Day 3- Monday!

So today we got up early to do early entry at 7am –through the end of September all onsite hotel guests get early entry to the park of their choice every day of their stay! Today we decided to go to Disneyland since we hadn’t really done any rides yet and stick with the classics this morning. We were hoping with it being the last day of a holiday weekend that everyone would be using their early entry to go tot DCA (since Carsland is there and so new)- and we were right! We were first in line along with a few other families next to us lining up at the other turnstiles. We all wondered if we were in the right spot since it wasn’t even too early (6:50).

They opened the gates at 7 and off we went to Fantasyland! Peter Pan was first, then Dumbo and the Carousel. The boys wanted to ride Star Tours (P and I get motion sick on it) so they went off and we did Snow White and teacups. Piper then attempted with all her might to pull the sword out of the stone but it wouldn’t budge ;)

We then wandered into the Mad Hatter shop and she found her dream hat- a plush Stitch hat with dangling paws. I don’t even know why the kids love Stitch so much except when we were on the Disney cruise in the Bahamas in 2010 he was there and played with them a lot. But both kids (esp P) LOVE Stitch. We bought the hat and the lady said it was brand new that day and they had only gotten a few of them in. P got attention constantly the remainder of the trip- cast members and people in line all loved it. P was pretty proud of it and wore it throughout the trip (and heat!). After that we found some more pressed penny machines then met up with the boys.

We walked over to Frontierland (which was dead- there was no one around!) and did Big Thunder for the first time this trip. Aidan even went on it a second time without whining! He actually even had fun! This was a big deal to us- he HATES thrill rides and he actually put his hands up a cpl times on it. We were hopeful he would get more daring as the trip went on!

We then wandered into Toontown where the kids got their first autograph (Aidan’s last- he just wasn’t into it this trip but P was for the first time). She wasn’t even shy! Yay! Another first for us. After visiting Mickey we played in Toontown a bit. Piper and I rode the mini coaster there (see us in the neon? Lol).

We wandered into shops for a bit, got lunch at the Mexican Restaurant by Big Thunder Mountain, then headed to the hotel for the kiddos to play in the pool and then rest for the afternoon. We all fell asleep for an hour or so which was really nice:)

At 4:45 Matt and I headed out with the kids and dropped them off at the hotel’s kids club. They love it there! Piper loves all the art projects (and cooking projects they do) and Aidan loves the computer and wii games (no surprise). It’s nice too because they have mats and bean bag chairs if the kids get tired they can crash. They also serve them dinner ($6 each which is totally reasonable) which they get from the hotel character dining restaurant.

After dropping the kids, Matt and I walked down through DTD to the Disneyland hotel for some tropical drinks. I love our hotel (the Grand) but the Disneyland hotel recently was renovated and put in a really cool outdoor tiki bar area with comfy chairs/sofas and a good bar menu. We each ordered a drink and were able to wind down a little!

After that we were in search for the pressed penny machines in that hotel for Piper (so she didn’t have to trek out there later in the week). We got them all ad were on our way! We made it back to our room at 5:40 and quickly changed into nicer clothes for our dinner reservations. Every trip we want to go to Napa Rose and we finally were!

Napa Rose is a multi award winning restaurant and worth every penny! We had an amazing server (Saucy was his name and he was fabulous:) and we got to try so much food. My boss/friend Colleen treated us to a great bottle of bubble (which we finished, PLUS had a glass of red with dinner)- for appetizers we had scallops with vanilla/lemon sauce and Salmon Carpaccio. Matt had steak and I had the catch of the day for our entrees and we split a side of the truffled mac and cheese. All of it was so good. We shared 2 different desserts but honestly can’t tell you what they were….we were a bit intoxicated at this point! I know that when we tried to leave Saucy was laughing at us and I mentioned something about walking in a straight line…ooops! Oh well:) We had a GREAT date night!

So on that note we were off to pick up the kids lol. In we wandered in what I hope was a not drunk fashion! We got the kiddos and off to man street we went for fireworks! It was fun- the kids and I camped out on the curb (it was an hour early) and Matt ran around finding the kids snacks. Fireworks were good but I really miss the fall/winter ones. Our new camera got some great shots! I just held it up on my shoulder and hit the constant button for long exposure and no flash and it worked well enough (and I was still able to watch with the kids and not through a lens!). After that we wandered around a bit (rode Big Thunder again) and then off to the hotel again. It was a really fun day!