For our last park day we headed back to California Adventure since they had early morning magic hours that started at 8am that day, so it was nice to get a little later of a start. John and the kids took their time eating breakfast and I even went in there to quickly grab something. I texted my brother that we were heading out and he said he would be right behind us. We arrived to the park right at 8am and immediately purchased MaxPass and selected our first FP of the day {I believe for Radiator Springs Racers; I did not do a great job of recording what we got fast passes for this day, so I'm trying my best to remember.}. First up Curran and I went to ride Guardians of the Galaxy while John and Sallie Cate went to grab our fast passes for World of Color that evening. I had already told my brother earlier to meet us at Guardians, but I had to give John my phone that had the tickets loaded on it so he could get our fast passes. I didn't think to switch and take his phone. Anyway, C and I walked on to Guardians and it was really quick.
We both loved it!! I was laughing the whole time- so fun! I was looking out for my brother but never saw him while we were in line and found him after we got off the ride. I felt bad we didn't wait on him, but I didn't want to risk having a long line {it builds very quickly}. I told him we would wait while he rode it, but he said he would do it later on. FYI it was much quicker for C and I to walk on at park opening than it was for the boys to use their FP the day before. I would recommend doing that for sure! {But also get a FP to use later on so you can ride it twice.}

I told John to meet us in Cars Land after they got the WOC fast passes, so we headed there next. First up we rode Luigi. That was Walt's first time to ride anything in Cars Land, and he was really impressed with how well done it all was! Then we saw Mater out greeting with no line, so we went over to meet him. He talked and everything and was so cute!

Then we walked with Walt to get his FP for World of Color because I wasn't sure how quickly they would run out. I thought the girls would want to ride Ariel since we were right there, but they didn't so we circled back around to Soarin' since Walt hadn't ridden it yet. We got in line but my brother had to do something so he ended up not even riding because he didn't want top ride it alone and felt bad cutting in line to meet up with us- which people do all the time so I wouldn't feel bad! :/

Then we headed to Disney Animation in Hollywood Land to do Turtle Talk with Crush. It's the same show at WDW but we think it's so cute! For the first time ever C wanted to sit with the adults and not on the floor with the kids, so she sat with Walt and me while John sat on the floor with SC. Well wouldn't you know that when Crush came out, he immediately wanted to talk to Curran first thing. :) She didn't even have her hand raised. After asking where she was from and a few other things, he asked where her parents were so then I had to talk to Crush too. He asked how many kids I had and I said three, and he said "Oh you're just getting started." {Since Crush has like 85 or something.} I told him he would have to talk to my husband about that. :) Then SC got called on as well when she raised her hand to ask a question. Next we went to ride Monsters Inc: Mike & Sully to the Rescue which was cute {again, so much like Winnie the Pooh, Alice, Snow White, Roger Rabbit rides}.

Then it was time for our first FP at Radiator Springs Racers. Walter had not gotten to ride it the day before so I was very excited for him to get to experience it! SC was not happy to ride it again. She loves it all except one little tiny drop, and she lets that ruin the rest of the ride for her. There are two tracks so I was glad we ended up getting to ride both {we rode on the opposite side the day before} because they have a little bit of a different scene when you are inside. My favorite part is when you pull up to the car on the track next to you and "race." We won this day, so C was thrilled. :)

Then the girls wanted to head to Paradise Pier, so we did that and rode the Golden Zyphr first. While in line, SC decided to she needed to use the restroom stat so I called John, who was not with us, to come get her so I didn't have to make C leave the line. I don't remember where Walt was at this time. We rode the ride and then got a call from John that SC had not made it to the potty. I was not real happy with her considering I couldn't convince either one of them to go with me 15 minutes earlier, but I was glad I wasn't the one dealing with it. John quickly took her back to the hotel to change {yay for everything being so close! Have I sung those praises a time or twenty? :) } and said he would meet us at our lunch reservation. Walt and Curran rode the Symphony Swings and then we headed for our next FP for Toy Story Mania.




Then we went to the Grand Californian for our 11:30 lunch reservation at Storyteller's Cafe. We originally had a 10:45 breakfast scheduled, but the day before I got our concierge to move it a little later because we didn't want to eat up too much of our morning park time since the parks didn't open until 8am. She warned me that the characters left right at 11:30, but I thought maybe we could get there a tad early, around 11:15, and still see them, but we ended up getting there right on time. John and Sal had gotten there a few minutes early and saw the characters through the window, but none were in sight when we got seated. They still had the breakfast buffet up {until noon} or we could order lunch off the menu; we chose breakfast and really enjoyed it despite not getting to see any characters.

