2014 Southern California Trip: Disneyland Day 1

When day 1 of our Disneyland time came around, I have to admit it was pretty hard for me not to get there bright and early in the morning. I paced Oscar's grandparents' house giddy as a school girl while watching the clock! Oscar had volunteered to stay at the hotel with Tyler that day so I could have some baby-free time with my nieces and nephew. If we'd gone to the park at opening, I would have been all alone for several hours while Oscar and Tyler would have had nowhere to hang out since hotels don't check in guests until at least noon.

Although my family wouldn't arrive from Vegas until about 4, I was still eager to get into the park, even if it meant being there alone. We left Burbank around 11, stopped for lunch, nursed Tyler, checked in early at our hotel, and then dropped me off at the front entrance.

I spent my 2 hours of alone time walking around the park having my pictures taken. We'd pre-paid for Disney photopass+, an all inclusive service that offers digital copies of any photo any Disney photographer takes of you. They also give you a gallery CD of pictures from all around the resort, which is why many of these pictures are so gorgeous (no I did not suddenly become an incredible photographer ;)). The photopass is perfect for someone like me since it saves me the trouble of taking my own pictures. As much as I love having pictures for viewing, blogging, and creating digital scrapbooks, I really hate doing the picture taking myself. I feel it robs me of fully enjoying the experience in the present if I'm overly focused on recording it for the future. This way I get the best of both worlds!

 Where the photographers are varies throughout the day, but typically there are several just outside the castle and in the main street circle in front of the Walt Disney and Mickey statue.

They tell you to pose in a variety of positions. I had fun goofing around and letting my giddiness out!

The other photographers I saw were all taking pictures at the various character meet and greets. Since I was alone and the lines were all about 30 minutes long, I decided to walk into Fantasyland to do the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough.

I had only learned about this a few weeks earlier while researching which attractions were doable with a baby. Though I'd been to Disney several other times, and the attraction's been available since 1957, I was not aware that you could enter the Sleeping Beauty Castle. For some reason I thought they used it as a storage area. But alas, the Sleeping Beauty tale unfolds in 3 dimensional displays as you stroll through winding staircases from one end of the castle to the other. It's definitely worth seeing once, and since I doubt anybody else in our group would have been interested in it, I'm glad I was able to do it during my time alone.

I continued looking for photographers near the Matterhorn, but since I couldn't find one, I opted to take the Disneyland train back to the front entrance.

If I've ever taken the train before, I obviously did not remember it. I'd always assumed the train was just a train, so I was surprised to see these Dinosaur scenes as we rode through Tomorrowland. I meant to take the rest of the train route another time to find out if there were any more animatronics to see, but I never got around to it.

I'd just gone into California Adventure when my mom called to say they'd all arrived at the hotel. One of the perks of being a Disney hotel guest is using the park entrance in Disney's Grand Californian hotel, which is right across the street from Disney's Paradise Pier. Oscar and I had attempted to take this entrance once on our honeymoon, but we were turned away since we didn't have a Disney hotel room key.

Since I also didn't have a key that day, I asked the attendant if she could make an exception for me, but it turns out I didn't even need one. After 2pm they don't ask for keys from those exiting, though you do still need one to enter. I wish we'd known that on our honeymoon! Our hotel was only 3 blocks away from the Grand Californian. It would have saved us about a mile of walking after being on our feet all day, and would have made us more willing to go back to our hotel for a quick break.

Mike's kids had only been told they were going to Vegas so that he could later surprise them with the Disneyland trip. I wanted to add to their fun, so I knocked on their door and yelled "surprise!" They hadn't seen us since August and didn't know we were coming, so I was expecting a big response. Unfortunately it was a bit halfhearted since they were pretty tired from the drive, but they got their energy back as we were walking over to the park, and by then they were excited to see me.

One really nice surprise for us was that mom and dad were able to add Oscar, Tyler, and I on as guests for no extra charge. We saved money by cancelling our next two nights at our hotel, and we got to enjoy the perks of being Disney hotel guests, including early entrance to the parks each day. They even printed a room key for Tyler. We still stayed at our separate hotel that night since we'd already paid for it, but we checked out early the next morning and brought our stuff over to Paradise Pier.

Oscar and Tyler came over to the hotel and Ty took a nap in the pack and play while the rest of us began our fun in California Adventure. The first ride we did was the new "Ariel's Undersea Adventures." The nice thing about this ride is it's a constant loader, like Buzz Lightyear and Haunted Mansion. The ride never has to stop to let people on and off, which makes the line move super fast. It never had more than a 5 minute wait even though we were there on busy days. The animatronics inside are very impressive, especially when you compare it to older rides like "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" where your cart merely passes by illustrated pop up boards.

