Sunday, October 24, 2010

Disneyland!

Day 1
To start off I took tons and tons of pictures this trip. I took my nice camera and was happy I did. Since I took so many I decided instead of loading them one by one on here I would make these cute collages. Well after spending an hour making them I started uploading them and they made all my cute clear photos fuzzy and blah. So I'm not too happy about that but I already made them and uploaded them so they're staying! Makes me mad but what can I do!


Our plane ride was super early Monday morning so we had to wake Gage up at 5:15! He did well and he was a perfect little flyer! He watched some Nemo, colored, ate, played, relaxed, and never had a fit! I was so nervous for our flights, I was so proud of how well he did! Kimberlee and Krew did amazing as well! Look how adorable little Krew is! He is the biggest smiler I have ever seen! Just looking at him he will smile at you, I love it!
We picked up our 15 seater van, yes it was Sweet! Sadly we didn't take any pictures of our pimped out ride! The kids were all excited to party party, and we headed to Huntington beach.

It was overcast but it didn't stop the boys from getting in. I passed on getting in this time and decided to be the photographer! Gage was all about the sand, birds, and running around. He was not a fan of the water. I think the waves freaked him out and it was really cold! I didn't put his swimsuit on but I really wished I would have cause he was a mess. We had a lot of fun, and Brandon was even on the news! They were doing a story about the weather and wanted to interview one of the crazies swimming in the cold!
Once we checked into our rooms we headed to California Adventure. We did some rides and then went and checked in for our dinner picnics.
After dinner we did a few more rides, finishing off most of the rides at California Adventure! We then headed off to get ready for the world of color which I was super excited for. We bought our tickets and picnics in advance and were told we would have great seats. Well when we went to get in line it seemed as if every person that lived in California was in line as well, it was a joke! We waited to get seated and found out our seats were not close and we had to stand to see anything. After we were seated we still had 30 min to wait till the show. By this time Gage had enough and had a complete meltdown. We had to leave and go back to the room which was a bummer cause I really wanted to see the show. My family said it was good but our seats were not the best. Gage only had two big meltdowns the entire trip so I was really proud of him. I couldn't be mad at him the poor guy woke up at 5:15, only had maybe 30 minutes of nap time all day, and he was constantly going. This was really the only let down on the trip, so I'll take it.
Day 2
This day was for sure the longest and craziest, but Gage did the best this day! We woke up super early for our early entry into the park which was nice. We walked right on peter pan and dumbo. Then we were the first ones on the Haunted Mansion, which was all tricked out for Halloween! I already loved this ride but loved it even more with the new theme! It's crazy how much work and time is put into turning everything "Halloween." Gage wasn't too sure about it at first but ended up loving it and saying hi and bye to everything.
We fit a lot of rides in this morning and had no lines! It started raining around 9 and rained on and off all day! We lived in our ponchos!Since we were getting rained out anyways we headed back to the room and napped for a couple hours. Gage was out, no surprise for us he was exhausted! It was nice for us to get a nap in there too. He slept the entire trip in bed with me which I loved. Tyler also loved having his own bed, how sad is that! After our nap we dressed Gage up for some Disneyland Trick Or Treating! Gage has two costumes this year, Mickey and Frankenstein! Yes my son is extremely spoiled, but oh well. We had to pay an extra $100 for trick or treating. They close down the park to everyone else. They had different check points where you would get candy, meet characters, parades, shows, ect. The lines for trick or treating were long but went fast. It rained almost the entire night but we made the best of it, and it didn't seem to bug Gage. We met Mickey that night and it was perfect cause Gage was Mickey!Woody was also a hit that night!They had a Halloween Parade that was only for the trick or treaters. It was really cute and we had front row seats. Gage loved it!
Overall the trick or treating experience was a lot of fun. I would recommend it to everyone. The rain was a bummer but we managed and thankfully it stopped towards the end of the night. They had fireworks too that night but we were back in our room before they started! We came home with tons of candy though!
Day 3
We started off the day with a few rides, we did Buzz which taught Gage how to go around pointing his finger at people and "shooting them." Then we headed off to our favorite moment of the trip, breakfast with the characters. We about died when they told us it would be $59.00, but we realized it was worth every penny! Gage started off a little hesitant but ended up chasing the characters and butting his way in when others. He did not like Captain hook though at all! He clenched on to Tyler with every finger, it was pretty funny!
He saw Tigger again and loved him even more! Minnie was a huge hit, the first time she came around I was holding him. When she came around the second time he was all over it and couldn't take his eyes off her! That explains why every picture I have he is not looking at me. It was such a fun breakfast and I would recommend doing a characters meal for anyone going to Disneyland! You get lots of interaction, no lines to see them, and lots of fun!
The weather this day was perfect! Cloudy, not hot, and no rain! We took full advantage of it. Probably one of the funniest rides was the t-cups! We all had just ate and once we got on the spinning was not pleasant. Gage and Kimberlee were hilarious, I was honestly waiting for one of them to puke! We got some great laughs on it. Tyler and I decided we needed to try to get Gage to take a nap around noon. So we headed back to the hotel but on the way we met up with this guy! Goofy loved Gage and Gage was a huge fan of Goofy! They had twin teeth so of course they would be buddies! Gage was a character pro by now so he was Mr. Independent! Once we got back to the room Gage was Mr. Hyper and had no intentions of sleeping. Tyler and I decided the weather was too perfect that we would skip the nap and head back to D-Land. Once we got into the park Gage was asleep in the stroller, figures!
He took a good 30 min nap and was ready for more fun. Of course we found a slide in Toon-Town and Gage was obsessed! I swear this boy and his slides, he could do it all day if we would let him. We had to pull him away from it and explain we paid big money for rides not slides! :) We were at Disneyland till about 7 that night fitting in all our last rides. Our last ride was Toy Story and that was probably our favorite. The wait is always long but well worth it! We managed to ride about every ride in both Disneyland and California Adventure this trip. Our longest wait for a ride was toy story and that was 40 min. The rest were walks ons and maybe 5-10 minutes at the most. We picked a good time to go, it was perfect!