After lunch we stopped on Buena Vista Street to wait for the Newsies show which I was DYING to see, and it did not disappoint. It was super cute and we all enjoyed it.






Then we decided to head over to Disneyland Park. I really wanted to ride Mr. Toad's Wild since it is original to the park and we hadn't done it yet. The wait time said 20 minutes, but I knew it wouldn't get any shorter, so I sent John to get us some churros while we waited. Well...I guess SC didn't understand my plan of eat churro in line to kill time and she expected John to wait outside the ride with her churro because she thought she wouldn't have time to eat it in line. Brat Fest 2018 ensued and I about lost all patience with her and told John to just throw the d-a-m-n churro in the stroller and I didn't care if it ended up on the ground. But being the sweet man he is, he agreed to skip the ride and hold it for her. And to top if off the churros weren't even good!! They were not warm and tasted stale. And I wasn't even hungry to begin with but thought being unpleasantly stuffed would be worth it for a churro. Disappointing on many accounts. :)




Then we headed to our FP on Thunder Mountain. I had not ridden it the day before, so Curran and I rode it first while Walt and John waited with SC.


Then the boys took C on it again {using their fast passes and SC's for Curran} while SC and I strolled over to the train station in New Orleans Square. They met us over there after Thunder Mtn, and we ended up having to wait awhile on the train. Not many people were getting off at our station, so while it wasn't crowded, we just had to wait until there was room for us. We debated getting off in Tomorrowland so we could take the monorail to Downtown Disney since we hadn't ridden it, but we decided to stay on until Main Street. There is a little attraction area on the train that has dinosaur scenes between Tomorrowland and Main Street, making it more of a ride than at WDW.


After riding the train, we decided to head back to the hotel so the girls could swim and so I could do laundry and pack.

After swimming and then dinner in the lounge, I tried to enforce naps so we could have a late night back at California Adventure, but it took SC a while to fall asleep, so by the time I was wanting to wake her up {around 6:30ish} she did not want to. John was almost asleep at that point himself, so he volunteered to stay with her.

So Walt, Curran, and I headed back to DCA. We had a FP for Guardians of the Galaxy so we went there first.


Then we walked through Cars Land to Paradise Pier and went to ride Ariel. We had a FP for Goofy's Sky School so we went there next. We talked to THE cutest 9 year old Australian boy/girl twins while we were waiting in line. I think they had just as much fun visiting with us as I did them- the cast members basically had to force us on the ride because none of us were paying a lick of attention. :) It was fun to talk to them about the places I had been in Australia, and they knew about Alabama because they had just "watched the big football game!" :) Then we rode the Symphony Swings and the Golden Zephyr.

 Then we went back to Cars Land to ride Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. This was Walt's first time on this ride. We caught the end of a dance party before riding Luigi again.




Then we went to A Bug's Land to see It's Tough to be a Bug. I had never done this at WDW so I wanted to check it out. Then it was time for World of Color, so we walked through Pacific Wharf to find seats for the show.


I was sad John and SC never got to see World of Color, but I was glad Curran was able to stay up for it! It is so good, and it was so nice to have that time with her and my brother to end the trip. After WOC we went back to the hotel so C could go to bed and I could finish packing.



We said goodbye to my brother as he headed back to Santa Monica that night. I was so sad the trip was over and felt like I could've used one more day. :)

Tuesday morning came bright and early. We knew Bham was getting snow and that schools were closed, so we were worried about getting home. We basically knew our flights would get canceled, so we packed a carry on bag full of pj's, toiletries, and extra clothes. I really just wanted to stay an extra night at DL and try to fly home Wed, but we were stressed about childcare on Wed for baby John and also big John said we needed to start making our way home- it just takes all day when flying home from CA so he wanted to at least get somewhere closer that night even if we couldn't make it all the way to Bham. We called an Uber around 6am and headed to the Santa Ana airport from which we were departing.

