Day 4 and the rest of our vacation

I was a lucky girl and was able to celebrate my birthday on our last day.  I figured there wouldn't be a better place to celebrate so when we were looking at the calendar and planning when to go, I purposefully planned to be there when I turned 32.  I've had lots of great birthdays, but this one was probably up there at the top!  I proudly wore my birthday badge all over both parks.

Before we left for the park on this day we wrote down each of the kids top 5 rides and our plan was to try to get to all the favorites.  Molly's Top 5: California Screamin, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Pirates, and Indiana Jones.  Stockton's Top 5: Toy Story Mania, Radiator Springs Racers, swings, rockets (either Astro Orbiter or Golden Zephyr), and Jumpin' Jellyfish.  Brynn only named two favorites: Ariel and the merry-go-round.  I was a little worried that four days would be too much for the kids but I was so glad that we decided on going this extra day because the kids were able to go back and re-visit their favorites.  It was just such an enjoyable day.

We started our day in California Adventure.  We began by splitting up: Justin took Brynn to get Fastpasses for Radiator Springs while the rest of us went right to Toy Story Mania.  This was one of the longer lines and we learned that the first ride of the day was always a short line.  We were right again-practically no line for this one.  Justin took Brynn on the Ariel ride while we were doing that.  Somehow after that we crossed paths...probably walked right by each other because we ended up on opposite ends of the pier.  My group did the Golden Zephyr and then Molly and I rode Goofy's Sky School while Stocky rode Jumpin' Jellyfish with Grandma.

Justin and Brynn rode the Carousel and then came to find us.  They found Jessie first.

 

When we finally met up, we did a switch.  Molly went with Justin and Grandma on Goofy's Sky School again and Stockton rode the Golden Zephyr again with Grandpa (he really, really liked that ride and there was never any line so he got to do it lots).  Before we left that area we rode the swings-me and Molly and Grandma and Stockton.

We really wanted to ride California Screamin while we were there, but it was closed due to some early-morning rain.  So we left the pier and went to the Tower of Terror.  My dad had done the Tower of Terror a few years before when my whole family went to Disneyland and he was pretty certain that he didn't want to do it again.  But all Molly had to say was, "I wish Grandpa would go with me," and he decided to come with us.

We're on the back row-you can't see Molly but my dad has his hands up and seems to be having a good time.

When we got off of that, we immediately went over to the Grizzly River Run.  We had thought that we might see some rain that day so we had packed some ponchos.  Well, we never got rain but the ponchos came in handy for the River Run.

We did the ride once but as we were nearing the spot to exit there was no one waiting to get on, so we were able to ride it twice in a row without getting out.  Sweet!

The UP characters hang around the River Run area.  We saw Dug.

My mom was a good sport through all of this and kept Stockton and Brynn entertained.  They did the Ariel ride again (good thing Brynn loved this ride, she rode it a lot, pretty much anytime someone went on a ride she was too small for), a couple rides in Bug's Land, and the Mater ride in Car's Land.

When we all got back together we went to Radiator Springs Racers for one last ride.  Between all the Fastpasses and the stroller passes both Molly and Stockton were able to ride it twice, first with Grandma and Grandpa and then with Justin and I. 

We ran back to California Screamin to see if it had opened yet.  It had!  Again, Molly was able to ride it twice, the second time it was just the two of us that did it while the others went to find some lunch.  Look at her getting all brave and putting her hands in the air.

Since it was my birthday, I treated myself to a lunch from the park (we had been packing our lunches in to save some money and we were getting a little sick of our sandwiches).  I enjoyed every bite of my delicious gyro and then took Stocky to Toy Story Mania and used up our one last stroller pass.

The girls were anxious to pick out their toys so we stopped at one of the gift shops on our way out of California Adventure and let them pick their toys.  Molly already knew she wanted a Jessie doll and Brynn ended up getting a Cinderella baby doll.  Stockton was feeling sad because he picked his toy a couple days earlier.  We were sitting on a bench outside the gift shop and he was crying because he didn't have anything and up walked "Officer Blue."  He was so funny and so good with the kids and Stockton forgot all about being sad.  He wrote each of them a "Official Good Behavior Citation."  Molly was ticketed for an "arresting expression of emancipated exuberance" and Brynn got hers for an "infectious display of municipal optimism."  Stockton got written up for "promising to behave."  I don't think any of the kids had a clue what he was talking about, but it was a fun distraction anyway!

