Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The HAPPIEST place on earth!!

Well.. mostly.

I have been putting off blogging about our trip to California because of time.. and I still don't have any. Time, that is. But, alas, here I am. Its 11 o'clock at night.. and I'm actually done with work before midnight... so I blog.

So.. if you remember this post in January, we made blankets for the Disney Give a Day Get a Day project. We used those free tickets and took a trip to California in April. Cody's mom, Annie, came along, she was excited to go to Disneyland with her grandaughter, and she ended up being a lot of help. Now, let me just tell you.. I always swore I'd never take my kids to Disneyland until they were old enough to remember, and I still stand by that. However, we were free, and kids are guests of Mickey (FREE) until they're two. So.. we went.

Cody insists on driving through the night. We miss traffic, and it means we get there early in the morning and have one extra day. I disagree.. I hate driving at night, but this is one argument I let him win. I was hoping Kapri would sleep the whole way, but she decided that wasn't happening. She slept for maybe a total of three hours. Not good, considering she sleeps 12-14 hours a night at home.

She took a short nap in the morning once we got to my Grandma's, and then another short nap before we went to lunch with my Uncle Dennis. Thats it. We went to a chinese restaraunt for lunch and I ended up having to take her out ten minutes into our meal. I should've taken this as a hint towards how the rest of the day might go.. but I didn't.

We headed to our hotel in Anaheim, got cleaned up, and headed to Downtown Disney to walk through the shops. Kapri did okay for the first hour or so.. she rode in her stroller and people watched.


THEN all hell broke loose. She wouldn't sit in her stroller, she wanted to walk. So.. we let her walk. Then her shoe fell off (of course it was her converse sneakers, which I have a love hate relationship with) and I had to practically hold her down, with Cody's help, to put the dang thing back on. She was screaming and fighting to get down. Just as Cody was getting frustrated, I was trying to explain to him that people don't care that she's throwing a fit. A man walked by and yelled "The Happiest Place on Earth, right??!!" We all laughed, it was some much needed comic relief for the moment.

As we started walking to find a place to eat, Kapri decided she'd had enough. She screamed and yelled.. and threw herself down. She didn't want to be held, she would not go near her stroller.. and she didn't want to walk. To cut a long story short.. I walked out of Downtown Disney holding a screaming, wiggling, very un-happy one and a half year old. People were staring, and I didn't care. I kept running this thought through my head "What were we thinking?? Why did we think this would be fun?? Disneyland is not the happiest place on earth!!" the entire way.. which happens to be a good half a mile.

Instead of eating at a fun restaraunt in Downtown Disney, we had to make a quick stop at McDonalds. At this point I was still wondering how on earth we were going to get through the rest of the vacation.

Fast forward to the next day. (Kapri slept GREAT, phew.) We got up, got ready and headed to get breakfast at IHOP, then went to the park. First thing we did once we got in, got our stuffed pretzels. Yes, we had just had breakfast.. but how often are you at Disneyland?? They were delicious.. wish I could have one right now.





We got in line for the teacups.. only to find out, after waiting for a few minutes, that the ride was having issues and closed. Yay. We headed over to Its a Small World, which coincidentally happens to be the most annoying ride in the entire park.

KAPRI LOVED IT!!! Her face lit up.. and she couldn't look around fast enough. I looked at Cody and said "THIS makes this whole trip (and the drama) worth it." It was so fun to see her get excited over the music and props.


We went on a few more rides (and yes, we made it onto the teacups before we left), then Kapri was getting fussy so we headed back to the hotel room to give her a nap. After she slept for a few hours we went back to the park.


We went on The Pirates of the Carribean.. I had no idea what the ride was, just that there was no height limit on it, so Kapri could ride. We got into the boat, which didn't have a lowering lap belt or anything, so how bad could it be, right? So you just slowly float down this river, past old houses, men rocking on chairs. Then you go into a tunnel, a very dark tunnel. As we're moving along we hear the people on the boat in front of us drop.. then scream. Ummm.. WHAT was that?? Then, the boat fell out from under us.. followed by a big SPLASH. Remember, its pitch black. Kapri flew up against my chest and stiffened up. She fussed a little, but I'm pretty sure she was more upset about getting wet. We ended up going on that ride again before we left that night.



We ended up staying at the park until about ten. Kapri actually lasted a lot longer that I thought she would. We went to Disneyland on our honeymoon, and Cody was actually disappointed. He thought the castle was tiny. I don't think its the same if you go as an adult. He said he had a lot more fun this time, taking Kapri. Everything seems so much more magical and exciting when you're a kid.

Before we left Mickey and Minnie came out. (They were the only characters we saw, besides Hook, the entire day.) We shoved our way up to the front of the group (I'm pretty sure people were cursing at us) so we could get a picture. Kapri had NO idea who or what they were.. but we had to get a picture.


The next afternoon we headed out to Huntington Beach. We walked through the shops, and then walked down to the water to stick our feet in.





Then we headed down the pier to eat at Ruby's!!



Yep.. thats a seal. Arrr Arrr Arrr. (imagine me doing my best seal impression, slapping hands together.



I LOVE THIS PLACE.


We got lost on the way back to the hotel, and ended up going the wrong direction.. for a looong time. Once we got back to the room we were all ready for bed.

We got up early the next morning and headed home.. EXHAUSTED. This was, in no shape or form, a relaxing vacation, but we LOVED it!!

Right, Kapri??

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