After an exhausting day at Disneyland the day before, we had a tough time rousing the kids on Day 2 for California Adventure. Our Dland Hotel extra magic hour for CA Adventure was an hour later than for Disneyland, and we didn’t need to be at the gate until 7:30, but even then, all the kids were still zonked at 7:25. We plopped three half-asleep girls in their strollers and zoomed over to the park, where we dashed over to the popular Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land. The wait later in the day was over two hours. Who would wait in line that long for ANY ride is beyond me, but apparently there are plenty of willing people out there. Again, we were grateful for the extra magic hour and took full advantage of the low wait times before the park opened and the crowds invaded.

Everyone’s favorite ride! 

Meredith waited with me while everyone was on the ride– maybe next time you’ll be tall enough!

Meredith was sleeping in her stroller for our family pic.

Love Sammy’s belly poking out!

There were so many rides, playgrounds, and shows at CA Adventure that we didn’t even make it to half of what we had planned on in our original itinerary. We definitely wished we had another day there.

The rides in A Bug’s Land were adorable! The girls especially loved the bumper cars, Flik’s Flyers, and Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train.

Poor Meredith missed most of the morning action while she napped.

Daddy and Amelia.

Daddy and Samantha.

Everyone was hungry and overtired (a common refrain this trip) by the time we made it to our reservation at Ariel’s Grotto for our princess lunch.

C’mon Amelia, Ariel is your favorite princess of all time! I guess she was star struck.

Ariel’s Grotto was supposed to be another fun treat for the girls’ birthday, since they are obsessed with princesses at home, but when face-to-face in the flesh, they clammed up!

Meredith, on the other hand, was not shy about meeting her favorite princesses and I had to keep her messy little fingers away from their dresses and hair because she was continually trying to reach out to them.

We bribed the girls with dessert just so they’d stand near the princesses for pictures. At least Meredith and I had fun meeting them!

The twins eventually agreed to go up to the princesses, as long as they went together. Samantha would say, “C’mon Amelia, be brave with me!”

Would you like a snap pea, Belle?

Meredith enjoyed making a spaghetti masterpiece on the floor while watching the princesses.

Pigging out on the cute sea-themed desserts.

This is the KIDS’ dessert plate? Sugar overload! 

No complaints from Sammy on the jello.

Meredith grabbed a handful of frosting when no one was looking.

While everyone was on the Soarin’ Over the World ride, Meredith found her new love– the splash pad! She was hilarious, chasing the water fountains and shrieking in delight when the water hit her face. We are going to have a blast at the splash pad this summer.

No swim suit on, but don’t care! I love it!

While heading back to the hotel for naps, Meredith spotted Mickey and begged to honk his nose to see how it felt compared to Minnie’s.

After naps, we saw Frozen, Live and thanks again to playing Grammy’s wheelchair access card, we had good seats without waiting in line for hours. Meredith lasted about halfway through, and Amelia was hiding in her seat through the first half hour, but we eventually coaxed her into watching. We couldn’t figure out if the live versions of her favorite characters in such close proximity, plus the noise, scared her or if she was being star struck and shy! Their favorite part was the fake snow falling down on us during the show! It was fun to see a stage adaptation of Frozen condensed into an hour with all of the great music and dancing, live. All of the adults loved it, at least and it was worth the wait.

Let it go!

The Redwood Creek Trail playground was the girls’ favorite out of all of CA Adventure and we wished we had more time there before the sun went down.

Ariel’s carousel.

The silly symphony swings!

The consensus was that we definitely needed to come back to explore more of CA Adventure! Meredith fell asleep in her stroller at bedtime again, and we all headed back to the hotel to conk out. We helped pack up Meredith’s stuff while the girls got ready for bed since she was going back to our house with Grammy and Grandpa for the night and next day so that we’d have one full day with just us and the twins at Disneyland. I’m sure Meredith woke up at home the next morning and was wondering if all the princesses, swirling rides and dancing animals had all been a dream!

Lots of love,