Disneyland Trip + Beaches + Choir Recording

This trip to California was kind of chosen for us. Like the trip to NY last summer, the girls' choir announced they were doing a really cool thing, and we decided that we wanted them to be part of it. Also, it was kind of a cool place to go anyway. We should probably stop letting their choir decide where we are going to vacation. Anyway, this time the choir announced that they were going to record a Christmas album from the music of their most recent Christmas concert (which was fabulous, maybe the best one I've heard). We, of course, said that we wanted our girls to help record an album. The recording concert was on President's Day and turns out it is right next to Anaheim CA. We have always felt a bit of pressure to take our kids to Disneyland. They love, LOVE rides and amusement parks. Plus it is DISNEYLAND, and my sweet, princess-loving girls had never been. I feel like I am a little morally opposed to the idea of Disneyland, mainly because it is so darn expensive to go. Also, my kids are actually pretty happy and feel lucky doing things that are much less expensive than that. Regardless, we decided that this was literally the perfect opportunity to go because we would be right there, and our three kids would be old enough, yet young enough, that it would all still be magical. 

We didn't realize though what perfect timing this would actually end up being. It turns out that this trip happened right after I got through the sickest part of pregnancy that I had ever experienced. (Love the second trimester!) And it was right before the whole world shut down because of the COVID 19 pandemic. We didn't realize at the time how lucky we were that it actually all worked out. 

As soon as I started to feel better after the new year, we started thinking pretty seriously about our kitchen renovation. We researched and researched and eventually decided to whip out a laborious cabinet painting project. That project wrapped up about two weeks before this trip, and I kind of panicked. I normally put a lot of time and research into unusual vacations that we go on. I can't even tell you how much time and effort it took to plan that trip to NY. Yet, here we were two weeks before we were leaving and I hadn't even really looked into it. All we had done was register for the recording, book an Airbnb, and bought our tickets (which aren't date specific). And the thing about Disneyland is that there are whole websites dedicated to how to do Disney. There are strategies, planners, food recommendations, tips and tricks to get the most out of your time and keep your kids happy. Honestly there is way too much information out there about how to do Disney. It is daunting. I was feeling way over my head with not very much time until we needed to go, so I turned to my best friend to happens to be a Disneyland lover and asked her for all of her advice. And she turned up for me. She explained all the things and made it seem much more doable. That being said, there were definitely some lessons we just had to learn from experience. 

On our first day in California, we woke up in our cute Airbnb, and made Eliza a fun birthday breakfast. Yes, our sweet girl turned 11 on our first day. What a cool way to spend a birthday! Then we headed over to downtown Disney (just a shopping area that you don't need a ticket to go to) to scope out the place and do a little shopping (who's got time for that when we are rushing around to do rides??). 

Unsurprisingly, there were lots of Disney themed stores, and they all seemed over price. We did end up finding a cute Disneyland ornament that we needed to get for our Christmas tree. Shopping--check.

Beautiful birthday girl with her birthday dress. She doesn't have 11 fingers, so she just did a 1 and a 1. I am a little in denial that she is actually getting that old.

Then it was time to rush to get to the recording. They recorded in the Segerstrom Concert Hall. We couldn't actually go in with them. From what they said, it was interesting and boring. Lots of waiting, but also interesting to be a part of. It took them way longer than what we were told to anticipate, so picking them up was a bit of a circus. We eventually did though. 

Then it was time to hit Newport Beach. It was a fun beach, although a bit chilly since we only made it there in the late afternoon. 

Thank goodness for wet suits and boogie boards. They still had a great time. Unfortunately they stayed in the water a little too long and definitely got a little overly cold, especially on toes.

It was later than we would have liked by the time we made it back. We stopped at Costco to get a pizza for the birthday girl. Then we did presents and treats, and made it to bed a little late.

