Disneyland Day 1 - California Adventure

After wrestling babies all the way down to LA (one of the flight attendants told me that Liam's scream, which he was using in occasional outbursts, was the loudest he had heard in his 15 year career.  Thanks.), we settled into our hotel, looking forward to a fun day at California Adventure.

The first ride we went on was the Merry-Go-Round.

While Liam, Claire, and Jacob loved it,

it wasn't so merry for one of our children!  Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth, Kate!

One ride we love is the Toy Story 3 arcade.  That one has a long line, and we waited in it... with sweaty, wiggly babies!  It was fun anyway and was really the only line we waited in longer than 20 minutes.

After a few hours, Lydia, Clayton and Matt joined us.  One of the coolest parts of California Adventure was the recently opened Cars Land.

They set it up so that as you walk down the road, you feel like you're in Radiator Springs.  Pictured is the V8 Cafe, the Cozy Cone, and Monument Valley in the background.  Mater's Junkyard and Luigi's tire shop are among the other attractions.  The town lights up at night, and you can see Mater and Lightning McQueen occasionally driving down the road.

We stopped at the Cozy Cone to get a picture with Mater.

Monument Valley was really cool - it is like a large mountain-type structure that you can see from the majority of the park!  The Radiator Springs Racers ride had a 2.5 hour line for it... lucky for me that I had gotten some fast passes.  Between using 4 fast passes, 2 stroller passes (for Dani, who took Jacob for a second ride), and Matt and Lydia going through the single rider line, we were able to all ride it in 30 minutes!

Near the end of the day, we still had a few Fast Passes remaining for the Tower of Terror, which I had ridden with Matt and Lydia earlier.  Jacob debated whether or not he was going to ride.  While Dani and I sorted out the baby situation, Jacob made his way over to one of the ride attendants and was asking all about the ride.  He decided to ride, and once it was over, declared that it was "this much fun" (holding his fingers close together) "and this much scary" (holding his arms wide apart).

Some of the other highlights of the trip were Grizzly River Run, where Jacob got soaked, the new Little Mermaid ride (Claire and I ended up riding it 3 times, including once with me, both babies and Claire), the Disney Pixar parade, Clayton talking to Crush, the swings, and Goofy's Sky School.  Kate and Liam even took a nap in their stroller!  It was a busy, fun day!