We drove down to visit the grandparents on Saturday.  The drive was relatively quick; we only had to stop one time and the boys were content during the ride.  After saying hi to the grandparents, the boys immediately remembered their two favorite things to do in their house, play chess with Grandpa and play with the Lincoln Logs.  Both Connor and Logan did well playing a few games against Grandpa, and I think they are getting close to beating Grandpa one day soon.  Connor had brought his Kindergarten Memory Book and their Yearbook to show Grandma, and he reviewed every page with her.  For the rest of the weekend, the boys had fun building and battling with the Lincoln Logs.

     The weather was not as warm on Sunday, so we decided against going to the beach.  We hung out with the grandparents locally and had dinner at the Manhattan beach.  Afterward we came home to watch the Warriors to end the night.

    We started out earlier on Monday to head to Disney.  The wait to park was long and we finally got into the park after 9am.  Connor was happy to be the first to enter after he earned the right the previous day.  We immediately headed over to one of the boys’ favorites, Astro Blaster.  We rode Autopia which we all liked, and we decided to try the Star Tours this time.  We were worried for Logan and had prepared with a bag, and at the end of the ride, Logan said “The ride is so short” that I knew he was fine.  On the other end, I was happy that the ride ended before I got too sick from the motion; Connor later claimed that he was dizzy from it as well.  Star Tours has now become Logan’s favorite of the day.  We had lunch while the boys were entertained by the Jedi training on the stage.  We moved on over to Pirates and Haunted Mansion afterward.  Connor was nervous and almost in tears according to Stuart.  Logan had learned to put his head down during the two dips at the beginning with Pirates and now he likes the ride too.  He also was not afraid of the ghosts at Haunted Mansion; he called out to them at time to say that he knew they were fake.  In the afternoon we also rode Pinocchio, Small World and Winnie the Pooh, and watched the Mickey and Magic Map.  The boys had fun checking out the ToonTown, and we really enjoyed Jungle Cruise.  We passed by the Enchanted Tiki Room and decided to check it out.  We liked this little show too and now the boys like the Tiki song as well.  One thing worth mentioning was that the boys taught Stuart and I how to play a finger-based “chop stick game” which was a good entertainment while we were in line all day.  The boys were quite good with it that we had a very difficult time to even try to win a game with them.

     
     After dinner, the boys were excited to choose a stuffed animals as pre-gifted from grandpa.  We then rode Alice in Wonderland and let the kids hang out at the Star Wars Launch Bay to play some video games before we got ready for the night Parade.  Connor was looking forward to the parade and Logan wanted to ride the Star Tours again, so we decided to divide and conquer.  Connor and I found a good place to sit and wait.  The line for Star Tours was just too long, so Stuart and Logan finally decided to watch the parade as well.  Since they could not find us, we enjoyed the show separately.  This was our first time watching “Paint the Night” parade, and it was incredible and filled with excitement.  Stuart’s phone battery was close to drained, but fortunately I could track them and we ended up meeting in our agreed area after the parade.  By then Logan told us that his legs were so tired that he wanted to go.  But of course, we, especially Connor, wanted to watch the firework, and Logan was fine with that.  We were told that the best view was at the Small World, and we waited just a short while before the amazing fireworks started.  The experience was unbelievable with the music, scenes on the outside of Small World, explosion on top of the Matterhorn and the unexpected snow during the Frozen song.  We were just mesmerized by these evening entertainments as we trekked the long way back to our car.  The boys fell asleep as soon as the car was in motion.  This was our longest stay at Disneyland, 13 hours.