Unfortunately that late night corresponded with getting up at the crack of dawn the next day to make it to Disneyland before it opened. Not only before it opened, but early enough that we could take advantage of our 'early morning.' Once again, it is something we had to figure out. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the parking structure doesn't actually open early enough to make it to magic morning. So we rushed to get there, waited in our car for a while so we could park, got a pretty awesome parking spot because we were so early, rushed to get to security, rushed to get to the tram, took the tram to the downtown Disney area, found the correct line to get into magic morning, and then maybe had 15 minutes of being there 'early' to catch a couple rides before the lines got long. Haha, it definitely felt like burn. It took us more than an hour by the time we arrived to actually get into the park. Oh well. Maybe there is a better place to park, but we certainly weren't able to figure it out. A better idea would have been to take an Uber there and back, since parking is $25 a day anyway. Live and learn.
Well, we eventually made it. We grabbed our first time badges and rushed to find some rides. They rode Matterhorn and we got fast passes for another ride and jumped in line for the Peter Pan. Fast passes, that was another learning curve that took a little figuring out even though we thought we were pretty well prepared. Basically, you use your ticket to reserve a designated time to ride, but you can only use them so often and the popular rides run out of fast passes earlier in the day. For example, our Space Mountain fast pass that I reserved in the afternoon ended up being for 10:45pm.

And because I am pregnant and can't ride very many rides (anything that spins, drops, or jerks in anyway is a no no), I was the facilitator. I essentially ran around with Holland getting fast passes reserved and going on little rides with her. Holland couldn't go on a lot of rides too because of height restrictions. And since basically anything with a height restriction meant there were a reason I couldn't go on it, we were good buddies for each other.
It was fun though when we actually could go on a ride together as a family. Peter Pan and It's a Small World that morning was a fun way to start.

The older kids and John went on as many rides as they could. Matterhorn, Big Thunder Railroad, Splash Mountain, and other exciting ones. The Indiana Jones ride was the only one that got to be a little too much for them in Disneyland. I guess it was more the creepy factor than anything else.
Holland and I had a ton of fun going on all the storytelling rides. We went on the Jungle Cruise, where they told so many punny jokes that I loved.

The least favorite storytelling ride was Pinocchio. Holland doesn't really know that story so it was a little creepy. Honestly it is a little creepy even if you know the story. Not a favorite.

Daddy and the big girls enjoying the rollar coasters. :) Because Holland and I couldn't use our fast passes (they don't have those on any smaller rides), they were able to get a little more out of the fast pass experience.

I think I even caught this picture of them riding Big Thunder. :) 

Holland and I also watched a really funny rendition of Beauty and the Beast at the little theater right by Sleeping Beauty's Castle. 

Our favorite story telling ride at Disneyland though was the Winnie the Pooh ride. We rode that several times, not even in a row. She just kept wanting to come back to it. 

Daddy and the girls even came with us once. :) 

After we met some characters! These were the first characters that we met, and it was super cute. Holland then wanted to put a priority on meeting characters for the rest of the time.

Of course we had to meet our favorite, Tinkerbell! It was pretty cute. I love how happy they are with the kids even though they have to do it for so long.

Then we moved to a different area of the park called Tomorrow land. Holland and I went on the Finding Nemo submarines. It really went down into the water and sailed around the little lake. Pretty cool.

Meanwhile the older girls and Daddy went on a fun car driving ride. I ended up waiting for them quite a while that afternoon. In retrospect I should have found something else to do instead of just sit and wait, but Holland went with him for part of it. So it felt lame to do something just by myself. Haha, the next day I figured out that those times are the perfect to go buy myself a yummy treat. :)

After Tomorrowland, we headed up to Toon Town, which was super darling. Holland really wanted to meet Mickey Mouse, so we waited through his house until we got to meet him.

I just thought that everything in Toon Town was really cute. Here is a picture of some of the background scenery and Mickey's house and car.

The Gadget's Go Coaster was really fun, they told me, very fast and short. 

Then we tried to take a family selfie in the treehouse with the pretty light. Ha, that is easier said than done with 3 silly kiddos. 

