Day 3 in the Golden State

Day three was our last day in the Golden State....

Rick finished with his work, but we scheduled our flights to allow us to spend one day together in California before heading home...The kids and I had planned to show Rick our favorite parts of Disneyland.

I insisted on driving (with Rosita's help), to show Rick my ninja-like driving skills.....he said I looked scared to death the whole time. I didn't feel scared to death though. Not the whole time.

We arrived and headed right in.

(We didn't actually buy a balloon....I just love seeing those gigantic bunches of balloons flying)

Rick and Heidi on Dumbo (she insisted on sitting in the green dumbo to match her dress)RJ and I (in the orange dumbo)Apparently there are no crowds if you go to Dinseyland in early May through the week. It was wonderful!Heidi being Heidi. Silly as usualKing Arthur's CarosoulAlice in Wonderland, Mad Tea Party, Dumbo, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, King Arthur's Carrousel, and THEN......Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

RJ and Heidi were super excited, which made Rick excited. We all loved it.

RJ and Heidi obsessing over this Mr Toad statue again.

Then we rode the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which is a rollercoaster. RJ was scared, but tolerated it. Heidi loved it. go figure.

These pictures absolutely crack me up. We had walked past this so many times at Disney World and had never had the kids try to take the sword out, but this time we did. They tried SO hard.

It's a Small World, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (twice), Splash Mountain, The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones Adventure, The Pirates of the Carribean.....

Then we decided to break for lunch. There are tons of places all over Disneyland where you can stop and grab a bite to eat, but I had heard about these particular corn dogs. The ones sold in the red wagon on Main Street.

Rick loves corn dogs so to the red wagon we headed......It was easy to spot, 1 because it was a huge red wagon and 2 because there was a line.

I waited to buy our 6 DOLLAR corn dogs. I thought Rick was gonna be irked that I spent that much on corndogs for everyone, but he took a bite and declared it the BEST CORN DOG he'd ever had in his entire life....and he's eaten a lot of them. He loved them enough to eat his own and finish everyone elses too. They were huge.

The Corn Dog Wagon

After lunch Heidi and I went to Pixie Hollow to meet the fairies while Rick and RJ headed to Buzz Lightyear and Star Tours.

Miss TinkerbellMiss Rosetta

After we met Tinkerbell and Rosetta (who we had never met before!), Heidi and I were just sitting on a bench next to the Matterhorn Bobsleds waiting for Rick and RJ.

Suddenly, Alice from Alice in Wonderland walked up to Heidi and took her hand. (she was dressed as Tinkerbell). They just started walking away with the Mad Hatter. I quickly grabbed our things and followed behind. It was so cute. They just kept walking and talking. Finally Alice got where she was going, and stopped for a picture.

Just after our picture, Peter Pan comes up and gently"pushes" Heidi in the stomach and makes a noise at her, then runs away. Heidi thought it was HILARIOUS. She swears it's because he thought she was the real Tinkerbell and he was made at her for being mean to Wendy in their movie. :)

We met back up with Rick and RJ and headed over to Adventureland. I have wanted a Dole Whip Float (pineapple ice cream in pineapple juice) during both of our trips to DisneyWorld, but have never stopped and gotten one. Rick suggested we grab one this tine. (THANK YOU!)

We all enjoyed our Dole Whip treats and watched the "enchanted tiki room" show, which we have also not done during both of our trips to DisneyWorld. Then we rode the Jungle Cruise,

We had dinner reservations at the Celebration Roundup BBQ in Frontierland, so we headed off to our dinner (with the characters of Toy Story 2)This one of Woody kissing Heidi's hands is one of my favorites from the whole trip. She is smiling so sweet at him)

After having our picture taken with Jesse, we enjoyed our dinner of ribs, chicken, coleslaw, corn, and cornbread while watching Woody and Bullseye. After they were done performing, a lady came out to wish everyone a Happy Beard Day! They came over and sang to Rick because he had half a beard. RJ and Heidi loved that.

(No need to adjust your monitors, we were really that burnt.)After dinner they brought this gigantic dessert thing with ice cream cones with cupcakes stuffed inside. It was quite a presentation.

After dinner we rode Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road and then took a ride on Mark Twain's riverboat. It was a nice relaxing boat ride, although I almost got into a fight with some Indian woman (dot not feather). I don't think that she understood that in our culture, just because she wanted to save the seat that I was in the process of sitting in. (my butt actually descending through the air towards the bench) that quickly shoving your purse under my ass does not mean it was your spot. The Americans sittings beside all of this offered to scoot over.

We had a couple hours to kill before the fireworks show, so we hopped over to Disney's California Adventure to ride our favorite rides.

We rode Toy Story Midway Mania (I beat Rick, RJ beat Heidi). Heidi wanted to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel which is this GIGANTIC ferris wheel. RJ was too scared, so Heidi and I went alone while Rick and RJ waited behind.

There must have been some bribery involved, because Rick somehow talked RJ into riding California Screamin' which goes upside down. Heidi and I finished our ride and headed over to the exit area of their line, just as they got off. RJ HATED IT. Not only did he hate it, but Rick said that he screamed, "We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die" throughout the entire ride. He wasn't doing it to be funny. He was serious. Rick said it was an awesome rollercoaster. We chose not to buy the picture of him screaming in terror. Thinking back, I wish I would have. He would have liked it later in life. :)

For a bit of a tamer ride, we all headed to Soarin'. Heidi, RJ and I rode this on our first day at Disneyland and we had also ridden it in Florida. I had forgotten how much I LOVE this ride. It's in a big IMAX theatre and you feel as if you are actually parasailing over all of these different scenes (but thesy also have the scents to match so it's that much more realistic) a mountain, the desert, a river, ski slopes, etc. My favorite part of the ride was when we were flying over the orange groves, and Heidi announces, "I SMELL STARBURST" She is too cute. At the end of the ride has you parasailing over Disneyland just in time for the fireworks.

After Soarin', we headed back to Disneyland to watch the fireworks, which were wonderful. All Disney fireworks are wonderful!

We rode Buzz once more and ended at Honey I shrunk the audience. Heidi fell asleep and RJ was close, so we headed to the tram. We got back to the car around midnight. What a day!

:)

-a