Disneyland!

I just realized this never published when I wrote it a month ago*

About a month ago, Joel and i made an impulse decision to take a trip to Disneyland. We went on the trip with low expectations. We didn't want to push Ben to do too much, so we were just going to go with the flow and do what Ben wanted to do. I was so excited to just spend a few days with my little family and spoil Ben!

Ben knew in advance that we were going. In the weeks leading up to it, we would tell him who we might see atDisneyland (Mickey mouse, buzz lightyear, etc).  He was realllllly concerned that the bad guys in any movie would also be there, so a lot of times he would tell us that he didn't want to go. 

On the morning of our trip, I woke him up and he sweetly got super excited. In his sleepy, sweet voice he said "we going to Disneyland? Today?" And then he jumped out of bed and we left for the airport. The lines at the airport were insane, but that was ok. It just meant less time waiting at the gate. We just had time to go potty before we boarded. The flight was a breeze and then we took a shuttle to the hotel. Ben chattered, sang and counted the entire way from the airport to the hotel. It was too early to check in so we just changed our clothes, put in sunscreen and left our bags at the front desk. It was super warm that day and Disneyland was super crowded. Our first ride was Pirates of the Carribean. The line was long but Ben was fine. He was a little crabby without a nap so we just did one more ride then went back to the hotel to check in and go swimming. We had dinner then went to bed. 

The next morning was extra magic morning, which gives just the guests of the Disney hotels the chance to get in early. We went to California adventure and raced ro radiator springs. It was like a stampede! Everyone was going to that ride!! There were tons of cast members just directing people into a line. I couldn't go on the ride, so Joel and Ben were whisked off with the crowd. For some reason I got all emotional seeing my little guy go off with a big crowd like that! Despite the crowd, the wait was short and Ben and Joel went on the ride twice before the big crowds came. We went on lots of little kid rides at DCA, but Ben's favorite was the splash pad. He spent 45 minutes chasing the water and "fighting" it. When the water would spray up, he would hit it. He'd run over occasionally and dry his eyes with tucker and blankies. For lunch, I ran to a corn dog stand while Ben was still splashing around. Ben won't touch hot dogs, so I just got one for Joel and I. But after Joel took one bite, Ben devoured the rest! This is probably only surprising tonjoel and I because we know how picky Ben is and how rare it is that he'll eat something outside of his standard foods. Guess he was hungry! The other funny thing about DCA was the Ferris wheel. The baskets are on their own swinging loops so as the wheel turns you unexpectedly go swinging backwards or forewords. It FREAKS ME OUT. I was screaming my head off, but Ben was just laughing and saying "what's wrong mommy? this is fun!!"  After that we watched the Disney junior show and then went to the hotel for a nap. After nap we went to Disneyland for a few rides and then had our one and only meltdown. The meltdown happened as we were rushing to our dinner reservations so we just threw him in the stroller and raced to dinner. In terms of Ben meltdowns, this one was super quick and mild. 

The character dinner was fun (although the food is terrible!). Ben liked meeting goofy but was unsure about the other characters. Chip pretended to take Ben's food, so he talked about that for the next few days. After dinner, Ben was hilariously overtired. He was running and singing and twirling and jumping and rolling on the floor of the hotel lobby. Soooo we went back to the hotel for bed. At bedtime, it's so sweet the way he chatters about his day and asks questions. He's really processing everything! As he was almost asleep, he popped up and said "we didn't see Mickey!"  

The next morning, I totally assumed he would sleep in...but nope! He was up at 545, which is even earlier Than usual. It was another early morning for guests of the hotels, so we set off! Ben didn't want to ride radiator springs again, but the rest of the guests did! So we pretty much walked on to all the other rides for an entire hour. At 8 we went to Disneyland. It was still pretty empty, so Joel took the chance to ride a few big kid rides by himself. Ben and Joel even rode Big Thunder Mountain! We had ridden Buzz Lightyear the day before and he loved it, so we rode it again this day, but Ben got really scared. He was terrified of Zorg and cried for the second half of the ride. Good thing Tucker was with us! For all rides, even if Ben loved the ride 99% of the time, if something scared him at all, his overall impression was that he didn't like the ride. So since Thunder Mountain had one loud boom, Ben didn't like the ride. Bummer. He did, however, love Autopia! I couldn't ride it, but Ben and Joel rode it a few times.

The picture below is him AFTER his nap on the last day. We didn't push Ben, but he just kept going and going, so we ended up staying for the last parade and got him a new toy (Monster Truck Mater! pic below)...then he still wanted to keep going so we saw Fantasmic. Yikes! I forgot how scary Fantasmic is! But, luckily, there were two little boys next to Ben and they all pretended to fight the bad guys. The other boys had a toy gun and were so sweet to show Ben how to use it. On our way out, we saw a bit of the fireworks, but he was starting to show his tiredness, so we rushed out to beat the crowds.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the airport. He was a champ on the plane ride home (we even got complimented by the people behind us. Gosh, people who compliment kids' good behavior suuuure know how to make a mom's heart swell!). In the days after the trip, we kept talking about the rides and Ben kept saying his favorite ride was the worms (there wasn't a ride with worms...) and then he told someone that his favorite ride was the one that brought him back to "Puyayup". My favorite part about the trip was just spending non-stop time with my favorite guys!! Another favorite thing is that Ben talked a lot about "fighting the scaries". Before he would go on a ride, he would ask if there were bad guys. Sometimes he would resist if there was any chance of a bad guy, but other times he would bravely announce that he was going to fight the scaries! It was so sweet!