We were seriously dragging by Friday, our last day at Disneyland - 5th day in California, 4th at the parks. But we were determined to finish strong and have one more great day! And it was Abigail's 3rd birthday! (I'll do a separate post specific to her next.)
Friday was mostly our catch-up day - the time to do all the things we'd missed all week!
We started with a quick trip back to California Adventure to meet Elsa and Anna! (They weren't there on Thursday....)
But Kristoff and Olaf, first! They were so much fun!
True to form, Abigail hung in the background.
Then we met the sisters!
Abigail still in the back....while Maddie can't get enough!
And she even wore her Anna and Olaf shirt that day!
We went next to the Disney Junior Dance Party - this was a highlight of the trip! The pictures weren't great (bad lighting), but the girls had so much fun dancing and seeing Princess Sophia, Doc McStuffins, Mickey, Minnie, and more!
Next was a quick ride on the Golden Zephyr before letting everyone have play time at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. The 4 youngest had missed it during nap time on Thursday.
Abigail, in particular, had a blast!
Look at this cutie birthday girl! I loved watching her play and explore.
The girls could have stayed here all day!
But we finally broke away and headed back to Disneyland - to finally meet Tinker Bell! Another one of those things we'd kept missing during the week. Pixie Hollow, here we come!
We were hoping to meet some of Tinker Bell's friends, but alas, she was alone. Still fun, though!
Abigail clung to Andrew - but she was having fun! I feel like I should point out that she loved seeing the characters, she just wanted to keep her distance. She still talks about meeting all of them!
"Ah! She's looking at me!"
Andrew and I went to save spots in line for the Jungle Cruise while the girls got to meet Moana. They hadn't seen the movie at this point, but they still enjoyed it. Now, I'm sure they'd go crazy. They've seen the movie several times this summer (now that it's on Netflix) and LOVE it. Reagan and Daryn had already seen it and were in heaven.
Crusin' through the jungle!
Back to the hotel for a break at this point. A swimming break! This was the only time we had to use the hotel's pool - they had this 18" one that was perfect for the girls! And we did a little party/present opening for Abigail while there.
When we got back, we rode Hyperspace Mountain (When did that become the official name instead of Space Mountain? I think I'll stick with calling it Space Mountain.) I did not like this ride, but the girls did!
Another thing we'd been missing all week were the shows at the Royal Theater - they were showing Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast, but we only caught Beauty and the Beast. It was cute!
Tried the Dole whip while watching Mickey's Magical Map at the Fantasyland Theatre. The Dole whip was ok and the show was amazing!!! So much fun!
We went to ride Casey Jr. Circus Train next and the men waited for us to load up in a train car with ALL the girls (minus Maddie), then had a whole car to themselves.
While we were crammed in like monkeys! With lots of little monkeys!
"No hands!"
More Space Mountain for those brave (or crazy!) enough to ride again.
The Smiths at Disney!
Our whole group!
We did dinner at the Jolly Holiday Bakery for Abigail's birthday - while waiting for the fireworks show.
During dinner, the adults took turns riding Indiana Jones. The ride hadn't opened until that morning, and then had been broken all day so we weren't able to use our fast passes until the very end. Kelly and I went first and it was amazing! My favorite ride!
When we got back to the restaurant, we found that things were rapidly unraveling. The girls (mostly Abigail) was throwing a tantrum, Andrew was losing it, and everyone was tired and grumpy. We forced Andrew and Lance to go ride Indiana Jones while Kelly and I gathered everyone up and found spots for the fireworks show. We waited and waited only to find out AFTER THE SHOW STARTED that they'd cancelled the fireworks and were only doing a light show on the castle instead. We were so mad. This was the only reason we'd stuck around so late and endured all the fussing and whining of the kids. We left. Immediately.
Andrew and Lance caught up with us on our way out and we got our picture in front of the Fortuosity Shop (from The Happiest Millionare!)
Andrew and Lance didn't even get the full Indiana Jones experience - the part towards the end where the huge boulder comes rolling at you, your car moves backwards, then dives down to miss the boulder - well, there was no boulder for them. Haha, we were all pretty grumpy at the end of this day.
Nothing a good night's sleep wouldn't help with, though!
The next morning on our way out, we stopped at Downtown Disney so each of the girls could pick out a souvenir from the trip. We gave them each $15 and let them run wild - figuratively speaking, of course. (Andrew stayed in the car with Cora.) Eve picked baby animal stuffed animals for herself and Cora, Halle chose a Minnie Mouse racer car, and Abigail picked a twirly, light up Elsa.
After that, we hopped back in the car and headed for Utah!
Disneyland was in the books! Most expensive, amazing, exhausting, blast of a trip ever!
The girls are already asking when we can go again.....
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