Nullmeyers Do Disney - Part 2

Read Part 1 Here: Nully Baby Blog: Nullmeyers Do Disney - Part 1

Our second day in Anaheim was spent in the Disney California Adventure park!

We got exclusive tickets to ride a brand new Spiderman ride when the park first opened. There was no line at all!

We explored the Hollywood section of the park.

And fell in love with Cars Land!

Walking down the street is just like being in the movie!

I think we rode every single ride in Cars Land.

The orange cones are actually mini little food stands!

In the distance we could see Pixar Pier, so we headed that way.

We rode more rides:

And then I took Lucas, Jenna and Andrew on the giant ferris wheel.

Some of the cars rocked, but we chose a stationary one. Even so, that ferris wheel was SO high and we discovered that Jenna was a bit afraid of heights. She literally had her head in her big brother's lap half the time, covered her ears and closing her eyes.

After some struggle to find anywhere to eat (WHY was it so hard to find good food in Disneyland??) we settled on Flo's Diner. Andrew took a little nap while we waited for our burgers.

Next up was one of our favorite rides of the entire trip! I had no idea what to expect from the ride "Soarin", but it far surpassed any expectations. We were inside a kind of movie theater dome, and our seats lifted up so our legs were dangling. We then proceeded to soar over the world, viewing different sites, such as the glaciers, the Eiffel Tower, the African desert, etc. There was cold air, scents, movement......and the whole experience was SO realistically amazing!

Afterwards we stopped for some ice cream!

Then we stood in a 30-40 minute line to ride the Cars racing ride. The lined moved quickly and it was worth it!

It was so fun that we stood in line again (shorter this time!) and raced again!

These two rode around in luxury.

After surveying our dinner options in California Adventure, we opted to leave the park a little early and go to Downtown Disney for dinner. It ended up being a great decision and I had the BEST salad ever at La Brea Bakery.

Our final day was spent back in the main Disneyland park. Love our shirts!

We decided to ride the train around the park, but they wouldn't let us bring our stroller on. So Adam walked the stroller and the rest of us hopped on the train. I have no idea why Ryan looks so angry.

We rode Dumbo for the first time and it was Jenna's favorite ride!

I loved this little boat ride. It took us around miniature versions of fairy tales along the water.

We finally broke down and bought all the kids a Disney hat.

Another quick cat nap. Disneyland is exhausting!

At some point during the afternoon we stood in line for the Haunted Museum, found out it was temporarily shut down, and then later were able to go in. I remember loving this one as a child, but I wasn't nearly as impressed this time. Andrew was so scared though!

Lucas convinced me to go on Splash Mountain with him. For some reason they placed him in the back behind me. He didn't enjoy it this time because he said he was lifted out of his seat and his hands slipped off the hand rail on the final fall down the mountain.

We ended our evening riding the circus train back in Fantasyland. Ryan really enjoyed this ride and asked to go on it again and again. I thought it was so sweet that he loved such a tame ride. We were all getting a little sad about leaving the park so we let them ride it about 4 times.

Our time in Disneyland just flew by!

I snapped one last picture of the park before we exited. Until next time! (Adam and I both enjoyed ourselves but said it'll probably be about 5 years before we go back!)

Once again we chose to go to Downtown Disney for dinner. We couldn't find any food places that wouldn't take forever, so we settled on Jamba Juice and hot dogs. We rode our shuttle back to the hotel with our smuggled food on board, and ate dinner picnic style on our hotel room floor. It was a memorable dinner!

Throughout our trip Adam and I kept remarking to each other about how smoothly everything was going! Great hotel, cooperative and healthy kids, good weather, etc. And it truly was a wonderful family trip!

Until our last day, when I woke up with the worst migraine of my life. Ughhhh it was so bad I considered telling Adam to pay for another night at our hotel, because I didn't think I'd be able to get up and walk to the car for the 7 hour car drive home. Somehow I did, but I was in excrutiating pain and on the verge of throwing up for about our first 3-4 hours of driving. Not fun. About halfway home I started feeling more human, and then Ryan randomly threw up in the car! I think it was a combo of car sickness and too many cheezits. And then once home that night Lucas randomly threw up in the middle of the night.

