Disneyland - Rides

Since this was the first trip to Disneyland for all of us we wanted to make the most of our time, and cram as much in without being too overwhelming and crazy. One of Andy's friends from school told us about a program they use every time they go to Disneyland called Ridemax. It was SO worth the $15 we paid for it. We told it the day we would be going and selected all of the rides and attractions we wanted to see and what time we were going to arrive at the park, breaks we wanted, etc and it made a schedule for us according to average wait times for the season, day of the week and times of day. It was so nice, especially since we'd never been it helped us make sure we got everything in, it was awesome. Anyway...that's not what this blog post is about. But it was pretty great, I totally recommend it!

We rode a lot of fun rides. Some we couldn't go on because of the kids, but that was fine. Andy and I weren't heart broken.

I think Avery's favorite was the Roger Rabbit ride, he loved driving the spinning cars and kept asking to go back. Jack loved the Buzz Lightyear one, he just kept staring and saying "Oh, B" (he calls Buzz "b")
We all had so much fun, really. It was an awesome day and I'm so glad we made the trip down there. One of the best things we had with us at Disneyland was the monkey backpack for Jack. SO glad we took that! Most important thing we forgot...sunscreen. Thank goodness I was the only one that got sun burned, and it didn't bother me and it's already gone. So, don't forget the sunscreen.

Waiting in line at the Peter Pan ride, we thought it was pretty awesome flying around in cool boats.
Jack and me, riding in the Roger Rabbit car. I'll admit it was not my favorite. They spin...and trying to control the car while holding onto a small child was challenging. I guess I could have just let him slid out...but that would probably have been a bad idea.
Waiting for the Small World boat ride
relaxing in the "It's A Small World" ride. The song was SO annoying, but it was nice to sit after walking all morning. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to take pictures in there. oops.
Jack was saying "moo" to the horse. He gets his animals a little confused sometimes. We'll cut him some slack...for now.
Avery did not want me holding onto him. he was insistent that he was big enough to ride by himself.
Jack was too mesmerized by Buzz to look anywhere else. This ride was pretty fun, it was cool to do something a little more interactive on a ride. Jack liked all the flashing lights and Buzz things.

Nemo's Submarine ride. The first half was a little boring. Second half was cool, parts of the movie were playing in the water (or it looked like it). It was pretty cool. A little cramped for Andy probably, but I was quite comfortable. :)
Avery, making a silly face that he continued to make in almost every picture for the rest of the week. This storybook land (or something...) boat ride was fun, they had all sorts of miniature storybook scenes set up, and of course we were swallowed by a whale.
I know I keep saying this, but it was so much fun. We loved it, and we're so glad we went. It was fun staying in a nice hotel, going to the beach, Disneyland, the gorgeous weather all week, then we hung out with Silas and Robyn again on our way home.

Now on to our next adventure. Missouri. :)

Disneyland - Characters

Avery loved meeting the Disney characters, he kept asking when we'd see "some characters". He just couldn't wait.

We met Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Goofy and Woody (we didn't get a picture with him though).

Avery and Jack just loved it.
Goofy was my favorite. We had picked up a Goofy hat for Avery early in our day to keep his head protected. Anyway, Avery was excited to show Goofy his hat, Goofy did not disappoint. Avery thought he was hilarious, and when we left he kept talking about how funny it was when Goofy laughed at his hat. It was awesome.

Disneyland - Exploring

On our way! Our hotel was about a 10-15 minute walk to Disneyland, the weather was perfect so the walk felt like nothing.
We loved all the flowers at the entrance. Avery thought it was pretty hilarious to see Mickey in flowers. Jack loved all the mickey balloons we saw. He just kept shouting "Baboon, daisy!" (he calls all things Mickey "Daisy")

Dad and Avery in front of the Disney castle.

Avery with his new Goofy hat, I loved that little miniature fake door. Avery loved it all of course.
Mickey's Toon Town was so fun and adorable! It was great to have things that the boys could play with/on and not have to worry about it.
Avery loved Mickey's house. He even told Mickey "I really like your house Mickey!" as we left after meeting him. He was so excited about everything, Jack was equally excited, he just doesn't talk as much! :) Mostly he walked around saying "ooh, Daisy!" Or "Mom! Daisy!" That's what I was hoping for, it made the whole trip perfect.
Avery and Jack admiring Mickey's garden.
The boys were so tired, we didn't go back to the hotel for naps. So Avery decided to rest for a bit in Minnie's house. Too bad it wasn't actually soft!
I think he thought the snacks were real.
Avery navigating Donald's boat.
We had so much fun walking around, and the crowds weren't bad at all. We never had to wait in line longer than 10 minutes or so. We got to do everything we wanted, and the boys loved it and were so excited.

Huntington Beach

So, we had our "big" vacation this week. We left on Tuesday afternoon and stayed the night at Silas and Robyn's place. It was nice to break up our drive.

On Wednesday we drove to Anaheim, settled into our hotel room and took a walk around the area to familiarize ourselves. The weather was SO nice, we loved it!Thanks to a GPS we borrowed, driving around was a breeze. We need GPS now. :)

We decided to drive to Huntington Beach, so we picked up some picnic food and used the handy GPS and drove straight to the beach. Awesome.
The boys loved the beach! Well, we all did! The weather was perfect, it was gorgeous, walking barefoot in the sand felt so good, and we want to go back!

Andy and Avery had fun getting soaked while running from the waves.
Jack did not love the water, so I followed him around trying to keep him from eating random things left on the beach.But really, we want to go back.Disneyland post to follow...it's a little overwhelming to post about! And now that we're home we're in the last stages of packing, so things are a little busy. Be excited though, Disneyland ROCKED.

Sneak Peek

More to come...

Quick post

I'm squeezing this post between packing for the move, packing for our California/Disneyland trip, kids napping...really I'm putting all sorts of stuff off to do this. Be grateful. :)
I don't want to get too behind on blogging...so here are a few things that have gone on the past couple weeks, with very few words.

Easter! The boys loved their Easter baskets.

Avery got a hold of the little buzzers and cut his own hair. Punky.

We went to the Zoo with our friends, Jordan and Amelia. We'll miss them!

We made one last visit to my great uncle before we move. We'll miss being close to him! Will he miss our visits? I hope so. Our kids are always crazy when we go over there, so hopefully he wont be too glad to see us go! :)
And just a random cute picture of the boys.
And now we're off on vacation before our cross country move.

In other exciting news....Andy got a job in Missouri! It's not perfect, but it'll get us started and keep us from draining our savings!

Living vacariously through our kids

Andy does this a lot. :)

He recently decided to get the boys some chunky Star Wars toys. The boys of course love them. But I think Andy might love them more. He loves that the boys love Star Wars so much, it's really fun for him!Avery loves playing with (well, mostly looking at) Andy's star wars collection, and playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii. I don't know whether to just be amazed or slightly worried that my 3 year old navigates that game (and some electronics) better than I do!
As for Jack, he loves it all too. I think Andy's heart just about burst with happiness every time Jack says "Jedi", or "Wa Woes" (Star Wars).

We love our boys.