Then it was time to head up to Star Wars Land. Oh boy, Star Wars land is a whole thing. First there is a brand new Stars Wars ride called, Rise of the Resistance. It had just opened a few weeks before so there was a huge demand to go on it. How they managed it was right at opening you have to click a link in the app called "Join a boarding group." But you don't just click a link. You have to set an alarm for a minute or two ahead. Then immediately when it turn 8 o'clock you click on the link and see if you happened to be assigned to a group. They only guarantee that the first 75 groups or so will get on in one day. Apparently the ride breaks down a lot?? That seems concerning. Well, our first day there John had the app open, clicked immediately and got assigned group 122 or something. We didn't think they could get on because it was such a high number, but to our surprise they actually got to his boarding group! This was good because even though he did the same process the other two days we were in the park, it didn't work. The second day he wasn't even assigned a boarding group number and the last day he actually got assigned a lower boarding group number but they just didn't make it to that number that day. So we felt pretty lucky that he was able to get on that first day. He LOVED it. There was another Stars Wars ride about the Millennium Falcon that was still fun but wasn't nearly as cool. And the whole area of Star Wars land was pretty fantastic, and I am not even that much of a Star Wars fan. It looked just like some of the sets from the movies.

While the older girls and John rode that ride, it took awhile, we had a snack and watched the storm troopers with Darth Vader. Holland had good instincts and did not like him one bit. 

Rise of the Resistance was mind-blowing! Me and the big girls loved it (Miriam was nervous at first, but eventually had fun - I think). You go through several rooms where it feels like you are participating in a real Star Wars movie, which includes rows of Storm Troopers standing at attention, ready to blast you to pieces. Then you are put in a car that zooms through several rooms where you escape fire, pass below humongous AT-AT's, and eventually drop out of the Star Destroyer and fly to the planet and escape. The whole thing is incredibly well done and everything is life-sized! Takes 15-20 minutes to go through. It was awesome!

After Rise of the Resistance we headed to Adventureland again. We hit Tarzan's Treehouse, which was kind of fun at night. Then we had to get in a couple of more rides. We didn't buy the MaxPass where you get free photos and fast passes on the app, so we just had to take a picture of the picture. This one made Daddy look particularly silly, which everyone excessively enjoyed.

After that it was time to get dinner. Our Mary Poppins loving family had to try the Jolly Holiday Cafe. We found some very delicious tomato soup and yummy salads and sandwiches. I also got some hot cocoa because I just wanted some. :) After dinner, it was fireworks time. This was at 9pm so we had been in the area for approaching 15 hours. Holland fell asleep in the stroller just in time for the fireworks, which was just fine. The fireworks were lots of fun. The music was loud! I was really surprised that Holland slept through it. Because we had just had dinner, Holland was sleeping, the lines were shorter because it was later, we decided that we were going to stay awhile longer to enjoy some more rides. They rode another (older) Star Wars ride, Astroblasters, and maybe a couple of other ones.

By then, it was time to catch the late, late fast pass to Space Mountain. I guess I didn't remember how intense that one is because Miri girl got pretty nervous in it. I had to chuckle at this picture of her on the ride. :) 

We called it quits right as the park was closing. Holland had slept that whole time (the pic in front of the lit up castle was from earlier in the night), and the rest of us were exhausted. I had just found a bench in a store where it was warmer and out of the breeze, so Holland could rest a little more comfortably. The bench was nice for me too. My feet were tired! We made it back through the park, took the tram to parking garage, and back up to the car. Whew! It was a long, long day, but a ton of fun.

One thing we knew for sure though was that we couldn't put in two extremely long days like that in row. We were so, so tired. So thankfully we were able to adapt our itinerary. Our intial plan was to be in California starting a Sunday evening and leaving the following Saturday. We would do Monday at the recording and beach, Tuesday and Wednesday at the park, Thursday at the beach again to have a rest day, and Friday as our final day at the park, then drive home on Saturday. (The Disney tickets are not day specific, you just have to use them within two weeks of your initial day.) We revised our plan to have a rest day between each of the days at the park, which was absolutely essential since we wanted to put in those long, long days and get the most time for our money. Even though we stayed for the same long hours on the subsequent days, that first day was the most exhausting for sure. Thankfully, we could just go home on Sunday, and to make it even easier the Airbnb where we were staying didn't have another booking so we could just pay for an extra night and just stay there. Totally lucky! 