Other than than that last day, our trip was truly magical and I'm so thankful we got to experience Disneyland with our kids!

Nullmeyers Do Disney - Part 1

Our journey to Disneyland begins back in March 2020 when we were originally supposed to go. We had just gotten back from the snow and we all got really sick the week before our scheduled Disney trip. Then the world shut down and we had to cancel everything. Fast forward almost a year and a half and we finally made it!

This trip was a total surprise for our kids. They've never been to Disneyland, and Adam and I hadn't been there in 20 years. I packed up the car without them knowing and we woke them up bright and early, telling them we were visiting our cousins (who live an hour away).

 After 3 hours in the car Ryan finally started to question things. They were so surprised/confused/excited when we told them the news! They did surprisingly well on the car ride. We entertained ourselves with an audio book, lots of snacks, and a couple episodes of I Love Lucy.

We arrived at our hotel mid-afternoon and for various reasons, Adam immediately requested to switch to a different one. 

After some calling around, we switched to the Anaheim Majestic Garden Hotel, which was less expensive but much nicer! 

The view from our hotel room.

We had one more surprise for the kids. In the parking lot for Downtown Disney District, we met Uncle Sean, Aunt Nicole, and their kids! We had a terrific dinner at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen (little did I know this would be some of the best food I'd eat all week!).

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early for our first day in the park! Each day Adam and I got up at 6, woke the kids at 6:30, got down to eat breakfast at our hotel by 7, and then went outside by 7:45 to catch the free shuttle to the park.

We bought these shirts last year....thankfully they still fit! 

Also, the stroller rental was a life-saver! SO much walking!

I love this picture I snapped in front of the castle!

We went through Fantasyland first, and of course we had to ride on the It's a Small World Ride, along with most of the others. At this point the park wasn't crowded and our wait times were really short! This was probably my favorite time in the park all week....everything was new and magical and just easy. 

About to ride the teacups with this cutie!

We walked through the Star Wars section but our kids honestly weren't that into it because we're not big Star Wars fans. It felt better-suited for older kids.

It was now lunchtime and were we all hungry and hot. (It was a high of 80 each day we were there, so not really bad at all!) Finding good food at Disneyland proved to be pretty impossible. There were very limited options, and everything had to be ordered through a mobile app. We finally settled on some sandwiches for Adam and I, and some (expensive) food for the kids that they really didn't eat.

Feeding Lucas on this trip was really hard. He is SO limited in what he will eat that he basically lived on granola bars, applesauce pouches, and the occasional fried chicken and french fries.

We learned the exciting news that Sean and Nicole are expecting a baby! That made this trip extra special, along with the fact that our first day in the park was Shayla's 14th birthday.

We all agreed that this was our family favorite ride. We probably rode it a total of 5 times during our 2 days in the Disneyland Park!

We rode on a raft across the water to an island in the center of the park. We had fun exploring the island and hiding from the mid-day heat.

Adam took the boys on Splash Mountain next, while the rest of us cooled off with Dole Whips. This was my very first dole whip and it was very refreshing! (I got the pineapple flavor)

We rode around on the ferry which was a beautiful ride!

For dinner we settled on a Mexican restaurant in the park, but I was pretty underwhelmed with the options. Lucas ate nothing and I'm pretty sure Andrew just ate chips.

After we ate, Lucas and I snuck onto Thunder Mountain. We discovered the lines for rides get short during dinner time! Lucas loved this ride! We also discovered that Ryan does NOT love roller coasters.

We ended our evening in Critter Corner on the Pooh Bear ride. Afterwards Jenna fell in love with a stuffed Piglet, so we promised to come back and buy it on our last day. (We let each of the kids pick out something to bring home)

We basically stayed in the park until it was almost closed at 9pm, and then went back to our hotel and crashed! That ends Part 1 of my Disneyland recap....stay tuned for part 2!