Trip: Part 5

Our last day in Disneyland was a blast as well.  Wes, Liam and I got up early and went to our Magic Morning that we got with our three day pass, which means we got to go into Disneyland 1.5 hours before it opened to the 'public.'  The characters were all right in the entrance and the lines weren't crazy line to meet them or to go on rides.  We had so much fun with Liam doing that.  The cutest thing ever was when he just started skipping down main street Disneyland with his little Mickey hat, which really emulated that "Happiest Place on Earth" vibe.

This is just a cute picture of Addy from waiting in a line somewhere. The pictures are pretty out of order, but I'm sort of tired of organizing photos, so oh well. ;)

Liam tells people that one of his very favorite rides was "Big Thunder Mountain." I thought it might be a little scary for him, but the second time we went on it, we rode in the front and he kept his hands up and screamed and laughed the whole time.  I told him to give me his "Big Thunder Face" and this is what he did:



Pluto and Liam:

Minnie and Liam.  It surprised me how excited he was to meet her.

Later in the afternoon, we went around California Adventure and Addy enjoyed hanging out and seeing the world.

Liam meeting Dale.

One of the early rides we went on was the Auto track because there was always a line there. Liam loved being the driver. :)  We also went on the Nemo submarine, the Circus train, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and a few others. It was definitely worth it to get up early and not have to wait in the lines, even though the lines really weren't bad the last two days.



Liam also LOVED the raft ride at California Adventure.  We had so much fun and he just laughed and laughed every time he got splashed.  The people that rode with us thought he was hilarious.

Dumbo

We went and saw the Aladdin show in California Adventure. It was AWESOME.  We all really enjoyed it, plus it was nice to see it in the middle of the day in the nice air conditioned theater.  Wes and my favorite line from the play was from the genie, "I can't bring people back from dead, but if you have an iPhone, there is an app for that."



We went back to Disneyland to do some last minute shopping and my mom spotted a flash of pink back by Sleeping Beauty's castle. What do you know, it was Aurora herself! :D  She was a little bit hidden, so we walked right up and met her. So fun! 



Alice also came hopping through and stopped for a quick pic!

I was sooo excited to see The Little Mermaid carousel in California Adventure.  I had to pick the prettiest sea horse for Addy and I to ride!  We also rode a very fun Toy Story ride that we enjoyed immensely.





This is pretty funny to me.  Wes snapped this picture of himself taking a picture just like I had on the Disneyland carousel.  He didn't even know I taken the same kind of photo the day before.

I have one more post to do of swimming and our last night at World of Color!  Great photos to come...

Trip: Part 4

Day 2 in Disneyland was my favorite.  The crowds went down, we stayed there all day long (until it closed actually), had fun shopping, went on tons of rides, and the kids were in great moods.  We intended to have a low-key morning since Wes and I got back to the hotel late the night before, but Nana and Liam were anxious to get going, so they headed out and we followed not too long thereafter.  While Nana and Liam were there early, they went on Dumbo, which Liam loved. He was a little worried it might be too fast for Nana, but it all ended up being ok. ;) 

After we got there, the boys went over to California Adventure to ride the Monsters, Inc ride and to get us some fast passes, and the girls went to get in line to see the princesses.  Liam had ZERO interest in seeing the princess. :(  The night before we had made a priority list and everyone got to pick their top priority of things to do to make sure that we got our favorite stuff done. My top priority was to see Ariel, Nana's was to ride 'It's a Small World" and Wes's was to ride Tower of Terror. Liam's was just to ride as many rides as possible. ;)  So, we headed over to the princess area.

