The morning started off nice and early with Breakfast with Minnie at the park. It's a breakfast buffet that you make reservations for, and you can actually get into the park before they open! The boys were very excited. I can't remember the last time we sat down and had a nice breakfast before going to an amusement park, we're usually go-go-go. This was a nice way to ease into the Disney mood!
It took Tyler a little time to warm up to the characters that were walking around. He finally went to say Hi to Captain Hook (after the promise of a bag of gummies though). He wasn't even scared!
Tyler and Eeyore.
Mickey Mouse pancakes, really yummy with powdered sugar!
Another weird character for the kids - Gepetto! Tyler had no clue who he was, but was (surprisingly) willing to take some photos with him.
Tigger!
Tigger had some fun tickling the boys too.
One of Tyler's favorite Disney characters maybe?
And of course the star attraction, Minnie Mouse!
Here's a video of the kids saying Hi to Minnie.
Even though breakfast was a bit pricey, I think it was definitely worth it to see all these characters. I really didn't want to wait in long lines or chase them down in the streets! Would we do it again? Maybe!
Whew, breakfast over, ready to start the day! Tyler and Kaden were very serious as we discussed which rides we were going to go on.
First up - Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters! The line was super quick (sorry for the blurry picture) and it was good to get it out of the way. I actually got to really try to shoot at targets this time for a change (the last couple of times I was holding Katelyn) and boy was it fun! Good thing Tyler was enjoying the ride himself since I was too engrossed, hah!
Here's Tyler and my Astro Blaster picture! I think I'm like a rank 4 or something! Whoohoo!
Next we continued on to TomorrowLand. They boys were itching to go on the rocket ships but Jen and I both changed the subjects since I don't think either of us were up it! We got fast passes for Autopia and then watched the beginning of the Stars Wars Jedi training show. I was certain Tyler would be jumping up and down trying to be called on but I could barely get him to put his hand up. Arrghh. Oh well. Tyler was still excited to see the Jedi though (maybe a little scared too until they pulled the cloaks from their heads). [Side note: I somehow managed to accidentally leave my camera in the bathroom stall right before this, and was crazily running around to Buzz Lightyear and Autopia looking for it without any luck. I finally tried the bathroom, and thank goodness it had been maybe 10-15 minutes and it was still early so there weren't that many people at the park, but the lady in the stall next to the one I was in called out that she had it and was just about to take it to Lost and Found. W H e W !!!]
Finding Nemo (pretty quick line too)!
By the time we finished Finding Nemo, our Fasttrack Passes were ready for Autopia. Tyler took his driving very seriously, as you can see in this video below. He looks like he really knows what he's doing (check out the hand over hand turning!)
Tomorrowland? Done! Off we headed to FrontierLand (we did a lot of criss-crossing the park that day, not great planning!). The boys were very excited to see all the cowboy gear. There even was a machine that you could make Woody dance! Very old-western style.
Howdy Tyler!
Howdy Howdy boys!
At this point Kaden was pretty adamant about going on the Winnie the Pooh ride so we headed over to Critter Country (is there a name for that area?). We stopped in New Orleans Square and had lunch (Kaden has a tendency to get angry and aggressive if he is hungry). We saved a good deal of $$ by bringing our own lunches (ham and cheese sandwiches and fruit) that Tyler gladly ate! Whoohoo, ready for more adventure!
I LOVE Disneyland on a Thursday morning. It is so different from the bustling weekends. For one thing, you can actually run around freely without running into people! The boys liked looking at the lake and Tom Sawyer's island.
Look over there Tyler!
Silly cheeses.
Jen had almost convinced me to take Tyler with them on Splash Mountain (gasp!) when we found out it was closed for the day. Whew! Next was the Winnie the Pooh and friends ride. Tyler was a little scared in the beginning since it was so dark, but thank goodness he got over it quick.
Next up - Thunder Mountain! I figured of all the roller coasters, this was the one to ease Tyler in (especially after he did so well on the Camp Snoopy roller coaster one). Tyler didn't even really protest either. Here's Jen and Kaden behind us.
And here's a video of Tyler on Thunder Mountain for the first time. He kind of has a smile of enjoyment after the first turn, but then it becomes something more like terror near the end. Oops. But great job Tyler - even though he was scared he didn't cry - and that made me very proud! At the end, when I asked him if he liked it, he said: "Too Fast."
