Disneyland Day 2

Our second day started with an early morning magic hour at California Adventure.  Another big perk to staying at a Disney hotel is that you get access to one of the parks an hour before it opens to the public. On Wednesday, that park was California Adventure, which also happens to be the park we were essentially staying IN (right below our room).  Since the extra hour was 9-10 am, we were already up, caffinated and ready for the day!  

We started off by heading STRAIGHT to Radiator Springs Racers, as we already knew how amazing it was and knew how the wait for it would get longer as the day went on.  We rode it and then got a fast pass for it as soon as we were able.  We also hit up Ben's favorite (Mater) and Greg's favorite (California Screamin') - which is so much fun and we never would have been able to ride it without my mom there to hang with Ben (on the carousel)! :)

We also got to ride on the Toy Story ride (a game similar to Buzz Lightyear - and so much fun) that had always had a crazy long wait when we have been there in the past.

Then we headed over to Disneyland and spent some time in Fantasyland and once again, Greg and I stopped in to do a ride on our own, Space Mountain!

We took a short break mid day at the pool before going back to California Adventure.  We had made reservations at Ariel's Grotto for dinner, and included in our dinner package was priority seating for the World of Color later that night.  Having experienced it, the dinner was not worth the money ($$$) but the access to World of Color might have been.  Except it was standing room only.  And our feet hurt.  And Ben was too tired to care.  So....maybe not so worth it.  But the show was great! But we could have YouTubed it :)  

Other highlights from day 2: 

Ben met his first character and got an autograph in his book:

  

 

We got to see a street performance from DJ in Cars Land and his dancers (I believe from Flo's Cafe). Greg and Ben of course jumped right in and danced with them.

 

We had ice cream for a mid-morning snack"

We go to see California Adventure by day:

And by night.  Both amazing:

Rides Rode:

Radiator Springs Racers (twice)

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

California Screamin'

King Triton's Carousel

Toy Story Midway Mania

Alice in Wonderland

Mad Tea Party

Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Snow White's Scary Adventure

World of Color

Food Ate:

White water snacks: Coffee and muffins (affordable and delicious - and at our hotel)!

Ghirardelli in California Adventure for ice cream cones, shakes and lattes

Earl of Sandwich: Greg had a BBQ chicken wrap and I had some sort of holiday panini (turkey, stuffing, cranberry, gravy, OMFG I'm still thinking about it. Best thing I ate all week I think).

Ariel's Grotto: Overpriced pre-fix menu with small portions that was pretty good....but Ben was being a 4 year old and kind of ruined my meal.  DISNEY MAGIC).

Miles Walked: 8.37

Disneyland Day 1

So I don't forget all the fun details of our trip, I wanted to get our days blogged as soon as I could!

On the first day of our trip, we woke up bright and early (at 4) so that we could pick up my mom (at 5) and get to the airport to catch our flight (at 7:50).  When I checked us in for our flight, I noticed that all of our boarding passes were labeled with TSA Pre Check (not sure how that works, but I'll take it)!  I figured we would be extremely early for our flight, but after grabbing breakfast and getting a little turned around on the underground trains at Seatac, our timing was perfect. :)

 

 

After a quick flight and taxi, we arrived at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel about an hour ahead of schedule!  We dropped off our bags and headed straight to California Adventure.  One of the perks of staying at a Disney hotel is that there is a private entrance into California Adventure, which happened to be almost directly below where our room was.  On our first day, we were able to get into the park with out waiting in any line.  Amazing. 

Hilary and Violet arranged to take a mini-vacation to Disneyland to overlap with our trip, so we met up with them at the entrance to Cars Land and started our first day of fun!

After riding the rides in Cars Land (Hilary hooked us UP by getting us on Radiator Springs Racers with them using a fast pass/stroller swap combo), we decided to head to the Tower of Terror. in hindsight, this was probably a terrible idea.  Violet liked it (although it still scared her - I think she likes being scared)!  Going on this ride probably traumatized Ben a little and it made us have to convince him that the rest of the "big" rides on the trip were "SO FUN! NOT SCARY LIKE THE ELEVATOR RIDE"!  It also solidified his passion for Fantasyland and his desire to spend as much time there as possible for the remainder of the trip :)  Which was fine with me - it was adorable seeing him love those rides so much.

But back to TofT: 

 

Ben was the only person on our ride that had not been on it before.  By the middle of the ride he was SOBBING.  And he couldn't figure out how to cover his ears (too loud) and his eyes at the same time.  So the result was this:  I LOVE Greg's face as he is looking over at Ben from the row behind us and mine as I was chanting "It's okay! It's pretend!  It's ALL PRETEND"!

