Hopefully someday someone will explain to me why weathermen say "scattered showers" when they really mean, "It's gonna dump a boatload of rain on Disneyland today."
But I digress.... This was a special day at Disneyland because I had signed us up for a "Character Breakfast." For those who don't know, before you visit Disneyland you can call and reserve a spot at one of several dining experiences in and out of the park. We did Minnie's Breakfast at the end of Main Street. It is expensive, but it was totally worth it!! We were able to get out of the rain for an entire hour, had a WONDERFUL breakfast (I ate my money's worth, let me tell ya!), and got to meet quite a few characters in a relaxed setting.
The kids saw: Minnie Mouse, Chip and Dale, Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Captain Hook, and the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. Maddie got to even dance with Minnie Mouse (they'd just finished in the picture above) and Tigger! Even with all her ease with the characters, I was so impressed that she let them lead her out to the floor and boogie. It was also nice to have time with the characters instead of a hug, picture, next. Sadly, Ben was completely and utterly terrified of all of them. The only picture that looks remotely reasonable with Ben and a character is when daddy was holding him. Poor guy...next time he'll be ok. Ironically, the one character he did like was the Fairy Godmother!!! She could talk to him and she looked like a person, so I think he wasn't as fearful of her. We like to tease him that he's a ladies man now :)
Before I knew it, it was time to step back out into the rain. For those of you in Seattle: Picture a pretty hard, constant rain. For those outside Seattle: It's normal rain. Annoying, can't be ignored, but still warm out so you don't need a heavy coat, rain. We eventually had to give in and all buy ponchos (the only big ripoff from the the whole trip!). Joe and my mom foolishly didn't bring raincoats, so they were completely soaked through. But we made it work, and still enjoyed ourselves.
After breakfast, we went on the Jungle cruise. I actually think Maddie thought all the animals were real. It was hilarious to see her jump and shout, "there's a monkey, mommy!" in complete awe. My parents hopped on Indiana Jones while Joe, the kids and I tried to stay dry at local shops. My original intent had been to go up to Critter County and see Pooh and Tigger that morning, but the darn rain wouldn't stop! We covered the kids up the best we could and headed up there. Ben fell asleep in the stroller on the way, which made it easy to keep him dry. Maddie, Papa, Grama, and I rode the Pooh ride (there was no line. I can't imagine why!) and gave up. It was just too wet for the kids.
We had a group pow-wow and decided to head to California Adventure. There were more indoor things to do there and we figured at least we could dry off. Unfortunately, everyone else had this idea too!! There were two shows (Aladdin and Playhouse Disney) running and both were packed. It was getting close to lunch, Ben had finally gotten up, and it was still raining. As we walked aimlessley, something "indoors" caught my eye and we went in. I am SO glad we did! It was a hidden gem!!
The location was the Animation Theater. There were several things to do (learn to draw Characters, for example) that we thought were a little over the kids' heads, so we went for "Turtle Talk with Crush." Probably my biggest regret of the entire trip is that we didn't video tape this!! It is truly amazing. The audience comes in to a small theater, where kids can sit up front. Then on the screen Crush from Finding Nemo appears. The amazing part is that Crush is able to have actual conversations with the audience! He points out kids to ask questions, answers them appropriately, and even uses props. It's quite unique and fun. I don't think Maddie quite understood the enormity of the animation, but she really enjoyed the show and laughed heartily when others did. The main room of the "theater" was...a giant theater! haha! There were probably 10-12 giant screens all playing music clips from Disney movies. The kids were utterly transfixed by this (and so was I, but don't tell anyone!). We spent probably half an hour just watching the movies, the people, and all the other activity in the room.
My Ben moment of the Trip:
Now, as I've stated several times, Ben was petrified of all the characters. This made for difficulties when getting his picture taken with any of them, and I quickly gave up. Sorry Ben! You have no picture with Mickey Mouse! Not my fault, man.
As we played in the theater room, Ben and Maddie were just wild!! They danced and ran around and utterly enjoyed themselves. Ben was more adventurous and would travel throughout the room (with our watchful eyes on him, of course) exploring the seats, and being transfixed by the music. At one specific point, he and Maddie were dancing and laughing when a new song came on. He immediately stopped and stared at the video in complete wonder. As I was capturing this sweet moment on video, I noticed that two large mice were headed his way. No one was really around him and I watched as he continued to be oblivious to Mickey and Minnie standing right next to him. They seemed rather surprised that he didn't notice them too. So Mickey, in his silent language, giggled to Minnie (who stood back), and knelt down beside Ben. I'm sure it was only a few seconds but it seemed like an eternity as Ben watched the video with Mickey Mouse at his side. AAAWWWWWWW! Then suddenly, Ben finally realized someone was next to him!! He looked over, JUMPED, and ran to the nearest adults he could find thinking it was us. His arms outstretched he realized it wasn't and began to panic. Crying, arms still up, he turned and finally found us and began running towards us. (Maddie on the other hand was thrilled to see Mickey and was going the other way toward them. haha!)
The sweet moment of Mickey Mouse, THE mouse, the head "guy," just hanging out with Ben was so wonderful. Since he was so scared of the characters, we weren't able to have any of those "magical moments" with him. I think that's why I love this so much. Then to see his reaction? ...it was a great time :)
With the excitement of Mickey over, we headed over to grab some grub, see Lightning McQueen and head home for naps. I love this picture of Maddie and McQueen above because it looks like he's chasing her!! And she's loving every minute of it! Joe and I headed back out during naptime for some shopping in Downtown Disney. By the second day our feet were really starting to hurt, but how can you resist a little shopping, right?!
I had decided that we'd come back and spend as much time at Disneyland as possible before we all passed out. Maddie woke up from her nap and we headed back over. Ya know, Disneyland is such an amazing place period that I forget how wonderful it looks at night all lit up.
We bought our Mickey ears (because, can you leave Disney without ears? I don't think so!) and set off to explore. We took some pictures near Sleeping Beauty's castle (which didn't turn out so well, unfortunately) and ate some funnel cakes in Frontierland. It was kind of nice to just walk around, looking at all the wonderful lights, and not worry about getting in line or missing something.
I had hoped that we'd make it to at least 8pm, but Ben was a pooped puppy. He cuddled up with daddy the whole walk home. I don't think Joe minded :)
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