My Spring Break Adventure

I've been wanting to get a lot of use out of our Disneyland pass especially since Abby now has more stamina and (if Steve is there anyway) is eager to try new rides. But having cutee bo-booty Jack around makes it impossible for me... now that I'm "with child" again.

More than just go to Disneyland, I've wanted to stay at the Grand Californian. BUT I kind of didn't want to make it a big deal. Ha. I know.

SO whilst thinking of what fun thing I could do with Abby for Spring Break since all I really wanted to do was sit at home with no deadlines and appointments... I thought - well, what if I got my mom to come with me to stay over night at the hotel and go to the parks with the kids?

I asked her like three days before we went ahead and went. Much as a dozen people ran through my head to ask if they wanted to meet up with us while there, I knew I wasn't up for that. We needed to be at our own beck and call, on our own timeline... and we needed to freedom to give up and just go back to the hotel.

SO I learned a lot about what I want to do next time, but even so, this time was pretty dang cool.

Next time:
I wouldn't worry about bringing too much stuff as you literally pull up to the hotel - I honestly expected to have to tram our luggage and lug it through Downtown Disney to get to the hotel.

I would come up later in the afternoon when the room was definitely ready so that the "retreat" back to that room could literally happen anytime we wanted.

I would stay 2 nights.

That's about all I would change (except obviously having Steve there to join in the family frolic)

We got there around 11am and left our luggage with the porter until the room was ready. They were able to take care of getting my mom's block out day ticket (I checked MY block out dates but forgot to check hers!) and that had been one of my worst case scenario things... like we have to lug our luggage then wait a half hour in line for my mom to get her temp ticket. But the front desk was great, they had the cute little mini mission chairs set up in front of a cartoon so the kids were spellbound and more than happy.

We spent all day in California Adventure.



We did the ladybug spin ride, the Heinrich catapiller ride, got a tortilla (of course), spent a lot of time at a funny in between noise-making station that I'd never ever noticed before and spent... an hour and a half in the little water park area. The kids were wet (in Abby's case SOAKING wet), but no worries, I was optimistic that the room would be ready.

Snort. Or not.




And it wasn't a HOT day by a long shot. So rather than go to the hotel, retrieve our suitcase and get the clothes I had prepared for her, I instead got her a new outfit. I know. Awful. But I kind of had a rule in my head that I wouldn't go that route unless I really did like something. And I did. AND there were fuzzy winter crocs for 40% off (her shoes were soaking too - we really hadn't thought the water park portion of the day through - but both the kids were enjoying themselves too much to worry over it, so I paid the consequence). AnD I had a coupon from our passport renewal too that worked.

Anyway, it all would have worked out pretty nicely if the crocs had FIT. BUT instead we went to the child's hospitality center, dripped all over their floor, changed clothes with difficulty since Abby's skin was damp as well ;) and then, realized:

a) I hadn't bought underwear
b) The shoes didn't fit.

SO off I ran back, leaving my mom with the kids in the hospitality center and the exchange went through without incident and all was well...

Jack has this way of involving his whole body in his emotions-
When he is happy he either throws both his hands over his head like this, which I translate as, "I'm overwhelmed this is so great"


or he bends at the waist in a sort of,
"I can't stand it anymore, it's so great"




At this point everyone was hungry and Abby was whiny. I had one of those "two roads diverged in a yellow wood" moments where she was being unreasonable and unacceptable and I could either bring down the parental thunder or diffuse the whole thing somehow - except I didn't know how because I was beat and tired and hungry and whiny myself. I said, "I'm going to count" but not as in "by three you're going to stop or get in trouble" but as in, I needed to count to ten before I threw my own tantrum. So I started... then, wanting to distract her like one does with little children - by six I started adding "six... I'm looking forward to getting food, seven... I'm looking forward to getting water, eight... I'm looking forward to getting our hotel..." I mean I was really not being brilliant here, I was convincing myself to calm down, but as she heard the extras she started smirking and looking expectantly up for the next thing, and THEN I finally got the clue and added in funner, kid things, "nine... I'm looking forward to a treat... ten..."

And sure enough the blood vessel throbbing in my head started to loosen and Abby happily got out of her "heels dug in" posture and wanted me to do the counting again.

Thank you God for looking after impatient and whiny moms.

Anyway, so off we went to the longest wait at a hot dog stand that ever was made by anyone. And I didn't even WANT a hot dog. IiiIII wanted room service. But the room might not be ready and I was starving... and as soon as we finished... the room was ready. BAH.

BUT reinforcements had arrived. MarySue drove up after a full day of her own and I really think the trip would have looked a bit more like a bust if she hadn't shown up. We went into the hotel, refreshed ourselves slightly (retrieved some non-water-park-logged-undies fo Abby) and decided I would put Jack down for a nap while the grandmas took Abby out on the town.

Off they went. By the time we all met up for dinner again, Jack had napped, I had napped, the room's heater had been fixed, Abby was almost ready for bed and I was so glad we were there for the night.

We had a great dinner and went upstairs to let Abby watch "Princess Bedtime Stories" on one of the tv channels twenty times until she was comatose. We let Jack play ball until HE was comatose... my mom went to the guest laundry to dry Abby's sopping wet clothes and all in all we were ready for bed.

Jack slept through the night except for a single shriek every two hours. Abby LOVED her bunk bed until the middle of the night when sleeping horizontally between me and my mom was just too tempting.

We had a bit more of a rushed morning once we finally got in the park than was planned - but it was one of those things. I had thought that we should pack and put our stuff down at the porter's again, but then I thought, eh, we have plenty of time... and then suddenly we didn't.

Jack, after sleeping ALL night, then going BACK to sleep when he got up must have been in such a sensory overload coma this morning he just didn't snap out of it until we were finally resolved that we really were going to leave

Despite the fact that Abby started crying ten minutes after first entering the hotel room yesterday because we were only staying one night and she was already in love (it was as sweet a "fit" as one can have), she was a joy to give such an adventure to.


There's something so sad about that last look at your hotel room, isn't there?

We made it home. I am tired. Gramma and Zoozie are fabulous. Steve is awesome because while we were playing he was moving his closet. He's a star. I'm going to burn some cookies for him (no that's not a euphemism).