I really wanted to take the time to document our trip in words as well as visually. I knew I wouldn't have the energy to do it while we were on vacation so I am going to try to do it now. There will be a post for each day and they will probably be rather detailed and slightly boring to anyone else. But this was our first MAJOR family vacation that was mostly for kidos, which also means, they won't remember much of it so I want to be able to have something to look back to and show Ezekiel some day about how wonderful of a time we had and how much he enjoyed our trip!
When we first started talking about this trip, I feel like it was over a year ago, Darek was not in favor of the idea of taking the boys to Disney at such a young age, because they wouldn't remember it. And though I totally agree, but my defense was that this trip was more for us and to see they excitement and joy on their faces as everything that they had seen in the movies has come life right before their eyes. And then we would continue to do Disney trips as the boys grow up and other kidos join our family!
And can I just say that this vacation was EVERYTHING that I hoped it would be and so much more!!! Everything worked out pretty much perfectly and we made so many wonderful memories!!!
Soooo here we go...
We flew out early Saturday morning the 16th of May. We had to be at the airport by 4:30, so that meant waking Ezekiel up at 3:40, we never have had to wake up him that early for anything, so we weren't sure how it was going to go, but he was ok with it once we reminded him that we were going to fly on a BIG airplane! Everything went great and smooth at the airport and boarding the plane. I should mention as well who we were traveling with...of course, myself, Mike, and Ezekiel, also my dad and mom (Pah and Mah), my brother and his family (Darek, Steph, Toby, and Carina), and then our and my brother's families' wonderful and amazing nanny, Jacqui! We had a quick layover in Denver, which did work out well for us, because then Zeke got a chance to run around a little bit and gave me a chance to settle as well. Because going into this trip I was 16 weeks pregnant and feeling the "all day" sickness, the motion for the plane or exacerbated the queasiness and needless to say after the flight I was in search of the nearest bathroom, or garbage can! The second flight wasn't as bad, but I was happy to be arriving in CA!
We flew into San Diego, and spent 4 days there, which consisted of Sea World, walking La Jolla beach, time in Coronado, and a lot of playing on the beach! I loved everything about Coronado and Ezekiel LOVED playing in the sand and he had the opprotunity to dip his feet in the ocean for the first time!
From there the girls headed up to Anaheim to visit my Great Aunt Shirley, it was so nice to see her again. While the guys headed to the Padres game as they were playing the Twins; the Twins actually won, so that was a nice perk!
The next day was the day the boys had been waiting for (and me too :-D), DISNEYLAND!! We apparently picked one the slowest times of year to go, so it was beyond perfect! We spent the first day in the Disneyland park and with in minutes of walking into the park all of the characters came out right in that main area and were available to meet and take pictures with! It was such a HUGE blessing as we were able to get pictures with all the main characters right then with only waiting in line for 5 minutes, if at all! I have heard that some people wait in line for hours for a picture with just one of the characters. The boys absolutely loved meeting all of the characters, those are moments that I will never forget! And I got to meet Mary Poppins, who is my favorite, so my day was triple made! We had just gotten done getting out picture taken with Mary Poppins I think and Donald duck was walking out to take his spot and we started following him and he grabbed both Ezekiel and Toby's hands to walk with!! It was beyond picture perfect!
We spent the rest of the day, seeing the castle, getting his Mickey ears, getting the Mickey Mouse chocolate covered ice cream, and of course riding all the rides!! The highlight was that Ezekiel rode Space Mountain with all the grown ups! He was 40 1/2" so he was tall enough, though he was only 2 years old! Just call us parents of the year! He loved driving the race cars and riding on the spaceships, he rode the Tea Cups with Mike and Ms. Jacqui and he LOVED that! Ezekiel crashed on Mike's shoulder so he got a nap in the stroller for a bit! We also made reservations to eat dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, which is a character dinner. So it is served buffet style, but as you eat, a bunch of different characters come around and interact with you. Ezekiel was a bit nervous at first but then warmed up as the dinner went on. Though he never really warmed up to Goofy! The other characters that joined us at dinner were Minnie, Chip and Dale, and Alice, I think that was all.
After dinner we took the monorail back to the park and we got to ride in the front with the conductor, Ezekiel was beyond thrilled! Right after we got off, the parade was about to start, so we watched that. It was so fun even though a lot of those character Ezekiel didn't know as they were more "old school" Disney characters (i.e. Lion King, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, ect) , but he still enjoyed it! After that we rode one more ride and then headed back to the hotel were some more of our California family was there to visit. This time it was my grandma's brother, his wife, their son and his family! They are so nice and it was so nice to see them again, though it was a short visit as Ezekiel was DONE!
The next day we headed to the California Adventure Park! This park was a bit more up the boys' alley as it has more of the Pixar and Disney Junior characters, which is most of the movies that they watch. We headed straight for Carsland, of course, before it got too busy. Ezekiel just thought it was so awesome that it looked just like Radiator Springs in the movie (which it really did! It was amazing)! We were able to meet Lightening McQueen, Mater, and Red, which was so fun! To see the look on his face when he saw them for the first time was beyond priceless! Ezekiel go to ride on the Radiator Springs Racers, he was a bit startled the first time, but then went on it two more times after that, so apparently he liked it! He also got to go on Luigi's Flying Tires and the Mater and the Tractors ride! We watched the Disney Junior Live show, which was so much fun because Ezekiel had been watching those shows right up to our trip. We went on the Monsters Inc ride and A Bugs Life rides, there also was this really cool flight simulator ride that he really liked and was very cool! They had a parade with all the Pixar characters and it was so fun because Ezekiel knew most of them and was so excited to see them all! We opened and closed the park that day, to say we were tired is an understatement!!
The next morning we did another Character meal, this one was with Mickey and we also got to have visits, from Daisy, Stitch, Minnie, and Pluto! Those are by far the coolest way to meet the characters as they take the time to interact with each child! After that we did a little bit of shopping in Downtown Disney and then headed to the airport.
A lot of people had said that they boys were too young to go and they are right that they probably won't remember much about it, but as I told Mike, this trip was more for us than them. It was beyond amazing to go at when they were this age, we will definitely be doing many more Disney trips in the futur
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