Next we strolled into the Paradise Pier area where you can see our hotel just behind the rides, hence the name of the hotel. This part of the park closes earlier due to the World of Color show. There I went on the Golden Zephyr ride with Sophie and rode Jumpin' Jellyfish with all the kids.

When I was researching which rides I could take a baby on, Golden Zephyr was listed as having no height requirement. However, after finding out that lap riders aren't allowed, I would not have wanted to bring Tyler on it. I would have happily taken him strapped to me in the baby carrier, but I would have been terrified to sit him up in the seat next to me since he's so wiggly. He can roll himself over on the changing table even with the buckle on as tight as I can make it, and the only constraint on this ride is a loose lap belt. It would not have been safe since I'm sure he would have been trying to pull himself to stand and peering over the edge.

That's something that was missing in all the Disney research I did. Somebody needs to make a list of which rides you can bring an infant on and what the requirements are. The only information I found said you could bring an infant on any attraction without a height requirement, but I was unaware that different rides would have different policies. Some require the baby to sit up in his own seat, which obviously wouldn't work if you have a newborn, while others will let you hold a baby on your lap or have him in a baby carrier as long as he's front facing, while others are happy to let you have him in a sling or in whatever position you'd like. I'd list it all myself and will include any information I found out about the rides we did take him on, but Tyler was very demanding of his sleep on this trip, so I only got around to taking him on about half of the baby friendly rides available.

Oscar was planning on picking up Malia and family from the airport, but our small rental car would have been very uncomfortable to try and fit 2 of them in the back next to a bulky car seat. We figured it was better for Oscar to hand Tyler off to me at the Grand Californian entrance before he left.

Once I got Tyler, I ran with him in the jogging stroller to meet back up with everyone else at the Toy story ride. Ty was very hungry, but I wasn't willing to get out of line and miss the ride just to take him to the baby care area. Once again I did what I rarely do and fed him in line. I'm glad I brought loose shirts that trip! Normally he's done in about 10 minutes, but he doesn't eat as well when he's not lying comfortably on a boppy, so 20 minutes of standing and nursing my 22 pound baby was absolutely killing my arms. I pulled him off as we were getting close to the end of the line, and he was not happy about it. Fortunately, though, he calmed down as soon as we got him on the ride. He really enjoyed all the fun lights and noises while sitting on my lap. It was a bit difficult, though, to keep him balanced while pulling on the string to play the game. It was a lot easier to ride the next day when we used the baby carrier.

I came off the ride a little alarmed that I couldn't find my stroller. Apparently I'd been so excited to meet up with the family that I'd just parked Ty's stroller right outside the line entrance without realizing that wasn't the official stroller parking. I panicked a bit at first, but then I remembered reading that Disney employees will often move strollers to the nearest assigned stroller parking, which was exactly where I found it.

The line for California Screamin' wasn't very long, so I went on it with Mike and Shannon while mom and dad took the kids on the Merry-Go-Round. This is one of my favorite coasters anywhere since the line moves quickly, it has lots of drops and an upside down loop, it shoots you up the hill super fast at the very beginning, and it's very smooth for a roller coaster (though admittedly less than it was when I first went on it in 2006).

It was already past Tyler's bedtime by then, so he was getting pretty darn fussy. At one point it was so bad that I said "OK, I'm taking him back to the hotel," but mom was kind enough to offer to push him around in the stroller while we did Mater's Junkyard Jamboree (which I couldn't bring Tyler on). By the time we were done with the ride, he'd fallen asleep. I actually enjoyed the ride considerably more than I was expecting to. It's a similar feeling to other theme park rides where whoever's on the inside gets crushed as the ride spins, but since the tow trucks move both ways, there's equal opportunity for both people to be on the inside. I was a bit concerned I'd be super crushed when the kids wanted to ride with their parents and I ended up in a truck next to dad, but it wasn't nearly as intense of crushing as I was expecting. It was actually pretty smooth, and it was fun to change up being on both the inside and the outside.

After that we got in the stand by line for racers. During the day this line can be as long as two hours, but since we were there in the evening while most others were at World of Color, the line was only about 30 minutes.

This is an impressive ride, and not just due to the rush of the race. The truly impressive parts of this ride are the animatronics. Like Splash Mountain, you tour through the scenes of the movie first before the "thrill ride" part happens. The design of the cars is absolutely astounding! They don't look like animated cars. They look like real cars made of steel that just happen to have eyes and mouths. Disney does an amazing job of making you feel like you've just walked right into Cars Land. Compare it to an older ride with animatronics, like Splash Mountain, and it's that much more mind-blowing. Splash Mountain's animatronics were impressive for their time, and these certainly follow suit for ours.'

