That Saturday morning, we were leaving a bit early for Extra Magic Hours on our only day at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I was feeling a little bit of stress at the latter fact, but it was just the way the planning had worked out. It would be ok though, as it would be our most perfect DHS day to date - with everything just sort of working out, in a park where that doesn't often happen, at least not to us.
It didn't start out so perfectly though. As we were walking in (and thankfully not any later), we realized we had left the autograph books in the hotel room. Considering this is one of the best parks to see a few characters without much wait, this wasn't ok. Zach went back to get it (best Daddy ever), while the girls and I hung out inside. The plan was to get Toy Story fastpasses, etc but it just wasn't worth fighting the crowd at this particular park, with how little there was to do at this EMH with two not-yet-3-year-olds.
Thankfully Zach returned by about 810, so we had hardly sacrificed much of our park time. We said hello to Daisy and Donald (decked out for Hollywood), blew kisses to Minnie as she walked by for her break, and visited with Stitch. From there we headed over to the Animation Courtyard, where we also said hi to Handy Manny (and talked about our favorite tools) before hitting up Starring Rolls Bakery for our now-traditional, completely unhealthy Butterfinger Cupcake breakfast.
At least, that was the plan. But that was before my sweet little clumsy girl (remember the story about her ballerina mother? You do if you know us in real life!) did a faceplant on the cement and left us instead administering first aid, (quite literally) assessing whether her nose was broken or just otherwise bleeding and swelling, cleaning up my broken heart, etc. It was an awful, awful while. Two moments to smile about? Emmersyn's concern for me, and Hartley's reaction: "Oh no! I have red spit like Mama had!" Hilarious (now).
Thankfully she recovered - emotionally, at least - relatively quickly (and left us more confident nothing was broken), so we stuck around and continued our day with the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. The girls were extremely brave, quite proud of themselves for "skipping" the dark parts. Yay, coping skills! :) As soon as it was over we hustled across the courtyard to the revised
Finally, it was time for our cupcake.
Next we tried to play on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playset, but it was entirely too crowded. A recurring theme, I know. The girls were having a blast but they were ok to leave for Toy Story Mania when it was time for our fastpass. They loved "helping", though they were admittedly less than helpful. I even lost to Kyle in accuracy, which never happens in those games! I blame my driver, for sure.
Lunch was at Backlot Express, where the girls were stoked to get a big cup of Blue Juice (Powerade). After lunch they fell asleep immediately, which meant it was my cue for a round or two of the Animation Academy! Recognize these guys?
We had every intention of Zach giving it a shot this time too, but the girls just so happened to wake up just in time to catch the Beauty and the Beast stage show. We have wanted so badly to work this one in the last few trips, but the times offered are just never conducive to their schedules, even if it were our first priority. When Emmersyn and Hartley woke up at 1:50, we booked it to the show and found seats just in time. They loved it, as we knew they would!
After the show, we even found an available spot in the shade for the new Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun parade, beginning shortly thereafter. We had planned to swing back to Pixar Place for a visit with Buzz and Woody, but the day had gone too perfectly. Why tempt fate? :) Instead, we watched - and thoroughly enjoyed - the parade, and called it a day at the Studios.
After our nearly-perfect day at the Studios (you know, minus the autograph book snafu, and, oh yes, the potentially broken nose...), we headed over to Downtown Disney for some souvenir shopping. The girls had a lot of fun exploring, especially Once Upon a Toy.
We talked a lot about potential souvenir options, because we're pretty well caught up on things we've "always" gotten in the past - park DVDs, character figure play sets, Mr. Potato Head pieces, etc. We scoped out some options for our pins this trip, and Emmersyn and Hartley continued to pose for pictures anywhere they felt appropriate.
Eventually, it was time for our dinner reservation at Raglan Road. This was a new restaurant for us, but we had been eager to try it after hearing rave reviews the past several years. Let me just say, the Irish Soda bread and Guinness reduction dip won us over immediately. Our steak and mixed grill were also excellent, and the Thin Chips (with gorgonzola, truffle oil, parmesan, etc) were to die for. Dessert was pretty bad, actually, but the food was so delicious that even this sweet tooth left feeling satisfied. We'll definitely be back!
We stopped in the newly-expanded Lego store and would have loved to have played, but on a Saturday night especially, I'm sure, it was insanely crowded. There was hardly room to walk, let alone navigate the stroller and chase after our two increasingly tired girls. We didn't mind a quick walk-through anyway, as we had promised the girls some time in the splash fountains before we left and it was getting a bit late. Of course, we had forgotten the "good" fountain gets transformed into a dance floor for a kids' dance party (which the girls' were shockingly not that interested in!), and the other fountain they were very wary of. Fine with us, we weren't devastated by the prospect of NOT having to strip the girls down in the van, dealing with wet denim, etc.
Admittedly another half day or so at the Studios during this trip would have been ideal, but given that that didn't work out, we really couldn't have asked for a better result by the end of the day.
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