Randy and Debby: california: day 3

randy and i actually weren't planning on going to disneyland while we were in california, but when we heard kyle and kim making their plans the night before, we decided that we didn't want to miss out and we wanted calli and carsten to remember that we were there with them. and since we were going, bob and jeanie decided to come along too.

randy's grandmother lives about 25 minutes away from disneyland, which is convenient. randy and i went and picked up bob and jeanie in the morning and about a minute after leaving omi's house, we realized that madeleine had had a bit of a blow-out in her diaper. the funny thing is, this was a conversation between randy and me while we were sitting in omi's driveway before leaving.

randy: (pointing to a yellowish fleck on madeleine's knee) is that poop?

me: (licking my thumb and rubbing it off) no, i don't think so.

well, apparently it was poop. fortunately, i didn't stick my finger back in my mouth after rubbing it off.

so, we turned around, went back to omi's, gave madeleine a quick spray down in the shower, cleaned out the carseat, and then headed back toward disneyland. this time we made it without further incident.

we parked in the beautiful parking structure (only at disneyland could a parking structure be so clean and magnificent) and rode the tram in to the park. we promptly rented a stroller and madeleine promptly fell asleep in it.

we met up with kyle and kim's family, as well as randy's cousin, bryan, who also came, and headed out for a fun day. the day was filled with rides, lines, overpriced mediocre food, and a night show to end it all. we were actually able to take madeleine on more rides than i thought we'd be able to. she went on the haunted mansion, pirates of the carribean, dumbo, and the jungle cruise. i would have taken her on small world if it had been open, but it wasn't and most people were probably grateful for that. she did really well on the rides, even in the haunted mansion, although mostly she just snuggled in and rested her head on my shoulder during it. when she didn't go on rides, jeanie was nice enough to sit it out most of the time and watch the babies, or we would swap waiting with the babies while the other spouse went. it worked pretty well and madeleine really did great throughout the day.

there are a few great things about the park that either weren't there or weren't important to me when i last went to disneyland (which i think was about 10-12 years ago). they now have a thing called "fast pass," which lets you go and get a pass for a ride (only available on some rides) that tells you to come back at a later time and they have a special line that goes way faster. we did fast passes for about three different rides and it made a big difference. but my favorite part of the whole park? the child care center. they have a child care center on main street where you walk in and there are old ladies there that lead you to a wonderful changing room with deluxe changing tables, as well as a nursing room. i have to say, it was so nice to be able to go and nurse madeleine in an air-conditioned, quiet, and private room. i think it was madeleine's favorite park attraction as well.

here are some pictures from the day at disneyland. as you can probably tell from the pictures, it was really hot.