Vacation: Day 6 (after noon)

We headed into the Disneyland park after our lunch and any thoughts I had that it wouldn't be busy because it was a Monday quickly went out the window. Never, ever go to Disneyland during California's spring break. Plus it was super warm, so that made it worse. We hopped the train to get over to Splash Mountain and we realized that Aiden was going to have to wait to ride it. The wait time was 2 hours!! John did the FastPass and even then, our FastPasses weren't valid until 10pm. This was at noon. Yikes.

So since the Winnie the Pooh ride is right there, we got in line for that and I hoped that we wouldn't traumatize Nathan. The last time John and I went in 2007, a child behind us on the ride was flipping out. Those heffalumps are a little scary and Nathan had hated every ride we'd taken him on. But he hugged his Pooh Bear the whole time and seemed to do fine.



After the ride, we got right in line to meet Tigger and Pooh. This is a memory that will stick with me forever. When it was our turn, Nathan went straight into Pooh's arms and didn't move. We snapped the family picture and then realized that getting Nathan away from Pooh was going to take a miracle. I have never seen him so happy in my life. He was snuggled into Pooh's arms as the person in the costume stroked his hair and made kissing sounds on his head. I actually had tears welling up in my eyes to see my child in such a state of bliss. The entire trip was worth it right there.

The family photo.


"Come on, Nathan....it's someone else's turn..."

Saying bye-bye to Pooh Bear and getting one last hug and kiss...

"Good bye Nathan..."

As I was attempting to hide my silly parent tears, we waited to meet Tigger. The boys were excited, but nothing was going to top Pooh for Nathan. As the couple in front of us took their turn with Tigger, I noticed the guy whispering something to Tigger. And then suddenly, he dropped down onto one knee....

He proposed!!! The whole crowd waiting to meet Pooh and Tigger was cheering and screaming. I got a little teary over this too - what can I say? I'm a sucker for proposals. Oh, and she said yes. :^)

So finally, our turn and the boys gave Tigger some big hugs. Tigger then attempted to steal Nathan's Pooh Bear from him, but Nathan wasn't having that, so no luck for Tigger. We could hear the guy inside laughing as Nathan wrestled his Pooh back.

Once we were done, I put Nathan back in his stroller and this was the scene within seconds.

Completely passed out, holding Pooh Bear tightly, just as content as could be. Insert silly mommy tears yet again. He was so contentedly asleep, he even slept through the Tiki Room!

We did some more favorite rides from the previous two days and found a few more that either hadn't been far up on our to-do list or we hadn't noticed. One of them was the Casey Jr Circus Train. John said he didn't even know it existed and honestly, it is a little hidden. But we loved it! It was really cool, it goes a little fast, and Nathan actually liked it.

We were first in line, so we got to pick the Monkey cage and they seriously lock you in. Nathan was nervous at first (as you can tell), but when the ride was over, he started crying and yelling that he had to go again! Since that was the ONLY ride he'd said that for, we got right back in line.

After this, we exited the park to grab an early dinner at IHOP right across the street. The boys ate free since we ordered entrees and it was good to get out of the heat. The day had gotten quite hot by 4pm or else I don't think we would have considered eating dinner at 4:30. We stayed for a good hour and drank LOTS of water and by the time we headed back across the street to the park, it had started to cool down significantly.

We puttered around the park some more and John and I took a few moments on the tiny bridge at the side of the castle to take a picture of us and our rings. It's the spot where John gave me my beautiful ring on our 2 year anniversary trip. It was nice to come back for our 5 year anniversary and bring our gorgeous boys along with us.

We took a little stroll through Innoventions and saw the very awesome inside of the "house of the future". I want it. Aiden loved playing some of the games and had a fun time playing Rock Band and watching himself on the large TV that they had set up.

Don't you just love that look on his face??

Since it was our last night, we wanted to stay for the fireworks and we found a spot with some seats off to the side. We quickly realized that the trees were blocking most of the big ones, but we were about 30 feet away from the smaller, closer ones they were setting off. Wow! Amazing sight and the ground shook every time one was set off. Nathan got scared though, so he spent the entire time curled up in my lap. We also had an amazing view of Tinkerbell as she zipped back on forth on the line. So if you don't mind not seeing some of the larger fireworks, off to the left of the castle (towards Frontier Land) is the place to sit.

After the fireworks, we could use the Splash Mountain FastPasses finally, so we headed over that way. Of course no one wants to get soaking wet at 10-ish pm, so the normal wait was only 5 minutes and the FastPass line was longer. John took Aiden on it while I stayed with Nathan and I kept myself occupied by buying a Winnie the Pooh Disneyland key chain. I love looking at it and having that reminder of our first major family vacation whenever I go somewhere.

Aiden, of course, LOVED going back on Splash Mountain and didn't mind the cold wetness at all. He begged to go again, but it was so late and we had to check out of the hotel in the morning, so we said our goodbyes to Disneyland and headed back to the hotel. It was a little sad to leave, even though we were very ready to sleep in our own beds. The visit had been exciting and amazing, and I will always remember the joy on Aiden's face when we first walked into the park. And the happiness you could see in Nathan as he snuggled into Pooh Bear. I'm so glad we went.

The next day: One last Minthorne visit and our departure....