I had this dream once, now I'm living it....

[ozbrooke]

Great report! Your DS is such a cutie!

So your son rode the matterhorn? I'm trying to convince my rather timid DS to ride some of the 'scarier' rides.

I *love* the pirate ears, did you just get those at the hat shop on Main st?

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Thanks Oz, yes he did the Matterhorn twice. He loved it. My son is VERY timid on things....I was amazing he even did Dumbo. I wouldn't call anything at Disney really "scary'.....the snowman guy can be..but with forewarning that he's in there does help I'm sure. I just told my son we had to growl back at him. That's what made him want to do it a second time...he said he could growl louder at him again.

Those pirate ears are at just about every shop in Disneyland, but yes we got ours at the mad hatter on main street since they could put the names on them there.

 

[Heather R]

can't wait for more! love all the pictures. my dh and i are taking our 4 kids (ages 7-1) in 2 weeks from tomorrow, it's a first visit for all of them, even my dh!! your report is making me even more excited to share the magic with the kiddos!!

Heather

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Day THREE....California Adventure
I hate to start this thread out on a negative note but this park has nothing on Disneyland. I despise the layout of it. It's like everything is in it's own little culdesac and you have to go only ONE way to get there. For example...to be in the bugs life area and then to get to tower of terror. Although you're literally just feet away ..you still have to walk this huge circle to get there. I understand all you do is walk in the parks all day anyway...but I felt like I was hiking in CA. Besides that there's a huge lack of shade. Don't get me wrong it has some nice things about it.....but to me it's like a really fancy Six Flaggs....which is nothing like Disney.

The first thing we did was pick up fp for Soarin then headed to the 10:30 showing of Playhouse Disney for my son. He LOVED it. He's pretty shy if he doesn't know you so when "jaime" the host asked him to dance he hooked me in a headlock and wouldn't let go. He did finally let loose and danced along with the show. I thought it was really cute.

After the show we walked around to take our first peek at Tower Of Terror.....I'm already a little nervous about the ride......more on that later.


We did Soarin....my son did too. We all loved it. I normally get motion sickness on things like that but it honestly didn't bother me. I think it was the frequent change of scenery. I would definitely say it's a must do but only with a fast pass. I couldn't imagine standing in an hour line. Speaking of fastpasses........Chris had no idea you could use them after they had expired...last year when he was there they planned their day around their fastpasses..what a pain that would have been. We got our fp for tower which we ended up not being able to use because we didn't have anyone to hang out with Ayden so we had to try for another day. We did the bugs life area...which was cute but again reminded me of Six Flaggs,

I just wanted to get back into disneyland. We walked over and watched the start of Screamin....I couldn't wait to ride it. Did lunch back in Disneyland....We had lunch at ....I think it was the french market...next to Cafe New Orleans. VERY VERY GOOD. I had the soup and 1/2 sandwich..very tasty. Chris had bbq ribs/chicken, cornbread and coleslaw with corn. He raved the rest of the trip about it. As for Ayden...what a suprise...pb & j again. Great great food and great atmosphere there.

We headed back to the hotel for a nap and after I got Ayden down I headed to downtown Disney ALONE while Chris hung out at the room with Ayden while he napped. Oh and shhh I also snuck over to the Ramada to check my email
I spent over an hour in World Of Disney for my souveniers. I had been trying to hold off since I had a 20% off coupon to use and I wanted to try to get a lot of it all at once. I only spent around 100 so that wasn't bad at all.

We headed back to DL for dinner. We ate at the restaurant right next door to fantasyland Haus something??? I ordered the 2.99 mac and cheese for Ayden...but was charged the regular 5.99 full kids meal. Oh well..I didn't notice until I got the food and the line was too long to take it back up. Everyone with us had the burgers, I had the sandwich. I liked mine, NO ONE liked the burgers. We split up again that night and Chris and I did some bigger rides while Ayden rode Dumbo and Peter pan with my sister.

Once again we closed the park and got the cookie on our way out..yummmy

Thursday Day Four
Today we had breakfast reservations for Goofy's Kitchen. Dumb me I made them for 7:40. Not a good idea after closing the park down at midnight the night before. We were 10 minutes late but they got us right in.
The buffet was pretty good, I would have liked to have tried a lot more...but with the "constant" happenings it was hard to do. The characters there were Jasmine, Baloo, Alice, , Dale, Pluto and of course Goofy. My son did well with the characters...although he did kinda snub alice off...he didn't care for her. Chris on the other hand ... He likes alice

Chris's sister went as well.....she went with a friend of hers and since they wanted to do all big rides we never really had time to do anything with her. I did encourage Chris though to hang out with her half the day today, which allowed Ayden and I to do some things just the two of us. We had a great day today!!! I ended up taking ayden on the haunted house. I actually wasn't going to but he really really wanted to so I said ooooook. The only part that honestly bugged him was in the elevator when everyone screamed. I had him facing into me so he never looked up to see whats there when the lights flash. He danced along to the music in the chair and laughed at the people (ghosts) dancing. He doesn't know what a ghost is so it wasn't scary to him. He thought the bride was the prettiest princess there. Ha..funny since we rarely saw a princess. We did Pooh together...again and again. He just loved that ride. Afterwards we met Pooh.

We had lunch together at Cafe New Orleans. Waited 20 minutes for a patio seat right along the edge. It was the best lunch all week. Ayden LOVED the pirate show that was going on...the afterwards the other music started in. He was in heaven..Guess what he ate?? And I had another monte cristo which I didn't leave a bite this time. The service was great..wish I had remembered his name..I left him a fat tip because he was just so quick and helpful ...and well the service we received was pretty much the trademark of Disney. After that we rode pirates together then headed back to the room for a nap. We had an incredible morning together.......

