Disneyland

With just one day in the Happiest Place on Earth, we kept it as bare-bones as possible. No time for loitering. No character signings, perusing gift shops, watching the shows... etc. Our goal was simple- to get in as many thrills as possible. The End.

Technically speaking, this was not Christopher's first trip to Disneyland, but I'm fairly certain he doesn't remember the last time.
First up were the cars. Historically the lines for that ride have been pretty long. Plus it's at the farthest corner, so strategically it's a good starting spot. I let Christopher drive.
Next we hit Space Mountain. I really didn't think he'd actually like it, and I don't think he did, but he was a good sport about the whole thing. Zach whined a bit more. (okay, a lot) I think Christopher just didn't know to be scared. Zach knows better. The biggest clue that Christopher didn't like the ride was that he couldn't get off it fast enough. At the end when our "space ship" was waiting in line for us to disembark he started freaking out that the safety bar wouldn't go up.

Before we left for California, Zach had promised me that he'd go on California Screaming with me, but after I dragged him on Indiana Jones, The Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, he simply wasn't able to deal with anything else. I'd already pushed it to the limit. I think Big Thunder Mountain was his breaking point.
I felt bad (sorta) for all the tears, so I figured an ice-cream break was in order.

I think Christopher's highlight was seeing Lightning McQueen and Mater. I wish I'd caught that on video. When he finally realized what we were standing in line for, he went a little berserk. Luckily it was a short line. There were only two other little boys in front of him. When it was finally his turn he could barely contain himself. "Aqueen! Mamer! Tires!" I'm sure we could have skipped everything else and just cycled through that line all day.
It was a good day. I think some people might think I was crazy and/or brave for doing it on my own, but it wasn't that bad. The kids were helpful and well behaved, and that made it a heck of a lot easier to do it solo.