I think the Disney Princesses are now bigger than Micky and Minnie. They have a special Princess area that is shaded (thank goodness!) and a little princess walk through that you wait in line to go through to see three of the princesses. The kicker is that you never know which three there are.  Well, I figured it was worth a shot because I knew this was my only chance.  When we got in the 75 minute line, we asked which princesses were in there. They told us Cinderella, Mulan, and Sleeping Beauty, but that they could change at any point. I forced myself not to be disappointed, sure they wouldn't change while we were in line.  So, while we were in the long line, we had lunch, Addy napped, I fed Addy and we took turns standing in line to go to the princess store.  So, all in all, it was quite the productive line. :)  When we got to the front of the line, we asked which princesses were in there and sure enough, Cinderella, Snow White, and ARIEL!  I was soooo excited. :D

Let me tell you, Ariel did NOT disappoint. The princesses really were magical. It was so. much. fun.  Their dresses, make up, and whole personalities really were magical.  This was definitely the highlight for me.  I won't even pretend that I did it for Addy. I think Nana had fun, too, though. ;)  Unfortunately we were so awestruck that we didn't even think to take a photo with Nana and the princesses, so we got an aftershot.  The whole experience was totally worth the long line.





The rest of the day was filled with riding all sorts of rides.  It was *so* nice when the weather cooled down in the late afternooon.  We rode the tea cups, It's a Small World, Storybook land, Pirates of The Caribbean (which was definitely one of Liam's favorites-- He went on it again with Nana and they had so much fun! He told her not to be scared because it was just pretend.), the carousel, Indian Jones, etc, etc.  Here are a few photos from all the fun!


I had to take a photo of myself doing what I did a LOT of during our trip: taking pictures:






Drinking Tea in the Tea Cups:

My mom and I also found an ornament shop where we went just a tad bit crazy. ;) It was a lot of fun. I also had silhouettes of the kids done.  My mom has always had ours hanging in her room from when we were kids, so I wanted to do them. The lady there was just amazing. She has been doing it for 32 years (she probably did ours). She freehands the whole thing in about 4 minutes.  After all of that we went to downtown Disney where we let Liam pick out a special toy as a souvenir.  He made his daddy proud by choosing a Jack Sparrow sword, which was pretty fitting seeing as he loved Pirates so much.  I'm sure we did more and rode more rides that day, but I can't think of it all at the moment. Here's the boys waiting for the bus:

We did go back to the amazing candy shoppe that Wes and I had briefly visited the night before.  They had the BEST sugar cookies in the WORLD. So let's just say I bought a few of those...

Liam had such a fantastic day that he felt the need to share his day and experiences with everyone on the shuttle bus at 8:30pm.  He sat next to the sweetest grandma from Utah (Suzie) and didn't stop talking to her the ENTIRE bus ride back to the hotel.  He told her all about his new bandaids, that we were going to see World of Color, that he went on all sorts of rides, what Hotel (and room number!) we were staying at, etc, etc, etc.  The whole bus was laughing hysterically by the time we got off. Apparently he made quite the impression because Suzie told us the next night that the whole shuttle bus was talking about it the next morning... To be continued.

7 months!

We interrupt the vacation series of posts to bring you, Addy's 7 month picture! For some reason, 7 months seems so much older than 6 months. Maybe because it's closer to a year than to newborn? I don't know, but regardless, we've been having sooo much fun with our girl lately!

Here are a few tidbits about Miss Adelyn at 7 months old:
-On Monday, she weighed 14lbs 12oz(15th), was 26 1/4 inches long (50th), and I can't remember the exact head measurements but that was the 80th.   Dr. Tammy thinks she's perfect, even if she's getting a little smaller on the growth charts.  However, she thinks it's probably just because she's more active, but we'll go in for a weight check in 2 months just to make sure she doesn't drop anymore on her weight on the growth charts.
-She did awesome getting her shots. Before her appointment I told Liam we were taking her to the Dr for her shots.  He said he didn't want her to get shots because he doesn't like it when she cries. I explained to him the reason for the shots and asked why he doesn't want her to get them. He responded, "Because it makes my heart hurt when she cries."  Best Big Brother. Ever.
-She is becoming Miss Mobility!  She can roll across the room in just a minute or two.  She's also considering an army crawl. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that.  Anyone who tries to teach her to crawl gets reprimanded by me!
-I'm pretty sure that she's cutting two more teeth.  EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING goes straight into the mouth and she chews away at it.  We're trying out a Baltic Amber Teething Necklace this time to see if we  can make things a little more comfortable with her.
-She LOVES to bounce like crazy in her jumperoo and exersaucer.
-She's always been a happy baby, but within the last month, I've really noticed that she's been exceptionally happy. She's smiles at everyone and everything and gets excited and giggles frequently. It's sooo much fun. I think her 7month photo illustrates her 7month personality perfectly!
-She's been loving her baby food. I wasn't so sure she was going to like baby food after her reaction to oatmeal, but she gobbles it right up!
-I've been having to get a little more creative with girlfriend's WILD hair. I keep thinking that it will tame out a little bit, but no such luck.  It's still growing faster behind her ears so she has little wings. It is starting to grow a little more in the front now, but occasionally I'll put it in piggies which is super cute, even if it does make her look pretty bald in the front.  We've been noticing more of a reddish tint to her hair. Not sure if that will stick or not, but it definitely isn't lightening up as quickly as we thought it would.

