Disney. Take 2.

Sorry I'm not sorry in advance for the complete minute by minute play by play. This post is not for the light reader.

Sunday morning, we drove to Centerville and picked up my cousin Daniel and then to Spanish Fork to pick up cousin Jeff. The boys and I hopped in one car and my parents hopped in the other and we were off!! 

We followed them all the way to Vegas and then split off. They made their way to Arizona and we were California bound. Oh yeeaahhh. 

Never a dull moment with these 2. We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for a good hour or so and had to get creative with our games and what not. Lots of alphabet games, 20 questions with Disney characters, you name it...we played it. This is where we got stuck for over an hour.

I am proud to say that I took the last leg of the drive and was able to maneuver the California freeways. I think I screamed the entire time but hey, we lived. This is how happy the boys were that we finally made it.

Daniel put this trip together and we were a little scared of what the hotel would be like. On the way we kept saying, "you had one job, Daniel. Get the hotel." We thought it was going to be a dump, but it was actually pretty nice! I had stayed their multiple times on choir trips in the past. Phew. Thanks, Daniel. 

That night we got some dinner. Who knew that Domino's was in the sketchiest part of California? Yikes. Seriously. I was scared for my life. The guy working at Domino's reaaalllyy liked us. A lot. We booked it back to the hotel. 

Monday morning we woke up semi-early to prep for the first big day at Disneyland...which also happened to be Daniel's birthday!! The big one nine. Woot woot. We ate breakfast at the hotel....let's just say that 99% of the people staying at the hotel were Asian so breakfasted consisted of fried rice and eggs basically. It was free though. We like free things. 

We took the first shuttle to the park which left at 8 in the morning. The park opens right at 8 so we were a little bummed that we weren't there right when it opened, but we still made good time.

The boys and I (mainly me) decided that it would be fun to try and hit EVERY SINGLE ATTRACTION at the parks while we were there for 3 days. That's right. Every single attraction (rides and shows) at both California Adventure and Disneyland. 

On your mark, get set, GO. 

We started off at California Adventure. We had planned to go straight to Midway Mania but we got distracted by how cool Cars Land looked that we had to go look around for a minute.

We picked up fast passes for Soarin and World of Color, then over to Paradise Pier.

We rode Midway Mania, the Toy Story ride. SO FUN. The boys quickly decided that they needed to sit next to each other on any competitive ride. I let them. They smoked me. 

Then over to Soarin! The birthday boy's favorite ride. It never ever ever gets old. 

Then we walked over towards the Tower of Terror and got some FP's...that's fast passes for you less experienced Disney goers. We took some pics on the way :) 

We had some time to kill before Tower of Terror so we rode the Monster's Inc. ride. That was probably the best line that we stood in thanks to the ridiculously cute baby that was dying to play with us. 

We also went to the Muppet 3D show. Perfect for the middle of the day heat. We also decided to knock out some of the Bugs Life land because it's right next to the Tower. After waiting in line forever for the 2 second Flik's Flyers ride, we decided we would come back to Bug's land later :) Luckily we got the Chinese take-out box car. That made us happy. 

TOWER OF TERROR. TOWER OF TERROR. I LOVE THIS RIDE. AHHHH. We were a little tired and it woke us right up. Haha as soon as the ride ended we were all completely still and I could hear heaving breathing and  "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Wow. Oh my gosh," coming from the boys. We loved it. 

Theeennn back over to Paradise Pier where we rode Screamin, the roller coaster. I sat behind boys on this one and towards the end of the ride I could hear them screaming my name. Again. Never a dull moment. 

Then I think we went on King Triton's carousel. Creepiest carousel you will ever see. The whales? Give me nightmares, why don't ya?! 

It was around this time of day that I quickly learned that different people act differently in Disneyland. During the middle part of the day, the inner demon comes out in 96% of people. I am proud to say that in my situation I was part of the 4% on this first day. 

We walked over to Mickey's "Fun" Wheel. Fun? No. Torture wheel. Why we chose to ride in a swinging one? I'm not sure.

