Monday, December 31, 2012

Disneyland Day 3 - California Adventure (Cars Land)!!!

Well, here I am...a small delay but FINALLY, here are the rest of the Disneyland pictures.  Our third day was spent at California Adventure...well mostly at the new Cars Land.  Jake and AJ are Cars nuts and so we were very excited to go and show them.  They were in complete awe and could not believe that they were in their favorite movie.  We thought it was pretty cool too.  ;)
Entering Cars Land!!!  It was super crowded when it first opened because everyone wants to go on the main Cars ride...and yes we were one of the nuts.
A look at the massive crowds, and also the awesome wreaths lining the street.
Jake and AJ were very excited to see Red the firetruck
Getting to the Radiator Springs Racers ride.  Jake was the luckiest guy in the park as he got to go on the ride 3 times before noon.  :)  Thanks to a rush to the ride, a parents pass, and fastpasses.
AJ looking at the ride and looking forward to the day where he could ride it.  The thing goes up to 60 mph and has almost 90 degree turns...really fun!!!!
AJ checking out another ride while we were waiting for the rest of the family to get off the ride.  He was very excited to go on the bumper tires.
Christmas Mater!!!
Luigi's Leaning tower of tires...Christmas style
Our hero, Lightning McQueen!!!
Great family shot  :D
Jake, having a blast with his Aunt B
I think Grandma and Pa were having a blast too  :)
I think this was my favorite Christmas tree
So cool to step into the movie like this  :)
The boys were excited to ride on the crazy tractors
Jake and Daddy getting ready
AJ is super excited  :D
AJ looking stylish in his 3D glasses for the Toy Story Ride
...and Jake does too
The boy's hero...Buzz Lightyear
The best snowman I have ever seen
At the end of the day AJ was just done and passed out in the stroller, it was so cute!!!  But I think he had a blast
The next day we woke up in our hotel and before going home we all went to IHOP.  The boys favorite restaurant.  :)  Jake even got a treat and got the chocolate Happy Face pancake.
The true testament of how much fun the boys had...the drive home crash.  lol  We all had such a wonderful time at Disneyland and after some rest, will be looking forward to our next trip.  :D  It really is the happiest place on earth and very magical for little kids.  :D


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Disneyland Day 2 - Disneyland!!!

So the next morning we woke up with the boys, got some breakfast at the hotel and headed off to the happiest place on earth!!!  :D  Jake was so excited to finally go to Mickey's House...and AJ was just feeding off his brother's excitement.  :)  We decided to go to Disneyland first because we knew that once Jake saw Cars Land he might not want to go anywhere else.  :)  But oh the fun we had.  For having two little kids we hit a good amount of rides including Dumbo, the Tea Cups, Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, the Rockets, Nemo's Submarine Ride, Roger Rabbit, The Jungle Boat Ride, Autopia, Its a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Carousel.  It was a great great day.  :D
"wwoooooo" -Jake
The boys were all set early in the hotel room that morning
Aunt B had to hold Jake back.  :D
Does Jake look excited???
Maybe just a little bit  :D
We got super lucky as we walked onto mainstreet and all the characters were coming out of their area to go to their picture spots...so the boys got to see them all right away.  Jake was excited to see "Nickey Nouse"
AJ was mostly excited to see Donald :D
I love this picture, can see that AJ saw the magic
Jake told us during breakfast that he wanted to go on Dumbo...so that is where we went first (before the lines got too long)
Daddy and AJ about to fly
Jake LOVED his first ride....but was very bummed when he had to get off.  Wanted to go again, but we tried to explain to him that there were many more rides.
So we hit the tea cups.  Which they both loved.  We took it easy and did not spin much the first time, but when they wanted to go again we let it rip...and they LOVED it.  :D
"wait, I am sitting in a what?!?!?"
looking for nemo
Daddy and his Squidly
My Toontown Firefighter Boys
Too Cute
The Jungle Boat ride was definitely a favorite
AJ loved all of the lights on Small World
Adorable fuzzy head checking out the carousel
Jake really enjoyed the carousel
Jake and his Aunt B...he often wanted her to hold his hand and she was his frequent choice on who he wanted to go with on a ride.
Beautiful Christmas Castle
...and A magical day...did the boys enjoy it???...
I think so  :)
Next up, California Adventure and Cars Land...