On that Wednesday, we slept in and tried to move as little as possible. :) We did do a Target run and grabbed a couple of necessary things and a couple of fun things. One fun thing that we purchased for our extra day on vacation was a new board game. We got Ticket to Ride, Europe. It was a good purchase--everyone really likes it!

Eventually we made it to Huntington Beach, where we were more cautious about being cold, but still enjoyed the surf and sand a whole lot. 

After Holland saw me writing in the sand with a stick she had to join in on the fun. 

This was at the really cute phase of her writing, where she can write any given letter, but still gets mixed up on some. We got a lot of adorable little notes that said, "I love yoy." :) The sand was no different.

Then the other girls wanted to write their names in the sand too. The only problem was that the baby doesn't have a name yet. We need to decide that sometime! Huntington beach was a little bit easier to go to even though it was more expensive. It was a state park so we had to pay a daily fee that seemed a little steep. However, they had plenty of parking, fewer people, a spiget for rinsing off, and bathrooms. Totally worth it.

After heading to bed early, we woke up early again this time with California Adventure as our destination. This was such a fun day! We got there with plenty of time to spare because the "magic morning" was at the Disney side again. We were the actually at the rope and waited for rope drop. It's exciting. :)

The most popular ride at California Adventure was Radiator Springs Racers in Carsland, which everyone loved! The older girls and John went there first and hardly had a wait time at all. Then it was off to the roller coaster. It is a legit roller coaster, the Incredicoaster, which looked way too intense for Miriam, but Eliza ate it up! John and Eliza rode it two times in a row, which made John just a little motion sick.

He was happy to do it though because Eliza was so excited. The day before she used some birthday money to purchase this cute Disney hat at Target. Turns out it is way cheaper to buy something like that from a store than at the park.

There were some other cute rides in Carsland. Right before the trip we made the girls watch the movie Cars for the first time. I am so glad that we did that. It really made all of Carsland about 100x cooler because they had seen it. Unfortunately for me all of those rides were spinny, so they were a no go for me. I have enough nausea in my life without adding motion sickness. 

The Luigi ride was darling. They ride all over and then dance in formation with the cars. 

Picture with Mater.

Still trying to get that family selfie.

While Daddy and Ellie were doing the Incredicoaster, I took Miriam and Holland on the Mickey Mouse Ferriswheel. It goes up pretty high. Miriam was so nervous at first. She just kept her head on my lap and told me to talk to her about other things to distract her from how high we were. After we got about 3/4 the way up though, she calmed down and started to enjoy it a lot. In fact, it was probably one of her favorite rides. 

Looking out towards Disneyland in the distance and the Ariel ride in front.

I wish I had gone on the jumping jellyfish ride. I wasn't supposed to ride anything with drops, but it looked pretty gentle. I though the design was really cute.

There is even a normal carousel that Holland loved.   

Another favorite ride was the swings ride. I think Holland said that it was her favorite ride out of both parks.

Eventually Holland decided that what she really wanted to do was go meet more characters. Of course her top characters were Anna and Elsa. They were pretty sweet with her even if they don't look that happy in the pictures. 

Holland was happy enough for all three. 

Holland was almost as excited to meet to meet Elastigirl as she was to meet Anna and Elsa. Incredibles 1 and 2 are popular at our house. Plus, Holland is pretty obsessed with superheros and their various powers, specifically the powers she pretends to have.
One fun, relaxing activity in the middle of the day was to go see the Frozen play. They did such a good job with it! There were people essentially controlling Olaf and Sven puppets (that were huge). They added a couple of minor castle staff characters which I felt added to story. Then, it is just fun to see them adapt an animated film to the stage. We all loved it. It also helped add to the positive experience that it was inside, sitting down, in the a/c, with good seats. All good.

After that, Holland really wanted to...meet more characters! We were able to catch Minnie Mouse and it was about the cutest thing ever. I do have to wonder at all the different costumes that Minnie and Mickey were in. I wonder why they didn't just have the tradition clothes on? 

