Disneyland! (Part 3)

We enjoyed Disneyland for 3 days, and then went to California Adventure for the last 2 days.  I had heard mixed reviews about California Adventure, but overall, I thought it was great (a few rides were not as good as I expected, like "California Screamin'" and "Soarin' Over California"--that one made me sick--but others were absolutely fabulous, like "Toy Story Midway Mania"--that's the one that we waited an hour for--and "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.")

I love this picture of the bumper cars.  I happened to snap it just as Bryan was exaggerating the impact from Tess's car.

My absolute favorite ride of both parks was "Tower of Terror."  It was SOOO much fun!  In that ride they show you a Twilight Zone video, showing how one night at the hotel, the elevator was hit by lightning and the 5 people inside it disappeared.  Then, you get into the same elevator for the ride.  They make it pretty spooky, showing your reflection in a mirror and then the reflection gets hit by "lightning" and your reflection gets all whacked out like you disappeared.  Then, the elevator goes up, up, up, the doors open....then you plummet several floors before zooming back up, plummeting again and again.  It is so fun!  At the top, when the doors open you can see outside, over to Disneyland; it's really cool.  During the ride, they take your picture and I just LOVE this picture of me and the kids.  Tess is having a great time but holding onto my hand for dear life, I'm having a blast and trying to reassure Miles that it's not scary....and then check out the look on sweet Miles's face:

This picture is priceless!

California Adventure has a really cool night show called "World of Color."  They have fountains that were designed by the same people who did the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  During the show the fountains do their thing, and they use the water as a screen for video clips of all sorts of Disney movies, set to music.  It's pretty impressive.  (Really, everything that Disney does is pretty impressive, isn't it??)

We had such a great time.  I can't wait to go back again when the kids are bigger!