All Red-y for Disney

We had our time to veg at the rental house. We had our warm-up at Legoland. Now -- four days into our trip -- it was time for the big leagues as we finally made our way to Disneyland.

We had at least three little boys eager to grab a glance at Cars Land for our first taste of Disney, so we wore our Cars shirts to help rev up their Lightning McQueen excitement.

Out of all the times we stood in front of this wall and took a family picture, you'd think we could have managed one non blurry shot where everyone was at least generally looking at the camera. But nay. This is about as good as it will ever get.

Tramming it up. My least favorite part of each day. The only thing more annoying than unpacking three kids, a double stroller, 4 sack lunches, a back pack, a diaper bag, and a gigantic bag of candy onto a tram for a five-minute ride each morning is doing it each night when the kids are so tired they're all floppy slabs of jello, and the double stroller has become a trash bag so candy wrappers and half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches explode out of the bottom basket with each exhausted attempt to fold the beast into a tram-able size. Dislocating all of our belongings at the beginning and end of each Disney day is one of my only complaints about the experience.

The best decision we made on the whole trip was when we decided not to leave at 7:45 AM like the rest of the group to get the best positioning to book it to the Cars Fast Pass Ticket Kiosk. We got there perfectly five minutes before the park opened (at 9:00) and still slimed our way into the Fast Pass Line with the rest of 'em. Off to a mighty good start.

We made Jacob our runner to get the Cars fast passes and then we scurried to Toy Story Mania and rode that baby on repeat until it started getting busy.

We found ourselves congregating in Cars Land which was perfect for a group picture in our Cars shirts in front of the Cars Land sign. The Cars have aligned.

Carson was admittedly at least 1/2 an inch shy of the 40" height requirement of riding Cars. But somehow the little sneak managed to outsmart the height checkers and he proudly got the green light to take a ride.

This little guy was out before we were even an hour into our day. 

We peeled out of Cars Land and skidded into Bugs Land. I love Cars Land because it looks JUST like the movie. Everything is perfection there. It feels like you are walking around in the scenes from the movie. I love Bugs Life Land because all the details are so cleverly hilarious. The lights are lighting bugs. The benches look like popsicle sticks. Everything there is adorable and there are little nuggets of brilliance everywhere you look.

We met up with Newland to hitch a ride on a very hungry caterpillar.

Look who's well rested and ready to party! No, I'm not talking about Ben or Haley. I think the kids woke them up waaaaaaay earlier this morning than they ever would have hoped for. But they were such good sports to deal with all the crazy kids and helped out whenever we had our hands full.

Carson and I went to a little play area while Jeff rode a ride with Eli. They gave Carson a map as we entered the play area and he WORSHIPPED that thing. He stared at it the entire time he did his exploring. And he repeatedly tried to explain to me where we were and where we needed to go. He LOVED that thing. His map obsession is one of my favorite memories of Carson from the whole trip.

I snuck away with these folks to ride Tower of Terror.

This ride is always more fun than I expect it to be. I giggled the entire time.

Happiest Park Baby of the Year Award goes to Lincoln who was a total angel for all our Disneying. Until we got home each night to put him to bed and then he was an overtired beast, but I digress. 

We ended up back at the explorer area because it was so fun especially once we had a few cousins there to join us.

Carson took it upon himself to explain to the group all the inner workings of the map and the key locations to investigate. He got all the boys intently studying their locations and devising paths and coordinates of interest.

Though I'm certain none of their map interpretations were accurate, they still enjoyed the concept. 

Carson was so cute standing on a rock and posing for me...

Until my mom tried to join him and then he was a stinker.

I feel like I look mildly psychotic in this picture. And it may be because I was. Because the heat was so raging that it left me in a bit of a crazed daze each afternoon. It was so hot. Especially with a sleeping baby heating my core. Shade + ice water = the hours of 2-5.

Somehow the kids didn't mind sprinting around in the heat while the adults all flocked to rest and cool down.

Okay, Walt. If you're reading this (and I'm SURE you are), can you puh-leeeeeaaaaze change the never ending snaking line shapers to something other than metal chains? Like, seriously. My boys lack self control anyway, but throw them in a restricted area, bored, with a bunch of chains all around them and we're bound to have some incidents. My boys COULD NOT stand next to a chain without rabidly shaking it -- smacking the legs of innocent ride waiters every time. And if they weren't doing that, they were tangling themselves up in the chains to the point of near strangulation each time I turned my back. The one benefit is if they tied themselves up just so, the chains acted as a leash to prevent certain wandering children from going astray.

Should we settle on ropes? Preschooler-height cement walls? Spikes shooting up from the ground? There has to be a better way.

Ahhhhh. 5:00 hit and the day became bearable again. We regrouped for the Pixar Parade!

We aren't big into the princesses or other characters wandering the park, but I have found magic in watching my boys stare in awe at the life-size Lightning McQueen and Mater driving down the road.

After the parade, we all ate at a restaurant-that-shall-remain-nameless-because-I-don't-remember-the-name in Disneyland.

Logan joined our table and graced us with my favorite quote from him during the trip which was, "When I have an itch *long dramatic pause as if he's about to enlighten us on the mysteries of life * I scratch the place where it itches."

It was a lovely meal with lovely company!

Logan got an applesauce that he was trying to give away, so when Lincoln started squawking, Jeff had the great idea to feed him Logan's applesauce. Only problem was we didn't have a spoon, so he used the next best thing -- a french fry! #thirdchildsyndrome

We were still going strong well into the evening hours which was quite an improvement from our leave-the-park-before-5:00 reputation of last year. We ended the day with a few rounds of Buzz because Eli had been pestering us all day to go on that ride.

When we got out of the Buzz ride, Eli noticed the Star Tours ride. And that's the moment our lives will forever be changed for the nerdy.