There are way too many photos to share, so here are the highlights of our trip:
Pretty typical sight when it comes to Dominic. One of these days he will give up the "b" but until then, it's not worth the fight. This is him wandering through Toon Town.
Jim and Joshua ride Buzz Lightyears Atro Blasters. Might I add that Joshua made it to level 3!
This is one of my favorits pics of Matthew. He was snoozing in his "My First Mickey T-shirt" and Mickey Mouse hat. He was a very good baby during our entire trip.
Too bad Dominic closed his eyes! This is the first time Joshua even tolerated one of the characters. Dominic, of course, was excited to see all of them and carried on conversations with each character we encountered. He wanted to hug each of them and give high 5's!
The Riggio family awaits a train ride at Toon Town.
Joshua and Jim ride the bumber cars at PT Flea's circus
...and Dominic did the same with his Nemo hat. Every time a park employee saw him, they would exclaim - "I found Nemo!"
Matthew and Jim on the Story Land boat. Matthew sure does love his thumb! I guess he gets that from his Mommy.
Pam, Matthew, and Joshua (Dominic was on my right) ride the carousel
Jim and the boys fly high on the rockets!
Jim, Joshua and Dominic tour Tarzan's treehouse
What a mess - need I say more?
Matthew waits for his big brothers to finish riding PT Fleas circus cars
A classic of Jim and the boys. I couldn't resist!
We returned from a fantabulous trip to Disneyland on Friday! We purchased a Disney vacation package for a 2 day/3 night stay at Disney's Paradise Pier hotel and had so much fun that we opted to stay an additional night! We started our adventure on Monday with a stay at nana Mickey's house in Bakersfield. At 7:30pm, we received a call from Mickey Mouse himself to welcome us to the happiest place on earth.
We awoke early on Tuesday morning and got on the road at around 8am. We stopped by the Mission Hills cemetary to pay our respects to Jim's grandparents before we completed our drive. We arrived at the Paradise Pier four hours before checkin, but were lucky enough to find 1 room ready on the 11th floor. The best part is we paid for a standard room and received an awesome view of the California Adventure park. Who could ask for more? The boys were excited to be up so high, and I was just thrilled that I didn't have to clean up after myself for a few days.
Tuesday afternoon we spent at California Adventure and found our new favorite ride; Toy Story Mania! Just imagine a lifesized arcade game....it was REALLY cool! The unforunate part was that Matthew joined Joshua and I and pretty much had enough of the loud noise and quick movement about half way through the ride. He threw his arms up and just started crying. I gave up on the game and tried to console him until the ride was over. I vowed to ride it again before we headed home but, unfortunately, the damn thing was broken down on Thursday night - stupid ride!! That night, we had dinner in the PCH Grill in our hotel. Joshua was excited to find something on the menu he would eat and was more ecstatic when he found out he got to make his own pizza! This started the tradition for both boys for the following two nights. After getting Matthew and Dominic ready for bed, Joshua and I returned to California Adventure and rode Mulholland Madness (Joshua's first real rollercoaster) and enjoyed the Electrical Parade. The park closed at 9pm so Joshua insisted on heading over to Disneyland for a few more rides....wrong idea! After pushing our way through thousands of people, we realized that we were both very tired and just wanted out of there. It tooks us nearly 45 minutes to make our way back to the hotel amongst the crowds of people. We did take 10 minutes to stop off at the little Bakery on Main St for some milk and muffins for Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday we ventured over to Disneyland. We were lucky enough to hop on Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Mansion, the Pooh ride, and Jungle Cruise before the rest of the crowds made it to Adventureland. We only stayed at the park until around 1pm when we ventured back over to the hotel to hit the swimming pool and the big yellow water slide. It was this afternoon that we decided we would like to stay an extra night. The boys (yes all three of them, Joshua, Dominic and Jim) enjoyed the waterslide and went down several times before camping out in the kiddie pool. Dominic kept getting in trouble since he didn't want to get off the slide. Jim and I had some cocktails - yum - and we relaxed for a few hours. It was while at the pool that we decided to stay an extra night. After returning to the room, I spent what seemed like eternity going back and forth with Walt Disney travel and their website trying to secure an "affordable" rate. Once secured, we headed to dinner at the grill downstairs for a second night. Immediately following dinner, we headed back over the Disneyland to ride the Nemo submarine ride. Of course, after waiting nearly an hour in line, Dominic declared that he needed to go poo-poo as soon as we reached the submarines. The kind employee at the front of the line allowed us to take care of business before boarding. We completed the night watching fireworks and headed back to the hotel.
Thursday morning was "Magical Morning." On this day, all guests of Disney properties are allowed into Disneyland an hour before the park opens to visit Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. We were at the gate at 7am when the park employee noticed Jim's pocketknife. Although Jim tried to argue that the knife had visited the park the previous two days, he lost the battle. Instead of walking all the way back to our hotel, Jim waited about 10 minutes and put the pocket knife in his underwear before going back through security. The boys rode the rockets in Tomorrowland (something we have never done) and we all rode Buzz Lightyears Astroblasters. I was then taken back when Dominic declared he wanted to ride Space Mountain with me. Did he realize that this was a high speed, noise, and dark roller coaster? Clearly not since he boarded the car and happily awaited the adventure. Might I add that he was just shy of the 40 inch requirement but they let him on anyway. About 2 minutes into the ride, he realized that this was not where he wanted to be. He spent the remainder of the trip through space crying and screaming that he was scared. I felt awful, and nauseous since I spend the whole time holding onto him and not watching the ride. He survived, but was not very happy with mommy.
We spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon in Fantasyland, Toon Town, and Adventureland before venturing back over to California Adventure. We tooled around there for a short while and collected a fast pass for the Grizzly Rapids water ride for Joshua and I. We returned to the park at 5:30 and were completely SOAKED within minutes. We had a blast though. After dinner, Joshua and I headed back for Soarin' Over California.
All in all, we had a wonderful week and plan to make this an annual vacation. I will post photos tomorrow.
