disney birthday volume one: part two

 Here is day two of our epic Disney vacay!!  We spent the day in California Adventure - typically not my fave of the two parks and we usually need to stretch to fill the day, but oh man were we productive/efficient and with the help of the brand new Marvel Avengers Campus, it was a fantastic day!!!!

We began uncharacteristically chill - chatting with a helpful Cast Member, a stop for much-needed coffee (a mistake I would not repeat from the previous day to not be fully-caffeinated).  

And we headed over to my absolute FAVE ride: Toy Story Midway Mania.  We stood in the 15 minute stand-by line first.  

Followed immediately by the use of our first FastPass...

Then, the girls' shooters didn't work, so we scored a third ride!!!

I believe this is my all-time personal best:

Onto the Pixar Pal Around.

And then we made our way to Cars Land.

Jack really wanted to ride the Grizzly Bear River Run - we had never been on it and it was totally fun!

A few character meet & greets from afar:

With Goofy and Max

And Ms. Edna Mode, dah-lings!!

While the other kids jumped on The Incredicoaster with Jenny, Max and I grabbed his favorite ice cream from the Abominable Snowman.

Back to Cars Land for another ride on Radiator Springs Racers.

Ugh, my turn on The Incredicoaster - I have a love/hate relationship with this ride.

After a lunch of Mickey pretzels and beer (this is why I love California Adventure), we rode Grizzly Bear River Run again.

And then we headed to Avengers Campus!

Black Panther and Thor!!!

Ready to ride the new WEB Slingers ride - which is very similar to Toy Story Midway Mania.

Time for a popsicle break...

Love that for Ella, even a popsicle is a chance for art!

Back to Avenger's Campus for the remainder of the day.  

Max did NOT want to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Breakout, but he ended up loving it!!

A fantastic dinner at Pym Test Kitchen.  The kids devoured their meatballs...

...which I waited until after the meal to tell them it was a plant-based vegetarian meatball.  

Ginormous pretzels - and huge and mini food - just such a fun meal!

One more time on Toy Story Midway Mania.  

Good night for now Disneyland.  Another amazing adventure and can't wait for the next one.  Thanks, Cotters, for a great couple of days.  We grabbed breakfast and did a bit more shopping on Wednesday morning in Downtown Disney before making the long trek home.  Loved it all.  

disney birthday volume one: part one

 Here we go!  Re-capping the first of my two Disney birthday trips that were in the works.  I am SO glad that we did this trip with the kiddos - every age has been fun at Disney, but it was just amazing and awesome to see them with their friends who are more like cousins.  And just a phenomenal way to end the swim season!!  I'm also beyond proud that all the kids wore their masks for nearly the entire trip (removing them only for eating and when we said they could take them off once on certain rides).  

Sunday, we started the drive to Anaheim and were in Downtown Disney by 4:30 p.m.!

Fun at the Lego store - I've always wanted to do this and can't wait to build this Lego portrait with the kids and Roger!

The true sign of a Sharyn vacation: outdoor patio with delicious IPAs.  

And ice cream to top off the night!  Time to get ready for bed and our first day at Disneyland!

Monday morning we headed to the Jungle Cruise - it was in soft-opening mode since they just re-vamped the ride.  Super excited for all the punniness!!!

And onto our fave - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Riding the not-yet-re-vamped Splash Mountain:

Onto Star Wars Land to ride Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run and Rise of the Resistance and then a stop at Oga's Cantina!!

This is Max's fave dessert!!!

We made our way to Tomorrowland for a proper lunch before riding Space Mountain.

After a few runs through Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and Star Tours (for Jenny and the boys), we got in Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion (but that might have been earlier in the day).  

I thought it might have been just me and my Oga's beverages, but I was not the only one who was beyond exhausted:

A relatively early finish to our day at Disneyland, but we got all of the amazing rides in and headed back to the hotel for a pizza and to get ready for our day in California Adventure!