Disneyland Do-Over

Since our first attempt went so terribly wrong and since Disney gave us 5, 2-day hopper tickets to replace our unused tickets we decided to give it one more try. There was so much we didn't get to do and we hated the idea of missing out on the things we were so excited for at the ages the boys were. Who knows if they would care about Star Wars in a year or two? Plus Trish and Clint said they would come this time and we managed to talk my parents into joining us too!

The day we were going to leave, the boys went to school and Chance went to work. I was running around like crazy to finish getting us ready to leave after Chance got home from work. Then I got the dreaded "school nurse" call. Nate had gone to the nurse's office complaining that his ear hurt. I knew they must have been bothering him pretty bad for him to go to the nurse's office! The boys were getting over colds, but this ear infection thing came out of nowhere! My stress level went from high to through the roof as I realized I needed to get him checked out. We were flying out that night! I didn't have time to take him to his pediatrician in Mill Creek so I took him to the Lake Stevens walk-in clinic (which is always a mistake!) The doctor confirmed he had a double ear infection.  He said his ear drum would most likely burst on the plane and suggested I give him an antibiotic along with tylenol, motrin AND benedryl for the plane ride. I thought he was nuts, and after several phone calls to Nate's pediatrician I settled on a dose of motrin for the plane ride (and a prayer!) We got back home and I worked frantically to get everything together. Meanwhile Nate (and then Bradley) fell asleep on the couch.

Regardless of poor Nate's ear infection we loaded up!

Luckily, the boys were all in good spirits and were super excited that we got to ride the escalator AND the train to our gate!

Once we got to the gate we grabbed some Burger King for dinner. Nate was really excited about that as he has recently become a big fan of fast food burgers! We boarded the plane and settled in and I prayed Nate wouldn't be in pain!!!

Praise the Lord! He didn't complain ONCE about his ear hurting! Crisis averted? Not quite...

Once we finally got to the hotel it was late and we didn't get to bed till late that night. Not a great way to start a vacation and I learned my lesson on this one. But we still managed to get to the park bright and early and met up with my family! Despite a minor headache (that I assumed was due to a poor night of sleep) I had my itinerary in hand and I was ready to tackle the park like a pro! We all waited together among the large crowd, waiting for the rope drop.

Once the rope dropped I darted around the crowds headed for some fast passes while everyone else headed for the Peter Pan ride. Unfortunately, so did everyone else in the park and the smart ones went around the castle. Our group got stuck in this traffic jam!

I got back to the group before they even were in line!! That was the first flaw to my plan. But we waited in line still thinking it would go pretty fast since it was the first thing in the morning.

We ended up waiting over 40 minutes for the ride. Several times I suggested we get out and move on, but we knew this was the only time we would attempt it and we had been waiting so long anyway! In retrospect, it was a mistake and I admit I was a little bothered that we wasted so much time in that dumb line! We could have ridden probably 5 other rides!

We did, however get lots of compliments on our t-shirts that we finally got to wear at Disneyland! Several people asked where we bought them because they wanted some!

So the start of our day wasn't ideal, but we still tried to make the most of it. I took the older boys on the Buzz Lightyear, since Brad didn't like it last time. Chance took him on the Storybook Land Canal ride. Brad really wanted to go through the whales mouth.

After that, Chance and Brad met us, along with Clint and we were ready to use our fast passes for Star Tours. Nate was begging to ride that one again and this time Brad was tall enough for it. But once we entered the "Que" Brad started saying he didn't want to go in. It was kind of dark and it freaked him out, so a cast member offered to take us a back way (right to the front!). I knew in my gut it was a bad idea taking Brad any further, but he was getting us to the front of the line!! Well, I was right. Brad cried the whole ride! Poor thing.

Then we headed over to Pirates of the Carribean. We wanted to make sure we rode it early on to make sure Luke got to do it this time!! Nate and Brad did not want to ride it.