Disneyland Day 1 - Downtown Disney

For a child, the first trip to Disneyland is a pretty big deal, and I think that we did a pretty good job with our boys.  Sure AJ will not remember it and Jake might a little bit, but darn it we had fun and we have plenty of pictures to show them when they are older.  :)  Ryan had wanted to bring Jake long before this and I was the hold-out.  So I gave in finally  :)  And we took our little boys...but we also had some great help in Grandma and Pa, and the favorite Aunt B.  :)  We all had a wonderful time and the boys had a blast.  I was amazed how much more tired you are when you go with small children.  I mean you are not running from one ride to the next and going from opening to closing...but you are chasing them around, calming tantrums, teaching them patience in the lines, keeping them from picking on each other with their Mickey ears, and carrying the little one around when you are in lines (as strollers cannot go there).  But it was so worth it.  The boys LOVED it.  Got super excited when they saw their favorite characters, and even did great on all the rides.  AJ is our little dare-devil who got scared a couple times but when the ride would come to a stop, would look at one of us and say "more."  :)  Jake only got scared on one, Roger Rabbit.  But did great on all the other ones we took them.  But, I am getting ahead of myself.  :)  This is the first post after all.  :)  We went for 2 1/2 days.  The first day we got comfortable with our room and hung out at Downtown Disney, the second day was Disneyland and the third was California Adventure.  So onto Downtown Disney....
We all had great fun in the HUGE Disney store.  My boys had never been to one (we have a smaller mall) and so this huge one just amazed them.  Jake thought he was pretty hot stuff in this hat.   :)
Daddy pretending to be Grumpy (and yes the beard is attached to the hat)
Grandma got into the spirit as well  :)
My big souvenir that I wanted to buy my boys for their first trip to Disneyland was the traditional Mickey Mouse ears with your name stitched in the back.  I knew I could get away with it with AJ because he is still little, but Jake is VERY particular about his hats and they have to be picked out on his terms.  So about a week before I told him that at Disneyland you could get hats that have Mickey Mouse ears on them and they even stitch your name on the back!!!  Amazingly he thought that sounded pretty cool...but time would tell.  Well we got about one wheel of the stroller into the Disney store and Jake looked at us and said "I want mouse ears!!!"  Guess I made an impression....I was so happy.  So, we bought them their ears that night.  AJ looked darn cute!
And Jake did too.  He loves those ears so much and wore them the entire week.  Even wanted to sleep in them, which we managed to talk him out of...barely.  :)
Our boys...looking good
Not a great picture but it captures it.  For one you can see the stitching of their names on each hat and you can see my silly oldest son.  :)  Jake LOVED his name, and so that night he demanded that he wear his mouse ears backwards with the stitching at the front.  He would even feel it to make sure it was facing the right way.  :)  He figured it out by the end of the night...but it was pretty cute/funny.
We also wanted to take the boys (and yes, in this I include Ryan), to the Lego store.  The huge figures made out of Lego's were amazing and the store itself was just too much fun.
Jake hanging with his pal Hulk
They had a few areas with a bunch of Lego's that you could play with...which really was fun for the entire family.
Jake was actually pretty good with the small Lego's...this boy loves to build things.
AJ really got into it too
I thought this was awesome and was very proud of my creative husband.  Ryan made this turkey all by himself out of his own design.  He rocks the Lego's.   :)
We also had to swing by the Rainforest Cafe so Jake could see the aquarium.  He and Pa thought it was pretty cool.
And then we ended the night at our hotel room watching the Disneyland fireworks.  Yes this is actually our view from the front door of our hotel room (Camelot Inn and Suites).  Pretty cool.
What a first day it was....and now we were all super excited to go to Disneyland the next day...