Disneyland Day 3

Day 3 was our day for California Adventure. Cathy and I got up early and went out and ran a few miles. It was hot and sticky. It was the first run I had done in 9 days. My training sort of fell apart with the banquet, work and now this trip. Anyhow, we all got ready and headed to park. This was the park that was opening an hour early for those staying at a Disneyland resort. The kids wanted to ride Screamin, the big roller coaster, first. We headed straight there. It was great b/c there we not many people in the park yet. Ryan up to this point had been pretty well behaved. Still following our dye free (well red dye 40 free), and I am still convinced it helps. His first real major and totally understandable meltdown was about to happen. Ryan probably loves coasters most of all. The scarier the better. We get ready to go on this ride and hold up...they need to measure him to see if he is tall enough. He tried as hard as he could to stretch, but he was simply just shy of the mark to ride on this ride. Making it even worse his triplet brothers were both tall enough. Ryan was the only one not able to go. He melted down bad. I felt horrible for him b/c I know how badly he was looking forward to this. I ended up taking Landon and Adam on the ride a couple of times b/c no line while Clark took Ryan to the Toy Story ride and merry-go-round. He got over his disappointment only b/c he was determined to wear tennis shoes when we came back to see if that would make him tall enough. Here are some of our pictures from the park.

First we have Ryan (this was when he was wasting time while his brothers and I were riding Screamin')

 Here is Ryan in front of Toy Story. I love this ride. I like to try and get a higher score each time I do it.

 Landon and Adam both say Screamin', seen in the background, was their favorite ride of all.

 We did go on the big Mickey ferris wheel. It was fun. They let us stay on it for 2 rounds and by the end Clark was feeling nauseated a little.

 Next we headed to Radiator Springs. I really liked this part of the park b/c Disney World does not have this. We rode the Mater ride while Clark was off trying to get a fast pass for the actual Cars ride.

 The boys did the water ride. I always opt out of these rides b/c I don't like to have wet clothes. They got very wet!

 Ahhh...one of my favorites. The Tower of Terror. We went on this twice. Always a good time. Just before this ride we hooked up with Clark's family. They live in California and came to spend time with us. Clark's 3 sisters, 2 nieces, 2 nephews, and one brother in law all came. It was great getting to see everyone. The kids loved hanging out with them.

 Here are the boys with their aunt Julie and cousin Arianna.

Once we hooked up with Clark's family we quickly left the kids with them b/c we needed a chance to run back and pick up our race packets. We thought that since the expo was at our hotel we would be in and out of there in no time at all. Man were we wrong. This was without a doubt the most poorly run expo.....EVER. They simply did not have enough space or man power to accommodate all the people. The line was huge just to get in the expo. That part we kind of expected so tried not to complain too much. Once inside to the first room where things were set up actually getting your bib and shirt was fast. Then you usually head over the "official merchandise stuff" to see if you want to buy any shirts. I really wanted a coast to coast shirt since that was the main reason we were there doing this race at this time. Here is where I think the running of expo just fell apart. The line to buy anything was insane. We stood in this line for over 2 hours. Longer than it took us to run the race. You can't even consider coming back later b/c they run out of stuff so fast that you won't get anything. It was horrible. At Disney World they were much more prepared with a ton more cashiers. Furthermore adding to my misery was the discovery that because they messed up my friends bib they just let her do the Dumbo race weekend. To say I was jealous would be the HUGE understatement. The Dumbo was where you did a 10K race on Saturday and then the half marathon on Sunday. You get 2 extra medals and 2 extra shirts. It costs a lot more but both of us tried to sign up to do this. If you are traveling all that way, you want to do it all. I certainly had no plans to come back. Problem was that even though I started trying to sign up as soon as it became available it sold out almost instantly and neither of us got registered for it. So I was long over my disappointment that I could not do both races. So you can only imagine my jealousy (which I have a huge problem with ..I admit) when b/c they did not have her bib (accidentally given to someone in front of her so they had to print another one) and they just gave her the Dumbo entry for free...just because!!  I was not a happy camper. I was stewing about this the entire 2 hours of waiting in line. I kept saying that I knew my jealousy thoughts were not very Christian like, and I should just be happy for her, but that was not an easy thing for me. The gals in front of us were super cool, and we did talk to them a lot. It was two best friends from Orlando who run most of the Disney races and do a ton of other races together. They understood my pain. Lots of people there tried to get into the same race and couldn't get in b/c filled up too fast. I struggled with this so much b/c I am obsessed with fairness on things that can be controlled ( I realize a lot you can't control) and this seemed unfair.  It helped that Clark agreed. He thought it totally unfair but that I needed to get over it. Okay enough of that story but it was a large part of our trip b/c I let it ruin part of it (yes I said I and NO I am not perfect). Here are our only pictures from the expo. Sean Aston (who played Rudy in movie Rudy and Sam Wise in Lord of the Rings) was talking b/c he was running the half marathon. We had to send Nick this picture b/c we knew he would think it was cool.

Here is just a random picture of all of us in the 2 hour long line to buy stuff.

 

 After the expo we headed back to the park to hook up with the family. Here the boys are watching the parade. It was such a hot and humid day that the parade people were squirting water at observers.

 

We left that park before dark and headed back to Disneyland park with everyone b/c Clark's family wanted to do a few things there (since they weren't with us the day before). We ate dinner at a restaurant that was in the middle of the Pirates of Caribbean ride. It was a very expensive meal that again made my jaw drop when the bill came. After that I was beyond tired, and so Adam and I walked back to the hotel while everyone else did a few more things. He and I got ice cream to share on the way back. There you have it. Day 3 in a nutshell.