I had two goals today:

1. Keep Justin happy.
2. Get at least one photo of the four of us together.

After yesterday’s trauma, I really wanted Justin to have a good time today. That meant technology. We let him play with Chris’s phone whenever we had to stand in line for more than a few minutes. We’d been doing that a bit anyway, but we mostly tried to avoid it cause we were afraid he wouldn’t want to give it up. This was day 3 of standing in the heat, however, so we were much quicker to whip out the electronics. Goal #1 was a success.

So naturally Brayden turned out to be the bigger problem. His morning did not start well: he and Chris rushed off to the Matterhorn when the park opened, only to discover the ride was broken. Then they were halfway through Buzz Lightyear when it broke down too. (Seriously, Disney?)

The four of us did Star Tours together, which was good, but when we tried to rush off to Splash Mountain, Brayden insisted on taking time to build a custom droid in the Star Tours gift shop. Normally I would’ve said no, we need to go…but he got rushed out of the same gift shop yesterday, and he was having such a crappy morning, and I felt like I owed him something. So we waited. It meant a slightly longer wait at Splash Mountain, but a much happier Brayden, so whatever.

The get-a-family-photo goal worked out too. We finally got one just after we finished Splash Mountain, when Justin was thrilled that he got drenched (which is especially noteworthy cause last year he wouldn’t get on a water ride without a poncho to protect his clothes) and Brayden was equally thrilled that he barely got wet. Good times.

We also met Captain America, rode Big Thunder for a fifth time, and did Toy Story Mania (Brayden was grumpy after that one cause I got a better score than he did…but ice cream cures all ills) and Soarin’ Over California. We ended our very long day at the parks by watching the Aladdin stage show, which we all agreed was awesome, not least because we could sit in an air conditioned theatre for 40 minutes. Ahhh.

Another great vacation done. Home tomorrow…

We didn’t actually go to Mickey’s house, but you get the point: we’re in Disneyland! In an uncharacteristically spontaneous move, I booked this trip a mere three weeks ago. I meant it to be a surprise for Chris’s birthday in June, but the dates worked out better to go in May, and it just happened to work out that our first day at the parks was Mother’s Day. For celebrating the joys of family, I can’t think of a better place to be.

And we had a FANTASTIC day. There were a few glitches (Justin and I both found the Matterhorn way too rough; Indiana Jones broke down three-quarters of the way through our ride and we had to get out and walk the rest of the way) but they didn’t really drag us down, especially since the Indiana Jones people gave us a Fastpass to be used for a ride of our choice.

I was surprised to see what a difference a year makes. Last year the kids were Star Wars-obsessed and insisted on riding Star Tours over and over again. This time around, the big hit is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (to be fair, it was closed on our trip last year), a thrill ride through a mine shaft that Chris and I both loved on our original trip 13 years ago. Brayden loves all the rides, but Justin has issues with a few; I was happy to see how excited he was about that one.

Another big difference is our endurance level: the boys had no trouble staying at the parks until 9 pm or so after having a break at the hotel in the afternoon, whereas last year they were DONE by 3 pm. We also have park hopper passes this time, which allowed us to spend most of the day at Disneyland but then hop over to California Adventure for the evening. Everyone should get a chance to see Cars Land all lit up with neon. We even managed to ride Radiator Springs Racers after dark — WAY cool.

My boys have long insisted that they’re “done” with Cars. And while it’s true that they’ve moved on to other obsessions, they did watch that movie approximately 364,000 times (I’d have to ask Justin for the exact number) and I knew they’d enjoy Cars Land at Disney California Adventure.

I’ve never seen Brayden so excited.

The line for Radiator Springs Racers was not to be believed, but thankfully we had a pass that gave us an appointed time to show up, so it was only a 12-minute wait. Some people stand in line for three hours for that ride, so we felt pretty fortunate. And what a ride it was! It featured several sets and pretty well every character from the movie, along with a high-speed race through Ornament Valley. Brayden immediately declared he liked it even better than Star Tours, which is saying something. So.very.awesome.

We also got a family photo with Lightning McQueen, who moves and blinks and talks. Brayden was so thrilled after that one that he literally jumped into my arms. Then it was on to Luigi’s Flying Tires, a ride described by our guidebook as “bumper cars meets human air hockey” that all three of my boys loved.

We stopped for a drink at Flo’s V8 Cafe, but since Flo didn’t offer the chicken nuggets Justin had been promised, we had to find somewhere else for lunch. We ended up at the Test Pilots Grill, which was outfitted like an airplane hangar and which offered food everyone liked. It was right next to Soarin’ Over California, the flight-simulator-Imax experience that Chris and I remembered enjoying on our first trip to Disney 12 years ago. I thought the feet-dangling-in-the-air thing might cause Justin some issues, but he was fine. Brayden especially loved the part where you fly over an aircraft carrier. Another favorite.

We saved the Grizzly River Run for last. We’d never get Justin on a water ride if it meant his clothes got wet, so I’d picked up cheap ponchos at the dollar store in Kelowna and brought them along. The kids and I wore them and stayed bone-dry (we looked like dorks, but who cared?); Chris opted to go without, so naturally he got drenched. Everyone had fun, though.

We picked up our rental car this afternoon. Universal Studios awaits tomorrow…

Our day at Disneyland was amazing — relaxed, not rushed, not exhausting. We never had to wait more than 15 minutes for a ride, even the super popular ones: Star Tours, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, etc. Justin got a little scared on the Finding Nemo submarine ride and again on Indiana Jones, but generally he was OK. It turned out Brayden WAS tall enough for Indy (whew) and he totally loved it.

Both boys even got picked for Jedi training, so it was pretty much a perfect day. Justin battled Darth Maul and Brayden took on Darth Vader — very cool. The boys were so into the Star Wars thing that did the Star Tours ride three times, yet neither of them had any interest in meeting Mickey. (I’m never going to get the Star Wars theme music out of my head…but I guess that’s better than It’s a Small World.)

They spent another couple hours at the waterpark this afternoon before we went for dinner. Since neither of them cares about Mickey, we opted to skip the parade toninght and focus on getting a good rest. The wifi at the hotel is so slow and unreliable that posting pictures will have to wait until we get home (sigh).

Cars land tomorrow…

This is already the greatest family vacation we’ve ever done, and we haven’t even gotten to the best part.

We arrived in Anaheim yesterday but had no plans to hit the parks yet, so we had most of the day to (gasp) relax. We shopped a bit (Brayden insisted on buying a very cool R2D2-Mickey-ears hat) and spent a couple hours at the pirate-themed waterpark at the hotel (Brayden ran out of superlatives for this one: “extremely fun”, “super fun”, “super mega fun”…)

Chris wanted to go back to Downtown Disney for supper, so we wandered back there but found that our restaurant of choice was packed. We were all hot and tired, and things were starting to get ugly…but then Brayden pointed to a Louisiana-style building and asked if it was a restaurant, and if it was, could we go there? It turned out to be a great choice, one that we never would have considered otherwise. Good call, B.

By the time we made it back to the hotel, everybody was bagged. I gave the kids a quick bath and let them play some iPad for a while before tucking them in. Everyone — and I mean everyone — was asleep by 8:30 p.m. Nice.