As soon as we got all checked in at the airport, I got a text from Southwest that our flight to Houston had been canceled. I told the guy doing our curbside check in, but he still showed the flight as on time. So we proceeded through security where I got a huge brand new bottle of Cetaphil lotion thrown away because I am not used to carrying on and had forgotten about liquids. I had also forgotten to empty the girls' water bottles so I had the choice of throwing them away {they are reusable} or taking them back out of security, dumping them out, and then coming back through. While I was dealing with this, John and the girls had gone on to the gate, where indeed our flight had been canceled- I just didn't know it yet. The security man was actually very nice and escorted me out and then walked me back through so I could cut in line, but it was all such a waste of time since we never should have gone through security in the first place. As soon as I got back through I went to our gate where John told me the flight was canceled. They were not able to get us on any flights out of Orange County that day, so our options were to drive to LAX or San Diego. LAX was a bit closer, but I dreaded driving with traffic into the city and then dealing with that massive airport. John made the call to go to San Diego and it was the best decision! I got online and rented us a car while we walked to baggage claim to get our luggage that had already been checked through. We picked up our car and headed towards San Diego. We had not eaten a thing since the lounge at our hotel was not open before we left, so we found a Starbucks to stop at.

There ended up being bad traffic so we got off the freeway and took the scenic route to San Diego. We drove through Del Mar where John and I stayed many moons ago when he was out there for work, and it brought back lots of memories. We were dying to eat at the best Mexican restaurant that we loved years ago, but they didn't open until 11:30 so we wouldn't have had time. We made it to the airport with a few hours to kill before our flight.


We had another long layover in Las Vegas before finally boarding our last flight.


We finally made it to our house via taxi around midnight. The girls were total troopers after getting up at 5am and not going to bed until after midnight- we were seriously proud and impressed with how well they did- and we were so glad to be home! Our sitter was able to stay the night with baby John thankfully, so it all worked out just fine.

We had the most wonderful trip!! I'm so thankful we got to experience that magical place, and I cannot wait to go back! Hopefully next time with baby John in tow!

On Sunday we woke up and followed the same schedule- John took the girls to the lounge to eat while I finished getting ready, and then we headed to California Adventure for a 7am opening. We arrived around 7:20, and entering was a tad quicker than the day before since we already had our pictures taken and all that. I immediately bought our MaxPass upon entering the park, selected our first fast pass for Radiator Springs Racers, and then we headed to get a paper fast pass for World of Color, the night time entertainment show. This FP cannot be obtained via MaxPass, and it also doesn't count in your regular FP allotment. The FP distribution center is back in Paradise Pier near the Little Mermaid ride, so I got those FP printed and we headed to ride Little Mermaid. 

This ride is the exact same at WDW {minus the different queue}, but we love it and the girls were excited to do it! There was not a soul on it except us. We walked around Paradise Pier but realized none of those rides opened until official park opening {tad waste of time and poor planning on my part- that was the good thing about this trip- I have it all figured now out so I can advise clients! :) } so we headed towards Soarin' which had no wait. This ride is the same at WDW but is always a fave. 


As we were walking back up Buena Vista Street, we saw Mickey so we hopped in line to meet him!





Then we headed back to Paradise Pier since the park was now officially open therefore the rides would be too. Curran was dying to ride Goofy's Sky School, so she and I headed there. SC originally said she didn't want to, but then right as we were getting on she and John came running up because she had changed her mind. She didn't love it but tolerated it fine. :) Then John and the girls rode the Golden Zephyr {I can't remember why I didn't? Maybe I went to the restroom or was dealing with a client email? Have no idea.} Then the girls and I rode the Jumpin' Jellyfish and then we all headed to the Silly Symphony Swings.




The girls wanted to ride the swings again, so John hopped back on with them while I sat out {it made me a tad dizzy}. Then Curran and John rode Goofy's Sky School again. There was no one in Paradise Pier, so the wait times were non-existent and the girls loved all the rides! We headed towards King Triton's Carousel next.




After that we went to Cars Land. I think the main thing you hear from people who have been to Disneyland is how awesome Cars Land is. I was looking forward to it, but not having any true Cars fans in my house it wasn't something we were overly excited about. WELL. Let me just tell you...it is so precious and fun and an EXACT replica of the movie. And I will say we were even more blown away after we got home and randomly saw Cars on TV and started watching. All four of us were in awe and it brought back such happy memories from our trip! I'm going off on a tangent, but the point is Cars Land was amazing and so well done. First up we rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. Precious.



Then we did Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. Even more precious.






