Disneyland Trip - California Adventure!

We ended up spending our first day at California Adventure. We found out that Disneyland would be closing at 6pm for an event that evening but California Adventure would be open 'til 8pm. We just didn't want to miss out on that time and adjusted our plans accordingly. We loved California Adventure and had such a blast!

We had read a tip in the Unofficial Disneyland Guidebook to take pictures of each of your children each morning so that you'll have a picture of exactly what they're wearing in case they get lost. We thought this sounded like a good idea, so each morning on the way to breakfast, Jake did a lineup along this wall near the pool. It was the first picture of each day and I thought it would be fun to share here:
 

Here we are at Cars land waiting for our very first ride, the Radiator Springs Racers.  We had about a 110 minute wait so it wasn't the greatest way to start off our whole Disney experience, but the boys were real troopers and we made it through!

Here is a picture of Mary Jane (far side) with her son and daughter-in-law.  We waited in line behind this family for nearly 2 hours and got to know them very well (Mary Jane's husband happens to be an engineer for this ride, she has a daughter who is about to have her fourth boy and is having a really hard time thinking of a name she likes just like we did, etc.).  In fact, they are the ones who made the whole thing possible.  Mary Jane was so incredibly kind and helpful.  When Lucas said he needed a potty break about half an hour into our wait, she said don't worry about a thing and kept her eye on Joshua and Daniel while I took Lucas to the bathroom at Flo's V8 Cafe.  Then when Daniel said he needed to go to the bathroom about 20 minutes after we got back, Mary Jane said she'd come with me and was just so great.  I miss these people that we'll in all likelihood never see again.  Disneyland is a place where you can totally bond with people in line.  I love that!

Here we are in front of the Cozy Cone:

King Triton's Carousel; you can see Jake and all four boys if you look close:

Caden playing outside the Grizzly River Run.  He wasn't tall enough/old enough for this ride but had fun playing underneath the giant grizzly bear out front.  I think here he's running underneath the bear's legs:

Lucas finally met his match at California Adventure.  This kid hasn't napped in ages but a day at CA did him in.  This time was so, so nice.  We rested on a bench in some shade and enjoyed smoothies while the little ones slept.

Here is the Hollywood Tower of Terror.  A huge building for a ride, but it is very well done.  Daniel and I went on this and then Jake took a turn.  Daniel was attracted to it for its spookiness factor but then tried to change his mind in line.  Right or wrong, at that point I made him stick with his original decision and am proud of him for actually going through with it. 

Here we are at the bumper cars in A Bug's Land.  We ended up spending a lot of time in A Bug's Land.  It was kind of boring for Jake and I, but it ended up having a lot of rides that were a good match for each of our kids' ages so that was good.

Jake and Caden are the stars of this picture, but I really love Joshua's face in this one, off to the side there:

Action shot!

These pictures only represent a fraction of what we did here.  We loved California Adventure and felt like we really could have used another day here.  Will remember that for next time and be sure and get park hoppers!