 

When we were all done looking at the toys, we said good-bye to California Adventure and headed over to Disneyland for the rest of the day.  But, wow, what a fun place!  I was so glad that we had more time this trip to explore this park because it really is such a blast.  We had a great time and some of our favorite rides were there.

When we got to Disneyland we went to Pirates first.  Before we got there, we met Daisy Duck.

 

And took a couple more pictures at an iconic Disneyland spot.

Molly ended up going with just Grandma and Grandpa on Pirates since Stockton and Brynn really didn't want to ride it again, and we didn't feel like pushing them to.  Justin and I started walking them over to Winnie the Pooh but halfway there realized that they had both fallen asleep in the stroller.

We just found a bench near the exit of Pirates and waited.  Justin called his work and got all caught up and I enjoyed some people-watching.  

When they were done we used some Fastpasses for Indiana Jones and while Molly was going a second time with Grandma and Grandpa Justin ran ahead to get Fastpasses for Space Mountain.  There was a wait for that so Justin and Molly did Star Tours again and then Justin, Grandma, and Molly rode the Matterhorn because we were there and the line was short.  

Stockton was still feeling bad about not getting a toy this day so I gave in and let him pick a little Buzz.  (His Buzz gun cost less than the girl's dolls so it ending up being even anyway.)  

We switched and jumped back on the Matterhorn while Grandma and Brynn did some tea cups.  Stockton had been too busy playing with Buzz but then decided he wanted to ride the tea cups too so we did them again.  Buzz came with us.

Dumbo was probably the one ride that we hadn't done, mostly because we just didn't want to wait for that one when we had already done similar rides, but we decided to just do it.  The line was short anyway.  Of course, Stocky loved it.
 
The only sad part about the day was that Space Mountain closed before we could use our Fastpass so we never got a chance to ride it again.  Molly was bummed that she didn't get to do all the rides in her Top 5 but she recognized that she had been able to do some other rides that weren't on her list.  Everyone was getting pretty tired anyway, after 4 straight days at Disneyland!  We decided to have dinner and call it a night.  We chose a little outdoor cafe at the end of Main Street and were able to relax and have a nice meal (birthday dinner for me) and watch the parade a second time.

We watched the parade almost in its entirety but tried to beat the crowd and left a little early.  Here is our last view of Main Street.  Bye bye Disneyland!!

My mom and dad were nice and got me a birthday cake.  They even brought some candles, although my mom got confused and bought candles that read 34.  I'm not that old for a couple more years, so she tried to carve a 2 into the back of the 4.  It didn't work that well and that is why I am laughing.  It's the thought that counts, right?

We had such a good time and it was hard to get home and get back into the routine of everyday life.  We had planned and talked about this trip for so long...I definitely had the after-vacation blues for a few days!  But we had so much fun and made so many great memories.  We picked such a great time to go...the lines were short and the weather was beautiful.  We thought that we'd get some rain but the forecast was wrong and it was sunny and nice each and every day.  We woke up on the day we left and this is what the view from our window looked like:

So we really did time it just right!

We spent the majority of Friday driving to St. George and then we drove the rest of the way on Saturday morning and were home by early afternoon.  That gave me the rest of the day to do laundry and mourn the end of our vacation.  

One last picture.  Justin promised Molly a giant sucker for the drive home.  She and Stockton sucked on it for a long time and barely made a dent in it.  I actually still have in it my cupboard downstairs.  I think it's time to throw it out!

 

We already miss Disneyland.  The kids talk about their favorite rides often and I've even caught them playing "Disneyland."  A couple weeks ago, I watched Stockton take Brynn's hand, lead her over to an imaginary ride, and say "Watch your step" while he helped her get on.  It was really cute.  Our kids did great the whole time, they were all at perfect ages to truly enjoy the magic of Disneyland.  We don't know when we'll get to go back but we were so glad we took the chance and went when we did!