Then it was time for Thunder Mountain Railroad. Once again, Nate and Brad refused to ride. It was my first time riding this one!

After that, it was a bit of a blur. Chance got some lunch and then we split up. I took the younger two with me to go get some FP to Space Mountain for Clint and I to ride later. I also looked for lunch for myself, but nothing sounded good. The boys browsed around looking for a treat

Chance took Luke to ride Pirates of the Carribean again with him this time.  Then we met up again and Chance took the younger two to the Mad Tea Cups since they hadn't ridden anything in several hours. By then, I wasn't thinking straight. I still hadn't found food and was going downhill fast. My parents met up with me and watched Luke while I wandered around looking for some lunch but came back with Mickey Beignets for the boys (they sounded terrible to me). I finally had some fruit and maybe a sandwich? Then I looked over at Luke in his sweatshirt in the sun. "Luke aren't you warm? You should take your sweatshirt off." Luke's reply confirmed what I was feeling, "I'm cold." His energy level was slowing too and it became clear to me that him and I needed to go back to the hotel and rest. We both were not feeling well.

I met up with Chance and took Nate and Luke back to the hotel with me for some much needed rest. Chance stayed to ride a couple more rides with Bradley.

I thought maybe we were just tired but this time I had packed a thermometer and my heart sank when I saw that Luke and I both had fevers. Nate had been running a low fever as well, I suspect due to his ear infection.

So we tried to rest and the longer we were there the worse we felt. Luke and I had no appetite and we felt terrible. Chance came back to the hotel with Brad too. It wasn't too long before we realized we were going to be there for good that day. We figured we should all just try to rest and hope we felt better the next day. Luke was pretty sad and so was I. How could this happen again? We both held each other and cried.

That night Luke's fever was up to 103. I was positive that him and I would not be going back to park for our last day. Chance left with the younger boys that morning for California Adventure and I cried. Luke hates to see me cry and said, "It's okay Mom! Look! I'm as happy as I could be!" That just made me want to cry more. And then our little miracle happened. Both of our fevers broke and Luke told me he felt well enough to go to the park! I was starting to feel better too, so we packed ourselves up to meet the family!

Chance had already taken the younger boys on the Toy Story ride, so Luke and I did Soarin' over California with my parents. Meanwhile Chance took the younger guys on King Triton's Carousel. 

Luke and I were still feeling just a little tired so Luke didn't really want to go on it again when Chance and the younger boys met up with us. I know it made me feel a little dizzy. So Chance took Nate on it and he LOVED it!

The rest of the day was CRAZY! We were working the Fast Pass/Rider Switch system like crazy! My family all banned together to make this day go great by letting us use tickets to get tons of fast passes! This meant that we managed to cram a LOT of rides in one day!

Of course we had to do Goofy's Sky School! It is one of Luke and Nate's favorites! They both got to ride this one probably 4 times!

Chance and I would swap taking the older boys on Sky School while the other one would take Brad on a different ride. Here is Chance with Brad on the Golden Zephyr. 

Since Amy was with us, Brad got to hang out with her and do some rides with her while the older boys were on the rides he wasn't tall enough for. They are quite a pair!

We were so excited that Bradley was tall enough to do the Cars ride for the first time! And we all got to go on it together with Uncle Clint! The boys LOVED having Uncle Clint along.

I think the Frank tractor part freaked Brad out a little bit, but overall I think he liked the ride and the racing part! It was so fun having the whole car filled up with our family!

My mom got a video of us coming over the hill. We are the car on the left.

While Trish and my parents did the Cars Ride, we all got in line with Amy for Luigi's Rollikin' Roadsters. It was a new ride and the we probably waited the longest for this one.

Clint was in charge of Amy and I was very impressed. He was a pro! He was very cautious and followed her around with his arms open like a true helicopter parent!

Chance took the boys on Monsters Inc while Trish and I rode Tower of Terror. One of my favorites!

Chance took Bradley to the Redwood Creek Trail so that the boys could do Goofy's Sky School again. 

