Disneyland Re-Visited (Feat. Grandma and Grandpa Cardon)

**Note to Reader: This is one LONG post. You may want to head to the bathroom, grab yourself a snack and an ice cold drink, before you settle down for this nice long snooze, er, read. Otherwise feel free to skim through the pictures!**

Last week Jonathan was required to attend the California Dental Association's (CDA) convention in Anaheim, CA as part of his AEGD residency. Originally I thought there would be no way we could go too because I did not want to wrestle kids alone at the park while he was attending class all day, but as it worked out we invited his parents to come with us and made a magical vacation out of the whole thing!

Grandma and Grandpa Cardon flew in early Wednesday morning so we swung by the airport, picked them up and headed on to Cali-for-ni-A. We made great time to our hotel (thanks to the kids being entertained in the back with grandma and grandpa) and debated whether or not to use up one of our 3 days in our park hopper passes that afternoon since we were all eager to get started, or just wait and get 3 FULL days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We opted to wait since it was already 3 p.m. and the park closed at 8 p.m. and headed instead over to Downtown Disney which seemed like a good compromise.


We played at the Lego store and admired the ENORMOUS giraffe made entirely out of legos, as well as Woody and Darth Vader.


Then we got dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which is just a fun, super kid friendly place to eat. We shared the chocolate volcano which is this humongous chocolate cake with ice cream-- and Zachy certainly enjoyed his fair share!

We headed off into the sunset and back to the hotel to rest up for an early morning wake-up call to get to the park!


Jon didn't have classes that day, so he got a whole day to vacation with us (PAID for, mind you) so he was on cloud 9. I remembered from the the month before that for some reason the "Finding Nemo" submarine ride gets busy QUICK so we hurried over to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear ride, did the submarine ride (which Zach LOVED), Space Mountain, and Autotopia. Then we headed over to Adventureland to ride the Indiana Jones ride, look at Tarzan's treehouse, do the Jungle Cruise, and ride my personal fave, Pirates of the Caribbean.

We had a reservation for lunch at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean) and enjoyed the super cool ambiance while we chowed down on monte cristo sandwiches.

By this point Zachary was out cold, so Lucy got to pick the lineup and she was begging to do the Haunted Mansion. From there we did Winnie the Pooh, Thunder Mountain RR, (Splash Mountain was STILL closed!), and all the little rides around Fantasyland since the lines were all super short.

Zachary, well-rested and ready to go again, got to go on Casey's circus choo-choo and LOVED it. He was very stoic about the whole thing, but every now and then he couldn't help but let a smile slip out.



We did some more rides around Fantasyland that Zach had missed, and then we all went and did It's a Small World. By that point we'd basically done just about all of the major sights and rides so we headed back to the hotel to relax.

Lucy and Zach got to take a quick dip in the pool with Grandpa before bed.

Friday morning we were up and at 'em in order to get to our Mickey and Pals character breakfast. I'd never done a character meal with the kids, so had no idea what to expect (and they are expensive!), but basically it was a buffet style breakfast where the characters come up to your table to meet you. They also put on little shows and skits as part of the entertainment.

Meeting Stitch! Zachary LOVED Stitch, even though he was probably the one character Zach had never seen a movie about.


Meeting Daisy Duck! Zach kept pointing at her and calling her the "Quack, quack!"

Meeting the Mouse himself!

Another hug and kiss for Stitch.

Zachary dancing along as Stitch taught them how to surf-- he totally got into the dancing and it was really cute to watch how excited he was to meet the characters!

Finally getting a hug from Pluto. We missed Minnie Mouse coming around while we were up dancing which was kind of a bummer so we don't have a picture with her.


One last picture in front of Goofy at the hotel where we had breakfast, and then on to Disneyland!





Lucy was all excited now to keep meeting famous peeps (and thought there would be princesses at breakfast, but hey, you can't please everyone!) so we headed over to the Fantasy Fair and got to meet Belle (who Lucy's a regular with now) but also two princesses she's never gotten to meet-- Tiana (from Princess and the Frog) and Ariel. She was SO excited!

Then we hopped the Disneyland RR for Zachy's sake and rode it around for awhile.

We got off to ride Peter Pan's Flight, and then did Alice in Wonderland. The kids had had kind of a rough night previous, and were hitting that point of grumpiness and all around exhaustion that takes the fun out of it, so since we wanted to stay out late for the fireworks that night we decided to head back to the hotel and take some naps.

Jonathan finished with his classes at 3:30 p.m. so he hurried and met us at the hotel and we packed up to head back over to the park. We started with the California Adventure side since this would be Jon's last time to do rides, and we did Ariel's carousel, California Screamin' (the roller coaster), the swings, and Soarin'.

We also watched the 3D Bugs movie at Flik's Fun Fair.

