The DeLorme Family: Disney California Adventure

After the beach, we made our way to our next hotel. It was located near Disneyland and it had a shuttle to take us to and from the parks. We were all ready for some dinner, so we took the shuttle to downtown Disney for dinner. We just had to eat at our favorite sandwich place in the world: Earl Of Sandwich. They have one in Disneyworld as well and we were very happy to discover they now have one in California as well.
After some wonderful sandwiches for dinner, we walked around downtown Disney for a bit. The kids were dying to go to the Lego store. They each got to pick something out and they were all very happy leaving that store. We headed back to the hotel to get some rest before our busy day ahead of us.

Dancing in downtown Disney

They had the neatest Lego sculptures

Beauty and the Beast out of Legos

Ready for dinner

Hanging out with some friends

Gracie isn't really into Legos, so she picked out these adorable mouse ears instead

The next morning, we were up bright and early for our first Disneyland day. Disneyland has two parks: California Adventure and Disneyland. We decided to do one park each day. We went to California Adventure the first day.
We had not been to Disneyland since Ella and Dawson were about 5 months old. Ashlyn didn't have any memories of it. Last time were there, they were just getting ready to open Cars Land. Dawson has loved the Cars movies through the years and I was so excited to take him there.
I always plan our Disney World trips very intentionally to go when the crowd levels are at the lowest. We just don't like it as much when the parks are super crowded. I knew since we were visiting Disneyland during spring break, we would be dealing with crowds. It was pretty crowded. We have become so accustomed to very low crowd levels, that it was a different experience for us for sure. The crowds were bad, but we still managed to have an amazing time. There were so many new rides and things to see that they don't have in Disney World.
When the park opened we headed right to Cars Land. I got in a insanely long line to get Fastpasses for Radiator Springs since I had read that they run out very early in the day. Once we had our Fastpasses, we explored Cars Land and rode some of the other rides. Cars Land was amazing and didn't disappoint for sure. It was like walking right into the movie. The kids all loved it.

Best way to get around

Cars Land

Cars Land was themed so well

The kids loved this ride were the cars would move and spin around. We rode it twice in a row.

Ready to ride

Gracie and I riding

I think this picture adequately captures how much they liked this ride.

Jameson was a fan as well

The boys posing with the tractor

In line to ride another Cars ride

The Mater ride

Loving it

Mater would even come out for meet and greets . It was pretty neat.

After we rode some rides, we were all starving for breakfast. We ate at Flo's Cafe. It was adorable and they had amazing banana french toast.

Soon it was time for our Radiator Springs Fastpasses. We were all so excited to ride this ride as we had heard great things about it. Disney hit it out of the ballpark on this ride. It was so much fun and a great ride to Cars lovers. It is similar to Test Track in that you go racing around a track, but this time you get to race another car. It was a fantastic ride. We ended up riding it twice that day. We could have ridden it many more times if the lines was not two hours long.

Loading in the Cars

Ready to ride

The start of the ride

After Radiator Springs ride, we decided to go to other areas of the park. Gracie was dying to ride the Ariel ride. We knew it was busy when we waited about 30 minutes to ride Ariel when we always walk right on in Disneyworld. Gracie still absolutely loved it and requested to go again.

Bubble time

Our beloved Ariel

We spent the rest of day exploring the park. I was dying to take Ashlyn on the big roller coaster Sreamin Over California. I have always loved this roller coaster and I knew she would too. Since most of our group didn't want to ride it, we had a lot of Fastpasses for it. I think Ashlyn and I rode it at least 4 or 5 times. It was so much fun. As the day wore on, it got hotter and more crowded. We made the best of it by finding different things to do. Joey took Gracie and Dawson back to the hotel around 5:00. My parents, sister, Ashlyn, Ella and I stayed back to ride Soaring and a few other rides. We didn't get back to our hotel until around 8:00! It was a jam packed day of fun and we were ready to do it again the next day!