After Thunder Mountain, Jen and Kaden went to wait in line for Matterhorn (Tyler was NOT interested at all) and I put Tyler in their umbrella stroller for a quick nap. The stroller was quite small so it took Tyler a bit to get comfortable, but I covered the front with a thick blanket and soon he was dozing. The line for Matterhorn was quick (15-20 min?) and Tyler was asleep maybe 5 minutes or so before Jen/Kaden were back. I know Tyler needed his nap if we were going to be able to make it until the evening, so they went off to ride the Alice in Wonderland ride (which had quite a long line!). After Tyler had been napping for an hour, I got a text from them that they were in Toontown so I pushed the stroller over hoping Tyler would wake up on his own. No such luck! Had to wake him up, and he was quite groggy for a little while afterwards! Here's knocked out out Tyler.
Ready to explore ToonTown! The first thing we did was actually go on Gadget's rollercoaster, which I was surprised that Tyler was down for since his last ride before his nap was a "too fast" Thunder Mountain. He did great though (although Kaden was starting to melt down a bit in line from not napping).
So big now!
Chip n Dale's treehouse.
Then we sucked it up and waited in line to see Mickey. Ugh, probably the longest line we stood in all day. The annoying part was that people were just slowly taking their time through the front part of the house and we just wanted to get to the back to wait in line. So.. we may have cut a little... I was a little nervous! The boys were quite enthralled with the Magic Mirror.
!! There's Mickey in the mirror!
Where'd he go? Kaden, did you see that?!!
Waiting patiently for Mickey to reappear...
Super blurry group photo with Mickey.
The guy did not know how to use a camera! And then he dropped it too! Argh. I should have checked the photo before we left (it was blurry last time and I had the guy retake it).
What's next in Toontown?
Goofy's house has a playground attached to it. It always amazes me how many kids are playing here when there are so many other things they could be doing! At least it gives the parents a chance to rest.
I think we're done with Disneyland! Next up, California Adventure! We took the train from Toontown to the front of the park. Love this picture of me and Tyler! (side note: Kaden had quite the meltdown on this train ride. He grabbed Tyler's balloon from breakfast and squished it so all the air went out, and even kicked Tyler! Boo!)
CA Adventure is gearing up for Cars Land next year. EXCITING! There was quite a line to take photos with life sized Mater and Lightning McQueen, so we took a picture outside the waiting area. :) Notice Jen and Kaden aren't with us since they needed some time for Kaden to calm down.
Tyler and I headed straight to Toy Story Midway Mania. We had both never been on it but had heard great things about it. Only drawback? - its DEEP within CA Adventure. Lots of walking. No FastPass. The line was quite a wait and Jen/Kaden joined us a little ways in. The ride did not disappoint! I wish I had a video, it was so cool! You wear 3D glasses and you can see the balls that you are shooting (different colored from your partner) at the different targets!
Go Tyler Go!
The car that you are in moves from one screen to the next so you always have different targets to hit!
Best ride of the day, hands down!
I couldn't resist the Turkey Leg stand right outside the ride. And Tyler was ALLLL about the turkey leg!
Going to town!
Big bites Tyler!
Oh, this is so yummy.
Please share with mommy!
Here's a video of Tyler and his delicious turkey leg. He ate the majority of it - good thing it was time for dinner anyway.
We headed to "Paradise Pier" which bears a striking resemblance to Pier39 in SF. The first thing I saw? A margarita bar!! I'm not a fan of tequila but I wasted no time in getting myself a nice fruity one - what a pleasant surprise that CA Adventure serves alcohol! Later I wished I had waited since they seem to sell LOTS of alcohol! Oh well, didn't want to waste my margarita, and the more I drank the better it tasted (typical)! Here's Tyler all fed and ready for more fun!
It's going to be really exciting when Cars Land opens!
They boys were very interested in all the Cars 2 signs. Can't wait to watch it this Summer!
Next stop - a Bug's Life land. Lots of fun age appropriate rides for the kids here. This ride was that caterpillar Heimlich's ride. Very slow, and it went through these giant food objects. When we went through the giant animal cracker box, the ride had pumped in a really strong vanilla smell! Nice touch Disney!
Bumper cars! This was that crazy circus flea's big top or something. Me and Jen!
These were mini bumper cars too, perfect for the boys.
What was this one - kind of like a hot air balloon ride but instead of normal baskets, we were in food boxes or something. Here's Kaden and Tyler - still very excited!
