We decided last night to take it easy today.  No waking up bright and early to push a crazy agenda on our kids.

We failed to factor in the kids waking up bright and early to push their crazy agenda on us.

The day started with Cai crawling into bed with me at 5:00am.  I convinced him to lay quietly for at least 15 out of 100 minutes.

Then Cael ruined all of my success by standing at the window at 6:40am and saying loudly, Hey!  How come there’s a sunset out here?

We explained what a sunrise is and that you have to see them if you get up too early.  I meant to say that you get to see them, but I couldn’t quite get there.

Oh well.  Who needs sleep?

The kids and I bid adieu to Greg after breakfast (read: coffee) and headed into Disneyland on our own.

First order of business?  Lost kid drills, of course.

What do other families do first thing?  Visit characters?

Go on rides?

What a waste of quality Disney time.

Seriously, I was confident I could keep track of all 3 kids.  But I was raised by a man who spent time as both a Boy Scout and a Marine.  Preparedness is in my genes.  It actually really bothers me when my husband closes his Swiss army knife without cleaning it correctly.  I’m a nut job; what can I say?

So I taught all the kids to identify Disney cast members by their white name tags; if they’re lost, they know to find one of these marvelous people.   Kudos to Disney for finding so many game employees.  The name tags are kind of tricky to spot at first, but the cast members let my kids practice and practice and practice.

Special thanks to cast member Marilyn from Huntington Beach, California.

She’s a real trooper and made finding the cast member fun, fun, fun.

…..

I used up all of my single-parent resources in 4 short hours.

I’m not sure whether I’m proud of my success or ashamed of my failure.

In that time, we managed to do some really exciting things like push a big brown ball,

pose for car shots (where one of my kids apparently has a bright future as a sexy car model),

and watch ducks swim.

But when we took our 57th trip to the bathroom,

abandoning our lunch food in the process (because my kids’ mom can’t seem to remember to potty first, eat second),

and someone had an emotional break-down in the bathroom,

(hey – at least it wasn’t me, right?),

I knew it was time to go.

We ended our afternoon with ice cream

(no more tears)

and swimming at the hotel pool.

You know how you can tell that you’re at a classy hotel?

By the pristine, plush pool towels.

Our hotel has dozens of these for guest pool use.

Greg speculates that the hotel got some kind of steal on a Vegas close-out.

I think they’re trying to discourage towel-theft.

If I’m right, they’ve failed miserably.

I’ve never wanted to steal a hotel towel more than I do right now.

You know, now that I’m thinking about it, if Disney would drape their employees in these pieces of classic art, they’d be a heck of a lot easier for my kids to find.

Just a thought, Disney.  What do you think?