Thankful for California Adventure!

We started our Thanksgiving Day celebration at IHOP for breakfast. Or if you are Josh and Paige, they started their morning with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. While in the restaurant, the rain really started pouring. But, we were on a mission. So, we put on our ponchos and headed out to California Adventures. Sadly, the day didn't ever really clear up and most of the fun roller coaster rides like Incredicoaster, Radiator Springs Racers, and Goofy's Sky School were closed for a majority or all of the day. There was a brief moment right after lunch when the rain stopped for an hour and we were able to at least ride the Incredicoaster, but then it started up again and the ride closed again. This meant that we visited the inside attractions (like Soaring, Little Mermaid, Guardians of the Galaxy, Toy Story, Animation Academy, etc.) a ton. The Raetz clan left us after lunch as Mae had bruised herself pretty good when she fell getting on the Toy Story ride. Plus, they felt it would be a good idea to escape the rain for a while. We eventually joined up with them for a pizza dinner in the hotel rooms. Our evening did conclude with all of us heading back into the park for a couple of more rides and the World of Color show.

Here are some of the lessons that we learned during this trip:

Madilyn loves to ride roller coasters. In fact, that is all that she wanted to do. Her favorites included Guardians of the Galaxy, The Incredicoaster and Space Mountain.
Aiden did not enjoy the roller coasters as much, but he was a trooper and he went on them at least once.
It is hard for two families to navigate an amusement park together when each family has different preferences on rides. However, we figured it out. We would separate to accomplish certain ride goals and then we would meet up to do a couple together and then separate again. Luckily, we made it a goal to dine together so we could catch-up then on our next plan of attack.
Consistent rainy and cold weather can wear on everyone's patience -- kids and adults alike.
Parenting is hard. We had a couple of meltdowns, but thankfully, we were able to tag team so that sanity could remain intact.
Thank goodness we had ponchos and warm clothes. That definitely was a blessing!

Paige with her hot cocoa