Disneymania continues...

Saturday morning dawned bright and early. We were determined to get to the park the MOMENT it opened so we could race in and get Indiana Jones and Matterhorn done before we met up with everyone at California Adventure. Holy COW! We were sore, and we had a good 11 hours ahead of us.

I was a speed walking DEMON on my way to Indiana Jones, I meant business people.

Just a quick pic underground, before we loaded the cars for Indy. As a side note...I'm not the biggest fan of that ride. I can totally go to Disney and NOT do it. It's too jerky, and frankly, sort of lame. I'd rather do the mountains a few times. After Indy we raced over to Matterhorn....

I included this pic 'cause it cracked me up. Jere was trying to get us in our bobsled, and instead, mostly got my bubbies. But hey, at least you see we went on the ride. Again, could do without it, it's just OK. It was on our way to the next park that I learned that my sweet docile, never cries baby boy had basically been crying the whole time we'd been gone. I talked to Jenny D. and well, Max was not so spectacular. I felt awful about this. Sad that he was unhappy, and horrible that my kind friend was having to deal with him. UGH!

Upon finishing those rides, and a quick stop on the Alice in Wonderland ride (cute) we met up with the fam at California Adventure. They were all on their second go round of California Screamin. May I just say, THAT IS THE GREATEST ride in either park. I LOVE that coaster. Sadly, I only got to go on it once that day.

Ahhh, Shane and Dixie have graced us with their presence. Why does she have to be so beautiful in this silly little shot?

After screamin, we ran over to the new Toy Story ride. Ok, THAT is a cute and fun ride. It's an interactive arcade game, sooooo cool! We had a blast on that one.

Jere was NOT messing around here folks, he takes his arcade games very seriously.

We then took in the Alladin show, which was quite spectacular. And a nice rest for the tootsies I might add. After that we fast passed Tower of Terror. We got my Dad to go. My Dad who got sick doing Soarin over California. My Dad who does NOT like roller coasters. He came on Tower of Terror. And guess what...he liked it, he liked it a lot. So much did he like it that he turned around and went again, AND made my Mom go. Anyway, this is us just chillin in line.

Adam, Julie and Troy, me and Jenny. We were practicing our "terror" faces. But apparently Jenny missed that memo and just made a silly smile face. Oh well, the rest of us could totally win Oscars for our scared look in my opinion. And in other thoughts, I should go around looking scared all the time, my jawline looks FANTASTIC!

Sitting down in our elevator. I WISH you could have seen the pic the ride took of Jeres face, it is the freaking funniest thing EVER! He truly does hate this ride, and gets ridiculously scared. Oh man, it was almost the ridiculous FIFTEEN dollars to buy the pic. Oh well, shoulda, woulda, coulda.

After Terror we spent some time in the animation place and wandered around. Then, we stopped for a photo op. I love this picture for the sheer size factor differences. You have Jere and I, and then two tiny little stick people sort of visible behind us. Oh Dixie, how I love ya.

After eating lunch and then doing Soarin over California, Jere finally won out and got a posse together to do the river ride. As you may recall, I don't LIKE water rides, so i stood my ground and said NO. Good thing too!

THIS is what happens when you do dumb things like go on a water ride. Poor Tatum, she got the brunt of the soaking. I mean literally, not a dry spot on her. She didn't take that very well. Before the ride she'd been telling us that she had cotton candy and she got some every time she went on a ride and was brave. She LOVED Screamin, loved Tower of Terrror, big fan of space mountain, etc. So, Troy said, well I'll throw you over the raft. She said, "no you won't." And he said, "yes, yes I will, I'm gonna throw you into the water." She thought for a moment and then said, "Well, then I'll just be really brave and I'll get more cotton candy." Love that girl. Apparently, when the first big wave washed o'er her, she was no longer brave, just upset, VERY upset.

In spite of getting quite wet, all were in good spirits (minus Tatum). In fact, Dixie said it was her FAVORITE ride of the day. What a wierdo.

After the Pixar parade, Jere and Julie went back to the hotel to change into dry clothes and get our sweatshirts. It was actually chilly on Saturday evening, as opposed to the saharan hotness of Friday. Anyway, the rest of us went to do Toy Story again, Dad needed a try at it. He was successful...don't even think he wasn't a centepide or pac man DEMON in his day.

Once Jere got back, we had a delicious dinner of the famed corndogs and then headed over to get in a couple more rides before the day ended. We did Thunder Mountain again, because I love it so, and then we did Mr. Toads. Again, why? It really is so uber lame! But, jere looks cute with the Toad man.

I included this pic 'cause, well, it's pretty, and Julie took it. We were now ready for the fireworks to begin.

Amy literally sat on this bench for 4 hours to secure a spot for us to see the fireworks. This is a shot just a few minutes before they were to begin. The best part? We couldn't sit and see them, since everyone else was standing in front of us. Oh well, at least we had a good standing spot.

Some more of our crew waiting for the fireworks to start. I actually videoed the fireworks, no pics to speak of.

This would be three VERY tired and slap happy ladies after the fireworks. When they ended, Amy and Tracie headed for the hotel, then drove home. The rest of our group dispersed to shop, ride rides, or whatever. The three of us sat on that bench and laughed, giggled, talked to Andrew a VERY nice and chatty Disneyland worker and talked. Finally at 10;30 we decided we'd better go get what shopping in that we could and head out.

The time had come to say goodbye to our grand Disney adventure. After 2 LONG days, a million miles of walking, delicious dining, crazy rides, lame rides, soaking clothes, laughter and tears, we took our worn out feet, aching muscles, wilted hair and headed home. Who knows when we'll return again, but it SURE was a fun Birthday adventure. Thanks EVERYONE for coming along and making it a memorable trip.

As a parting shot. This was taken Sunday morning as we were leaving the hotel. Tatum and Dane were so proud of their Mickey ears (so was Jere for that matter), so we gathered them for a little shot. I think it turned out adorably. We left here and had a little breakfast at I-Hop (another story, another time), gassed up and hit the road.

Until next time Disney. Thanks again.