Sea World was the only day in California, where it was just Peter and I and the kids on our own. It was harder, but we did fine. The hardest part, was that I had lost my phone at Universal Studios so Peter and I had no way to keep track of eachother when we would split up. We were also getting pretty worn out as this was about our 5th day of parks.
The funniest part of the day was before we even went into the park. We got there about a half our before it opened so we got a great parking spot and took our time getting ready to go in. We had the stroller out and a few kids were climbing around on it. Then I heard Peter say, "There are people taking pictures of the stroller." I went back to see what was going on and there were some tourists from China getting all excited about the kids. I shook their hands and told them I had a couple more kids in the car too. The got even more excited so we got everyone out to greet them. They were amazed with the kids. They were holding them, and loving on them and taking pictures and just excited to see a family of 8. The encounter lasted a good ten minutes. It was great. As they were walking away, Tanner put his woody outfit on and yelled goodbye, but when they saw him as Woody, they came back and took pictures with him for another 10 minutes while he hammed it up. Dallin takes great pride in our family so he really loved that. Really I know there are so many larger families, I feel like we aren't that big. But these people have only ever seen families with 1 or 2 children as their are population control laws in China.
As soon as we arrived at Universal Studios, it was obvious that it doesn't have the same magic feel as Disneyland, but we still had an amazing day. There were several rides that the little kids couldn't do, but they had a pretty great kiddie play area so it worked out fine. The roller coasters here were really fun. There is a Mummy one a Simpson one and a Jurassic Park one. We also saw a special effects demonstration that was cool. Dallin liked seeing how they can make it look like someone's arm is getting cut off, but not really, and seeing how green screens work.
Here are a bunch of random pictures to sum up our 5 days we had at Disneyland:
I have a radar for looking for other larger families wherever we go, but to my surprise I never saw a family with more than 4 kids. I realized that we really are a little different. One time I thought I found another big family who happened to be wearing BYU apparel, but found out they were not all together. The Dad said, "No, we have 4 kids. If we had more than that I think I would shoot myself." We were in line next to them and I think he had been watching us, mentally shaking his head. That made me laugh. Okay, I get that we are freaks, but I like it.
World of Color show:
Peter and Luke:
Carter's treasures:
California Adventure has this wilderness area where kids go around and accomplish challenges and earn "Badges" by scratching off a paper(sort like a lottery ticket). Dallin and Eden enjoyed earning all of them and even got to go to a ceremony at the end.
One night we went to the Rainforest Cafe. I thought it would be nice to have one fun resteraunt experience while we were there. It is elaborately decorated and even has "rainstorms" every few minutes. For dessert, we had the famous Volcano dessert which is a huge chocolate cake with icecream shaped like a volcano. When they bring it out, they yelled "VOLCANOOOOOOOOOO!" and it had a sparkler looking decoration on top. I have no idea why I didn't get a picture, but it will be on the video that I am working on.
We saw lots and lots of 3D shows and rides. We even got the see the original Captain EO with Micheal Jackson. They brought it back as a tribute, which I was excited about because I never came as a kid and I remembered hearing about it growing up.
How many times have I jokes about selling my kids? Ha ha ha. They were having so much fun pounding on the plastic and acting crazy that they really started something. Other kids kept coming over and doing it too. We stayed here for several minutes being silly.
Toon Town:
They went crazy at this one too:
Oh my, I love this guy:
Luke did pretty well hanging out with me most of the time. He really only sleeps well in his crib, but he was able to get some sleep in the Moby Wrap. I have been to Disney with a baby before, but never a nursing baby. That was a bit crazy sometimes while we were rushing around. A lot of times I would try to feed him during long rides like Pirates, or Small World, but sometimes we were just really in a hurry so I would use my nursing cover while we walked. I felt okay about it since nursing covers make it so easy to have privacy and I saw many other mommies doing it. What a trooper this guy was.
Luke doesn't take a binky so I always have beads around my neck to keep him busy.
Lily is so independant, so we got her a monkey backpack (aka glorified leash) for Christmas with this trip in mind. She didn't want anything to do with it at first, so for a couple of weeks beore the trip we let her wear it around the house and made her feel like it was cool. It worked, and she loved having a little extra freedom of letting us hold the monkey's leash tail instead of hands.
Princess Faire. The boys watched from a distance while Eden got her princess training on:
Aladdin musical - Soooooooooo good!
One thing that really helped on the trip was using Ridemax agendas. You have to pay a few dollars to use the site, but I found it well worth it. Larry and Michelle had told us about it. I found many free apps that do similar things, but I think Ridemax is better for really tailoring your day to your needs. The site helps you plan your days and has pages and pages of insider tips for getting the most out of your experience. For us, keeping everyone together was a full time job, so it was nice to have an agenda to tell us where to go next. That way there was no arguing and debating over it. One day we didn't use one and it was so much more stressful and we didn't get nearly as much done. We never followed it to a tee, but it was nice not to have my brain explode trying to figure out our next move. It was really crisis mode all the time trying to keep everyone happy, together, bellies full, bladders empty.
There are so many great places to eat at Disneyland. Peter and I vowed to stay away from the corn dog stands and eat the good stuff, which really doesn't cost much more. We started out this way and quickly discovered that we were paying for the fancy stuff and the kids were complaining about it and wasting it. We were not about to pay for $10 kids meals with half a cup of mac&cheese and some apple juice. So after our first day I went to Wal-mart and the Dollar Tree and seriously stocked up on snacks and PB&J. We packed plenty of food and water for the kids each day and then when we would sit to eat, We would feed the kids what they wanted and Peter and I would get something yummy to eat in the park. This worked much better and we were all happy.
I have always wanted to eat at the Blue Bayou restaurant. It is the one inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and it is so fancy. When Peter's Mom and sister came for a couple of days, they offered to babysit so that Peter and I could go on a date to go eat there! The ambiance is so fun. We shared a delicious tri-tip and chocolate dessert. Yum! We were gone from the group for about an hour and it was so fun to have our little time alone. We walked around holding hands pretending that we were newlyweds. It was great.
Well thats it for Disneyland pictures, but we still have 3 other days of adventures to share! I have hours of video so it is daunting to try to make a highlight reel, but I am trying to make one that is about 10 minutes as well. I am sure there will stilll be many more stories to remember as I sort through the videos.
