California Adventure Sweet 16

 California Adventure didn't open until 10:00 on Monday, which was perfect.  Xanthe wanted to make sure we enjoyed a nice, long breakfast before leaving the hotel anyway, and we hadn't gone to bed until 1.

 So we had to get right down to business when we arrived at Bug Land!  5 minute waits for all the rides, and we were moving on to Cars Land.  That section is cool!  I hadn't been there before, since it's been what, 5 years since our last Disney trip.  Radiator Springs kept closing and had long wait times, so we skipped it in favor of the boardwalk.  But firs,t we stopped for some bite-sized churros and cinnamon chocolate dipping sauce and a frozen apple juice at the Cones Motel, or whatever it's called.  Yum!

 Ghirardelli samples, our nod to the San Francisco 10yo Trip tradition that we were breaking.

 We knew Nate and Allie Randle were going to be there too, and we planned to meet them for churros, but hadn't figured out how.  With Xanthe's Magic Luck, we ran into them right next to a churro stand.  Nate grabbed everyone a celebratory churro for Ruby's birthday and we visited.  Nate is like a little brother to me, almost as much as Trajan and Josh.  Our chance/not chance meeting couldn't have been scripted better.

After that, the rain came and we ducked into the Aladdin show, which was still funny after all these years, kept topical with political and current events jokes.  The perfect break!...

 ...before the next break!  Scott and Ruby went for Tower of Terror while the rest of us opted for Monsters, Inc and the new Olaf's Play Land, or something, a big Scandinavian-themed room with real snow, sledding and boutiques.  Ptolemy enjoyed laying on the floor and eating Olaf cotton candy.  I adore how Disney gets into a theme and relates every last detail to the theme.  It's very satisfying and fun to see the attention to detail.  We had fast passes to see Olaf.  We watched the crew prepare the old snow for new snow in the village, by chopping up the ice the kids had been playing on, then hosing it down with a snow machine.  Quite the operation!

 Scott couldn't wait to see Olaf!!

 OK, I admit it.  I couldn't wait either!!

 And...cue the snow!

 Don't let them fool you.  Tiredest, lamest princesses in the castle!  This was at the place where Turltel Talk is.  Crush was so funny!  It was great.  Then we did a drawing class, which was super, super stressful for Xanthe, even though she did a great job.  A cast member talked to her afterward and told her that his daughter is an artist, and she used to get  

Lest you think the day was perfect, it rained heavily.  We were wet.  So it made sense to dance in the puddles, right?  The band was playing "Blame it on the Rain." ha ha!  Impressive, Disney!

Mickey Mouse was hanging out in this little alcove with no admirers!  We kept him company with our cute smiles and our autograph albums. :)

Since it was Ruby's birthday, I made her get a pic with the mouse.

Toward the end of the night, I was laughing at our plight.  Because of the rain, fe people were left.  Some of the rides had closed due to a power surge, but Dopps don't go home early, so we were gamely riding rides.  While the thers were in line for Radiator Springs, which ended up closing after they waited for 10 minutes or so, Tziporah and I rode the caterpillar around and around, all by ourselves.  Tizzy's little hands were clasped as rain dripped off her nose.  I can't even tell you how funny it was!  As we rounded the bend to get off, the ride operator told me, "Your husband is on the ride!"  We kept riding around with the rest of the kids, opposite us, until we all decided to get off and meet up.

That's when sane people would probably throw in the towel and go get a towel!  But we were just getting started.  Ruby suggested giant chocolate-covered ice cream cones at the Cone Motel for a birthday treat.  Then we sloshed back to the boardwalk to try California Screamin' again.  It had been closed, but we wanted to try it.  It was closed, so we rode the merry-go-round andround...and around until suddenly, they were leting peopl on the screamer!  Ruby and Scott almost jumped off the merry-go-round!  Long story short, they rode California Screamin' three times.  Meanwhile, Toy Story had recovered from the power surge and was opening for one last hurrah.  This was five minutes to close.  I saw a line and jumped in it.  Without Scott, I couldn't take the three kids I had with me, so I asked the woman behind me to take Xanthe.  Right in the nick of time, Scott and Ruby walked up, only to be denied access to the ride...until the guy realized Scott was with me.  At that point, they were let to the front of the line with us for the last ride of the night, on a ride that had had a 45 minute wait all day, then closed.  So nice of Disney to open it up for the last 10 minutes of the night.  Disney does it right, I tell ya.

Look at that concentration!

The two girls we celebrated. Xanthe and Ruby.  I'd say it was a pretty fun 16th birthday.  Ruby loves the kids and loves to be with them.  Although she would rather be in Europe than Anaheim, she relished every minute of the trip.

We all relished it.  Ruby's big birthday dinner turned out to be In-N-Out Burger at the Anaheim Hills Fairfield Inn.  Low key, but food never tasted so good!  Except for maybe the corn dogs we had for dinner the night before at Disneyland.  I just read back over this post and the last one, and I used way too many exclamation marks.  Oh well.  It was an exclamation mark kind of a trip.  I wish I had words to describe it, but all I have is punctuation and I say !!!!!