And then we headed for our first FP for Radiator Springs Racers. I remember that our FP time was 9:20-10:20, and I believe it was around 10:00 when we got in line.

My brother was getting to the park around this time but wasn't able to get a FP for RSR, so he met us after we got off the ride.

After leaving Cars Land, we went to A Bug's Land. This is a perfect area for the littler kids-  there are several cute rides with no height requirements! John and Walt weren't super jazzed about this plan, but I really wanted to do as much as we could. First we did Heimlich's Chew Train- probably pretty lame for the over 4-5 crowd, but a great choice for little ones!



 Then we did Francis' Ladybug Boogie and whoa- made me feel kinda sick but the girls thought it was hilarious and so fun! Then I really wanted to do Flik's Flyers. The wait time said 5 minutes so what was the harm in waiting? Well, 5 minutes ended up being 25 and mama wasn't happy! Curran ended up getting out of line and waiting with John and Walter. I have no idea what was going with the lengthy wait, but it didn't help that the guy running it had a screw {or twelve} loose.



 So on that frustrating note, we decided to say goodbye to A Bug's Land and ate the churros the boys had gotten us while we were in line.


 We walked passed the Hyperion Theater at 11:45 and saw that the Frozen show was due to start at 12, so we decided to do that! There were only balcony level seats left, but that was fine by us {the day before I had stopped by there and asked a cast member what time to arrive, and she said 40-60 minutes before show time. I can tell you who aint't gonna do that and it's me. I don't need floor level seats if that's how early you have to get there.}


This show is basically like a play version of Frozen that is an hour long, and we all really enjoyed it! When we left the show at 1pm, it was crazy how much more crowded the park had become. We all went to the restroom and then headed back to Paradise Pier to get corn dogs for lunch! Walt and I got the food while John took the girls with him to get beers.




Our next Fast Pass was for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, formerly known as Tower of Terror. I have never actually ridden ToT at WDW, so I was excited to try this version. The girls didn't want to do it, so I waited with them while the boys went first. Well they ended up getting stuck in line so long that I decided not to wait for my turn and instead took the girls to see the Disney Junior Dance Party. WDW has a similar one at Hollywood Studios which we have done, so the girls were excited. C didn't want to get up and dance though which made me sad as this was the first time she really wasn't up for something that seemed a little young to her. Normally she doesn't care about that sort of thing. :( The boys met us outside the show when it was over. Their FP line had taken so long that the cast members let them ride Guardians twice, and they both thought the ride was awesome!



We grabbed some beers and then headed towards the exit so we could hop over to Disneyland Park. We had already ridden everything we wanted to at DCA that was available for fast pass, so we booked our next FP for Space Mountain after Guardians of the Galaxy. Sallie was dying to meet Chewie and had been talking about it all day, so we headed to the Star Wars Launch Bay to meet him. We had to wait for a while in line, and SC got really shy when it was our turn, but she was excited.




We caught the tail end of a Jedi Training show when we were leaving, and SC wanted to stay and watch. Then we had a FP for Space Mtn, but SC didn't want to ride of course so I sat out with her while the boys and C rode. She entertained herself with some other kids who were playing with this ball and fountain thing {they have it at WDW but I have no idea what it's called}. After that we got some churros {that were freshly made and oh so good!} and went to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It's the exact same at WDW except you sit in honeycombs instead of honeypots. :) Then we went to our FP at It's a Small World because we really wanted to see the Christmas lights at night. John didn't want to ride, so Walt and I took the girls.



After that we decided to call it a night and went back to the hotel.


We grabbed dinner in the lounge, relaxed, and then girls and John went to bed.


 Earlier in the day my brother decided that he would get a room at our hotel that night so he could enjoy the early morning hour with us the following day {since they are only offered to resort guests}. So he got checked in at the front desk and while we were eating in the lounge, Walt got a steak at the nice restaurant at our hotel and then got settled in his room.

Around 8:30pm I went by his room to get him and we went back to DCA so we could see World of Color at 9pm. He just used John's fast pass that I had gotten that morning. We had great seats {well you stand actually} at first, but then a cast member asked us to move for some reason, and I couldn't see near as well from our new spot. But regardless we enjoyed the show and and I was really hoping the girls would be able to stay up to see it the following night!




After the show my brother and I walked back to the hotel and went to bed to rest up for our last Disneyland day!