Ferris Wheel was our next priority. You can choose whether you want stationary gondolas or swinging ones. Swinging all the way for us!

When we got to the front of the line and saw just how much the gondolas swung we began second guessing our choice.

We started third-guessing our choice when someone in one of the swinging gondolas cried out to the ride attendant begging him to stop the ride and let them out.

I asked the attendant if that happens often. He said yes and that there were barf bags in the ride if needed.

We couldn’t pass up an opportunity to stage some barfing pictures once we heard about that:

Unfortunately, approximately three seconds after the above picture was taken, Dallas turned a ghostly shade of white-green and announced he was feeling like barfing. We then had to be the dorky riders hollering at the ride attendant to stop the ride.

Dallas and Spencer ran off the ride as soon as the doors opened, but the girls stayed on and we finished like champs:

We found the Inside Out characters and had to pose beside them:

Finally, finally, finally, we made it to the Little Mermaid ride. That was our favorite from years ago and Madison was absolutely DYING to ride it again. We rode it several times in a row just because we love it so much:

 

After that we ran over to the Animation Academy so we could learn how to draw a Disney character. We had some time and space while we were in line, and we also had carpet under us and tired legs, so some of us decided to really get comfortable as we waited for the drawing session to start:

We learned how to draw Minnie Mouse. I love how their step-by-step instructions make it so everyone does such a good job with their drawing:

Well, MOST of us drew Minnie:

Brooke has a friend who loves Oswald, so Brooke was always on the lookout for him and she found him in the flesh…er…felt!

Spencer was really excited to do the Cars ride. Last time we came he was able to ride it once, but the second time he tried he was deemed too short, which he has never forgotten nor gotten over, so we headed over to Cars Land.

The line for the Radiator Springs Racers was so long. And slow. We felt like we were waiting forever.

We got many games of paper, rock, scissors in:

We also played countless rounds of Disney Heads Up:

 

Finally we made it to the front of the line!

The ride was as fun as ever and we all loved it. Next up was Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree:

Since we were here and it was dinnertime, we stopped at Flo’s V8 Cafe for dinner.

The sun was setting and we were freezing after sitting and eating, so we went to the playground area and ran all around trying to keep warm:

Since we were there during a less-busy time, there weren’t many parades or extra shows happening. When we heard about Mulan’s Lunar New Year Parade, we knew we didn’t want to miss it. We staked out our spot on the ground.

The procession lasted…five minutes. It was very underwhelming.

Madison fell in love with Stitch and always had to hug any she found in the gift shop:

We ended the day at Soarin’. That was another really long line, but all was forgotten when we got on the ride. Madison leaned over to me during the ride and said, “This is my favorite ride!”

The woods may provide rest for some, but we were in need of our nice hotel room, so we called it a day and collapsed into bed…after another quick swim for the kids, of course.

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!