Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Joshua's Birthday at Disneyland

We had a blast celebrating Joshua's actual birthday at Disneyland on Sunday & Monday. We woke up the kids to spill the news but intead of being super excited they were more dazed & confused by our secret surprise. It took awhile to sink in.
We left at 5am & got there at 10am & headed to California Adventure 1st. We thought it would be less crowded than Disneyland. I can't say how busy it was at DL but there is no "bad economy" in Anaheim. Our Disney stock is doing fine (all 2 shares). We still like the Fall for weather & crowd level. We enjoy the rides over & over again but none of them are worth 90 minute waits. We got done what we could before heading back to the motel to get our room & ordered in pizza. The kids got to use the pool for a short time,we ate, changed clothes, & headed back to try Disneyland.
Around 8:30pm we didn't experience our 1st earthquake. Apparently when you are on a ride such as the Matterhorn you don't feel it. We got off & headed to Frontierland wondering why we didn't hear anyone on Big Thunder Mountain. We saw people being turned away so made our way to Pirates without asking what the trouble was. Pirates is closed too. Hmmmm.....that's when we ask what's going on. Just a 4.7 earthquake that we never felt. Every ride gets closed to reset & go through safety checks. We decide to wait in line for Haunted Mansion for when rides open again. Lots of people start giving up & leaving after 15 minutes so we move up to the front of the line. It took about 40 minutes before rides were going again except for Indiana Jones which almost always has closures even on non-earthquake days. It was still closed the next morning.
We got a lot done Monday morning. We planned lunch at the Golden Horseshoe so we could watch Billy Hill & the Hillbillies & have their ginormous (is that spelled correctly, Belinda?) chocolate cake to share for Joshua's b-day. We got a good laugh on the Jungle Safari. As they were loading the boat the skipper asked who was from out of town. Todd raises his hand. Skipper asks "where are you from?". Todd says "Phoenix". Skipper says "yeah, I could tell from all that Pittsburgh attire" (Penguins shirt & Steelers hat).We had some more to do back at California Adventure. We had to still get Grizzly River Run in & a couple more do-overs. We got those done & went back to DL for dinner & to finish up the night there.
Our first ride of the trip was Mickey's Fun Wheel (formally the Sun Wheel). My last ride was Pirates. Todd & the kids' last ride was Splash Mountain. I sent them to squeeze in one more ride while I went to buy a frame before closing. I still needed a frame for the artwork I got on the last trip but I didn't want to bring it on rides so it was the last thing I did before we left.
We got home around 2:45 this morning. I had to work today but at least I still had those fresh memories rolling around in my head. Hannah had her last practice at theater tonight before the Showcase on Friday. We're all tired but happy. Well, Hannah's still sad but that happens every trip. I know how she feels. I hate coming back to reality too. Scroll down to see a few pictures.

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