Emma and Sophie both cried after this ride, but I think it's because it was late and they'd never been on it before, so they were surprised by the race at the end. The next day when they went on it, they were determined not to cry, and they didn't. They enjoyed it more once they knew what was coming. The unexpected is a large part of what makes something scary (hence why people are afraid of the dark). It's for that very reason that I often close my eyes on roller coasters. I enjoy not knowing when the drop is coming because it's that much more thrilling. It makes absolutely no sense to me why someone who's scared of roller coasters would close their eyes on one. It just makes it that much worse since your brain can't prepare itself for the drop.

After Racers we went back to the hotel, met up with Lia and family, then fed Ty and put him to bed in the pack and play. At Disney hotels they provide a pack and play in every room, which was nice not to need to bring our own. Oscar had just left from dropping the Kawaguchis off since he didn't want to pay to park at the hotel when our hotel was only 3 blocks away (it was $15 a day to park at the hotel, but we later learned that nearby there's free parking at Downtown Disney for up to 2 hours). He picked up dinner for the two of us, then walked over and stayed with me while the rest of the family went out to dinner. Once they returned, we walked back to our hotel and got some sleep.

Stay tuned for 2014 Southern California Trip: Disneyland Day 2

2014 Southern California Trip: Malibu and Santa Monica

This past February, my brother invited us to join him and his family, my parents, and my sister and her family at Disneyland. They'd all booked a deal through AAA for 5 days at Disneyland and 5 nights at Disney's Paradise Pier hotel. He said if I wanted to join them it would be around $2000 to add a room and tickets for us. Oscar and I went to Disneyland on our honeymoon on a budget of only $700, including our airfare, so I knew we could plan a much more reasonably priced vacation. Of course prices are higher than they were 8 years ago, but I was still able to find some good deals and plan our trip for well under $2000, including our airfare and rental car. We booked the trip in November, so it was nice to have several months to get everything planned. I'm the type that has almost as much fun planning and anticipating a trip as I do taking it. In fact, I'm miserable taking an unplanned "let's just relax and have a good time" trip. Trying to figure out things to do while I'm on vacation drives me nuts! I'd much rather have too much on our itinerary and then cut things out if I need to. Whatever I've missed just gives me a reason to come back and visit again.


Since Mike and Lia each have children in school, they planned the trip over mid winter break in February - Wednesday the 12th through Monday the 17th. Unfortunately that meant I had to miss working during Valentine's Week, our biggest money maker, but I wasn't going to lose the chance to take a vacation with my entire immediate family. We hadn't done that since I was about 9 (when we also went to Disneyland).

Oscar's days off are Sunday and Monday, so as long as he needed to request Wednesday - Saturday off, we figured he should take the Tuesday off as well and have a full week off work plus two weekends. He also ended up requesting the following Tuesday off since it was considerably less expensive (nearly $200 a piece) to fly back on Tuesday the 18th than to fly back on President's Day. This made for a 10 day stay in southern California, but lucky for us, Oscar's grandparents, Bill and Karen Flinders, live in Burbank, CA and are always happy to welcome visiting family into their home.

Before we boarded, we were allowed to take our stroller to the gate with us, but Southwest wanted us to have it checked and tagged for retrieval purposes. Oscar stuck the matching retrieval tag on Ty's onesie. Cutest luggage ever!

Our flight to Burbank had a stop in Oakland, CA, and Ty got to enjoy having his own seat on the plane. No one wants to sit near an infant, but he barely cried. He'd only recently learned how to sit up, so he sat and played with his toys most of the time with a Boppy in front of him to prevent him from falling forward. He nursed on the way up and was incredibly well behaved. We got many compliments from the flight attendants saying he could fly with them anytime. He didn't get his own seat for the flight from Oakland to Burbank, but the man sitting next to us was very kind and didn't mind at all being near a baby.

We did have one major issue with Ty that day; he got very little daytime sleep. He'd had a small nap in the car on the drive down, but he desperately needed more. He normally naps between 3 and 5 hours a day. He's a great napper when he has a crib or pack-n-play, but he struggles to sleep anywhere else, particularly when he can't be in the darkness. He got about a 20 minute nap in Oscar's arms, but that was it for the entire time from arriving at the Seattle airport to going to bed that night in California. I'd attempted to walk him to sleep in his stroller for an hour at the airport, but all he gave me were droopy eyes, no actual sleep. He was exhausted and incredibly grumpy by the time we arrived in Burbank, and he was very hot. He was already coming down with a cold before we came, and the lack of adequate nap just made it worse and brought on a fever. The next day he slept all day like a newborn would, wanted to nurse all day long, had no desire for solid foods, and was completely uninterested in interacting with people (which is normally his favorite activity). Fortunately that next day of rest really did the trick, and he was back to his sweet self by the time we met up with my family on Wednesday.