Oh yea..and we also took the monrail back into the park after breakfast and I got some GREAT pics from the monorail..along w/ some Nemo ride sneak peeks...I'll post those later.

Thursday night..our friends arrived....more to come.

 

[ozbrooke]

Waiting for more

I see you have another trip planned!

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Yep Oz...I'm ready to work on trip 2. This time of year worked out just perfectly for me. It was after I had done my taxes, and it's also perfect time at my job with bonuses. Our room and flight were paid for before I even did my taxes so the big chunk was already taken care before the return came back so the timing couldn't have been better. I started thinking maybe in October for my sons birthday...but I'd rather be able to go when funds are better than have to pinch every penny ya know. My dream would be though for us to go again, along with his dad and his new girlfriend and her kids. That would be a dream...things are still so "touchy" between he and I but this isnt' for us....it would be for my son and that's who it should be about...but like I said, that's a dream. It certainly wouldn't be a family vacation..but for my son to have both mom and dad there....it would be wonderful. I felt guilty at times on this trip because dad wasnt there with him for his first time........but it was something he did all on his own and I had to keep living ya know.

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Oh and yes I'll get back to posting tonight since my son is with his dad. He was pretty sick yesterday so I didnt' get much done except lots of cuddling and laundry from someone that lost everything shortly after he ate

 

[ozbrooke]

Sorry to hear your DS is sick , hope he feels better soon!

I know how it can be with exes. I don't have to deal with mine very much, seeing as he lives in America and I live in Australia, so he's not a huge part of Jacks life. This visit will be the first time I meet his wife (he cheated on me with her, she's VERY young), so that will be weird. The way I see it is he made a decision, and like you said, I'm not going to stop enjoying my time with my son because of that. He's not there for the day to day care, so I feel I've 'earned' Disney time with DS .

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Wow Oz...I could have typed what you just said. My ex husband cheated on me too with a girl he was working with. He was 33 at the time..she was barely 20. Go figure.........They split up about 2 months after I left him. We split up in January of last year and my divorce was final this past July. Things have only gotten better for my son and I since I left him. So many people apologize for my divorce......but really, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. He lives with the regrets, I certainly don't. I have never been so happy as I am right now. So that's why this trip was so special for my DS and I. Good luck on meeting the new wife........I have yet to meet the new GF. It's hard because I know she's around my son all the time and as a mom we want to know who are babies are with. I'm very excited that you and your DS will be able to create all the wonderful memories together than my ds and I just had. They will surely last a lifetime....and hey YOU deserve it!

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Ok so I'm back with more....
We rode the monorail back into the park on Thursday after Goofy's Kitchen.
Here are some pics from the ride in. There were scuba divers working inside Nemo and they were waving to us but you can't see them in the picture.

Thursday evening our friends from work arrived. It was a great night. We had so much fun. My sister took Ayden from dinner until closing and we were able to hit every "big kid" ride we couldn't do during the day. Well all but Thunder Mountain but we did that friday night with them. We had a short wait time on all rides. Nightime quickly became my favorite time at DL...the rides were less than 10 minutes to wait (except Space Mountain)....it was well worth going back to the room during the day for that nap so Ayden would be able to make it until closing. Neither of them had ridden Indiana Jones...and my first time just just days before but since it broke down on my first time I was able to see how it ended ...they had no idea and it was fun to hear their screams at the very end not knowing what was to come....

 

[ozbrooke]

MWD, our situations sound so similar. My ex was 31 and the girl was 19 - and he worked with her! Mind you, he's now married to her (he's not an American and he lost his job at one point so they got married so he could stay in the country). I've been divorced for a little over 3 years now though.

It also wasn't the end of the world for me when I got divorced either. Everyone kept expecting me to completely melt down, but he was so difficult to live with and while I didn't really want to get divorced, I also didn't want to stay in the marriage the way it was.

Back to the trip report , that Nemo ride looks awesome, I'll just have to plan a return trip .

 

[KimAshton]

Please continue trip Report. Your son is just too adorable.

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Thanks Oz...yes our situations seem very similiar!! Yea the Nemo ride looked really neat. THe colors just seemed so bright and vibrant, just like the movie was. I can't wait to ride it.

And thank you KimAshton...I think he's a cutie as well
I will post more tomorrow about our last and final day. I have the best story to tell about the fireworks and the best picture to sum up our entire trip.

 

[ozbrooke]

Where's the update?

 

[MommyWithDreams]

I have been such a slacker...I PROMISE I will finish my trip report tomorrow night.

 

[kellymom]

You know I am still waiting!!!!!

 

[MommyWithDreams]

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.........of coure you are.....I got your email missy trust me!
It's been nothing but chaos around here with things going on, both good and not so good. I think every night when I put Ayden to bed I'm going to finish this thing....but once it's all quiet in the house mommy seems to crash early. These 10 hour work days are killing me, by the time the weekend comes around though I'm putting so much time into Ayden feeling like I'm catching up on what I missed out on all week. Just for you I'll finish it SOOON I promise. I can't wait to share the moment from the fireworks on my report. You already know about it.....but I love telling it, over and over and over. Man I love this kid!

 

[daisy_77]

MWD-I have been enjoying your TR!
I hope that you can come back soon to update!

 

[DisneyJenn18]

I am loving your trip report! Your son doesn't seem to be scared of anything!!

can't wait for the rest!!

 

[staley7580]

Hey!! You never finished!