Disneyland - August

So I was going to write up a big long post about Disneyland, but then I remembered that I kinda already had. It can be found here.

Here are a few more photos that didn't make it on that original post.

Happy Wednesday!

Entryway to the park.

 

On the jungle cruise.

Kelly

The Year of Disney May 2011

These are some pictures from our latest trip to The Happiest Place On Earth. We went this time with our friends, the Duffy's, and it was a great 3 days. We were there May 14-16, 2011.

Quinn trying to figure out what's going on at the "Bug's Life" area at California Adventure

Mater and Lightning were a hit in front of where the new "Radiator Springs" area will be. The guy who took the picture said that this was the picture of the day because of Quinn's big cheesy smile :)

Quinn and Kelly waiting in line for the Peter Pan ride.

Bunny ears were very appropriate for this picture. Quinn thought the White rabbit was pretty funny.

Just waiting for his breakfast.

Goofy kinda creeped Quinn out a little bit. He just wasn't too sure about a dog that's 7 feet tall.

What's scarier than a 7 foot dog? A 5 foot mouse! Quinn warmed up to Mickey after a minute.

Mickey's chair was just Quinn's size.

Quinn busting mommy out of jail.

I'm not sure what we're looking at, but I'm sure it was very interesting. This was during the River Boat Cruise.

This was day 1 at the park and as you can see, Quinn was very excited to be there.

Quinn saying, "I LOVE THE PLAY AREA IN TOON TOWN!!!!!!!"

Open up Mickey! Quinn needs to use the bathroom!

Daddy and Quinn discussing what is going to happen on the River Boat Cruise.

Mommy and Quinn Smiling for thee camera on the River Boat Cruise.

Just getting to the park and Quinn already wants out of the stroller. He had so much fun!

Kelly

The Year of Disney Part 2

Day two was a whole different experience. We started it off with a full day of rest and a tummy full of food. It’s amazing what those two things will do for a person. We arrived at the park at opening again, 9am, with a stocked Camelback, happy baby and a mission. We hit the Pirate’s ride one more time for good measure, finally made it to the Haunted mansion, let Quinn run around the Tarzan tree house (which he LOVED) and finally bought Quinn a Mickey hat with his name on it. So stinkin cute!!!

Mr. Toad’s wild adventure, the Buzz light year ride and a whole lot of walking later we called it quits and made it to Downtown Disney just in time for Quinn’s nap.

What we learned this trip:
1. Quinn isn’t a screamer. But he will grip the crap out of you when he gets scared.
2. Pack LOTS of snacks and drinks. I didn’t realize that Disneyland lets you bring outside food and water into the park for your kids. That came in handy on day two.
3. Quinn really likes to look at stuff, mostly the other kids. It was kind of impossible to get him to look at anything if a kid wasn’t standing next to or on it.

Overall I’d say it was a fairly successful first trip to Disneyland. We’ll be back in May for Eric’s birthday, if not before then. Did you know you get discounts on just about anything with season passes? We get free parking; one car per pass, 15% off food, and 20% off merchandise. And we get discounts at the Disneyland hotels, not that we can afford them, but it’s just nice to know our options.

Kelly

The Year of Disney Part 1

Note: I have a good bit to say and a great deal of photos to share about the weekend so I’m breaking this into two parts.

So a few weeks ago I was sitting at work thinking about what I wanted to do for family vacations this year. It was proving pretty difficult to come up with things that both Eric and I would truly enjoy doing. So my mischievous mind kicked into high gear and threw out the thought ‘Why not make this The Year of Disney’ with the stipulation that I get plan all vacation spots next year’? *note - this only worked, because Eric LOVES disneyland!* Sounded pretty sweet to me, so I posed the question to Eric who immediately said yes, and so we became Disneyland season pass holders.

We made our first of many trips down to Disneyland this weekend which turned out to be a little more than we bargained for. The drive down went well, except that Quinn went down for the night at 7pm and I started to get a tummy ache shortly after. When we got to the hotel Quinn woke up and thought he was up for the day, which meant he wouldn’t go back to bed until shortly after midnight. Naturally, when he did get up for good it was at his usual wake up time, around 5:30am.

Just to keep a tally; this puts us all at 5 hours of sleep, and Kelly with an upset tummy.

So we’re up at 5:30, dressed by 6:30, fed by 7:30 and at the park at opening time, 9am. Where Eric enjoyed a lonely ride of Indian Jones, we did a family ride of Pirates of the Caribbean, the Safari cruse and attempted to find a hat for Quinn.

Much to our displeasure there were absolutely no hats that fit Quinn in either Frontier Land or Adventure Land. I tried looking in all the shops in the bayou while Eric was riding Indian Jones and still came up short. But I did get these great shots of Quinn trying to take the hat off.

Shortly after all this excitement it was clearly Quinn’s nap time, which couldn’t have come sooner, since my tummy was not happy.

Quinn fell asleep on the way to the car but when we got the hotel he and I took a 2 hour nap, then when the Q dude woke up Eric took him to get some food while I nabbed another much needed hour.

Well rested, well fed and much happier we headed back to the park and made it to the Peter Pan ride just before I lost it completely. On the way to the Haunted Mansion I had to stop at least 3 times to sit down and finally had to call it quits. Quinn and I headed off to the Mother’s room while Eric hopped in line for the Haunted mansion. I think he made it about halfway through the line before I called him and told him to meet me at the first aid stand. I’d started feeling flu like symptoms; nausea, cold and hot sweats and severe fatigue. After being horizontal for a few minutes on the cot I felt a million times better, but we called it quits for good and headed home for the night.

The daily tally; Very little sleep, Kelly upset tummy, a total of three rides (four for Eric), 5 hours at the park, and still no hat for Quinn. See. It was MUCH more than we bargained for!

But we did get to see the best 'Wow' faces on the cutest kid, which is pretty much all you can ask for.

What was your first trip to Disneyland like?

Kelly