Fun in the Sun

Tommy and I are still hanging out in Southern California. Jeff got his own "sun time" this week with a trip to Florida for work-related conference, so the boy and I decided to spend a little more time at Jjajja and Poppa's house. We are showing Tommy the glories of a Californian winter.

On Monday we went to Disneyland with my mom and dad and Emily. Note our shorts in the pictures. It was awfully warm.

Now, when you live a half hour from Disneyland you tend to approach it a little differently than if you are going there on an extended vacation (unless you have a pass, of course). First, in my family the tradition was to go right before a child turned two, because after two you have to pay. Second, when we go we are hardcore. We get there when the park opens and leave when it closes. Yes, we know we could go back. But why pay all that money twice when, if you plan carefully, you can do everything you want to do in one day? The secret: prioritize, get fast passes, NEVER stand in line for character's autographs/pictures, and avoid parades and shows (time wasters, except the electrical parade).

Now, having Tommy has changed our Disneyland priorities, and we didn't do quite as good of a job scheduling his rides as I would have liked. I also apparently have no concept of what freaks kids out and accidentally scared the living daylights out of my child on Pirates of the Caribbean and Snow White. Who would have guessed that the boy who spends all of his time seeking out dangerous situations wouldn't like a few sharp drops in a boat and a bunch of creepy fake pirates shooting each other and singing about booze? Also, I am horrified to discover (and admit to you) that Tommy likes parades. Even lame parades. I am thankful that I have years to mold him and that one day his tastes may improve.

However, other than a slight parade detour, we had a great day. We even got to see some of our family- my Aunt Sandy, cousin Keri, cousin Drew and his wife Kim and son Aiden were at Disneyland on Monday too, so we met up and rode a ride together mid-day. Tommy defintely thought some of the rides were weird, like the Tiki Room, Nemo, and Pinocchio. He ended up sleeping through Winnie the Pooh, which was too bad, because that is the strangest ride ever. Happily he enjoyed quite a few rides, including Dumbo, Storybook boats, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan Tree House, Small World, Astro Blasters, Mr. Toad's, Casey Jr., and the carasel. His number one absolute favorite was Autopia. The rest of us got to our favorite rides too, so it was a successful day, even if a certain person is losing his edge and forced us to leave an hour early due to his advanced age. Breaking the rules, dad, breaking the rules.



On Tuesday we recovered by hitting the beach. It was warm and the dolphins were swimming close to the shore, but the water was icy. We spent most of our time playing in the sand instead of swimming. It worked. Wednesday we thought about going back to the beach, but decided to go to my grandma and grandpa's apartment for swimming instead. Again, the water was icy. Tommy ended up swimming Ugandan style in little tubs that we filled with warm water from the Jacuzzi.




Saturday we headed back to the Disney resort to use up our "2fer" at California Adventure. That trip was much more relaxed because there isn't nearly as much to do there. I was pretty dissapointed by the lack of kid's rides, and we ended up having to go to both a show and a parade to find things for Tommy to do. The park has some great rides for adults though (love that Tower of Terror), so the grown-ups all had a good time.