Disneyland and Universal Studios

 For Christmas the kids got Disneyland as their big present.  We were so happy Grandma Molly was willing to come with us, and I think it made our day even more fun having her there.  Unfortunately, it rained in the morning, so we missed our best chance of getting a picture of all of us in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.  We got one at the end of the day, and even though it is not the best quality, it is still the only picture we have of all of us, besides the Whinny the Pooh selfie with half of Trexton's head cut off.

Since most of the kids and Josh were sick, and it was raining pretty hard, we decided to take our time getting to the park. We stayed in a hotel literally right by the parking, so that was nice.  We got to the park about 10 am while it was still raining.  Because of the rain many rides were temporarily closed, but we happened to jump on Indiana Jones right when it opened.  That saved us a long wait.  In all actuality our lines were never that bad.  I think the most we waited was 20 minutes, and that was only a handful of rides.  Buying the Genie pass really helped with that.  Josh did wait a whopping 75 minutes for the big Star Wars ride, but thanks to him me and the bigs just jumped on as rider switch when he was done.

Star Wars was fun!  This is the whole reason Josh wanted to come to Disneyland.  We saw a showdown between Kyla Wren and some other guy, as well as, real talking storm troopers in the land.  Anny even got a special picture with one.  The rides were cool in Star Wars, too.  We had to split up to fly the Millennium Falcon because there were only 6 seats, but even Trexton got to ride.  Josh and Payson were flyers, while Trex and I were the shooters, and then when it was Grandma and the girls turn, Zaylee and Avenly were the flyers, and Grandma Molly was a shooter.   Rise of the Resistance was the oh so popular and long line ride.  It is also the one that the big kids and I jumped on at the end of the night after Josh waited in line.  Avenly sat behind Pay and I, but she still had so much fun.  It was a cool ride because it took us around Kyla Wren's ship on a chase, and used virtual reality, as well as, actual ride movement.  Earlier in the day Josh bought some blue milk, and he talked about it all day, and even the next day when him and I went to Universal Studios.

One of our favorite rides was the Astro Blasters where we got to shoot laser guns at the targets while riding the ride.  I think I got the high score of our group, only because I noticed it was keeping track when I would hit a target.  Trexton loves robots and Buzz Lightyear, so it really was a fun family ride we all went on together.

Speaking of rides in Tomorrowland, we had to do a ride share for Star Tours because Trexton wasn't tall enough.  I took him on a kiddy ride, Astro Orbitor, where you just go around in circles.  Everyone else finished the Star Tours ride before we were done, so Molly and the girls jumped in line for Astro Orbitor.  Josh took Trexton to the Nemo Submarine, Payson went back to Star Tours with me, and apparently while we were both doing our indoor rides, Molly and the girls got poured on by a 20 minute rain storm right when they were riding Astro Orbitor.  It had stopped raining hours before, so they didn't have their rain gear.  I felt so bad, and Zaylee was freezing, so Grandma bought her a cute monster sweatshirt.

Disneyland has changed since I last went over 20 years ago.  Critterland doesn't really have many of the critters anymore, but it did have a new Whinny the Pooh ride.  Trexton loved it, and wanted to go again.  I thought it was fun because it was one ride that we all rode together in the same car without other people.

Not all rides were peachy keen for everyone.  Avenly really wanted thrill rides.  I told her I would take her on Splash Mountain; after-all, I was already wet from the rain.  Payson and Zaylee wanted to come, too, but it may have been a mistake to bring Zaylee along.  The ride scared her to tears... poor girl! After the ride, we took the train to meet back up with the others.

While Josh waited in line for the big Star Wars ride, we took advantage of more Tomorrowland and Fantasyland... That was until they started temporarily closing rides down in Fantasyland for the big firework show.  That was kind of irritating because they were blocking the pathway, too.  Thankfully, we were able to get a character experience in before they shut that down, too. 

I think it ended up working out that most of Fantasyland was closing for the fireworks because it allowed Josh to ride some of the Fantasyland rides with the littles, which is what he really wanted to do while they are still little.  This happened while I was riding the Star Wars ride with the bigs.  We made it back in time to ride Peter Pan and the Carousel with everyone. 

Our last ride of the night was on the Merry-go-round.  We had played hard all day, and usually after each ride Trexton would say let's do it again, but after the Merry-go-round, he said, "let's go back to the hotel, now."  He was falling asleep in line for Peter Pan, but his night wasn't complete until her rode the Carousel. haha  We stayed until closing!  We all had a great day!

Everyone's Favorite rides:

Trexton: Millennium Falcon in Star Wars land

Molly: Buz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Millennium Falcon

Zaylee: Millennium Falcon

Mellissa: Pirates of the Caribbean and Rise of the Resistance 

Avenly: Splash Mountain, Millennium Falcon, and Rise of the Resistance

Payson: Rise of the Resistance and Star Tours

Josh: Rise of the Resistance 

The next day Molly was so awesome to watch our kids while Josh and I went to Universal Studios.  We are so glad we did not bring the kids because the lines were all so long at Universal.  We did 5 rides/activities total the whole day.  (We didn't get there until 11 something because it was an hour away, and Josh needed to rest from Disneyland since he was still sick).  It was a fun day together, but Disneyland won.  We loved Harry Potter land, and even bought some pricey Butterbeer. The wand shop was super cool; the walls were just lined with wands.  Wand owners could even do spells around Harry Potter land to make things move and such.   We also went on the Studio Tour, Jurassic World ride, The Mummy, and watched the Water World show, which was super cool.  I should have taken more pictures. 

While we were Universaling, Molly and the kids went to Downtown Disney and got spoiled by Grandma.  They said they had a lot of fun.  They also changed rooms because our room had some leak going on, which was getting Molly's bed all wet.  She is a trooper for changing rooms with four kids, and all of our stuff. 

It was a great ending couple of days to our long, but fast, trip.  We began our journey back to Brazil on Saturday, the 7th, and finally arrived home Sunday evening exhausted and jetlagged.  This last picture is the perfect picture to sum up our busy and eventful 3 weeks in the US.