Day 2 of Vacation, 1st Day at Parks, Part 2

We headed back to the parks around 4:15.  The rest of the family had started saving seats for the Pixar Play Parade.  We met up and left our stuff with them while we rode The Little Mermaid.  After the ride when we were waiting for the parade to start, Jeremy and Hunter bought a bubble gun.  These things were everywhere!  We have one at home but this one was way cooler.  It has flashing lights and the bubble container is connected making it easy to have continuous bubbles.  The one we have has to be dipped into bubbles and doesn't have neon lights.  This made for lots of fun for Hunter.  While waiting we also took more photos.

Hunter with his bubble gun

Ready for the parade

Poor Eva, she watched from the stroller.

The Pixar Play Parade was great and Hunter even had interaction with the performers.  He got to throw a basketball to a Monster Inc performer and give Slinky from Toy Story a high five.  Hunter and Eva both danced along to the music.  We took video of the parade but it's on our camcorder and for now, the clips stay on there.

Here comes the parade!

After the parade we weren't ready to eat just yet b/c we had some snacks before returning to the parks, so we went to ride rides.  We went on Mickey's Fun Wheel.  That is one big farris wheel!  It has two options for the gondolas; stationary or swinging.  We chose stationary.  As we were waiting there was a little girl a swinging one and she was not happy!  Even the stationary one has some swing to it but we can't imagine the others.  The kids did great on it, but Jeremy and I were happy to be on the ground at the end.  Great views.  We tried not to look down.

Here we go!

Jeremy made sure to hold onto Hunter...and that meant no pictures of Eva and me;-)

Look Dad!

We continued to walk around the Boardwalk at Paradise Pier and Hunter spotted the carnival type games.  So we played there for awhile.  While we were there, we put Eva on my back and it didn't take her long to fall asleep.  She then slept for a couple hours on my back.  (yes, I was sore the next day).

Hunter enjoyed throwing the baseballs but it was a good thing no one else was
playing because he was a little wild with his pitches:-)

Hunter won the horse race!

And of course he had to fish.

We then headed to Cars Land to eat dinner.  We ate at Flo's V8 Cafe.  I had a great veggie bake and the boys had mac n cheese.  We ordered for Eva but she stayed asleep.  Next it was time to check out the rest of Cars Land and ride rides.  The weather gets cool at night so Hunter put his jacket on and I put my jacket over Eva.

Throughout the night we kept checking on the wait time for Radiator Springs Racers but it was always over an hour so we didn't ride that night.  We took pictures and Jeremy and Hunter went on all other rides in Cars Land and in A Bugs Land.

Watching the cars race from Radiator Springs Racers and of course Eva is out

In the center of Cars Land and again, Eva is out

We finally took Eva off my back after a few hours and all rode Heimlich's Chew Chew Train together.  We got the front car so that was cool.  We had a few more hours until World of Color so we continued to walk around and Hunter and I road Soarin' Over California together while Jeremy and Eva got something to eat.  Hunter and I waited in line for about 25 minutes or so and he was getting tired.  The groups of people in front of us and behind us were playing a game on their phones called Heads Up.  So that was entertaining.  But once we got on the ride, Hunter got hyped up!  The nice girl next to him was telling him he was going to love it.  She loved how Hunter kept talking with excitement through the ride.

I brought along glow sticks/necklaces for night activities.  Hunter liked having them.

Waiting in line for Soarin'

After Soarin, we met up with Jeremy and Eva and made our way to the seating area for World of Color.  We asked a cast member where we needed to go and she was super nice and told us to wait just a minute.  She then put us in a great section where the kids could see the show from the stroller.  While waiting we all had snacks and reminisced about the days events.  The show was amazing!  So neat to see all the lights, water, fire and animation all come together.  I've watched the show on YouTube before and after going and nothing compares to seeing it in person.  Feeling the fire blasts was a nice treat b/c of the chilling evening air.  We even could feel a mist from the water where we were standing.  Glad we weren't any closer to get really wet.  Hunter enjoyed most of the show from Jeremy's shoulders and his eyes were so big the whole time.  Eva slept.

Before the show starts, there is a game you can play from your phone that changes the color of Mickey's Fun Wheel.

After the show and for the rest of the trip (and even today) Hunter commented that the farris wheel was on fire but not anymore.  So funny that he was concerned about that.  (and no, it wasn't on fire, just lots of fire around it.)

The smoke ring in the sky that happens after World of Color - Celebrate.
I had seen a picture like this posted on Instagram and sure enough we saw it in person.  

Our first day in the parks was done.  We headed back to the hotel around 11:00 and I knew that once we got back the kids would need to be up for a little bit to get some wiggles out and sure enough, once we got to our room, they were both awake and ready to run.  So they played for a little bit, got baths and then were out.  Great first day.

Hunter was out as soon as he laid down.