After waiting in the sun to meet Minnie, Holland and I were ready for a cold treat. We had heard good things about the Ghiradelli ice cream store, so we got a shake. It was fine, but not outstanding. We met up at Flo's cafe enjoyed the shake in the shade.  

Carsland looks just like the movie--so fun!

One ride that Holland and I rode a lot was the Ariel ride. It's a storytelling ride that goes through the story of the movie. It was pretty cute.

We even rode it once with the other guys! 

We took them on the ferris wheel as well. 

The light was pretty in the evening. 

We enjoyed the lights coming up all through the park. Then we hit my favorite ride of the day, Soarin. I don't have a picture of it, but it was great. It took us through famous places all over the world while flying, smelling things, and having the 4D experience.

After Soarin was dinner and the World of Color show. We got burgers and fries from a grill by Soarin and ate while we waited for the show to begin. The burgers were a-mazing. 

Then the World of Color show was so fun. It was done all with music, fountains, and projecting pictures on the mist from the water. It lasted a little more than 20 minutes, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

After the World of Color show ended, California Adventure closed for the day. We had to stop and get a picture of Carsland though with all the lights though.

By the time we walked to the exit, Holland was asleep. Since we had the hopper pass, we went over to Disneyland to enjoy a few more hours of late evening riding. 

I watched the fireworks show again while the older girls and John rode the Millennium Falcon ride. Then we joined up to go over to Fantasyland and hit some of the littler rides, whose lines never really die down during the day, but at night there are fewer small kids there. 

We rode the Teacups, Dumbo, Storyboats, and others. Storyboats was darling.

We left when the park closed after another long, long day of being the parks. This day was less exhausting than the first though. Maybe it was having the Frozen show in the middle of the day, having a rest day the day before, or just not being as stressed from not knowing how to do Disneyland? But we were glad for the less exhausting, yet completely full, long day. 

The next day we got some equipment to hopefully help protect against the rain projected in the parks the following day. I read a lot of stuff about how to deal with rain there. We also hit Huntington Beach again because it was so nice. We enjoyed the rest day with that bit of shopping, game time, rest time, and beach time. 

Because this was our third day in the parks, we knew a little better what we wanted to do and how to do it. We each had picked a couple of rides that we for sure wanted to do. This meant that John and the girls started the day at California Adventure, while Holland and I waited to get into Disneyland. There was a bit of a pickle when Holland's ticket never got scanned in either entrance and Miriam's ticket was scanned twice. I had the paper tickets, and John had the digital ones on his phone. This ended up being a bit of a headache and I had to talk to several different people after those waiting in those respective lines. Eventually an admission gate person begrudgingly scanned the ticket for me after giving me a bit of lecture. It's fine, but it wasn't the most pleasant way to start the day. The problem with not having her ticket scanned was that we couldn't use that ticket to get fast passes. So we really needed to get that fixed to make the most of the day. Thankfully it worked out in the end. 

After doing a ride or two in California Adventure, John and the girls came over to Disneyland to join us. We ended up seeing Mary Poppins and Bert but not at the same time. Holland atypically got super shy meeting these characters, but my older, Mary Poppins loving girls, loved running into them.

Holland's highest priority rides for the day were Pirates of the Caribbean and the Swings ride over in DCA. So the two of us hit Pirates first thing. 

I am surprised at how big some of these rides are. Physically they seem to take up a lot of real estate. Pirates is kind of a long ride and you go a ways. This ship that is shooting cannon ball and is also getting fired on is surprisingly huge. 

The messages in Pirates of the Caribbean are not necessarily what I want my girls to internalize, but it was a fun ride with fake fire, gunshots, running around, skeletons, and treasure. It was exciting. The best part to me was that there are two little drops right at the beginning that get you a little wet. The best part is that it is pitch black so you can't see them coming. I am actually surprised that there aren't any safety belts or anything in the little boats. I had to kind of prop my foot against the seat in front of us to support mine and Holland's weight.

One of my highest priority rides was riding the Storybook Boats again but this time in the lights. I love the little houses, silly puns from the guide, and all the detail in these scenes.

We tried to use this time to get a family picture, but it is hard to smile normally on command, even ask Holland. 

