Friday, November 14, 2014

Disneyland

We just got back from our first family vacation out of the great state of Texas.  Disneyland was an absolute blast for the boys and Steve and I had the best time experiencing it through their eyes.

We left on Wed Nov 5 bound for LA on a direct flight.  It was Noah's 1st flight and Joshua's 2nd.
When we arrived at the parking garage at the Austin airport Noah asked, "Is this Disneyland?"  We all had a good laugh.   They did great on the flight since we were armed with books, Iphones, and a Samsung tablet downloaded with episodes of their favorite shows.

After couple of wrong turns, we finally made it to the hotel which was much more spacious than I expected.  Joshua and Noah each had their own queen bed.  We later went to Daison, Anita, and Hannah's house that evening for dinner.  The boys loved playing with all of Hannah's toys and really didn't want to leave.

The next morning we started off to Disneyland with our double stroller in tow.  That was the best rental investment we made.  We immediately saw Pluto as we walked in and got a great picture with him.  Joshua and Noah were in awe of all the characters that would just pop out.  Steve and Joshua rode Splash Mountain first and since Noah wasn't tall enough, we rode Winnie the Pooh.  What a great 1st ride.  Such a gentle fun loving ride and Noah loved it.  Joshua however didn't like Splash Mountain and we were asked on each ride if there were any upcoming "hills."

After standing in lines in the 91 degree heat we got tired by 1:00 and went back to the hotel to take a nap.  By the time we woke up and left to go back it was 5:00.  By 6:00 it was already dark.  We rode quite a few rides while people were waiting for the parade.  We even whizzed thru Mickey and Minnie's house.  The parade was amazing even though we weren't curbside.

On Friday we met Daison, Anita, and Hannah at California Adventure Park where we had a fun productive day.  We rode so many rides, had lunch, watched a parade and went home around 6:30.
Can't believe we spent the entire day there.  Joshua and Noah loved having Hannah around.  So much fun experiencing Disneyland with friends.  After the kids went to bed Steve and I watched the fireworks from our hotel room.

On Saturday we met the Thomas family, Annie and her family, and Maria and family, and Nick at the Long Beach Aquarium.  A fun day looking at all the marine life with the kids and catching up with everyone.  We ate lunch with everyone and then went back to the hotel to take a short nap.  We then met up with Balaji, Trisha, and the kids at Buca for dinner.  We had such a nice time at dinner since it had been about 7 years since we'd seen them.  After dinner we went back to the hotel just in time for the kids to catch the fireworks.  They got a little scared of the noise so we watched them inside our room through the window.

Our trip was coming to an end.  We had to get up at 3 am to make it to the rental car agency and then to the airport for our 6:30 flight.  The boys loved every second of it and I realized that my boys are great travelers.  We have so many trips to look forward to...




                                                                   Pluto
                                                           Snow White's Castle

                                                                Inside Mickey's House

                                                                  Buzz Lightyear
                                                    Enjoying The Dole Whip
                                                                  Chip or Dale?
                                                                       Noah loves Minnie


                                                              On the Disney train
                                                          At Minnie's House
                                                                       Doc McStuffins


                                                              Anita and Hannah



                                                          The caterpillar train (their favorite)
                                                                 Lightning McQueen






                                                                 The parade





                                                           At the Aquarium