Double Digit Disney Dude

Being able to celebrate a birthday in Disneyland is a real treat! I wish we could make that happen more often. :) But - Aaron should always remember the year he turned 10 - his first double digit birthday - and he got to celebrate in style in Disneyland itself! 

 We began the day right with a yummy breakfast at River Belle Terrace that served Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes.  My kiddos love breakfast foods - and that made them very happy.

 Then the Petersons got Aaron started with the infamous Disneyland "pin trading" by giving him a Lanyard and pin-starter kit for his birthday. I'm tellin' ya - the pin trading was a huge hit! We ended up getting both Krystal AND Marissa some lanyards and pins to be able to experience all the pin trading that takes place in Disneyland and California Adventure. Basically - all of the workers at the parks have their own pins that they must trade with whoever wants to. We pretty much stopped at a worker between every ride so the kids could scope out the exact pins they wanted on their lanyards. Aaron and Marissa came home with some pretty cool pins. Krystal pretty much traded for the sake of trading, and loved any pin that came her way. ;) Here is Aaron making his very first (of many) pin trades:

 

Then, we hit fantasy land for a good part of the day.  Such fun and cute rides!  And the best part was - we only had to wait like 5 minutes for each ride.  AWESOME.LAND!!

BFFs.  Need I say more?  Absolutely.  too.  cute.  for.  words!!!!

 

The kiddos that wanted a SUPER fast spin on the teacups jumped in with Travis - he had them whippin' around like crazy!  Yeeeeee-Haw!

Storybook Land was really fun and relaxing - we all fit on one canal boat together - and Krystal and Aeryn got to sit up on the bow of the boat:

Stopping to see some princesses!  What new 10-year-old wouldn't love getting his picture with the Disneyland princesses?!?  hahaha.  jk - but, it was fun to be able to see so many characters.  Carly made all the kids an awesome autograph book - so, they will have a place to keep these pictures along with the autographs for great memories.  The kids LOVED that!

Marissa just might strangle me for including this pictures, but I think it's so cute and funny!  She has a crazy side, that girl -- it just takes a little egging on from me for it to come out.  lol!

We got to see Captain EO - a 3D show that has recently been reopened as a tribute to Michael Jackson.  I'm so glad we got to see that, because when I was 14 years old and went to Disneyland - THAT's the show I got to see.  Great reminiscing, and the kids thought it was way cool.  Then the kids headed over to Innovations in Tomorrowland (along with riding Space Mountain and Star Tours - Aaron was featured as a spy for the Rebel Alliance and had his picture come up on the screen just before the ride started -- that was pretty cool and funny!) -- anyway, in Innovations they had an awesome time learning about the evolution of video gaming and technology.  Holy COW - video gaming has come a long way over they years.  Here the kids are playing Fruit Ninja on the Kinect:

 

Spending some time with Winnie the Pooh and friends in Critter Country.  (Eeyore even signed Aaron's autograph book with "Happy Burfday!" 

 

Splash Mountain is AWESOME!!  SO. MUCH. FUN!!  Aaron and Ellie went twice right in a row - and both got drenched!  Thank heavens we had extra sweat shirts.  And I love the picture of the girls on the right -- Carly sacrificed and went in the front to help protect Krystal from getting too wet -- Marissa held Miss Aeryn tight to help her not feel to scared --- but, both littles look terrified anyway!  :D!  They loved it, though.  Aaron gave a thumbs up in every pic he was in ... no prob for that guy.

 

We went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner that night.  It was an hour wait to get in.  By the time our food came - all of the kids were asleep in their seats.  haha.  It was pretty tricky to get the littles to wake up and eat, but Marissa and Aaron lasted to the end.  Aaron got a huge pizza to himself - and Marissa order her favorite Fried Mac&Cheese balls.

I hope it was a birthday to remember my favorite little man  - you are a rockin' 10-year-old and already have so much going for you!  So proud to be your momma!! 

California Adventure

The first thing we did when we were let into California Adventures was high tail it to the ride "Toy Story Mania". This ride is THE. BEST! -- my most favorite ride of the trip. :) It also doesn't have a fast pass available ... but, luckily - California Adventures wasn't super crowded - so we were able to ride it like 4 times. Anyway - this was how we started off our day:

 

Lookin' pretty sweet, eh?  :)  So, the game works as follows:  we spin around in little these seats that take us from screen to screen where we use our trigger gun to earn as many points as we can on each screen by shooting targets.  Each screen is different and it all looks totally 3D.  SO.  COOL!!!

