California/Disneyland Adventure!

What a fun vacation we had in California. It was so nice to spend time together and build such great memories! We left on a Saturday morning. After sitting in the airport for almost 3 hours our delayed flight finally took off. It was not the best flying experience for us. The plane had air conditioning problems that had to be repaired, and then we sat in the plane for 30 minutes waiting for the catering truck. When we landed in California we sat for almost 35 minutes on the tarmac because someone on another airline was having to be escorted off the plane at our gate. Once that adventure was over we were glad to be in our rental car and on our way.

Here are the boys waiting at DIA for our airplane.

We drove to my Grandma Heilesons house in Temecula and spent a couple of days with her. The boys had so much fun with her and her dog Misty. My grandma is such a neat lady and I am so glad that my kids have the opportunity to get to know her. She took us to Professor Pennypickle's Childrens Museum, which the kids loved and also took us to an amazing server yourself frozen yogurt shop. (I so want to open one of those here!) We also got to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen. While at the mall we let the kids ride a little carosel, which they enjoyed twice! She even let Aiden decorate Misty with Stickers. Riley had to help her remove them, which probably wasn't much fun for Misty. :) While we were there we visited my Uncle Rick and Aunt Noelle who have a 17 year old boy, Tyler and a 9 year old girl Madison. The kids enjoyed playing with them and Tyler and Madison were so nice!

After we left my Grandmas house we drove up to Anaheim and to our Condo. It was a nice facility close to Disneyland! One morning I treated the boys to Mickey Mouse Pancakes. Amanda asked if we had those at a restaurant. I am rather proud of my creativity with these pancakes!



On the first day in Anaheim we drove to the beach. My Uncle had suggested Dana Point Harbor because of really nice tide pools. Unfortunately the tide was abnormally high while we were there, but we found a great family beach! The water here was calm, but still let the kids have the experience of being in the ocean. Randy built an awesome sand castle with some of the toys we bought at the gift shop at harbor. It had a Moat and everything. :) Riley wanted me to bury him in the sand, so I covered him slightly with sand. Aiden just enjoyed running back and forth between the water and the sand castle.

That night we went to Downtown Disney for some "free" entertainment. We went to the Lego store where they had a life size Darth Vadar and Giraffe. There were some cool bands playing outside we we stopped to listen to them as well. There was one guy playing percussion that was incredible. Riley really liked that one (see video).

The next morning we arrived at Disneyland after our yummy Mickey Pancakes. I love this picture of Riley reading the map to find the first ride. He wanted to do Materhorn first, but we told him Aiden needed to start out with something a little less intense. So we headed to Fantasy Land and found the line for Alice in Wonderland. After that we headed to the Teacups and finally to the Matterhorn. Riley LOVED the Matterhorn and we were able to take both boys. I had Riley in a headlock to keep him braced, and Randy held Aidens head in both hands as we were worried about the jostle.




We took Riley to see what the Jedi Training Acadamy would be like, so on Day 2 we had to go back. We told Riley that in order to get chosen to participate in the Jedi Training Acadamy he had to be SUPER EXCITED! And boy was he ever. We arrived early and got front row seats. The Jedi Master began picking "younglings" from the audience. When he turned around to our side he saw Riley jumping up and down and waving his arms and he couldn't help but laugh! He said "I see this very small young one is VERY strong with the force!" Riley was SO excited!!! They taught them a lightsaber routine using training lightsabers (Right Shoulder, Left Shoulder, Right Leg, DUCK, Left Leg, Right Leg, straight to the head!). Then Darth Vadar showed up and tried to persaude Younglings to join the dark side. They lined the kids up to fight either Darth Vadar or Darth Maul. Darth Maul was in front of us and Aiden just loved him. Like all the Disney characters, Aiden would smile and wave and say HI! So Darth Maul would come and just stare at Aiden. It was very entertaining. Riley was the last one to fight Darth Vadar, video posted below. The Jedi Master was laughing at something Riley said, I wish I knew what! After the fight they sent Darth Vadar and Maul away and then had graduation. Riley had so much fun and we are glad he got to participate!

Here is Aiden on his first ride ever! He was little nervous, but quickly realized that rides are FUN!

We took the boys to each of the 3 different Night Shows, the fireworks, Parade of Lights, and Fantasmic. The Parade of Lights was at California Adventure. We got good seats (thanks to Randy) and I headed to the Ice Cream shop to get treats. The Ice Cream shop served Dreyers which is safe for Aiden, but I realized they had NUTS everywhere in the prep area. They even had cones dipped in chocolate and covered with nuts. This is a Peanut Allergy nightmare. I had heard that Disney was good about kids and allergies so I decided to test it out. I informed the Cashier that my son had a Peanut Allergy and could he get us a cup of plain ice cream? He said yes and took the rest of our order. Then, he turned around to the prep team and informed them it was an Allergy order. One of the girls came off the line, took off her gloves and walked to the back freezer. She then put on new gloves and got Aiden an uncontaminated cup of ice cream. She brought it straight out to me without stopping at the prep area. It was so nice to have the assurance that we were being taken care of.

Here is a collage of Aiden. We found a play area in California Adventure land that had rope bridges and slides, it was a nice change of pace for the boys. I love all of Aiden's expressions~

Aiden got left out a little bit, being shorter then Riley he couldn't ride all the rides. When Riley and Randy were on the Soaring Over California Ride in California Adventureland, I took Aiden to get a balloon. He wanted Mickey...of course! Then we found this cool Airplane so I snapped a picture of him. It was nice to be able to do something special with just Aiden, while Riley was enjoying what would become one of his favorite rides. When Riley was off the ride we were able to do Rider Swap so I could ride with him. He told me "Mom! You are going to Love this ride! It is so AWESOME!" :)

Here is Riley waiting in line for the Matterhorn...his favorite ride!




We did the rider swap on Space Mountain as well. Riley wanted me to go first. He was so nervous and halfway through the line he said he wanted "dad!" I realized once we were on the ride that I probably should have let Randy go first. I nearly lost my lunch! I forgot how much I hate that ride. ;) So when we came to a stop I asked Riley (after composing myself) "So...what did you think about that ride?" His response: "I did NOT like that ride! I do NOT want to ride it ever again!" I told him his dad would be dissapointed. Randy was able to talk him into going again. I felt so bad for him having to go two times in a row.

Here are some great pictures of him in lines (the nervous ones are in the Space Mountain line) and on rides.

Here are some pictures of the family. We had a great time! The middle one on the right is one of my favorites on Tarzans Treehouse Riley was being such a goofball.

I had to throw in a couple of pictures of Randy and myself. Here I am in my Pirate Princess hat. And Randy in his cool Mickey shirt looking exhausted. :)





The first Video is Riley battling Darth Vadar. The second is Aiden's favorite show at the park - Playhouse Disney Live. We really enjoyed it too. You can see and hear Aiden saying "Hi Mickey! Hi Manny! Hi Minnie! Hi Mickey!" He really got into the show which was so neat, and as an added bonus (I think?), I can now turn these shows on TV and he'll actually watch them for a while so I can get things ready in the morning. :)