Day four: Thanksgiving, but not really.

For the first few days we debated whether to go back to the park on Thanksgiving day, or the day after. The workers told us that the day after was busier than the day of, so our Thanksgiving day was pushed back to Friday and we went to Disneyland & California Adventure for the last time. 

It ended up being a lot less busy on Thanksgiving day, and really fun. 

They had this HUGE, beautiful Christmas tree with thousands of huge ornaments all over it right when you walked onto mainstreet Disney. Here is the whole group in front of the tree:

Our family in front of the tree:

 Our family in front of the classic castle! Which actually is very small in person. Jared kept saying, "Are you sure THIS is it?" :)

 We hit a few rides that were too busy the other days. Like Dumbo. Seriously, the other two days we were there this ride was a 90 minute wait.

 Grace did end up loving the Dumbo ride. Probably one of her favorites.

 We got to ride the teacups again....

 They had a special Santa section of the park open where we stood in line to see Santa himself. It was a cute log cabin with lots of fun details...very convincing that it was Santa's Disneyland vacation home. :) 

Lucy really really didn't like Santa. 

 Santa's reindeer even were outside! 

 Luckily, we snuck over and met Repunzel! The lines to meet her were always over an hour. That day they were much shorter, and it was so cute. Grace loves her...

 We had a prime spot on Main Street for the Disney Christmas parade. It was so cute. All the characters and then some were in it dancing and had big floats. Gracie's favorite were the huge Christmas trees rolling down the street.

 After the parade we headed over to California Adventure for the last time. We did lots of fun things there, mostly in the Bugs Life land. That evening Bonnie and Chad took all the kids back to the timeshare while the couples (including Brennon and Hillaree) went out to eat at P.F. Changs and then back to Disneyland to play until midnight! It was a blast, one of the best date nights ever! The night included: getting kicked off of the materhorn for reasons we still don't know, riding Indiana Jones again (fave), riding thundermountain in the dark and being able to see all the Christmas lights around the park, getting a Dole Whip (yum), and finally riding Pirates of the Caribbean, which had been closed the entire trip but re-opened that day. The lines were winding ALL AROUND the park, so we never attempted until close to midnight, and it was perfect! Such a fun ride.

After Disneyland we did a little Black Friday shopping (since it was after midnight) at Target. It was a little insane, but memorable. The lines were nuts. FUN night.