A short video of this ride. Tyler has the funniest expression as the ride starts to go!
What's next...this was a cool little backdrop area that looked like you could walk down the street.
Monster's Inc ride. Quite dark, Tyler wasn't really feeling it.
Wow, the boys still had a lot of energy. They decided to do some random dancing, showing off for a girl maybe?
Their dancing video. Tyler is learning some not age-appropriate dance moves from Kaden!
Stopped by the Animation Academy. Nice place to just sit and watch all the screens all around the room show different Disney animation.
Group picture!
We went to see Crush Interactive as well. There's a screen and Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo comes on to talk to the audience. It's interactive because the lady with the microphone walks around and Crush asks the audience questions. We left about 5 minutes in...
Last ride of the day - Soaring over California (we got a fast pass right when we got into CA Adventure). I had no idea how much Tyler was going love this ride! He decided that this ride and the Toy Story Midway Mania were his favorite of the day.
What a day! I had Tyler changed into his pajamas before we left the parking lot since I knew he was going to knock out before we got home (which he did). What a fun day!
I was REALLY tired that night, and my feet were really sore too (from carrying Tyler!). We still had a second trip left on our passes and Jen pointed out to me that the weekend we had planned to go (28-29th) was Memorial Day weekend. Crowds! My nanny was off the next day (Friday) and Will had taken the day off to watch Katelyn so we decided to go to Disneyland again. Fridays must be less crowded than a weekend right? I called their school early Friday morning and was pleasantly surprised that one of the kids in Katelyn's class was on vacation, which meant they could take Katelyn for the day! For an extra charge of course. We decided it was a good idea since bringing Katelyn with us all day to Disneyland would just be too exhausting on everybody. Tyler was excited to help Katelyn get ready for school and NOT have to stay there!
Off to Disneyland round 2! The good thing about this trip was that since we had just done everything yesterday, we were more focused on new rides and showing Will Tyler's favorite ones! And this time we were smarter and brought a stroller for all our junk.
Amazingly, Tyler was down to go on Thunder Mountain again today. He was excited to show Will that he wasn't afraid. :) We got to all sit in 1 row.
Ok, still a little scared...
The Dumbo line is so ridiculously long. We opted not to wait and instead took a photo instead.
Casey's train adventure! Very slow but nice way to just relax.
Tyler and Will!
Mad Hatter's teacups!
Tyler was actually interested in going fast in the teacups. It's a lot of work to turn that by yourself!
I must have asked Tyler 5x during the ride if it was too fast (maybe i was hoping he'd say Yes so I could stop spinning!)
Yay! Tyler liked the ride!
Alright, off to New Orleans Square to meet up with Tyler's absolute favorite teacher at his school, Vanessa. She's going to be his teacher next year but they've been BFFs since early last year when Tyler was just starting in Pre-1. Tyler had a few rough weeks there for a bit when Katelyn was about 6 months old and Vanessa was a LIFESAVER when it came to helping him calm down. He loves her and she loves him! We are really looking forward to Vanessa being his teacher next year in Pre-4. We all went on Pirates of the Caribbean together.
Tyler and Vanessa!
Better angle this time Tyler. Tyler is really sociable and likes to hang out with his friends, but as soon as it gets dark/scary, he immediately wants me to hold or hug him. It's a nice mommy feeling. :)
Here's Tyler with Vanessa and Irene. Irene is the Lead teacher in the Infant room and was actually one of Tyler's teachers back when he was just a baby - and now she's also Katelyn's teacher!
Next we headed to Tom Sawyer's island. It was nice that we weren't rushing to go on rides, and just enjoying the day. Here's Tyler and me in some cage or something.
Pumping water with Vanessa!
This turn-thing raised a pirate's sunken treasure!
Oooh, Tyler and lots of treasure (or as he and his school friends call it: GOLDENS!!)
Family picture! It was nice for Tyler to have one-on-one time with both Will and myself together. He doesn't get enough I'm sure.
Heehee, Tyler likes all the treasure.
Exploring some caves. Tyler was quite cautious...
It's safe to come in!
With Vanessa and Irene!
Wow, this island isn't small. There was a lot of walking involved as went all around. Another family picture!
Checking out the telescopes.
