Road Trip

For the past two weeks the boys and I have been on Fall Break. I love having two weeks off during this time of year. I am especially loving the cooler temperatures!  Fall is for sure my most favorite season of the year.  During our first few days of break we just lounged around, did some cleaning, baked some cookies, went to baseball games/practices, went to the dentist as well as other doctor appointments.  Basically, we got a lot of rest around here.  (And once again, my boys are cavity free!  Yay!)  Petey has been getting a lot of attention around here since we have been home during the day. He is getting pretty big, he will be 1 in December. He is such a gentle sweetheart.  He just likes to chew, a lot.  I hope he grows out of that before he eats our entire backyard! 

 

On Thursday of our first week off we boarded an airplane and took off for Santa Rosa.  We were only there for 2 days.  We came, we conquered grandpa's garage, we found some treasures in the back bedroom, we loaded up a trailer, and we took off on our own road trip to Disneyland.  Before we left though I had to take a few pictures of our time.  This was what grandma saw when she opened up her freezer. The night before Connor had put his ice cream in the freezer for later because he was full.  Silly boy!

He also found his own knife. Don't worry, it is a child safe one that doesn't even have a sharp edge.  But don't tell him that! He thinks this is serious business having his own knife to cut up his waffle.

On Sunday morning we got up bright and early to hit the road.  It was about a 7 hour drive from Santa Rosa to Anaheim.  Daryle wanted to be on the road by 7 and we were on the road at 7:30. Not too bad.

We wasted no time at all checking into our hotel and catching the shuttle bus over to California Adventure.  See the excited faces???

 When we arrived there was a parade going on. It was awesome, of course. Disney always goes above and beyond with all of their productions. Here is Connor on his first Disney ride, I think that look about says it all!!

The new Cars Land is AMAZING!!  Travis was so skeptical about this ride, thinking it was for "little kids". The look on his face was priceless when it started swinging us around. He wanted to go again. Lucky for him we got to because some other little girl got scared and jumped into her mom's lap so they stopped us a bit early.  We all got to stay on and go again! It was a lot of fun. (That is Daryle and Connor waving at us.)

Exploring Radiator Springs.

There is an awesome ride in there. We didn't get to go on it though.  It was over a 2 hour wait and we wanted to see more of the park. I am sure we will be back another time and the line will be shorter in a few **years**.

Travis couldn't stop talking about the roller coaster ride.  With that look you would have thought he rode the ride. No, he didn't quite get up the nerve. Next time maybe.

Connor just loves the carousel rides... Thank goodness there was one at each park!

That night we stayed until 11, we closed the place down.  If you ever get the chance to see their World of Color evening production DO IT! The word "Spectcular" doesn't even seem to do it justice.  The next morning we woke up bright and early again and headed to Disneyland.  We saw  MICKEY himself!!!  I was so excited! Other than that, we didn't really see any other characters that day. It was so busy there, quite crazy actually.

 

One of the favorite rides for both boys was the Autotopia ride where they "drive" their own cars.  A voice from this speaker was telling the rules.  At the end he said, "OK, drive safely!" To which Connor speaks into the speaker and says, "OK, I will!!"  Too cute.

 I think Travis will be a good driver one day. He takes this job very seriously. Here it looks like he is asking for directions or something.

 Connor had a harder time keeping his eyes on the actual road... it was a little on the bumpy side.... but we still made it out just fine!

 Connor wanted a churro to help pass the time in line. I think it is as big as he is!

 Travis made a purchase with his money, a Mickey Mouse baseball hat.

 So, the next major ride we all went on together was Splash Mountain.  Connor was nervous the whole time.  We kept telling him it would be OK,  he might get a little wet and there was one part that was a little scary but in the end he would love it.  After waiting in line for an hour we finally got to the top of the ride.  Daryle told Connor that when he got off the ride he was going to say, "That was so awesome!!"  So we piled in the log, Travis in front (he wanted to get wet), then Daryle, then Connor, then me ( had my arms wrapped so tight around Connor, I didn't want him to fly out!)  We were floating around and Connor was absolutely LOVING it. Then we started going up, one click at a time, all the way to the top. I could feel his little heart racing twenty miles a minute.  DOWN, DOWN, DOWN  we went, SPLASH!!!  Connor cried and cried. Then our log was stopped. It seemed like we were there forever, although it was probably just a few minutes.  He calmed down and we finished out the ride.  Connor was happy again until it was time to climb out of the ride. He started crying again. He crossed his arms and said in a strong, stubborn voice, "You should NOT make little kids go on that ride!!!  Dad, that was so NOT awesome!!!"  We had to chuckle a bit.  He was so funny.  Although he claims to have not liked the ride, it is all he talks about these days.  I felt bad that they were both soaking wet and the sun had gone down so against my better judgement I bought them both a shirt.  They were not cheap.  I am a sucker, I know.  But they do look pretty cute!

 It got dark and I didn't take many more pictures.  Daryle did take Connor back to the hotel a little earlier and Travis and I stayed until the very last minute.   The two of us closed the park down.  The ride home to AZ was uneventful.  Well, as uneventful as driving 6 hours in the car with tired, grumpy children can be.  Later that evening this is how I found Connor on the couch. Sound asleep.  With his toy gun from Adventure Land snug in his hand.

Over all we had a nice time. The lines were long, the weather was good, watching Travis figure out that things were pretend was entertaining.  As always, the rides and performances didn't disappoint. I was glad that when we got home on Tuesday that I still had a few days left of break to decompress from our whirlwind trip.  Thanks for the memories Disney!