vacation - day 5

(aka "Murphy's revenge")

Tuesday morning we gave the kids their Disney shirts and plush figures that we had pre-purchased. (we got them at a disney store sale for a fraction of what we would have paid to buy the same thing in the park...) The kids LOVED their stuff!
Tuesday was also the day we could get into the park an hour early because we were staying the Disney Grand California Hotel. (it really was a fabulous hotel, in case you are wondering... If you have the $$$, I highly recommend it) We met Aaron and Holly down in the lobby at 8:30 - excited and ready to hit the parks. I said to Tim, "You have the tickets, right?" He checked his pockets. then his wallet. No tickets. No worries, he ran upstairs to get them.

He came back down. NO tickets. He ran out to the van to see if maybe he left them in there when he had gone out the night before looking to buy a recharger for his phone. (we left his charger in San Diego.) He came back in. NO Tickets. I went up stairs and started tearing the room apart. NO TICKETS!! After about 20 minutes, we bid farewell to the Burgies and continued the frantic search. We explained to the kids what was happening, went back up to the room and continued looking every where. We called the front desk, "sorry, tickets are considered cash and cannot be replaced if lost." We called the hotel lost and found. We dumped out all the suitcases, stroller basket, trash cans, and everything - hoping to find them. We said many prayers - which appeared to go unanswered.
The last place we knew we had them was going back into the park after dinner the night before. Then we split up. Tim and Aaron went to Grizzly Rapids and as an after thought he said, "wait, I'll get wet, take this stuff, " and handed me all the stuff in his pockets. I took the stack of stuff - looked like park maps and other stuff, and I just threw them into the bottom of the stroller. Our best guess is that the tickets were in that stack, and they got knocked out at some point. Maybe while getting a drink, or maybe a kid grabbed a map and the tickets fell out??? who knows. Any way you looked at it - the tickets were gone. We looked online to find out what it would cost to replace the 3 day park hoppers that had been part of our prize. $600!!!! (So much for our "free trip" eh?)
Tim went down to the park to check their lost and found. No luck. After talking with Aaron and Holly (via cell phone) we got their extra ticket (they also won tickets for 4. Bryan had already been using one of theirs, but they had one more) and Tim purchased a $60, one day, one park, child's ticket. OUCH! He came back to the room and we determined that he would take Aaron into the park until 4pm, then come back and I would take Katrina in. I obviously wasn't thinking clearly, because soon after Tim left, I realize this plan wouldn't work - what about BRYAN??? I tried calling Tim, but because his phone battery was 90% dead, he had the phone turned off.
It was HORRIBLE!
I had a little cry, then got the kids ready to go down for a swim. Just before we left, Holly called me. They had figured that we could use the tickets we did still have (theirs...) and get everyone into the park by doing a little tricky ticket maneuvering. I realize that this is technically WRONG, and I DO have integrity and would never do it under usual circumstances - however I did it anyway and didn't feel too badly about it since I knew we DID in fact have tickets, they were just lost. Aaron and Holly met me and the kids at the front gate and we got everyone in. (I was a nervous wreck, just waiting for the Disney police to come arrest us...) After we got in, Aaron and Holly had to go since they had reservations for lunch at the Blue Bayou, and off I went with the kids.
Imagine if you will, a lone mother, with a 5 year old, 3 year old and a 1 1/2 year old, trying to enjoy Disneyland. IT WAS INSANE! There were lots of rides that Katrina and Bryan could ride, but not alone. However, some of those same ride wouldn't allow a lap rider. SO - many rides were eliminated that way. Any time Caleb managed to fall asleep, I would have to wake him up to go on the rides. We didn't get ANY pictures since Tim and Aaron had taken the camera. We never did hook up with Tim. Katrina and Bryan both freaked out on LOTS of rides. It was crazy! Mr Toad's wild ride was too dark and scary. Pinocchio and Snow White were both dark and loud and scary, you get the idea... It a Small World had water. I finally talked them into going on It's a Small World, and thank heavens, after they tried it once, they liked it and wanted to go again. We were in line for Snow White, had been waiting about 15 minutes, and had just made the last switch back turn, when Katrina announces, "I have to go to the bathroom. NOW!" (why is it that kids NEVER have to go to the bathroom at the same time??? you get the general idea... Suffice it to say, it was a LONG day. Since I had no idea if we'd be coming back to the park or not, I didn't dare leave until the park closed, so from 11:30 - 8:30 I did the solo mom thing. Aaron and Holly did come find me later in the day and stayed for a couple rides, but I didn't make them stay with me. - I already felt like we had disrupted their vacation enough...
I finally got back to the hotel at about 8:30/8:40 and COLLAPSED! (Tim and Aaron were on their way down to go swimming. I sent them down and I put everyone else to bed and I think I was asleep before they got back.
I found out that Tim had gone back to the hotel at 4:00 to switch kids, found us gone and had called Holly to see where we were. Then he went back to the Disneyland lost and found, talked with a manager for over an hour, and finally got them to issue 4 more tickets for us. "I really like chocolate" she said. So the next morning before going back into the park, Tim went shopping and bought a bunch of yummy chocolate for her. I guess our prayers were answered, in a very round about drawn out way. We were able to get back into the park and the kids were able to have a fun time, and a very kind park supervisor reissued us tickets.
I'm sure you can imagine that at this point I was pretty sure this had been the WORST VACATION EVER! and that I would NEVER come back to Disneyland until all the kids were old enough to go on the rides and were less timid.

As I said, no pictures of the other kids since I had no camera, but here a slide show of Aaron's adventures.