Cali Highights - 2

Disneyland!!
We were treated by the in-laws to a trip to Disneyland!! (2 actually. I'll save that one for later). We stayed in a super sweet hotel for two nights: Embassy Suites. Max did surprisingly well sleeping in the hotel; since we had a king bed, he slept with us (which I hate because I can't sleep with anyone touching me, but the bed was so huge, Max never touched me or Bryan!). It did have a coi pond/stream though and every chance he got, he tried to jump right into the water.

 First ride of the day: the tram!

 On the tractor ride.

Max basically hated every single ride EXCEPT for the same one he loved last year: Mater's Junkyard Jamboree at California Adventure. He rode it SEVEN TIMES total!!! He asked for it again and again and again. I think he rode it once in the morning and then six times at night while Bryan and I switched off to ride something else.

They have AWESOME toddler level drinking fountains that I would never have noticed before Max.

We ate lunch at Ariel's Grotto, where each of the princesses comes by your table to chat and take pictures. I took a picture with Belle and felt so embarrassed! I felt like a little kid and she was so sweet and treated me like any other fan. She asked me my name and showed me how to pose "just like a princess" and I was blushing so hard! We were seated right by the water and Max enjoyed feeding the ducks. The kid's dessert was so cute: a cookie, a cupcake and strawberry milk.

We headed over to Disneyland and took Max to Tom Sawyer's island, thinking he as going to fall asleep pretty quickly after. When we thought he had, Bryan and I headed over to ride the Matterhorn, which ended up closing down on us halfway through the line for 45 minutes so we decided to come back later. When we got back to Max, thinking he would be awake by then, it turned out he had JUST finally cried himself to sleep. At east he enjoyed the parade in the meantime. He tried watching the parade as we passed it later that evening too, but we didn't stop for him. Bryan and I are always very ride driven when we go to Disneyland and consider anything else to be a waste of time, but as I'm writing this blog, I'm thinking that seriously needs to change. Max hated most of the rides, but love the parade when he watched it with his grandparents. Okay, okay, lesson learned. So anyway, we ventured back to the Matterhorn. Max only slept for a half an hour and was crying and crying a very panicky cry because we weren't there, worrying his Grandma Jones so much! Poor baby.

 He loves ducks!

 Matterhorn!

Max being cuddly (and tearful) after we reunited.

We tried taking Max through Mickey's house to meet Mickey Mouse, which I hoped he would like, but basically knew he wouldn't so I don't know why I even tried. He enjoyed most of the house while we waited in line, but started freaking out when it got more claustrophobic, so we had to leave before seeing Mickey. Max loved running around Toontown though so I guess that's good! Oooooh, except, poor poor kid, we were with the Grandparents and Bryan's brother's family, and everyone got fastpasses for Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. Well, not wanting to waste the fastpasses, we took Max on it and I KNEW he wouldn't like it, but thought maybe, possibly he could? HE HATED IT!!!! He hated it soooooo much!!! I felt so bad!! I have to start listening to my instincts more and not make him do things that I basically know he won't like, just because I wish he would.

Papa Jones got Max an awesome balloon inside a balloon that Bryan managed to put a whole in the next day. We slowed it down with some tape, but it didn't last much too long after that...At least he still had his other awesome Papa Jones present to keep him happy (train)! Also, Max never really knew who Mickey and his friends were before going down to California because we don't have cable and he doesn't like to watch movies. Thanks to his Papa though, always pointing Mickey out to him and asking Max where's Mickey, now he always asks us to pick him up so he can point to Mickey in a picture on the wall and he loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!