Can't believe we're celebrating 7 months today!

Part III: Disneyland, Day 1!

On Sunday, we were really excited to tell Liam that we were going to Disneyland, however, we were prepared that the reaction maybe wouldn't be what you see on the Disneyland commercials, as we weren't even sure he knew what Disneyland was.  The only reason we hadn't told him is because Liam is notorious for asking "When are we going to be there?" 1000x a day. :)  We told him right before we got on the shuttle and he was excited, but I don't think he knew what he was excited about. However, he definitely made up for it with his enthusiasm during the rest of the trip!  The kid never once stopped running until the night of our last day of Disneyland.

Here's our little family before getting on the shuttle. I had a hard time finding an authentic Minnie shirt for Addy(meaning red and not pink), so I whipped her up a little onesie dress with a Minnie Mouse made out of rosettes.  It turned out so cute and it was nice and cool because it got up to like 89*.  Addy looks more excited than Liam!



We were all so excited to finally be there!



Liam immediately spotted this astro ride, so we went for it.  You have the option to move your little rocket up and down, but Liam only wanted it as high as it could go the entire time. Everytime I pushed it down, he'd push it back up!  Everytime he finished a ride he'd exclaim, "That was SO fun! Let's go again!"



We were a little discombobulated the first day, just trying to get a feel for what we wanted to do. We rode the materhorn, went to toon town, rode Space Mountain (which Liam said was way too scary--I tried to tell Daddy that, but he insisted), got the kids Mickey hats, saw Mickey and Minnie and just scoped the place out. Because it was weekend, it was a little crowded and it was hot, but we had a good time.  We caught the Micky Band in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle and enjoyed a little break. 

Nursing as always!



Liam got his autograph book and had fun asking for autographs, but he was really more into the rides. If the line was long to see a character, he didn't have patience for it and just wanted to go find a ride.

Peter Pan was his first autograph. He was so cool and funny!  It was a lot of fun meeting him.


Wes and Liam waited in line at Mickey's House in toon town and explored a bit while waiting to meet Mickey. The lines were pretty long and Liam didn't care to meet Minnie, so us girls waited for Minnie and the boys, Mickey.

I thought it was pretty cool that Mickey was wearing his sorcerer outfit!

Here we are waiting to meet Minnie. Her house was soo cute with an adorable picket fence and shutters and just the cutest little details.

Addy loved Minnie!  She looked her all over and kept touching her.  I love Minnie! So fun!

I had to get a photo by her knitting needles. You can see we were at the height of the heat that day-- rosy cheeks!

The kitchen was adorable!  The dishwasher had dishes and bubbles swirling around and the oven had a cake rising up. 

Picture with Minnie's Mail box for Aunt Linda!

And another picture for Aunt Linda of Nana and Liam in front of the toon town post office.

It is seriously amazing how many different Mickey Mouse ears there are. You hardly saw the same ones twice! You could even create your own.  Liam chose an adorable sorcerer Mickey (which is fitting because that's what Micky was wearing) and Addy got a pink Disney princess set of ears. 

We were all pretty exhausted so we headed back early and ate at Joe's Crab Shack (yum!)  Wes and I went back to California Adventure and rode some fun rides (he convinced me to go on the Hollywood Tower of Terror) and it was a blast while Nana watched the kids. Thanks, Nana, for letting us have a little date!  Day one was definitely as success, but Day 2 was even better... To be continued...