Once it got dark we headed back over to the Magic Kingdom and staked a spot at a little cafe where we'd be able to watch the fireworks. Even though it was a little chilly and we were out way past bedtime, the kids did GREAT.

Saturday was our final day in our park hopper passes, so we decided to finish up what we didn't see at California Adventure, starting with the 3D Muppet movie. We also did the Monster's Inc. ride and saw Aladdin at the Hyperion Theatre.

While Jon's parents did the Hollywood Tower of Terror, I took the kids on some of the kiddie rides in Flik's Fun Fair.

We got lunch, headed back over to Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours (where the crowds were AWFUL!) and did the Tiki Room and a few other rides again, and called it a day. But not before Zachary said hello to McQueen and Mater-- the pies de resistance of the day. Perhaps even the trip.

Following in his daddy's dentistry footsteps, he must have been checking Mater's teeth for a cavity.:) We thought maybe we'd head to San Diego and do Sea World since Jon didn't have to be back until Tuesday, but we were all so tired we headed home Sunday morning and have been valiantly striving to get back into our routine but with no luck. We are over-tired, over-stimulated, and over real life.:) My head is in a fog and there are about 25 loads of laundry to be done, and we all wish we were back at Disneyland. Zachary has looked at these pictures on a loop slideshow for about an hour now. He LOVED his first Disneyland experience! In fact, I'd even venture to say if we end up going next year for our 3rd year in a row I'm officially making it a tradition.:)

Tribute to our Moms: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

TO OUR MOMS and GRANDMAS:




“Most of you are mothers, and very many of you are grandmothers and even great-grandmothers. You have walked the sometimes painful, sometimes joyous path of parenthood. You have walked hand in hand with God in the great process of bringing children into the world that they might experience this estate along the road of immortality and eternal life. It has not been easy rearing a family. Most of you have had to sacrifice and skimp and labor night and day. As I think of you and your circumstances, I think of the words of Anne Campbell, who wrote as she looked upon her children:

You are the trip I did not take;

You are the pearls I cannot buy;

You are my blue Italian lake;

You are my piece of foreign sky.

(“To My Child,” quoted in Charles L. Wallis, ed., The Treasure Chest [1965], 54)

You [mothers] are the real builders of the nation wherever you live, for you have created homes of strength and peace and security. These become the very sinew of any nation.” Gordon B. Hinckley, “Women of the Church,” Ensign, Nov 1996, 67


"Many years ago the First Presidency issued a statement that has had a profound and lasting influence upon me. “Motherhood,” they wrote, “is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind. It places her who honors its holy calling and service next to the angels. Because mothers are essential to God’s great plan of happiness, their sacred work is opposed by Satan, who would destroy the family and demean the worth of women." Russell M. Nelson, “Our Sacred Duty to Honor Women,” Ensign, May 1999, 38

I don't think we can add anything more than that. Thank you, THANK YOU for being who you are. WE LOVE YOU!!

Ssssssprings Preserve!

This Saturday mommy got to pick where we went and what we'd get to do since it was Mother's Day weekend-- and I decided we'd check out Springs Preserve, which is a nature conservation area around Red Rock. They have some botanical gardens, outdoor walking trails, museum exhibits, and animal shows-- so I figured that combined with a picnic would be a perfect Saturday outing.

As soon as we got there we headed into a little theater to see some live animals, but being a few minutes late we ended up clear in the back standing. The emcee asked the audience if there were any kid volunteers who would be super brave, and Lucy immediately raised her hand really high (before I could knock it down:) because I don't know how else she was seen, and got PICKED out of like 50 people. I think I was way more nervous than she was since I HATE being in center-of-attention situations, but she hurried right up to the stage and closed her eyes, and held out her hands like this:


So they could put this HUGE snake in them. I thought when she opened her eyes she would totally freak out, but she just smiled and petted the thing. Holy moly! I know I would have PASSED. OUT. Maybe these snake charming skills will come in handy in the South where they have all those churches that feature those snakes (which determine whether you are holy or not). At least Luce would survive a sermon.


I was very proud of her for being so brave and letting it slither all over her, and for answering the lady's questions in front of everyone.

After the live snake encounter, the rest of the day was a bit anticlimactic, but we headed outside to look at the gardens and eat lunch.

We met our friends there from Jon's AEGD residency, so Lucy was glad to have a friend to play with-- and roll around with in their "carriage going to the ball."

I love the cactus around here! That is one thing we most likely will not find in the South. Jon keeps commenting on how great this spring has been without the terrible allergies he got back East with all the trees in bloom.

Zachy's favorite area was definitely digging in the sand for fossils. He could have dug out there all day. He needs a sand box!!

Lucy proudly showing off her newly discovered fossil. It was definitely a good place to spend a Saturday!