Ok, somehow, Vanessa convinced Tyler to go on the Haunted House ... even I am kind of scared of the haunted mansion! Tyler hung out with Vanessa while we were in line, but as soon as we got into the room he was hugging me tight. I wasn't sure if this was a good idea. It was quite spooky in there. Here's a shot Will got as soon as we got into our buggy. Tyler looks SCARED!
He rode the rest of the ride with his hat pulled over his eyes and his ears covered. OK not the whole ride. A few minutes in he started watching just cartoons on my iPhone to distract him. WHEW we made it through though!
By now it was noon or so and Tyler scarfed down a sandwich as we said goodbye to his teachers and headed over to California Adventure. We really wanted Will to try out the Toy Story Midway Mania game! Tyler fell asleep halfway through his last sandwich bite in the stroller, and Will waited with him while I went through the queue for the Toy Story line. The line was much longer this time around, but I think Tyler got a 45min-1hr nap? He was quite groggy (of course) when we woke him when I was getting to the front, but woke up quick when he saw we were up next! Here's Will and Tyler!
Last ride we stopped by on the way out (Fastpasses of course) was Soaring over California, another one of Tyler's favorite. LOVE Fastpasses, it's such a wonderful idea!
He might possibly love this ride more than the Toy Story one!
It was really nice to get to have Tyler all to ourselves, without having to focus on Katelyn as well. He's grown into such a big fun kid!
A photo during the ride!
And here's a video of part of the ride. I took it so Tyler could watch it and remember how much he liked it!
Whew, I think it was almost 2 by then, and we were TIRED! We stopped for one last photo (in front of the Golden Gate Bridge - SO bummed we forgot to take one in front of the castle!) and headed back to Irvine to pick up Katelyn from school.
Plan: pick up Katelyn, head home, and EVERYONE naps. Katelyn, Tyler and Will went down easily. I took a shower since I felt so gritty! We had 6:30pm dinner reservations at Ariel's Grotto (super pricey, but comes with preferred seating for the World of Color show we wanted to see that night) so we were planning on leaving the house by 5:30pm. But, of course nothing goes smoothly, and we TOTALLY overslept and then were mad rushing around the house trying to get things together. Not a fun moment. By the time we got to the park and parked, it was already past 7. I called to see if we could push our reservation back but the call center lady was really unhelpful (annoyingly so) but Will convinced me that we should still try to go anyway. They must have taken pity on our frazzled-ness (hah!) because they seated us promptly and told us we could still get tickets to the 9pm show if we finished dinner in time (if not, we'd get tickets to the 10:15 show). WHEW!
We ate dinner on the really windy deck, and Katelyn only had a thin jacket. We had forgotten her thick one in the rush to get out. Wonderful huh!
She didn't mind at first though, and was busy eating strawberries.
Yum yum yum!
More please?
Dinner was $40/adults and $20 for a ridiculous kid's meal. The food was definitely not worth the price, and only something that we'd do once just to see the World of Color show from nice seats.
MMMMM my cranberry mojito. Just seeing this picture is making me SO thirsty.
By the time the sun set, we realized we had 2 of Tyler's jackets so Katelyn got to look even more like Tyler that night. :) She didn't mind. Check out our nice view of thee roller coasters behind us! They closed the deck by 830pm or so since it's on the water where the World of Color show is.
Our yummy dessert platter that we scarfed down quick so that we could get to the World of Color show!
Very interesting. If you want to watch the World of Color, you have to get a FastPass ticket for it. No exceptions. This is a great idea since it prevents people from camping out hours and hours before like they do for fireworks or Fantasmic. However, the (free) Fastpass tickets (available only while supplies last for that show) have seats that are on the far sides of the show. Then there's another level of seats, not sure where you get those, that are a little more towards the middle of the audience; and then there's our "Preferred Dining" that is right in the middle. Our section wasn't crowded at all since you only get these if you're willing to pay exorbitant prices for dinner! We got some nice seats right on some steps.
Tyler got a ridiculously priced light saber souvenir.
We had to be careful that he wouldn't knock anyone in the head with it.
Ok fine, it was worth it for his cheesiness.
Katelyn was totally into it! She watched really intently.
Tyler liked it too!
Family picture!
Katelyn was definitely getting tired though. It was past 9pm!
We remembered to grab the Ergo carrier from the car (thank goodness) and Katelyn happily fell asleep in it. She hates all carriers now that she can walk though, so it was nice and nostalgic to have her dozing against me.