Since we were a group of three we had to join with another group inside the wheel. The other 3 were silent the majority of the time so that made for a bit of an awkward ride...well...until the cart REALLY started to swing. Where are the seatbelts for this torture contraption!? Seriously! We were flying all over that thing. I'm really surprised that we didn't land on top of our cart neighbors. 

We made it off alive though. Right before we got on the ride we saw a really tall guy walking with his girlfriend and a Disney guide. He got to skip straight to the front of the line, so we knew either he was super rich or famous. So we kind of followed him to the swings ride...and took pictures of him...

I'm not going to pretend like I know who he is...we had to ask the guy in front of us in line. Apparently it was Brook or Robin Lopez that plays in the NBA. Not sure which one. He booked it off the swings and we never saw him again. We searched though. Nice meeting you, Robin. 

Next was one of my favorite parts of the day. The Animation Studios! I had never been here before and it was SO COOL. You walk in and there are 10 or so different screens showing scenes from Disney movies. The Beauty and the Beast one was amazing :) 

We experienced "Talk to Crush" with a million 4 year olds, so that was neat. 

Then, BEAST'S LIBRARY. 

You get to take a quiz which tells you which character you're most like. We came back here a couple times so I ended up getting Cinderella, Lady, and Belle as my answers. I'll take Belle, thank you very much. 

The room changes between light and dark depending on whether the rose falls or not. It's so cool!

Then to Ursula's room where you can sing or act for her and she will put your voice in a Disney clip. We had a lot of fun with this one. 

By this point we were hungry to the point where our energy level had completely dropped off. We slowly made our way over to Disneyland for lunch. It was then that we discovered the best kept secret of Disneyland...The Rancho del Zocalo. It's a Mexican restaurant towards the end of Frontierland. It was so good and they gave us so much food that none of us could even finish our plates! Well done, Rancho. We stayed there for a little while rebuilding our energy. Plus, we found an employee there that we fell in love with. His name is Hugo. He was the happiest person I've ever seen. We loved him. 

After that we decided to hit up some things that required energy...like Tarzan's tree house. 

And we rode Pirates of the Caribbean. Still great. 

And then I think we rode the Haunted Mansion. It was a tight squeeze with the 3 of us but we made it work. Also, every ride thought it would be a good idea to break down for a second while we were on it. Haunted Mansion was one of those. We got stuck right where the lady's head is floating around in the ball. Yikes. 

All day I had been dying to get Daniel a birthday pin but I didn't know where to find one! Finally at this part of the day I asked an employee and he had one! Yay Daniel! This pin was like a magic friend-making machine. Every single employee that we passed wished him a happy birthday. It was great. 

  

Phew. Okay. Back to California Adventure. 

We rode the Little Mermaid ride.

And the Jumpin Jellyfish.

Then, the Golden Zephyr. 

Then we bought Daniel his first ever Disney churro....or as Jeff called them, the advil of Disneyland. 

Then it was time for World of Color. A better title for it would probably be World of MAKE ME CRY. So good! I had chills the entire time. I basically felt like I was watching my childhood. All the classic Disney movies and even some new ones were featured. 

We were so happy and full of energy after that show that we hit up the Mad T Party. Hahahahaha this was insane. Picture something magical and Disney and then imagine the complete opposite and you have the Mad T Party. It was nuts! There was a bunny DJ playing Nicki Minaj and people dancing their little hearts out. So crazy. I think they were selling alcohol there. They must have been. Then all of sudden these creepy guys come out riding flamingos! So crazy. Jeff's favorite part, for sure.

Then we hopped back over to Disneyland to use our FP's for Space Mountain. 

The last shuttle for the hotel leaves at 11:15 and we got off space mountain at 10:50. The boys thought we had time for one more ride...I was freaking out though. We went on Astro Blasters...another ride that broke down on us...great. Thankfully we got off the ride by 11:03ish and were able to run to make the shuttle. 

We. Were. Exhausted. 

Day 1..check!