California Day 3: Disneyland day 1

Yes, you read the title correctly, Disneyland day ONE. We spent three days there. It's about this day that "torture in the name of fun" comes into play. You'll see what I mean by the end of the post. If you're squeamish about bugs don't look at the first picture. You've been warned. We woke up early to use our one "Magic Morning", where we get early entry an hour before the general public. Only special tickets or packages have this and it just so happens that our package was one of them. The catch is only the rides in Tomorrowland and Toontown are open, but we weren't complaining as this meant no line for Space Mountain. I was staying in one room with the girls (all five of them!) and West was in the other room with Sean and his mom. How did this work out do you ask? How do you tell one or even two of the girls that they can't be with the rest? You can't. So you don't. West's sister Lindee had flown in around 9:30 the previous night and was going to pick Suzann up later in the morning so West was getting ready in semi-darkness so as not to wake up his mom. It was in this situation that he discovered this:
Like I said in the day one post, this hotel was a little shady. Ripped bedspreads, crushed soap, three towels per room (I ventured to the office on the first night to ask for extra towels and uncrushed soap. I was told they didn't have extra towels and the new soap they gave me was... crushed), cracks in the tile and walls... but we were at DISNEYLAND so we were just happy to be there. Once West caught this little creepy thing our tolerance of the place vanished. He caught it in this cup and hauled it's little brown butt to the office. It was a little after six and we were trying to get to Disneyland by seven. The owners wouldn't open the office door for West that early and tried talking to him through a little window with a trap door in it. West put the nasty thing in the trap door and that caught their attention. The door opened. West's cell phone came out. The quest for a new CLEAN room was on. I was shaking and shoving clothes into suitcases as fast as I could (we still needed to make Magic Morning!) and West was making one call after another to find an affordable alternative for us. I have no idea what the owners were doing. Probably wondering what we were doing. West finally found a suite that was more than what we budgeted for, but it would fit all of us in one room and it was at the Holiday Inn, which we felt was a reliable name. We took it and headed to the office to fight for our money back. Actually West did all the fighting, I was just tagging along. And even then the owners didn't really fight. What can they say when you hand the proof to them in a cup? He said he would refund the money if we made no formal complaints against his hotel. He was a nervous wreck but I didn't really feel sorry for him. West signed his name saying "no complaints" (which is the reason I haven't put the name of the hotel in this, but if anyone really wants to know, just ask and I'll save you the trouble of booking there), took our money, and headed to Magic Morning with the circus (who had been waiting in the car very impatiently all this time). We were a half hour late for Magic Morning, but still a half hour earlier getting in than the public.
First stop: Tomorrowland. Space Mountain. Casidee, Brynn, and Tayler panicked and refused to ride. The rest of us went. Cali, in all her four years, and barely 40 inches (the min requirement for ALL the rides, whew, she made it) set her pace for the whole trip. Cali do you want to ride on... of course she did. She was fearless and joined Jayme and Sean on every coaster we sat her on.
For those of you who don't know about the "mine" jokes between West and me, find my birthday post for and explanation (in my February posts, titled "Happy 30!"). For those of you who know it, I couldn't resist getting a pic of West with Nemo's seagulls in the background. "Mine! Mine!"

After the rounds of Tomorrowland we hit Toontown. My favorite thing ever (aside from penguins of course) is pirates and skulls. Kind of crazy since the overall image of a skull doesn't really fit me, but I just can't help it. You know I drug them to Pirates of the Caribbean. And you know that I pulled West out of the line, leaving Suzann and Lindee with the kids to save our place, and drug him back through to the begining of the line to get this picture:
I got a lot of laughs and "Oh yeah, he's my man too!" from other women passing by in the line. West laughed at me and as we made our way back to our spot in line he says, "I can't believe my competition is paint on the wall."

I actually didn't pose the girls on this next picture. They were doing this all on their own and I was just lucky enough to catch it on film (does that phrase really apply anymore with digital cameras? I caught it on memory card... doesn't quite sound the same does it). Dumbo ride... Tea cups...
Jayme and CasGranny Suzann, Tayler, Sean Lindee, Brynn, Cali
We rode the pirate ship. I was aiming for the paddle boat, but I will certainly take a ride on a pirate ship. Cali had the best seat in the house to see over everyone to the "shoreline".Half way through the day we left Disneyland to get lunch and check into our new hotel, and change into pants so we would be ready for cooler temps with the setting of the sun. It's a good thing my co-worker warned me to pay attention to which character parked at. At first it was a joke for us "Jared says to remember so everyone remember Pinocchio", but as we were leaving we found the tram people who were in charge of bussing you to the parking lots talking about Lion King characters. I was pretty sure Pinocchio wasn't in the Lion King. What do you know? We turned left outside of the Disneyland instead of right. Wrong set of Parking lots. Oops. We hadn't even noticed there was two ways to go! A fun thing I noted while we were walking around figuring out our parking lot blunder was the Nickelback music they were playing over the speakes. Nickelback of all things. (I'm going to thier concert in August!)

We had a hard time getting Cas, Brynn, and Tayler to ride the rides. They wouldn't even TRY them to SEE if they liked them. I kept hoping they would get tired of waiting for all of us and start joining in, but today was not that day. We forced them onto the milder ones and I let the bigger ones slide... for now. We still had two days. We were pushing through the lines and rides hard. We wanted to have time to see it all, and to revisit our favorites. By night fall the kids were dragging. Finally we could sit for the fireworks display. The Disneyland lady kept walking by saying, "standing room only please", but seriously, just look at them! This is were my phrase "torture in the name of fun" comes in to play. Waiting for the fireworks was worth it though! We got to see Tinkerbell flying around the castle!
Sadly, we were not done torturing them. Just a few more rides guys. While waiting in line for Automania, Cali (who was falling asleep while standing in line) and Tayler decided they HAD to have a potty break, so I left the line with them. We ended up missing the ride and stood on a bridge to watch for the others. Apparently none of the kids were tall enough to actually drive the cars on their own, and West was on his own and couldn't take all four, so an employee had to help drive them. West sees me standing on the bridge and sends me a text, "You've been replaced again". I look at him after reading it and he's laughing and pointing at the big burly dude in the car in front of him with Sean and Jayme. I replied, "this had better not become a habit!"

On our way out, down Disney Main Street, we noticed a theater and ducked inside. Because the kids just weren't quite tired enough so we had to jam ONE more thing into the day. It had several screens around the room, all playing Walt Disney's first Mickey Mouse cartoons. Fine. We can go to bed now.