Then My parents were going to go on California Screamin'. Luke decided he wanted to go to!! I was shocked! He had talked about doing it after our last trip and he actually got the nerve to do it! I wasn't going to do it, but since he was, I had to do it with my little boy! The restraints made it so I couldn't see his face while he was sitting next to me, so I couldn't see how he was doing during the ride but I know he was really proud of himself for doing it and glad that he had bragging rights now to his friends! He did not opt to do it again, however. Haha! I got a video of Trish and my parents about to ride it after us!

We had done just about everything we were wanting to do at California Adventure and it was only 3pm! We were going to do California Soarin' one last time on our way out because Nate really wanted to do it again. Unfortunately, he was very disappointed when the ride was temporarily closed! 

We decided to go over to Disneyland so we could try to get to some rides we didn't get to ride the day   before since our day was cut short. We started by grabbing some fast passes. Luke and Brad played on Tarzan's treehouse for a bit too.

Then we headed to Toon Town. The boys really wanted to play there because they remembered it from our trip 2 years ago.

We headed to the Launch Bay for the Kylo Ren meet and greet. On the way we got to catch most of the Jedi Training show. Originally I had hoped Luke and Nate could participate in this during our first trip, but at least they got to watch it!

And then we got to meet Kylo Ren! Because I had a Disney Visa card we only had to stand in line behind one group!

The boys didn't quite know what to do! LOL

Luke really wanted to do Indiana Jones and so did Chance and I! None of us had ever rode it before. Luke was really excited!

When it was Chance's turn to ride it, the ride shut down! Poor Chance kept missing opportunities and we weren't sure if we would be able to make it back later, but he was glad that Luke got to ride it. Then it was time to try Splash Mountain! Again, a first for all of us. By then, Bradley was getting kind of tired and leary of rides he hadn't done and refused to ride with us. But I came prepared with our ponchos! I was shocked we were the only ones in line wearing them! It wasn't that warm out because it was the late afternoon.

Such a good decision to have the ponchos! And Luke and Nate LOVED the ride! They begged to go again so we had my Mom do it with them.

We finished that in with about 10 minutes to spare before California Adventure was going to close. Nate REALLY wanted to ride Soarin' one more time so my Dad took Brad while me, Chance, Luke, Nate and my Mom, literally ran to CA Adventure. We made it just in time for one last ride on Soarin'!  We didn't have much time left before our Fast Pass time was going to expire for Star Tours at Disneyland. After Soarin' finished though, there was a malfunction and we were stuck in our seats! The seats wouldn't unbuckle! It was probably 5-10 minutes before they had to manually let everyone out, but it felt like forever! We had to run back to Disneyland to make it in time for Nate to ride Star Tours one more time with my Dad and I, and Luke opted for one more ride on Indiana Jones. Thankfully (and FINALLY!), Chance and Luke got to ride it together! We didn't see the parade but we did have time to get Luke his $60 Yoda backpack (that was painful to buy but it's what he really wanted and the poor kid was sick TWICE now in Disneyland!) We headed to the entrance because I THOUGHT, we would get a good view of the Fireworks show.

But all the good seats were taken and we had to watch most of it behind a big tree. :(

Oh well! The Norris family FINALLY got to shut down Disneyland! 

It was another emotional and anxiety filled trip. But Thankfully it had a happy ending. I am so thankful my family members came along and did so much to help us out. Watching one kid so we could go on a ride with a different kid, giving us their tickets so we could have more than one Fast Pass at once. It was so awesome to have them there with us. I did my best to make sure everyone was getting to ride all the rides and I think it worked out pretty well! And of course it was just fun to get to share the experience with all of them! We had SO MUCH FUN!

Packing up to leave!

Once we landed we drove straight to Dr. Shlafer's office. They kept it open a few minutes later for us. Nate still had a double ear infection and the doctor thinks we had Influenza A this time! We were happy to get home to fully recover. Again!