Downtown Disney & California Adventure Park

We were lucky enough to go to Disneyland while in California, and it did not disappoint. Before we even got to Disneyland's gates, we explored the neighboring shopping center Downtown Disney.

One of the best finds was the Lego store; it's a wonderland for anything male, or at least it was for the 3 boys that were with me (yes, I'm including my husband). They built these fantastic structures of famous scenes from Disney movies entirely out of Lego's. See below-

 so cute

So Disneyland is definitely something to do over a span of a few days, but we tried to do as much as possible with our 1 day. We opted to go to California Adventure Park, Disney's adjacent theme park to Disneyland, since it featured the Cars Land exhibit. It was seriously as if you had stepped straight into the movie, and the town Radiator Springs.

 Lightning McQueen and Mater drove by a few times...loved it

 Our first ride there was Luigi's Tires, where you floated on air from the below vents and bumped into the other tires. It was entertaining enough for a little kids' ride, but way too short. Of course, that could have something to do with the fact that we waited well over an hour to get on the ride, after they had to shut it down for repairs for 15 minutes. And Jason barely got on with the minimum height requirement...lucky he had his shoes on!

 Jason enjoying Daddy's shoulders, while Jack lounged in the rented stroller. Main complaint for Disneyland? They don't rent out anything other than single strollers. I mean, seriously, with all the children they get there, you'd think they'd have double strollers available.

 Jon and Jack rode this ride together, I think it's called the Jellyfish, or something like that.

 ...view from the top

 Jack & I rode this high-flying ride together

 Mid-day we took a break from Cars Land, and got some lunch by Paradise Pier. Kudos to the park for providing delicious food at reasonable prices. That was shocking to us. We got restaurant quality pizza, penne pasta, mac 'n' cheese, and kids' food for pretty cheap. No corn dogs or nachos for us. Jason napped thru lunch in the stroller, while the rest of us ate; Jon & Jack even rode the Jellyfish ride while Jason was napping, and I was sneaking in bites of the snoozing kid's mac 'n' cheese. I'm a bad mommy.

Other things we did while there included a TON of walking, catching the parades and dance shows they put on in the streets. We saw a trolley car of newsie-type kids get out and sing and dance, Phineas & Ferb's dance show, and dancing fountains spurting to Goofy's conducted orchestra. We also stumbled upon a super-fun dance club, where Disney characters got on the dance floor and partied with all the kids to trendy pop music; Jason and I danced together and it was awesome! He loved it, especially when countless bubbles were released from the ceiling, surrounding us. I took Jack out on the dance floor, but he's not big on dancing, and just sort of stood there. I tried!

One of the coolest sections of the park was Grizzly Park. It was like a ropes course on speed. They had roped ladders connecting and zig-zagging up multiple levels. Slides, log crawls, pathways, tree-houses and lookouts. Very cool. Only problem was Jon and Jack left us to explore, while Jason and I stayed by the smaller children's area to play....and we couldn't find each other for like 45 minutes! I probably decided to climb up looking for him, right as they decided to come down....and kept missing each other. I think I burned a couple hundred calories looking for him.

 another section of the park- A Bug's Land

 

By the late afternoon, we were done walking around the park. We went back to Downtown Disney and visited a few more shops. Ridemakerz was a favorite of Jack's. They had different basic cars and trucks you could choose from, then customize to your liking with rims, spoilers, and other testosterone-fueled things like that.

 Jack & Jon playing a racing game-

 We then ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, a first for all of us. Jason, in particular, enjoyed the jungle surroundings, and kept pointing to the elephant and monkeys. Every 30 minutes they had a "thunderstorm" with the lights out and thunder clapping; it worked to keep my kids in line and too scared to move. I need to initiate a similar system at home. And then, to spoil our kids rotten, we stopped at Haagen Daz for our last stop and got chocolate ice cream for them, and hot chocolate for me since it was dark and now getting cold outside.

And this was our view of Downtown Disney's streets as we left (except less blurry)-

What a long and tiring, but mostly fun and memorable day! We definitely need to do Disneyland again in the future, and spend a few days there to soak it in.

Family, the zoo, & the beach in Cali

Mimi & Jack at the park

Jason playing with Aunt Kristi

We got to visit with my grandparents, affectionately known as Nana & Grandpa, my Aunt Lynn, and cousin Ryan while in California. We took our obligatory family photo below and I'm shocked the boys stayed still and weren't a blurry image considering the use of a self-timed camera.

 Here is our silly photo. I love how the youngest and the oldest of the group didn't get the concept of being silly for the camera.

My cousin Ryan with Jack. Ryan is a big guy, somewhere around 6'7 tall. The first time he met Jack, Jack was sitting on the couch and refused to make eye contact with Ryan. He shrank into the couch cushions and ignored him. How funny is that? And this is my social child. Jason, on the other hand, my shy guy, took right to Ryan. Jason has a shoe fetish and kept putting on Ryan's size ginormous shoes and walking around the house with them on. He was very coordinated with them too, never really fell with them on. And Jack eventually warmed up to Ryan.

One morning during our week there, my mom and I planned on taking the boys to the San Diego Zoo, about an hour or so away. Unfortunately, Jack had other plans which did not include the zoo, but instead included vomiting into the nearby trash can. So our fun zoo trip was sidetracked while Jack laid in bed watching t.v. By this point in the trip, we had endured a few days of the boys being wild and crazy in the hotel room, trying to corral them for the wedding, and protect my grandparents' belongings from being broken from boys, so I needed to do SOMEthing. Keep in mind that Jon is still in Texas at this point, so I'm single mommy right now. That definitely added to the stress.

