Disneyland Celebration for my Birthday: Day 2

So we got up bright and early this morning to head back to the parks.  We decided to head over to California Adventure first thing to do some of the things we didn't get to do the first day.  We went to Toy Story Mania first.  This is definitely one of my favorite rides at California Adventure (I even bought the Wii game).

After that I wanted to go on the roller coaster.  The kids are too small, and Nicole has no desire to do any roller coaster that goes upside down.  And since there was no line, I took advantage.  I had forgotten what a great roller coaster California Screamin is.  Definitely one of the best that I have been on. 

I met up with Nicole and the kids, and they informed me that we were going on Mickey's Sun Wheel, and that Andrew and I were going on the swinging car and Rory and Nicole were going on the stationary one.  It was a lot of fun, and Nicole did much better when she wasn't swinging out over the water.  We rode the jumping jellyfish again.  And we all went on The Little Mermaid ride.  Then we went and got Fast Passes for Soarin Over California.  Next we went to watch Prep & Landing: Naughty Vs. Nice.  This time we just waited for the next showing so we were sure not to miss out again.

After that we went on Soarin Over California, and Rory loved it--it was her first time.  And Andrew remembered that he loved it too, even though he didn't want to go on it the day before.  After that we enjoyed some great clam chowder on the pier and called it good for California Adventure, at least until dark.  I wanted to come back to see Radiator Springs with its neon all aglow.  We decided to head over to Disneyland and go see princess Merida.  Rory was so excited--she even brought her Merida costume, so she could be Merida to see Merida.  When we got over there, they were getting ready for The Christmas Fantasy Parade and Merida was leaving.  Rory was not happy!  A very nice lady got us some great seats for the parade and in a prime location to see Merida when she came back after the parade.  While we were waiting for the parade to start, I ran across the park to use a coupon we had got at lunch to buy souvenirs for the kids.  With Christmas only two and a half weeks away we did not want to buy a lot, but the kids were so good we wanted to get them something.  I made it back in time for the parade to start and it was a great parade.  It was a good mix of Christmas and Disney.  

When the parade ended we hopped right in the line to see Merida knowing she would not be there for long and this was our last day.

 After changing Rory out of her costumes the kids were ready to settle down for a nap.  Nicole and I got fast passes for splash mountain knowing the kids really wanted to do that (we never did though), checked out the Jingle Jangle Jamboree to see what it was all about, and then headed to do some shopping.  We had to at least by our Christmas ornament for the year.  We also found some cute shirts we will use for part of our Christmas pajamas.  While finishing up shopping the kids woke up, so we headed back over to the Jingle Jangle Jamboree.  We stopped and took pictures in front of the castle.

  We spent a lot of time in their taking pictures with Characters and Santa, coloring reindeer masks and playing games.

 When we were done it was dark and cold but the kids wanted to go on a couple more rides.

And there was one more thing I wanted to do.  We headed over to Cars Land to see the neon.  We took a couple more pictures with Characters and ate dinner and we were done.



"Hey DJ, we got ourselves a nodder."

 I think my birthday trip was great!  The kids did well and we did not feel like we had to rush onto every ride.  We really enjoyed Christmas in Disneyland!