Day 3 -- Disney California Adventure

Tuesday night Brighton slept over in our room, so the kids were up early Wednesday morning playing with their new toys that Grandma and Grandpa had bought them the night before. We had a more relaxed morning as we packed up our rooms and checked out of the hotel. California Adventure doesn't open until 10 am, so it was nice to not feel so rushed. None of us had ever been to California Adventure before, and it has a different feel than Disneyland. It wasn't nearly as crowded, which was a nice change. We enjoyed the Bugs Life section of the park, which had some cute rides and a cool 3-D show. There was a really great ride called Soarin' over California that we all really enjoyed. And a fun Monsters Inc. ride. The kids had more opportunities to meet characters since there was a smaller ratio of kids per wandering Disney Characters, so that was nice. Bennett and Brighton loved meeting Mater and Lightning. We went on this Grizzly River Rafting ride, and got really wet, too wet for a 68 degree day. And then we saw this really great Aladdin show -- it was like a Broadway Musical. We ended the day with a ride on the very exhilarating Tower of Terror, and then headed back to the hotel to change diapers and get kids in jammies before we loaded up in the cars and drove to San Diego for our second leg of the trip.