Anyways, I decided to take Jason to the nearby Santa Ana Zoo for a fun activity. It definitely was not comparable to the San Diego Zoo, not featuring really cool animals, but for an 18 month old it sufficed. So I enter the address in the GPS in our rental car, and 30 minutes later we arrive at the zoo.....and this is what I see in the back seat-

 I really didn't want to wake him up, but at this point I was determined to have some fun!

A duck pond

Jason loved the monkeys

 One of my fatal errors in this trip was failing to bring our stroller. I thought I'd be one of those less is more moms at the airport, and that majorly bit me in the rear end. Everywhere we went Jason threw tantrums over not wanting to be carried, arching his back or going dead limp, so you were forced to put him down. Only then, he refused to walk with you or hold hands, and instead tried to run to freedom, usually in the opposite direction of us. HEADACHE and a half.  So at the zoo, I rented a stroller and he was forced to sit the whole time. Much easier.

OMG, how cute is this picture? Here's Jason enjoying the carousel. It was funny because the whole time he was riding up and down and around, he was nervous about it. But once it stopped and it was time to go, he threw a major fit.

It was a great zoo for little kids, also featuring a kiddie train (no pics). Jason loved it, and it was the first time I heard him say "choo, choo!"

Best part of the zoo- they had a playground

 One evening, after dinner, my mom and I took the boys to a nearby mall to play. The boys loved riding the train and car around, and it kept Jason from running away from us.

And finally, to my utter joy and peace of mind, Jon joined us in California on Wednesday! We picked Daddy up from the airport, and then GPS'd our way to Huntington Beach. It was interesting to see the boys' reactions to the beach. Jason was super freaked out, and Jack was about normal.

 Here you can tell Jason is looking at the ocean, scared of it-

Jon with the boys, note Jason is still keeping his eyes on that water

A friendly fellow vacationer volunteered to take pictures for us. Check out that pier in the background; in the pictures below, that's where we walked to for lunch.

On the pier, waiting to get a table at a 50's style diner "Ruby's"

Note Jason's cheesy smile face, he turned into a ham on this trip

Here is Jack's imitation of Jason's cheesy smile-

They had awesome milkshakes there

yummy burgers, fries, and shakes- can't go wrong!

After our lunch, we walked back down the pier, and across the street down Main Street to do some souvenir t-shirt shopping. We got the boys matching striped pirate shirts, and a couple of tee's for me and Jon. And by this point, Jason was wrangling with Jon to get free and run to his death in the street, so we opted to head back to the car and then the hotel. Overall, it was a good afternoon with all my boys! How can you not enjoy the beach and milkshakes, right?

My Cousin's Wedding

Our main reason for going to Cali was to see my cousin Randy get married to his fiance Haley. My cousin and I are only 3 weeks apart in age and were always close growing up, so it was great to be able to see him tie the knot. Unfortunately, once we landed in California, my children morphed into crazy, whiny, full of attitude little creatures, so I didn't fully appreciate the wedding and reception. Since taking pictures wasn't my main concern at the time, the one picture I have from the wedding was sent to me from my sister!

I spent the whole ceremony shushing my boys, trying to get Jack to share toys with Jason, all the while Jack was talking back to me like he never has before. I was about to just take Jack out, but it was apparent if I laid my hands on him he was going to scream and cry, so we stayed put to avoid making a scene during the "I do's." After the ceremony we took the above picture, and my children continually tried to run out the side door into the parking lot.

Then, we headed over to the reception, which I thought would be a welcome break from having to be quiet and still....wrong. We found our table and about an hour and a half later the bridal party came in. The boys actually sat for a good while, eating the cheese and fruit from the table. However, by time the actual party got started, they were wild and crazy again and I missed seeing the first dances, bouquet toss, and cake-cutting, sigh. Thank goodness my sisters were there to help me. Teri took Jason across the street to a playground where he could have some fun, and I soon joined her with Jack. It didn't help that the wedding started at 1:00 either, since Jason is accustomed to napping from 1:00-4:00 each day; factor in the  two hour time change, the lack of sleep, and all the craziness, it's no wonder they were crazy kids.

But, Randy and Haley were beautiful and so very in love, it was great to witness their happiness. After the wedding, we went back to the hotel and the boys crashed. And I got to leave them behind with my mom and Teri to watch, so Kristi and I could see the new Twilight movie. I was exhausted, but woke-up once the movie started going. It was great to have a night out with my sister, we had much fun and surprisingly didn't mock the movie too much. There was one line though that got a good laugh, unintentionally.

And that was our Saturday. Honestly, I'm feeling tired remembering all of it, so I'm just gonna end things right here.

We went to California...

...for my cousin's wedding and Thanksgiving. On the Friday before Thanksgiving, we woke up at 3:30 a.m.- yes, a.m.- and headed to the airport for our 5:40 flight to Los Angeles. It was sure an early start, but the boys tolerated it well and were pretty well behaved on the airplane. Jon wasn't with us because of work, but joined us on the following Wednesday. My parents were on the same flight as us, however, last minute my dad stayed behind to be with his brother in the hospital. So it was just me and my mom with the boys. Once there, we got behind the wheels of our rented minivan, and within minutes this happened-

 

They never once dozed on the airplane, so they were exhausted. Over the next 8 days we visited with family, attended a wedding, went to the zoo, went to the beach, and Disneyland's California Adventure Park.

 

So to avoid one overwhelmingly long post, I'll be posting a few entries about our week...