Life as a Yowler

Disneyland-the magical place where you stand in line for an hour to get to the VERY front of the line and have a child yell “got to poop.”  This happened not one, two, three, or even four times. This happened five times. Luckily Disney is the land of children and every single worker is understanding and held our place in line until we returned with the pooper. I am glad my kids are regular….just not when we’re at Disneyland.

I have been to Disneyland twice now. I have figured something out. I think the majority of the people who attend the park are season pass holders. No one comes to the park until around 5pm. It is amazing up until that point. We can literally go on any ride and meet any character and average about 10 minute wait times. After 5pm, everything fills up though. We had to wait a lot longer for everything. I think everyone comes To catch some rides then watch the light parade and fireworks.

We loved the evil queen from Snow White. As she was waking up to her place by the wishing well she looked at us and said “oh lovely, children!” 🤣 The villains really try to stick to their character. When we went to leave, Isla clutched onto her arm and wouldn’t let go. She loved the queen. The queen was trying really hard not to break character and smile. She said “I have always had a way with children. They love me.” We told her Isla just screamed and wouldn’t go near tinker bell. She said “I don’t blame her. Too much pixie dust.”

Cruella was awesome too. Brielle told her we love to watch her movie.

We met several rare characters, who are really hard to catch at Disney world.

At Disneyland, they have what’s called walking characters. They bring them out for only 5 minutes. They walk around and  if you’re bold enough, you can shove your way through the crowd and meet them. We even made a few enemies by asking them to sign 4 autograph books. Walking characters are not my favorite. I’m just not bold enough. But thanks to the Disney app, we were able to see the exact place and time the would be out.

We rode so many rides, during the day at least when the lines were short.

This ride is similar to Tower of Terror at Disney World. Last year we took the two oldest kids. Brielle came off the ride crying. This year Bethany offered her $1. She went on willingly. She even yelled “I’m not even hanging on” during the ride. Joah did not go on willingly this time. In fact one of the “I have to poop’s” came right before this ride from Joah……nerves I think.

We met several princesses, but the most memorable was Snow White. The reason we remember her is nothing she did, but something Caed did. Right as he was meeting her he goes “check out this cool trick.” Like a scene from a movie he jumps right as Brandon’s Head is above his. He clonked Brandon’s lip super hard. So hard, that we thought Brandon bit all the way through his lip. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I rooked over at Brandon. He smiled a very bloody nasty smile. It was unreal. After seeing Snow White, Bethany(who is an RN) checked him over. She said we don’t need to go to urgent care since he doesn’t need stitches. I know it hurt bad. Nose bumps and lip bumps are the absolute worst. We decided to take a dinner break. We got Brandon some Motrin and he was soon feeling much better.

We did two days of Disneyland. One day was spent at Disneyland. The next day was spent at Disney California Adventure. Then we went to Universal Studios. They were running a special, buy a day get one free. So we did two days at Universal. The first day we went was on a Sunday, so they were pretty packed. The next day was Monday, and it wasn’t busy at all. Rides went from 2 hour waits to 10 minute waits. The Jurassic World ride was awesome. We loved it. All except for Caed that is. He stopped the entire ride. We tried to take him, but he panicked last minute. He was wailing and crying. The person running the ride said we can’t take him if he won’t calm down. He did not calm down. Aunt Bethany stayed with him and we did a child swap. I rode the ride again with her later.

We met the transformers. They are Caed’s favorite.

We met Megatron. For those unfamiliar with Transformers, he’s a bad guy. Isla was too scared to take a picture beside him without Brandon. Megatron said to leave all children with yellow hair bows and he will be sure to look after them for us. 🤣

There were several rides only Joah was tall enough to ride. I took the youngest kids to meet characters while Brandon and Joah rode roller coasters.

We did what’s called a studio tour. I was skeptical. It was an hour long. I didn’t know how it would go. It was amazing. They took us to several scenes from different movies. They showed us some famous cars from movies. They showed us Jennifer Lopez’s parking spot. They showed us where they film several shows including The Voice and Superstore. They showed us some special effects and some rain storms.

Here is a scene from Jaws.

Here is a street used in several super hero movies. The tour was so interesting. Even the kids loved it.

We had a great four days at theme parks. I’ve got to be honest, theme parks are just as much work as a work day if not more. We do not go to theme parks leisurely. Our goal is to cram as much into the day as we possibly can. We get a lot of experience and memories, but it takes several days of recovery to catch up afterwards.

After the second day at Universal, we had to drive 6 hours to Las Vegas. Brandon had two store trainings the next day. We decided to just take it easy at our campground. I wasn’t crazy about taking the kids up to the strip after dark and waking around. Plus we were all very tired. It worked out well. We caught up on school work. We swam. We rested and relaxed.