California - Day 2

Finally, on to day two of our fun vacation!!!

When we were talking to the kids about what we were going to do and see in California, Russell said he wanted to see horses. Brian remembered that Disneyland had horses that pull around the little buggies or carts, so he told Russell he WOULD get to see a horse. Sure enough, at the end of Main Street, there was the horse. We took a picture just for Russell.

One of Grandma Nancy's favorite rides is It's a Small World, so this was the day to ride it. They've made some updates and added some special Disney touches. I thought it was cute. Zack was complaining about this "thrilling" ride before we even got to the line. And Brian... well, a picture is worth a thousand words...

After we got off of the ride, the clock went off. We couldn't remember seeing this before- it was pretty cool. It made a pretty chime, popped out the time, and then all the characters came out and twirled around. I liked it- what a great unexpected surprise.

Today we went through Sleeping Beauty's castle. We didn't even know this was here or that you could walk through it. After we came out, Zack and Russell climbed on a low castle ledge and posed for a picture. These are some good looking boys, right?

Dani thought it was hilarious to go around snapping surprise shots of all of us. Since I don't want to be accused of editing out all the pictures of me, and so we don't waste all of Dani's diligent efforts--- here's a SUPER (ha ha) shot of me. Thanks Dani. (P.S. I know where you sleep.)

We all rode the Snow White ride, and Brian was lucky enough to get the car named after his favorite dwarf. (You can also find said dwarf in the background of the picture.) As an added bonus, the look on Brian's face is, well, how could you describe it? Sneezy?- no. Happy?- not really. Dopey?- well, I think I'll use my Ask the Audience option here.

Only teasing hon- I love you!

Our troop of seven headed over to California Adventure Park for an awesome Disney/Pixar parade. This was one of the really hot days. It was 1040 or 94o. I can't remember which day was which- the heat must have clouded my memory. In Idaho we had snow just the week before, so this was a HUGE shock to the system. Even the natives were amazed at the immense heat wave. THEY were complaining. Not to worry though, one Californian calmly said to me, "It usually gets really hot like this right before an earthquake." Ooohhhh. Now I feel MUCH better. Anyway- the heat was hard to enjoy, but the parade wasn't. It was great!

To start the parade was none other than LIGHTNING McQUEEN!!! Russell thought it was "awesome" that Lightning was really driving and looking at him.

We saw characters from "The Incredibles." Here's Mr. Incredible and Mr. Freeze.

Their Costumes- hot (as in sweaty). Their Rides- Sweet (as in where can I get my OWN personal hovercraft?).

Then there were these guys with these incredible shoe contraptions. They were like super powered mini pogo sticks for each foot. These guys got some serious air! They were doing all sorts of acrobatic stunts. Wow- talk about a fun job!

Next came the characters from FINDING NEMO. Squirt (the little turtle) swam right down in front of Russell and kind of surprised him. So much fun!

We also saw Sully (AKA: Kitty) and the one eyed Mike Wyzowski. Yeah, I'm totally guessing on the spelling there.

Russell especially liked seeing the TOY STORY characters. Woody and Jessie waved and squirted water.

And here's BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!!! The bubble machines started blowing bubbles everywhere while Buzz went by. Super fun for all of us!

Bringing up the rear was, who else- MATER. As in TOW MATER. It was amazing to see all the characters. They are just like they are in the movie. It was worth watching in the heat. Very cool- well, you know what I mean.
While we were in CA Adventure, we headed over to the Monsters Inc. ride. Russell rode with his Daddy. What a cutie! And Russell's pretty adorable too. (he he)

At the end of the ride they have a bigger car you can take pictures with. We all piled in.

Here's Russell posing in front of Boo's door. Again, just like in the movie.

Later on we made our way back to Disneyland and Brian, Dani, and Zack rode the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. Each car has cool laser guns attached and you go through the ride trying to hit targets to defeat the evil emperor ZURG. After the ride, you can email yourself a picture of you on the ride. Here's Dani and Brian. (In Dani's defense- the first time we all rode this, she scored WAY higher than any of the rest of us.)

And here's Zack. Way to go Space Rangers!!!

Brian really wanted to watch the fireworks from inside the park, so Dani, Zack, Chris and I all joined him for the show. Grandma and Russell headed back to the hotel to watch from there. It was a truly amazing show. Tons of awesome fireworks. It could go from very dark night, to as bright as mid day in no time at all. We even got to see Tinkerbell fly in the nighttime sky. Yeah, that was cool!

Well, that's the summary of day 2. I'll try to be quicker about getting day 3 posted. It's a really good one- ZACK's BIRTHDAY!!!