Me and Marissa rode this ride together every time.  That was awesome.  She won our game the first time we played ...

... with these scores.  Our accuracy was pretty good, though - huh?  ;)

Here is the gang of people that wanted to brave the "California Screamin'" ride:

The rest of us hit the Carousel.  (I DID end up riding and LOVING California Screamin' a couple of times -- such a fast and fun ride.  I was surprised at how much I loved it.  ;))

My beautiful girls!

This is what Aaron and Tyler had to say about California Screamin':

We ran into Woody!! And - I think this is the only picture I was able to get of our whole group.  We sure had fun together!

The Ferris Wheel was fun because ALL of us could fit in one cart.  Marissa was having a nervous break down because she is so terrified of heights - but, Carly was right there with her. 

... and she even made it to the top without having to close her eyes!

Here's the rest of us:

We gave the Goofy's Pilot School ride a whirl!  Krystal was nervous - it IS fast and lurchy -- but, super creative and adventurous and fun!

She gave it an "okay" sideways thumb.  ;)        Then we saw Jake from the Neverland Pirates!

 

Eating one of our many lunches of PB and J sandwiches.  (Although, one day we had soup in bread bowls at this very spot -- and they were amazing!)

Because it was a little chillier this day - we went in to try some activities inside. 

 Krystal got chosen to talk with Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo) - which was pretty much the coolest thing ever.  She asked him what his favorite color was, and he replied, "Well, green of course.  What's yours?"  She said, "gold"  (of course).  Crush's response was, "Woah!  You have expensive taste!"  haha.  Then he asked her about a "#1 Fan Finger" he found - he didn't know what it was.  She told him it was a #1 Finger.  When he asked her what he should do with it, she said - "Put it on your hand ..."  (he did that and said , "then what?" ... so she said, "Put your hand up in the air .......... and scream."  SO - Crush did just that!!  It was pretty hilarious.  What a great experience!  (we weren't allowed to take pictures)

We learned how to draw Jack Skellington from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".  I was amazed at the results!!  Incredible work, guys!

 

Another one of our VERY favorite rides was the Monsters Inc. ride - which we ended up riding like 8 times or something within the week.  It was great!  At the very end the slug secretary Roz would actually talk to some of us individually.  She talked to Tyler EVERY time - it was so funny!!  One time she asked him if all of his paper work was turned in.  For those of us that know Tyler - and how behind he is ALL. THE. TIME. on paper work -- well, we got a pretty good laugh.  On another occasion, Aaron and Ellie were sitting together and Roz said to them, in her nasally voice, "Are you two brother and sister? - Young lady, if that boy gives you any problems, you come see me..."  (and then looking at Aaron) "I'm watching you!"  LOL!

I was with Tyler this time - and she said to me - "Lady in the white sweatshirt - is that your husband?  Because he just winked at me!"

Man, that was a fun ride!

We didn't go on The Hollywood Tower of Terror this day - but, I snatched a picture.  Who do you think ended up daring to go?  Stay tuned to find out.  ;)

The "Bug's Life" land was so SO cute!

These bumper cars were hilarious - because you could only go like .05 miles per hour.  hahahaha.  I'm not sure if Aaron and I bumped into anyone.  But, we sure laughed a lot!

Marissa looks so darling!

The Heimlich Train was cool, because the ride incorporated all of our senses - 

--we could smell all of the yummy and weird smells -- we felt very small with the gigantic props 

-- we even got dripped on by the watermelon slice!  Then we were off to ride Flik's Flyers which were made of left over food containers tied together with sticks and flew with "balloon" leaves stitched together ... so clever!

Uuuuuhhhh - another go up high ride ... so Marissa panicked!  :)

But - it ended up not being so bad after all  and we all enjoyed the cute and clever sights from the perspective of bugs!

I sat on this ingeniously made bench!

Francis' Ladybug Boogie:

Tyler and his girls - 

The Little Mermaid ride just opened this year - and it was adorable!

 

Oh yeah, baby - check out our scores on Toy Story Mania the second time we played!  (Our scores got better every time!  I think I ended up with 198,000 in the end ... with like 18% accuracy.  haha)

Yeah - I beat Marissa this time!!

This pretty much sums up the end of every day ---

We kept SO busy and had the best time EVER!