That night we drove way too far to the cheesecake factory, little did we know there was one 2 minutes away from our hotel! Dang GPS! They told us the wait would be 20 min, well 45 min later we are still waiting and Gage was done! We ended up leaving Cheesecake to California Pizza Kitchen and once we sit down Gage flips! I don't blame him at all, it was late and he had not napped! We ended up eating dinner in the van while everyone else ate inside. It was interesting but one of the challenges with Toddlers and Restaurants! It was a long day but probably my favorite day!
Day 4
We headed out early and took the 90 min drive to San Diego to visit Sea World. We picked a great day to go, not too hot, no rain, and no crowds! We were kinda bummed though cause it was only open from 10-5 and we weren't able to fit everything we wanted to do in that time. We didn't get to see a lot of animals I wish we could have. What we did see though we loved and Gage did too. Getting him to wait for the shows was not easy. We had to walk around till the last minute then take our seats. Once the show started he didn't flinch, he loved it!
We went and saw the penguins very first since Happy Feet is such a big thing in our house. Gage loved them of course!
Then we hit up the Polar exhibit which he was even a bigger fan of. He would watch for the whales and when they would disappear under the water he would say, "where'd it go?" Then once it came back, "there it is!" We inhaled our lunch faster then you could believe! Brandon even shared a little with a lovely bird too! We ran over to see the Shamu show because we really didn't want to miss it, well once it started Gage saw one whale then passed out! After his nap and a few rides we were just in time to visit Gages new favorites Elmo and Cookie! He was still half asleep but he was so excited to see them! Again he walked right up to them and gave hugs and posed! Sea World has a new Elmo play area that I wish we had more time to play around in. Gage rode some rides and the dads took the kiddies up a fun ropes course. Sea World really was a hit and I will always love it! Tyler and I have been 3 times now in about 6 years so we might be a little burnt out but we still love it! For anyone that has kids though and is thinking about going try planning on two days there. With all the shows and all the animals and working around the kiddies schedule it was tough. After we left Sea World we went to Mission Beach and watched the sunset and Tyler and I swam in the ocean together. I was really happy that I got in this time and got swept away by a few waves. Nothing like a little salt water in your lungs for the drive home! The drive back to Anaheim was long but we managed thanks to driver Brandon! We got back to the hotel around 8 and Gage was done for the night with no real nap that day. We ordered food for the room and passed out early! It was a great day!

Day 5!
We packed up, went to breakfast and headed out! I was super nervous for this plane ride because it was right during Gage's nap. He was either going to be super tired or super overtired! After an eventful security check we boarded the plane. Right before taking off he fell asleep and he stayed asleep during the entire flight! We were so thankful we couldn't believe it! Everyone around us was telling us how good our son was, which would have been the opposite if he would have been awake! :)
Hate this picture of me but look how adorable he is!It was such a fun, crazy, trip that I would do again in a second. Gage was overall a very good boy and he was so much fun during everything! I can't wait for all our family vacations in the future and seeing new things with him!

3 comments:

Jessie said...

Sounds like a whole lot of fun!! YOur family has the best times together!

TJones said...

I am so jealous, I love Disneyland! Looks like so much fun. What a brave bunch to travel with so many kiddies. Gage is so cute, what a big boy!

Emily said...

what an incredibl trip!! loved all the pictures. i LOVE going to california. one of my favorite places to be