The week of 6/22 Maile and Beck did not have school, so we planned to hit the Anaheim theme parks that week. Hansel's mom flew in Monday and thank God for that. We would not have survived the trip without her. My mother-in-law and this Ride Max app we used made the whole Disney experience pleasurable.
The first time we went to Disney Beck was a baby. We went on a Friday I believe. It was super crowded, we didn't know about the Fast Pass, and the lines were really long. It was not that fun, and I was not interested in going back any time soon. This time around Hansel had found a third-party application (Ride Max) that helps plan yours days at the Disney parks. You select all the rides, and it returns a schedule that minimizes your wait times. It even tells you when to go and get a fast pass. It also helped that we got to Disneyland before 9:30. We didn't follow the Ride Max schedule to the letter, but it definitely helped us plan our time.
The only glitch in our schedule was when we got in line for the Small World ride. Hansel went to get in line while I took Maile and Beck on Casey Jr Circus Train. When we joined Hansel, he said the line was going quickly for Small World, so he decided to get out of line and wait for us. When we got in line, it was going fairly quickly until we got about 6 boats out. Then the line halted. Basically, they were having trouble getting a wheelchair-bound grandmother on a boat. She was very embarrassed. They actually stopped both boat lines. I suppose to be fair and to allow people who had finished the ride to get out of their boats. The ride didn't get going again until a repair guy came out of the bowels of the park to fix the problem.
We pulled out a stroller for the trip that we hadn't used since we lived in SF. It's a huge stroller, but it can face forward or back and can recline completely flat. So when you have it facing back and fully reclined, it's like a carriage. We used it with Mathis so he could sleep on his tummy while we pushed him around the parks. It worked great and saved my back from having to carry him in a carrier.
Beck didn't want to go on the Dumbo ride, but at least I got him to pose with Dumbo.
The little old lady is in the red. She looks like a queen.
I took this photo with my phone. 
We went to Disney the first day. We figured it'd be better to go earlier in the week than later, and it was Hansel's mom's birthday so she got in for free. For her birthday dinner, we went to Joe's Crab Shack. This one has an outdoor play structure right next to the patio seating.
After we got all the kids to sleep, we took up my MIL's offer to watch the kids, so we could go back to Disney. We had to slowly snake our way around the park because everyone was gathering for a parade. We wanted to go on the Indiana Jones' ride but it was closed for repairs, so we ended up going on Pirates of the Carribean and Haunted Mansion. We got back to our suite around 10:45 and was greeted by a crying Mathis. He apparantly woke up and had been crying for a while. I felt bad for my MIL, but she said she was okay and wasn't worried about him. She knew he wasn't hungry and probably just wanted his mommy. As you probably guessed, we didn't go out the next night.
We planned to go to California Adventure the next day. It doesn't open until 10a. So since we had 2-day park hopper passes, I dropped Hansel, Maile and Beck off at Disney at 9a so they could go on the Finding Nemo submarine ride. After feeding Mathis, my MIL and I left to meet Hansel and the kids by 9:45 outside California Adventure. By the time we got to the resort, we were directed to the overflow parking, which is actually closer to the parks than the main parking.
At California Adventure, I spent a good part of the morning waiting in line for the Toy Story ride. It's a lot like the Disneyland Buzz Lightyear ride. You sit in a moving vehicle while shooting at targets.
We caught a couple of shows. The Aladdin show, which was like a mini-musical you'd see on Broadway. Good staging, singing, and humor and just the right length for young kids. We also saw an outdoor show on a small stage about animation. Also had good singing but the real highlight is that Maile got to meet Cinderella.
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