Isn't it pretty? Probably wouldn't watch it again unless I was really bored though. :)
On the way out we passed California Soaring and Will took Tyler on it ONE LAST TIME while I waited outside with sleeping Katelyn.
Will even requested a middle top row this time around so that they'd have the best view.
Will and Tyler!
Waiting for the tram, Katelyn was knocked out! We changed them both to pajamas when we got to the car and they made the transfer from car to beds deep asleep. Whew! Successful day! And you bet I was EXHAUSTED after 2 days of Disneyland!
Saturday morning. The fun never stops. Will took Tyler to his last Daddy and Me tennis class. They practiced more volleying.
Look he actually hit it!
Ok... so they just kind of hold their rackets up in the air and the coach tries to have the ball bounce right to them... but still!
My parents dropped by for a quick visit as well since they were in Orange County. Here's my mom playing peekaboo with Katelyn!
Blowing kisses!
My parents and the kids.
Katelyn was getting tired of photos at this point.
Oh yes! I got this baby Minnie stuffed animal at Disneyland on Thursday for Katelyn. It comes with a little blanket with a velcro that fits perfectly for swaddling her. Katelyn knew exactly what to do with it! She picked up Minnie, hugged her and patted her!
Aww, gentle hug
Her new little baby!
Saturday afternoon: a racing birthday party! I think by now we were running on fumes! Tyler had a great time though, he loves racing cars! They hired a company that sets up lots of different race tracks for the kids to play with.
The cars are all the kind that you can charge up by pressing them down and pulling them backwards, and they had these cool "charging" stations that would charge them up for you.
I liked that they had mats for the kids to sit on around the racing tracks too! They had the party at Woodbury commons, which you have to rent (not cheap I'm sure) but I loved the grassy courtyard with the gate. The kids were able to run around without us worrying that they'd run off!
Racing cars!
Chatting with the other moms.
Katelyn got really into the festivities too!
Katelyn and her friend Kourtney!
Just having lots of fun!
Serious racecar driver.
Check out the racetrack!
Katelyn wants in on the action too.
Hey, I can't reach!
Uncle Larry helped Katelyn up so that she could put her car down the racetrack. He must have done it at least 3 times, but each time Katelyn would miss the track. She was trying though!
And here's Katelyn with the Lisa, the birthday boy's mom. Can you believe she's 41?
Katelyn wandering around, what to play with next...
Madison giving Katelyn a hug!
And another hug! They are so cute! This one was maybe a little too rigorous though...
..and Katelyn ended up on the ground... oops!
Tyler and Kaden. Hooligans. Kaden started grabbing all the balloons from the tables so Tyler followed suit. Argh.
Heehee, not sure why there was a ball there...
Check out that cake! A plain cake from this bakery already run about $200, I can't imagine how much a themed Cars one would be!
Katelyn and Kaelyn!
Kaelyn is in the same class as Tyler (They've been friends since infant room!) and Kaelyn's little sister Kourtney is in the infant room with Katelyn right now.
Mommy picture!
Yes, I'm playing with ice.
Tyler and Kaden! Before they got into some sort of altercation where Kaden tried to grab something out of Tyler's hand. Sigh.
Tyler and the birthday boy Elijah.
Sunday. Baby shower in Newport. Me and Trina.
Me and Eva! (haven't seen her in a while, I'm friends with her through another group of friends!)
With Nancy Trina and Mariam. Nancy is due end of June!
Rushed back from the baby shower for a playdate at the Tings. Katelyn was ready to go! She's even in shorts!
Will was the coach today as Katelyn and I just played with our feet in the water.
After everyone showered up, it was time to play! They have a really large playroom with so many toys!
Tyler took turns playing with Kaelyn...
...and Karissa. He was quite diplomatic. When Karissa asked him to play with her when he was doing puzzles with Kaelyn, Tyler said something like, "I'll come play with you later. Right now I'm doing puzzles with Kaelyn. After we finish I'll come play with you". Heehee!
Then dinner!
The girls really liked having Tyler over!
Here's a short video of Katelyn saying "baby" as we looked at Kaelyn and Karissa's baby pictures on the walls.
I warned you this was going to be quite a post! This post doesn't even actually go all the way up to Wednesday night as we typically do since it already is SO huge! But the week after this crazy weekend was when Will went on vacation, oops I mean, went on a business trip, to New York City. Sorry about the delay!
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