Remembering Disneyland

So I know I talk about our Disneyland trips a lot, but when you have little ones, each trip marks feels like the first time as develop and discover new things with each visit.

Disneyland has been our place. We spend many dates there, Scott proposed there, we even went close to my due date with Brendan with Scott’s hope of delivering at Disneyland and having passes for life (a rumor we have heard and thought it would be fun).

Brendan is beginning to share our excitement and love for all things Disney. This last trip is the first time that I think he is actually remembering Disneyland. We took the boys on Sunday, January 23rd. Since then almost every day (maybe every other day) Brendan will begin the conversation:

“I fun at Disneyland”
Me – “Oh? You had fun at Disneyland?”
B – “Yeah. And gicky (Mikey) house”
(This is where I now repeat everything he says or he will sound like a broken record until I acknowledge him)
“…and Dale’s house… ” (Chip and Dale’s Tree House)
“…and Donald’s boat…”
"...and slide..."
“…and Choo-choo train…and tracks…”
“…and monsters and doors…” (Monsters Inc.)
“…and cars…”
“…and dolder-doaster…” (this one took me a bit to figure out what he was saying, he went on his first “roller-coaster” with Daddy!)
"...and turn..." (not sure if he is talking about the turns on the ride, or that he had to wait his turn to get on the ride, or something completely different. Not sure how his mind works all the time.)
“…I fun at Disneyland!”

I love that these memories are forming in his little mind and that he continues to talk about it. As you can tell, his favorite part of the day was Toon-Town. I think we might take him back again this weekend since he loves it so much!

Here are some pictures to go with the story!

Mickey's House:

Meeting Mickey:

(this is the first time we hugged Mickey instead of clinging to Daddy's leg)

Caleb Just wanted to eat Mickey's nose,

but Brendan insisted that Caleb needed to meet Mickey,

"Caleb's turn!!"

Mickey's Car:

The playground at Goofy's House:

And the famous first Roller-Coaster ride, with lots of turns!

(you may have to click on the picture to make it bigger but you can see Brendan & Scott in the second to last car. Brendan enjoyed himself but wasn't ready to go back on right away.)

The Train & Meeting Mickey

A couple weekends ago, Scott got up on Sunday morning and announced we were going to go to Disneyland after church. A little surprised, but ready for anything, I got the boys all ready to go. Brendan has been really interested in trains lately, so Scott wanted to take him to ride the train around the park. With that being our only goal of the day, it was a pretty laid back day.

Waiting at the Train Station for the train to come.

Waiting is not easy for a 2 year old, we had just missed the previous train,

which mean he saw it roll away without us.

But he managed, it was worth the wait!

When we got off the train we saw Mickey, so we decided to wait in line.

Brendan watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all the time,

so getting to meet Mickey was VERY exciting!

...that was until it was time to actually go up to this giant mouse...

"A bump? Okay, I can give Mickey a bump...but I'm not getting any closer!"

"Shake? I guess I can shake his hand...but that's it..."

"You want me to stand next to this thing? No way am I looking at this camera, I'm not taking my eyes off of you, who knows what you are going to do if I turn my back."

We did end up with a pretty decent family picture with Mickey. It was fun to watch Brendan's expression. Caleb had no idea what was even going on.

Next Daddy treated to Ice Cream. Brendan's favorite.

We rode a couple of rides, including It's a Small World. Then headed home.

That's the nice thing about having a pass, you only spend as long as you want,

because you know, you'll be back!

Disneyland Again???

Are you tired of all the Disneyland posts? I think I might be starting to; however, the pictures are just too fun not to share! Therefore, if you are tired of my Disneyland stories, or jealous that we got to go and you did not, you may stop reading and wait for tomorrow's post! :)


For the rest of you....

Since Disneyland was out of the question on Saturday, we chose to try again on Sunday. We used the time change to our advantage, we got up and out of the house early enough (after double checking that it was not a block-out day for us), hoping to beat the rush of people headed to Disneyland who may not adjust so well to the change in time.

Parking on Sunday was SO much better than the experience on Saturday; we got into the park, shared a yummy cinnamon roll with coffee (decaf) and walked around Main Street a bit.

