Day 1, part 2

In toontown we rode Gadget's go-coaster; both of the older boys loved it!

We also went through Mickey's house, but I don't think any of the kids found it that interesting. It culminates in a photo-op with Mickey, which was a lot more fun than than the house. Eli was always fascinated with the characters. After this we headed home for lunch and much-needed naps, after the late night from the day before.

An unexpected role-reversal. Actally we mostly did use the stroller for Brian. Here we are returning after naps, off to Disney's California Adventure. We rode Soarin' Over California, which Brian was just barely tall enough for. After some initial panic when the ride lights went down, I think he really enjoyed it. Then we went over to Toy Story Mania, and finally to the food court for dinner.

Grandma helps with feeding Eli his applesauce!

Disneyland: Day 1, part 1

So I'm going to apologize in advance for two things. One, Picasa only lets me post 4 pictures at a time so this will be a little bit fragmented. Also, I might include more detail than anyone wants to know because this is my only record-keeping source. So if you're just here for the pictures, ignore the text.

We got to Disneyland bright and early after our breakfast, and headed off on what was to be a rather ill-fated touring plan from my guidebook. This is us in new orleans squre on our way to splash mountain, which was closed. So we rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, and Brian thought it was scary. So next on the plan was the Haunted Mansion, and I thought if Winnie the Pooh was scary then forget that. But Brian wanted to go, so I took him, but as soon as they opened the door to the ride after a little preamble, he panicked and we had to back out of the line. Haha! I should have known.

Next on the plan was Pirates of the Carribean (this is Eli in front of it) but I thought that would be too scary too so we headed on to the Jungle cruise. That was pretty mild and I liked it a lot for the jokes and Brian liked the animals. After that we took the train over to toontown.

Look how strong we are!

Eli driving a toon car with grandpa.

To be continued!

Day 1: Character Breakfast

Our first day at Disneyland, we had a character breakfast at the Grand Californian Hotel. It was a beautiful place, and at 7:30, we had the place mostly to ourselves! That meant we got to spend a lot of time with the characters and the kids loved it.

Calvin too!

Brian giving a bear a hug. He loved these guys but I have no idea who they are...must be from a movie I didn't see.

Eli meeting Dale. I learned the difference between Chip and Dale on this trip.

Me and the boys with another unknown bear! (Yes, it's different than the first one!)

Halloween 2010

For Halloween we were kindly invited to trick-or-treat in Long Beach, in Alexander's grandma's neighborhood.

Getting gready to go out. This is one of the better pictures of Brian's costume. Unfortunately it seemed like nobody knew who The Man in the Yellow Hat was.

Me and the boys out on the trick-or-treat trail.

Brian holding Eli's hand...unfortunately Eli walked too slow for Brian and we were always behind.


All 4 of the boys! They all had a great time. It was a really neat place to go for halloween.

As a side note, Brian kept changing his mind about what he wanted to be for halloween. Little did he know he had no choices since I had packed his costume and flown it across the country. The first time I asked him what he wanted to be, it was "a caterpillar". Then for a while it was Tinkerbell. A store checker asked him what he was going to be and he said "a witch!" Finally, the day of halloween he decided he wanted to be a GPS and we had a good time joking about it. I told him if he wanted to put a box on his head and go around saying "Please drive to highlighted route" he could do that, so for the rest of the day he told everyone he was going as a GPS.

California 2010

Our first day in California, we went to visit Denise and Tim.

The sunshine! The palm trees!

We went for a quick snack to Alcove, an outdoor (mostly) cafe with some great cakes.

Eli, that's not how you eat a yogurt!


Family picture! Yes, we are all wearing orange. It was part of my crazy tourist strategy. The fact that it was halloween was a coincidence.

Pictures vs. reality

We went to the canal the other day to feed the ducks.  The weather was not unpleasant and the fall colors are nice, so I took the camera along. 

Fun times, right?  Well, I have a video also, which tells a more complete story. 

Brian was kicking at the birds, I was terrified his crocs were going to go flying into the canal, because this is how he takes them off when he gets home, and Eli was in a tired daze.  He has reached that age where he hates to be in the stroller so I can only get smiles by saying funny things, otherwise he’s not too happy to be there.  I don’t mean to imply we had a bad time, but sometimes I think pictures paint an overly rosy view of things… it’s easy to look at them and think “wow, their life looks so fun!” but pictures are just a split second of time.  Anyway, the contrast with the pictures and video was so funny that I thought I would share.  We did have a good time, mostly.  Aside from the fact that I am always about to have a heart attack… I mean, how hard would it be to have a fence here?  C’mon, Pittsford, you can afford it!

Playing outside

Eli loves to be outside!  We are enjoying the last few days of nice weather before it gets cold here. 

Walking outside from Monica Woodward on Vimeo.