The other funny part about this is that he was wearing his Happy Birthday button with his name on it, so as I carried my traumatized child towards the exit afterwards, everyone on our elevator was saying "Happy Birthday, Ben"!  

The good news is that after a magical trip in Fantasyland, all most was forgotten.  (Until he would see the tower again and remind us that he did NOT want to do that one again).

 

 

 

 

After more rides in Disneyland, we had some dinner and headed back to our room.  We were all exhausted and in need of sleep (and some warm milk and cookies)!

 

Rides Rode:

Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

Radiator Springs Racers

Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! (Twice)

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Soarin' Around the World

Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies

It's a Small World

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Pirates of the Caribbean

King Arthur Carousel

Dumbo

Mad Tea Party

Food Ate:

At the Cozy Cone Cafe: Chicken Verde Cone, Pretzel Bite Cone, and Garlic Cheese Bread

The French Market: Clam chowder in a bread bowl, gumbo in a bread bowl

The Golden Horseshoe: Chicken nuggets and fries

Wine Country Trattoria (walk up bar): Wine before Tower of Terror ;)

Room Service: Warm milk and Mickey/Minnie Mouse Cookies

  

Miles walked: 7.85

Meal Planning: Week of September 19th

I totally failed at keeping any sort of record of last week's cooking.  I'll do better next week :)

Plan for next week:

Saturday: Spring Green Lettuce and Quinoa Salad with Homemade Lemon Feta Dressing.

Sunday: Creamy Lentil Soup for the week, and BLT Salad with Corn, Feta and Avocado (with grilled chicken) for dinner.

Monday: Korean BBQ Bangkok Burritos with Coleslaw and Yum Yum Sauce

Tuesday: Lasagna (Marcia made a bunch of meals and froze them for us)!

Wednesday: Leftover Burritos

Thursday: Leftover Lasagna

Friday:  Costco pizza!  I figure I'll be there anyway picking up last minute items for Ben's birthday party and won't feel much like cooking.

Week in Photos: The Ingles meet Baby Pepper, Fall Weather, Max Turns 3, Alt For Norge, and Ben's Fan Club

Ben and Greg got to come with me to meet Baby Pepper and it was awesome and so adorable.  

Two goofballs and a baby:

And the second best thing about Pepper's birth (the first being that Pepper is now born, and fabulous), is that Rachel and I can resume our wine drinking together.

So happy about Fall weather returning that we both wore our winter boots :)

Greg and I went beer/wine tasting and out to dinner :)

Securing the goods.

My parent's cat, Burt, adorably snuggling with my dad:

Max turned 5 and had a super fun party at the park.  Maureen hired a face painter who helped bring Ben's "Rainbow Cat" request to life!  WINNING.

 

The gals at school lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvve to leave Ben little notes and cards and other art creations in his cubby.  On a daily basis.  I'm not kidding.  It's so cute and I'm thrilled Ben has such great friends, but woah.  Nervous about the years to come.

Grandma Marcia's last day visiting us :(

There was a premier party for Kate's show Alt For Norge in Ballard last night at the Nordic Heritage Museum.  We all went and had SUCH a fun time!  The show was really fun and quite moving!  Can't wait to watch the rest of the season!

Meal Planning: Starting Back Up!

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to take 3 weeks off from cooking (and for that matter: laundry, dishes, and cleaning), I recommend you find yourself a mother in law like Marcia Ingle :)

Sadly, her visit with us has ended, and we will certainly miss HER more than we will miss all of her help.  I'm not even excited to get back to cooking like I usually am after an extended break.  I decided to order a Blue Apron box this week, because the simplicity of not having to grocery shop or do much meal planning right now seemed to be the way to go. 

Also on the horizon: Disneyland next week!  I only have a few days to plan for.  Here we go:

Thursday:  Blue Apron Meal: Paprika Shrimp and Cheddar Grits with Tomato and Sweet Corn

Friday: Blue Apron Meal:  Spicy Hoisin Chicken Stir-Fry with Baby Bok Choy & Sesame-Ginger Cucumber Salad

Saturday:  Blue Apron Meal: BBQ Sloppy Joes with Green Bean and Tomato Salad

Sunday: We are attending the premier party for my friend Kate's show Alt For Norge on Sunday evening, so dining out! 

Monday: First night of (attempt #3) swim lessons, followed by leftovers (i.e. making dinner out of all remaining perishables before we leave)!