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