Day 4: "Here We Go!"

 Apparently this post contains so much awesomeness that it must be posted in reverse order.  So, here goes....

Friday April 6, 2012 was our last day at the Disney parks.  We chose to spend our day in California Adventure.

So sad to have to leave after such a successful trip.  I had a blast spending time with Kjersti (as I always do!) and getting to know the Hunter High School Performing Arts crew.  We had many fantastic experiences.  Thursday we had to opportunity to attend a workshop with one of Disney's master puppeteers.  We got to play with puppets from Bear and the Big Blue Couch, Winnie the Pooh, and other shows that were familiar to the students.  I loved watching them as they got to work with these characters who they grew up watching on TV.  We each got to learn some of the tricks of puppeteering and then create our own music video with the puppets.

I am so grateful Kjersti asked me to tag a long on this trip.  It was a perfect Spring Break!

 Waiting for World of Color in the awesomest seats in the place!  We bought a picnic lunch that gave us early entrance into World of Color so we were front and center.  This was the absolute perfect way to end our trip.  Everyone needs to see World of Color.  It's like the Bellagio fountains on steroids!

 This picture really doesn't do it justice, but the moon was beautiful that night!

 These kids each bought light sabers.

 Kjersti and I went on the new Little Mermaid ride and loved it!  So cute!

 Jameson, Mitchell, Zach, and me.  Zach is not a roller coaster lover, and frequently sat out.  He was excited about this ride until we realized the extent of the swinging.  As the car would reach the swinging point Zach would say, "Here we go!" It became our quote of the day.  There was one point when Mitchell and I were trying to rock the car and Zach firmly planted a hand on each of our shoulders to prevent our rocking.  He was not happy with us.  Who knew a ferris wheel could be so fun?

 Kjersti, Tyler (there are no words), and Josh

 We took time to go on the Mickey Ferris Wheel.  We chose a rocking car, which was more of an adventure than we expected.  As I was trying to take a picture Mitchell thought he'd be funny...

 We passed a hat shop, so of course the drama people had to put on a show.  Kjersti bought Tyler the big white gloves with the expectation that he would give lots of free high fives.

 Picture #2:  I pulled myself together enough to pose.

 Somehow I got talked into going on this crazy ride again.  We rode it twice in a row.  No break at all.  Tyler and Mitchell offered to sit on either side of me to keep me safe (how chivalrous).

 This is the group that gathered after word spread of Kjersti's Tower of Terror dream.  Lots of students anxious to assist in dream fulfillment!

Our Friday started on Tower of Terror.  I hate Tower of Terror!  HATE IT!  It's been Kjersti's dream to get a picture with a car full of people she knows.  Her dream came true, twice in a row!  This was our first Tower of Terror fall.  I really hate this ride (I don't know if I've mentioned that), so I had a death grip on Kjersti's hand and another grip on Tyler's wrist ("Sarah's touching me!  Sarah's touching me!" was frequently heard throughout the ride).

Day 3: Bubblicious is born

Thursday April 5th was the 3rd day of our adventure and the 2nd day at Disneyland.  It was a little cooler that day so it was very bright of us not to begin the day on Splash Mountain again.

We began the day on Autotopia.  I was in the front of a long line of our Hunter High group.  When I got in my car I hit the gas and was on my way.  It took me a few minutes to realized that the rest of my group was nowhere to be seen.  At one point I went under a bridge and looked up.  There was Kjersti, whose car was moving extremely slowly with a whole line of students closely behind her.  She was hollering at her car to move faster and everyone behind her was hollering at her.  It made me laugh a lot.

Of course we had to visit It's a Small World.  I LOVE that ride!  They've redone bits of the ride to include Disney characters.  It was so well done!  I could have gond on that ride repeatedly throughout the day.

We had a very relaxing day in Disneyland on Thursday.  We took life at a much slower pace than the day before, which resulted in the students getting bored with us and going off on their own.  Later in the afternoon Kjersti, Josh, and I scouted out a spot for the parade.

And then were joined by this crew.  Tyler, who is sitting to my right became a good buddy during the trip.  He calls Kjersti "Ms. Perky" and seemed to feel the need to give me a nickname.  I tend to get that from a lot of students.  Last year I was "Dude" or "S. Dub," this year I am "Sunshine."  To Tyler I am "Bubblicious."  The name stuck.  He never called me by my real name the rest of the trip.  I guess that means I'm cool...

The parade was fantastic, which is to be expected from Disney.  I just love Disneyland!

After a quick trip back to the hotel to put another layer of clothes on, we made our way back to the park to see Fantasmic.  SO AWESOME!

After Fantasmic we sprinted over to the castle to watch the fireworks.

Disneyland truly is the happiest place on Earth!