We stopped at the Jamba Juice in Downtown Disney for a cheap and quick breakfast. O got an apple kale smoothie and granola with blueberries ("like Daniel Tiger"). She was so happy.
Louis went on ahead of us to get our first fast pass of the day. The entire fast pass system is beyond confusing to me and I find it so annoying. Anyway, O and I joined him at California Adventure, where he was in line for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. While he rode with O, I was sent off to get our second fast pass and spent a bunch of time trying to figure out the system and how to get back to Louis and O as they were getting off the ride.
I was so frustrated and annoyed by the stress of it all and then angry with myself for not being able to enjoy our time together.
After the Mater ride, which O said was "a little scary" because it went fast, we went on the Ariel ride. We were there first thing in the morning, so there was practically no wait for certain rides, and Ariel was one. It was super cute.
Afterwards, O asked to ride the Nemo submarine ride (she calls him "Memo") and since we had promised her we'd do Nemo this morning, we took off on the hike to the next park. Good thing for the hopper tickets.
It was about this point when I first felt what I know would be a huge blister on the bottom of my foot.
In line for Nemo, I was super thirsty, since I hadn't had any water to drink since waking up and it was close to lunchtime. In line for Nemo, I snuck out to get our water bottle refilled, only I got stuck in a slow line at the restaurant and I saw the Nemo line move significantly at the same time and thought I would miss it, so I went back without water. I was so frustrated and upset with Louis because I had been asking to stop and get our bottle refilled all morning but he was so into the stupid fast pass thing and wanted to keep pushing through O's obvious tiredness (and probably thirst) that he didn't seem to care. I was frustrated to tears about his attitude and my own attitude and the fact that we had been snipping at each other the whole trip and that Olivia isn't physically capable of being still for more than a minute. Ugh.
Now, I can see that it was nice to have everything come boiling up, because he finally relaxed and I forced myself to have a better attitude and Olivia finally got to ride Nemo and we all had a much better day after that.
Seriously, half the people walking around Disneyland are like, "this is the greatest place ever and life is magical!" and the other half are like, "I will kill you all, starting with my own ungrateful kids and spouse." I felt both today but in the end, it was a great day.
We spent the rest of the day in Disneyland and rode the railroad to New Orleans Square, where we had a yummy clam chowder breadbowl for lunch. It is absolutely impossible to be dairy and gluten free at Disneyland.
Then we headed to a quiet spot overlooking the huge pirate ship ride so I could nurse O for a sensory-overload break. We then rode Winnie the Pooh and watched the riders of Splash Mountain scream as they fell.
We went on the Jungle Cruise, which didn't scare O at all. Then we sat in the waiting area for the Tiki Room and couldn't resist the Dole whip. In the Tiki Room, all was going really well (O was singing along and dancing on my lap) until there was a big thunder and lightning part and she turned to me and said, "I go home," which is her way of saying, "I'm terrified and I hate this." Fortunately the show ended soon after but darn it. I feel so bad that she was scared.
We asked her at that point where she wanted to go next and she asked for the teacups. We all rode together this time, which was fun. No more stupid fast pass drama. We rode Dumbo again and then O asked to ride the horsies of the merry go round.
After that, she was totally wiped out and it was naptime, so we headed for the baby care center, where they have nursing rooms. None of us wanted to make the 45 minute walk back to the hotel with no guarantee she'd even nap once we got here, so we decided to stay at the park.
The nursing room was air conditioned and mostly quiet. There were a row of wicker chairs with armrests lined up in a single row, all facing forward and you just sat in an empty chair for as long as you needed. The woman in the chair behind me was a go-go dancer in Vegas, according to her phone conversation. It takes all kinds, I guess.
O and I enjoyed some quiet time in the room, but she wouldn't nap, so we joined Louis who had been out shopping for the refills for a fancy bubble gun he bought her earlier. We dropped twelve bucks on this bubble gun, which lights up and blows a million bubbles. Olivia LOVES it. She played with it whenever we had to wait in line and made friends with all the other kids who got to pop them all, too. On our walk back to the hotel, O "shot" bubbles at Louis, who pretended to trample through them and she squealed and laughed the entire way. Definitely a good purchase.
Anyway, after the nap attempt, we ran into the fairy godmother and O wanted to get in line to meet her. As she got close in line, I explained that O could walk up to the fairy godmother and say hello and then we would take a picture. When it was her turn, she tripped and fell and the nice fairy godmother helped her up and gave her a hug. We got a cute picture and O was happy but when she came to me afterwards she said, "I forgot Olivia's name." We laughed and said it wasn't unusual to forget your name when you meet someone famous :) She's still afraid of costumes characters but is doing much better with the princesses and actual people characters.
We went to the nearest cafe for a snack, which happened to be the Jolly Holiday place and Mary Poppins was outside! I'm not sure who was more excited, Olivia or Louis. We got lots of cute pictures. Bert was there, too, and played with O and her bubbles for awhile.
We got a table right at the edge so we could eat our snack and watch the parade, which was just minutes away. The first float out was the Frozen one and O was mesmerized. As the full parade came out, she pointed and clapped and sang along to the music. She loved it. It was so nice to see her enjoying herself.
After the parade we stopped for some ice cream. O requested chocolate, which came as a huge scoop on a little cone. I scraped all but two tablespoons off and gave O her chocolate ice cream cone. Since she was happily occupied, we stopped across the street to have her silhouette done. It came out great! The lady (who has been doing it 35 years) even got O's little white hair bow.
We then jumped on the railroad and rode all the way around the park to Autopia, for our last ride of the day. As tired as she was, O had a blast steering our car. That may be one of her favorites that we should do again tomorrow.
By the time we got off, the park was officially closed for the special Halloween party. Tons of people were pouring into the park, all of them in costume. It looked like a great event and I hope we get to go eventually. Maybe a few more years.
We trekked back to the hotel and O was quickly fast asleep. Louis and I checked yelp reviews of local dinner options and ended up ordering a garlic chicken pizza that was awesome. The best part was that the driver brought us an extra water, so we have 3 liters of water to get us through tomorrow! With no need to fill up or beat the fast pass system, we should have a great day.
Louis promised to be extra nice to me on my birthday. We'll see.
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