The Happiest Place On Earth

Aaron meeting Mickey for the first time!

 Well, after talking about it and wishing for it we finally got to take Aaron to Disneyland for the first time!  It wasn't under the exact circumstances we wanted and it was only for one day, but we had a wonderful time!

In the beginning of May Josh got laid off from his job.  We knew it was coming because they are closing their Sacramento location and it was just a matter of time.  So when it finally happened I think there was a mixture of emotions.  After we let it sink in for a few days, I decided to make some lemonade with our lemons and spoke to Josh about going to SoCal for a week.  This was the time if any (besides not having the funds) to go down and visit family, introduce the kids finally, and if we were lucky..... take Aaron on his first Disney adventure!

After talking with family we made our plans and off we went!  We had a really great time visiting with family.  The kids got to meet most of my mom's family for the first time including my grandma GG!  And they got to meet a cousin on my dad's side too.  Aaron had so much fun with his cousins and so many people to pay attention to him he was in heaven!  We took the kids to the beach.  Elizabeth's first time ever!  And even though Aaron has been to Golden Gardens in Seattle, I'd consider this his *real* first trip to the beach.  Elizabeth was so relaxed and Aaron was having so much fun he didn't want to leave!  

Thankfully, I have a wonderful family who were kind enough to let us stay with them (in fact, we got multiple offers) and my aunt Bea was so super awesome to babysit Elizabeth on the day we took Aaron to Disneyland.  AND, since we were newly unemployed (and HOLY CRAP THE PARK HOPPER ONE DAY PASSES ARE RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE) my grandma GG very graciously paid for the 3 of us to get in.  

Now, as a 35 year old California native, I still love Disneyland.  Like, I love it for myself.  I want to go and ride every. single. ride.  I want to visit the parks multiple days in a row.  I want to eat 5 churros a day and eat crappy food at the park for outrages prices.  YES.  I want it all.  I want the Mickey Mouse sweatshirt for $75 (I call that being swindled and pimped) and that neon light stick thingy that swirls so I can wave it around during the light parade.  I want to race around and grab Fast Passes for all the cool rides like Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (OK -- all the mountains) and then in between ride all the cute nostalgic rides like Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and the Storybrook Ride.  YEAH.  I know that park like the back of my hand, yo.  I'm excited just writing this damn paragraph.  But I digress.....

Aaron.  We took our son to experience the wonderful world of Disney for the first time.  Before we got there I was thinking to myself... Man, I hope I don't get annoyed that all I'm doing is riding kiddy rides.  But as soon as we got off that freeway I knew it was all for him.  He was so excited to be there!  We never told him we were going so when we got off the freeway I asked him "Hey, do you know where we are right now?" and as he looked around he said "No, BUT THAT WAY IS DISNEYLAND!".  It was so cute.  

We went to California Adventure first because we knew he'd love Radiator Springs and all the Cars rides.  Which he did!  (PS - The main car racing ride.... Definitely a fast pass ride if you can get it).  We actually spent more time in Cars Land than we'd planned to so we went to Disneyland a bit late and didn't get to ride as many rides that I would have liked him to experience but we seemed to get the important things in.  He wanted to met Mickey and we did that successfully in Toon Town.  And he got to see a character parade and he absolutely loved it!  The look on his face was priceless!  

I am so glad (and grateful to my family for helping us make this happen) that we got to take him - just me and Josh - to make this memory.  It's something I'll always remember and I hope he will too.  

Here are all the pictures on our California Adventure:  FLICKR.  

Thanks to all my family for helping us out in all sorts of ways.  Can't wait for our next adventure!  

Mater!

World Traveler. Ok, maybe just interstate for now.

My Chubbs! He rode in a plane for the first time! (Don't you just love this picture?!)

SO, our trip started out flying to Sacramento on Alaska Airlines. It was an early flight and we got there just as the plane was boarding. The woman checking everyone in was so nice and so helpful. She moved us to an empty aisle! Aaron and I sat next to the window and Josh next to the aisle. Aaron was perfect on the flight! He only cranked once or twice and only just a little bit at that, but we were able to distract him immediately. And then with the white noise and the bottle, he fell asleep! It was awesome. I had a harder time since I caught a cold the day before we left so my stupid ears wouldn't clear and were blocked the whole trip! UGH!

The day after we arrived mom, dad and Eva threw a party to welcome Aaron to Sacramento and introduce him to the family and friends there. Unfortunately, I think the traveling hit him that day so he was kinda grumpy and most people didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with him.

The rest of the week Aaron spend with his grandparents (my parents) living the good life while Josh, Eva and I went to LA for the Dave concert at the Greek and to visit family. We all had a really good time.

By the end of the week though Eva, Aaron and dad had all caught my cold and so the plane trip back wasn't as pleasant as the plane trip there. Aaron was grumpy and considering this is his very first cold, I could understand why! Josh had to get up at one point and stand in the back and rock him to sleep. After that though, everything was alright. Poor little guy! Not to mention the woman who was checking people in at the Sac airport wasn't as helpful! She was just kind of like, "Oh nope. Sorry, no empty aisles." There was no searching or offer to move single people around so we could get an aisle to ourselves. I there were, in fact, empty seats on the plane. Lame. (You hear that Sacramento Alaska Airlines people!?!)

Overall though it went well and all my worrying went down the drain. It totally helped that my cousin Michelle let me borrow her car seat, high chair, rocking seat and playpen for Aaron so I didn't have to take anything except his stroller! You rock Michelle!

Aaron is now an official traveler! He even got wings on his way back!!!

Where to next?

Leaving on a jet plane

My stinkin' boy! Isn't he adorable?!

Well, we're getting ready for Aaron's first plane trip! I'm so excited and nervous at the same time! I hope of all hopey-hopes that everything goes well and without incident. And by that I mean both no screaming baby, no poopy diapers on the plane, and not TSA asshats. Just nice, happy baby with pee pee only diapers and really awesome and friendly TSA agents. (That's me, putting that out there in the universe - making it happen! *crossing fingers*).

We're on our way to California. A stop in Sacramento for a few days where Josh and I will leave Aaron behind to enjoy his grandparents and then we'll head down to LA with Eva for a Dave (DMB) concert. :) I figured Aaron's a bit too young for his official first Dave concert.

Today we went to the doctor's office just to ease my mind about the plane trip and a few other small items we wanted to go over the doctor with. Aaron's doing very well - a healthy 24 lbs! :) Clear ears (for the plane!), normal temperature, normal developments -- and we learned we have to up the food. We'd only been feeding him once a day (meaning FOOD and not bottle) but we are going to be changing that to two times a day now and next month - three times a day. SEE - I don't have anyone to tell me these things here in Seattle so thankfully I have a wonderful pediatrician for Aaron.

I will be taking plenty of pictures on my trip and will hopefully post them to FLICKR as soon as I get back.

Wish us luck everyone! A few days and we're on our way!