Ty initially seemed much better after a night of sleep, so we made the drive to Malibu to take the small hike at Point Dume Natural Preserve. It was so nice to actually leave the cold in Seattle (it had even snowed the night before) and enjoy the warmth and sunshine of southern California. Our entire visit was nice and warm while Seattle had plenty of cold and rain. There have been so many times we've attempted to go somewhere warm and leave the cold at home, but we've never had any success. Either where we're going ends up also being cold (like when we went to Disneyland on our honeymoon at this exact same time of year), or Seattle/Utah ends up also being sunny and warm while we're gone. 
The hike at Point Dume is short but beautiful. This point is actually where Tony Stark's house is digitally rendered in the Iron Man movies. Oscar pushed Ty in the jogging stroller while I took pictures.

Because Ty was still recovering from being sick, he wouldn't eat the solids we'd brought and insisted on being nursed immediately. Normally I'm not the type to just "whip it out" anywhere, but I'm not going to turn down a sick baby that's thirsty, particularly when breastmilk is loaded with antibodies to help him fight off illness. I figure the more of it I can get into his system, the better. I find getting myself ready and getting Ty latched is the most difficult thing to do discreetly, but fortunately I had a loose shirt on, and Oscar was there to hand Ty off to while I got myself situated. Once he's eating though, there's really nothing to see. It surprises me how many public places ban or have banned breastfeeding when the baby pretty much keeps you covered. Sure there are more revealing outfits that would leave you more exposed while nursing, but then that's the fault of the outfit, not the breastfeeding. 

We had some more plans for the day, but after seeing that Tyler was still quite sick, we drove back to Burbank and had fun playing games and celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa Flinders. They're 54th wedding anniversary was on Tuesday the 11th, only 6 days before our 8th anniversary. They taught us the game Farkle while we taught them Guillotine, Mille Bourne, and Quiddler. Fortunately Ty was back to his sweet self by the next morning and had fun crawling around the living room. He actually pulled himself to stand for the first time on their furniture.

Oscar and I were both surprised when Tyler was born with light red hair, though we knew immediately who he must have inherited from. Great Grandpa Flinders has had that color his whole life. With how much hair he's lost and how much hair Tyler has grown, the two of them are about equal now.

When I first saw the pic on the right, I laughed my head off. It's baby Tyler and Great Grandpa both struggling to get up, one due to age and one due to youth. They're even in the exact same position - one knee up, one knee down, each leaning on an arm for support.

On Tuesday we went back to Malibu to check out El Matador beach. It wasn't a terribly pretty day, but the rock formations are beautiful. We spent about an hour just walking along the beach. I would have liked to have my flipflops, but since the short hike down is steep and slippery with cliffs, plus I was wearing my baby on me, I opted for the tennis shoes with more grip. 

Mmm! Salty

Comcast Baby

Oscar gave Ty these pieces of sea kelp to play with. He looked very fierce holding them. "You touch mommy and I'll beat you with this seaweed!"

Afterwards we drove down to Santa Monica to see the Getty Museum. We brought the stroller, but I wish we'd used the carrier instead. It was very difficult to steer with all the people walking down the aisles, and Ty gets really upset being in a stroller that's not moving. Most of the time one of us was pushing an empty stroller while the other carried Ty.

There are beautiful views of the city when you take the outdoor walkways and the tram that leads to and from the parking lot. If you look closely you can see the Santa Monica LDS temple about 5 buildings in on the right. They also have some interesting vegetation to check out.

We ended up spending more time on the outside than on the inside since it was easier to push the stroller that way. Fortunately there were some sculptures and pretty gardens to walk through.

And the next day we drove down to Anaheim to meet up with my family at Disneyland. We actually booked a night at the same cheap hotel we'd stayed at on our honeymoon. Although I knew it wasn't a great hotel, I figured we'd end up hanging out with my family at Paradise Pier most of the time anyway, so we'd only need to go back to our hotel to sleep. 

We arrived around noon and stopped for some lunch at Tiffy's Family restaurant while waiting for our hotel to let us check in. I'd ordered a dish that included mashed potatoes, which Tyler really liked. This was a bit surprising since up to that point he hadn't liked any potatoes except for sweet potatoes. After giving him a few bites, I let him play with another spoon while I ate some food myself. As I was eating, he took his adult sized spoon, put it in the potatoes, and shoved an entire spoonful in his mouth! This was especially surprising since Tyler always resisted spoon feeding and had never attempted to spoon feed himself before. He was barely self feeding with finger foods at that point, let alone spoon feeding. Since then I've tried giving him potatoes and other foods to self spoon-feed, but it never makes it into his mouth. He just plays with it and gets it all over himself.

Stay tuned for 2014 Southern California Trip: Disneyland Day 1