Even though the park was expected to be pretty busy on Sunday, we were able to ride 8 rides without much waiting. Brendan really enjoyed himself, and I enjoyed watching my family explore the place together.

We saw the elephants on the Jungle Cruise,

Watched the pirates while riding a boat,

Rode through the Hundred Acre Woods,

and got to give Pooh Bear a hug after the ride!

Next, we galloped on a horse next to Daddy,

and Drove a wild car adventure on Mr. Toads Wild Ride.

By the time we finished with Fantasy land, we were all getting a little tired, the park was starting to fill-up and my feet felt hot in my tennis shoes and were hurting. We ate lunch in the park with our gift card and headed home to do our errands for the day.

It was quite a day!

Disneyland: Just Mom & Brendan

Last Saturday, Scott had training for his college classes for most of the day. Daddy had gotten Brendan up and dressed by the time I got up, so when Daddy left, Brendan thought it was time for us to go too. “Bye, bye? Bye, bye? Bye, bye?” He was not happy that Daddy left and we were still home. I quickly got dressed and thought I would take him out for the day. We ended up going to Disneyland, just the two of us!

It was actually very nice. We got to Disneyland at about 9:45, since it was a Saturday, and typically is a little more crowded, I immediately went into California Adventure which seems to be the quieter of the two parks. We started with Breakfast and Brendan danced to the music.

We then rode our first ride, Monster’s Inc. Brendan was very excited to ride the car. He pretty much enjoyed the ride, it was a little long and he was ready to get off. I actually think Brendan’s favorite part of the day was the car parked outside of Monster’s Inc. We kept coming back to it to climb in and out of it. By far, our favorite adventure of the day.
Brendan has been watching a little more TV as he gets older. One of his favorite shows that he watches is Handy Manny. He and Daddy will watch an episode together in the evenings while Mommy cooks dinner. I decided to take Brendan to see the PlayHouse Disney Live on Stage show. They have puppets from 4 Disney Channel cartoons. They are puppets and completely cheesy, but Brendan sat on my lap through the entire thing watching it. He was most excited when Handy Manny and the tools came out to sing. Brendan will sing along to the song, although you cannot understand the words, you can actually tell by the “tune” that he is signing that it is the Handy Manny song.
After the show, I took Brendan by to meet Chip & Dale and get our picture taken. He doesn’t do too bad with the characters, he is still a little uneasy, but he will give them a “bump” of the fist and stand there as long as I don’t try to walk away.
We walked around a little longer, climbed on the car some more and rode King Tritons’ carrousel. The rides are not really Brendan’s favorite, he doesn’t mind them and acts excited to get on, but then he is ready to get off before they are over. His favorite part of the park is the places that he can just run and climb himself. He does not like to be “Strapped down”
By the time we left, it was well past Brendan’s naptime. He wanted my sunglasses, so I let him play with them as I drove out of the parking structure. I filled up with gas before leaving Anaheim, when I got back in the car; I turned around to see my baby, fast asleep.
It was a long day for the little guy. I'm so thankful that we have passes that I can go to Disneyland for just a few hours, and enjoy the day with a toddler without feeling like I have to give-up nap-time justbecause we paid money for a ticket. We are lucky to have the oppertunity to use Disneyland as a quick outing when we don't know what else to do.

Staycation!

Last week was our family week together, I called it a staycation and Scott had never heard the term thought it was great!

We started the week at Disneyland. We went straight from church and spent Father's day at Disneyland. We went back again on Monday. We were able to stay on Sunday to see the new fireworks show, Brendan actually did really well for being up so late, he loved watching the fireworks show, I thought he would fall asleep but he watched the entire thing in my arms with Daddy holding us both. This Disneyland trip was great ass Brendan is getting so much more interactive and since he is starting to walk, we were able to walk around holding his hand and letting him experience it more than sitting in a stroller.

Happy Father's Day!

Brendan loved it's a small world, we were impressed with the small changes Disney had made to the ride to make it more "Disney" Brendan sat very still through the entire ride, there was so much to look at!

Brendan liked meeting Sully but was a little nervous about his size.

Then he couldn't keep his eyes off of this giant blue man.

Goofy was on his way backstage and wasn't suppose to be stopping for pictures, but apparently it is hard not to stop for a baby! We were lucky to get a picture with goofy and he played with Brendan.