Holland's smile in this one was particularly funny to me. Although, Miriam and John aren't looking either. It's fine.

A couple of other top priorities: Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. We learned the hard way the previous day to get a fast pass to Space Mountain early, which we did. Since Miriam has a hard time keeping her head up and eyes open during more intense rides, John bribed her with the promise of a churro if she could do it. Here is the photographic evidence. She did it!

And here is the promised reward! It started to rain a little, so we put on the ponchos. It didn't end up  lasting very long. Also, churros are delicious. I had never had one before and didn't realize that they were soft and chewy on the inside. Yummy treat!

After a few more rides we spent some time meeting princesses. 

It was very exciting, especially if you're four. 

We watched the silly retelling of Rapunzel. One favorite moment was when they talked about theatrical representation for different objects. Boats, her long hair--it was pretty funny to our kiddos.

After we watched the play and met the Princesses, we crossed to DCA. The kiddos wanted to check out the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. We saw Chip and Dale, who our kids probably didn't know were characters. There were lots of fun rope paths to climb around on. 

One particular favorite was the tire zip line. Ellie said this made her more nervous than any of the rides because she had to hang on herself. They both definitely enjoyed it though.

After the challenge trail, John and the girls went on Grizzly River Run again. I took a zillion two second videos to catch them going down the drop. I couldn't tell who was in the boat until after they came down, but eventually we caught them on camera.

The Jumping Jellyfish ride is so cute!

While John and Ellie hit the Incredicoaster again, I took Holland and Miriam to the Disney Jr. dance party. It was pretty cute, but I am so glad I took Miriam too. I think they both had a lot of fun especially because they had a buddy to be with. During the different songs fun things were released from the ceiling, like bubbles, tissue paper leaves, and fake snow. They loved it. And knowing my kiddos at all, they had to try to collect the things that fell.

My other top priority ride was Soarin' Around the World. It is a fun ride that our whole family could go on! I love Ellie and John's giant smiles in this picture from the Incredicoaster.

After a bit more time at DCA we headed back to Disneyland. We actually got a family picture at the entrance that worked out! I think by this time we had hit everyone's top rides. John's were Guardian's of the Galaxy and Radiator Springs Racers. Mine were Storybook Boats and Soarin' Around the World. Eliza's were Incredicoaster and Splash Mountain. Miriam's were Soarin' and Space Mountain. Holland's were Pirates of the Caribbean and Silly Symphony Swings. 

We hit some other rides too. When we got on the Monkey Train it started to downpour out of nowhere. Thankfully we grabbed our ponchos quickly so there we didn't get too wet. The only problem was that our stroller got soaked, which was unfortunate because we had bought a cover for it special, but in that moment just forgot to put it on. It wasn't supposed to rain in the afternoon evening, just in the morning. I used a lot of paper towels in a nearby bathroom to kind of sponge dry the stroller. It wasn't perfect, but it was okay. 

That evening we ate a delicious meal over in Adventure land. I don't really remember what everyone else ate, but my fish sandwich was spot on fabulous. After dinner we went to nearby evening show, Fantasmic. It was awesome. One of the best parts was when this huge Pirate ship sailed right by us! It was so giant in person. 

There were also other fun effects, like fountains, fire, songs, and lights. This is Aladdin and Jasmine on their magic carpet.

We liked the rafts that came by with the dancing princesses and princes on them. 

We wised up that day and got a locker. This was helpful because we packed a blanket for Holland to use that evening. The warm blanket swaddled her and once again she fell asleep during the fireworks. These pictures were only taken a couple of minutes apart. She looks pretty happy and cozy, and then she totally zonked out.

We ended up loving our trip to Disneyland, but were so glad that we added an extra rest day in between every park day. It ended up being the perfect time to go because I wasn't as pregnancy sick, and it was right before Covid19 hit. It was kind of a miracle that no one even got sick after the trip. I was surprised because we all touched a zillion things, but apparently being extra careful with washing hands and hand sanitizer paid off. We drove home the next day without incident. It was a wonderful trip full of lasting memories with our family.