Last ones out

17 Hours of Disney Magic

Of course, we got to Disneyland well before the gates opened.  We had every intention of staying from opening at 8 to closing at midnight.  We were not going to leave any Disney time on the table! Ptolemy was so excited about his autograph book, he wanted the ticket taker to sign it!  He had no idea what he was in for!  (BTW, I got these Disney books at the dollar store.  Real autograph albums at Disney are a lot more.)

 Firt character, besides the ticket lady, Donald!

 These characters either need to ban autograph albums or get smaller hands.  IT was painful to watch them struggle with the pen, holding it up to their giant eyes.  Amusing, at the same time.

 We walked right into the castle where we met three princesses without waiting.  Two were so magical!  Some princesses get into character, some don't.  You would think that the lackluster princesses would get moved over to the Chip n Dale costumes, right?  I mean, there has to be some competition for princess status.  I have to say, Elsa and Anna were the worst princesses ever.  Totally just girls in costumes, minus the magic.  Tziporah even noticed!  I was so glad we didn't wait in line to see them!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Snow White was perfect!

 And so was Belle.

 After all the rides in Fantasyland, we went to a Frozen show that Scott had grabbed fast passes to.  We were on the back row of the theater, in the only spot in the blazing sun, when a cast member told us we could go sit on the floor in the front so the kids could see.  I swear, Xanthe's 10yo trip was charmed from beginning to end!  The Frozen show was a mini spoof on Frozen, and it was hilarious.

 I love Olaf!

 Sad Tziporah wanted to ride with Daddy, so I hopped off the ride and snapped photos.

 It sounds like I'm gloating, but look at those empty teacups!  The measles scare really worked in our favor!

 As luck would have it, we hit It's a Small World on the last day it was open before closing for renovations.  It was still set up with the Chirstmas decor!  Besides the insidious Small World song, (Which I love, don't get me wrong), it played Jingle Bells.  We went on it several times in the morning and several times at night.  Ruby whipped out her camera when she saw the Eiffel Tower!

 More gloating

 The mint juleps and Mickey-shaped beignets were the perfect refreshments for our lunch break in New Orleans Square.  There was a great jazz band playing, and a cast member gave all of the kids badges.  In fact, we collected several free badges over the course of the day.  New Orleans Square was way fun, and we spent a lot of time on the rides in that area.

 We also got fast passes for the show later that night.

 Food=happiness for Xanthe, so the 10yo trip had to include lots of yummy treats!

 Giving Xanthe a birthday badge.

 Waiting for the parade!  We thought we weren't going to find a seat, but a cast member opened up a new section right where we were standing 10 minutes before the parade started, and we ended up on the front row!

 Next up, Tomorrowland.  Space Mountain had quite a wait, so we got fast passes, and a stroller pass, too.  After the kids had gone on it with Scott, Xanthe was breathless with excitement.  She beged me to go on it with her, so I took Xanthe and Ruby with the stroller pass.  It was the coolest moment of the day.  I had never been on Space Mountain!  First of all, it's the coolest ride ever.  Add to that Xanthe laughing her head off in the darkness, disco music zipping us around the track.  Xanthe was so enthusiastic about it. it made the whole trip worthwhile just for that.  We decided that Disneyland was the right choice for Xanthe's trip.  Even though there are a lot of unknowns, there are parameters, unlike something like San Francisco.  At Disneyland, we could explain what was happening next, there was a map, and it was small enough for us to become somewhat familiar with, as opposed to a big city.  At every ride, Xanthe planned out whom she would ride with, who would go first, etc.  She felt pretty confident.  There were a few moments of frustration, but not many, considering we were on the go until after midnight!

 More Small World

 Tomorrowland.  This is the face that makes all the planning worth it, and we saw a lot of this face!

We had fast passes for the big fireworks show, but we were having too much fun, and we were late.  The kids couldn't see from the back of the crowd, and Scott was trying to hold Xanthe up.  Then the Xanthe Magic happened again and a cast member came up to us and led us to a roped-off area where there was room for all of us to sit down in a spot where we could see all the pyrotechnics perfectly.  The show was pretty darned amazing after that!  The grand finale was all the characters riding by on the river boat, waving, so we saw them all.  

By then, it was 10 or so, and we were thinking we might leave.  Ruby was shocked.  She said, "We would actually LEAVE when all of this was still going on without us, and we paid for it?!"  A true Dopp.  She was right!  What were we thinking!?  The last two hours were so fun!  We went on Finding Nemo with a 15-minute wait, we did all the Fantasyland rides again. that was when Star Tours and Space Mountain happened, and we decided to try to run back to the Indiana Jones ride for one last rime.  Ruby said it was her favorite ride, and she wanted to be on it when the clock struck 12 and it was her birthday.  Turned out, Ruby and I got to ride Indiana Jones three times in a row without getting off!  We could have stayed on, but it was after midnight andScott and the other kids were waiting.  It's all a blur now, but I know we were the last car out of the Mickey and Friends parking garage!  Mission accomplished!