We went to Disneyland this past weekend before our annual passes expired (only to find out Mike's had expired the day before) and to be there for my dad's "Disneyland Challenge". We didn't participate in the challenge because there was no way we'd get anything done with the two boys by ourselves. But we did have fun riding the kiddie rides with the boys (we enjoyed it a lot, partly because we went 2 weeks ago for my b-day and got to ride all the big kid rides by ourselves!) and seeing their reactions to all the excitement. All week Connor had been asking in the mornings, "Are we going to Disneyland today? Let's go find Buzz Lightyear!" and I had a countdown going every morning until I could finally say, "YES! Let's get ready to go!" So, the first ride we went on was Buzz Lightyear! Connor got super shy and awkward when he first saw Buzz when waiting in line and he had a blast shooting the gun!
There weren't many rides Connor liked. His favorites were Buzz Lightyear and the Toy Story Mania. Here he is on the teacups looking at my mom. He wasn't so sure about this one. He hardly smiled the whole ride and he kept looking at all of us like, "Why are we on this?" Jakie or course loved every second. There wasn't a ride he didn't like!
I love Jake's cute little grin before he shows you his buckteeth!
Here's Connor's other favorite ride, Autopia. The whole time we were in line he kept trying to push past people and cut to get up front. He just didn't understand why we didn't get to get on the cars NOW! He was so excited he FINALLY got to drive a car by himself!
Jake with Grandma waiting till we got off the ride
Connor was so excited to get his first license! Of course he had no idea what we were talking about, his smile is so big because we're finally getting closer to the cars!
This is the first picture of him where I can see some bits of him that look like me! I usually call him my mini-Mike!
Posing in front of the pumpkin! When we got there Connor kept saying, "Momma! Momma! Look at that pumpkin! Oh! Look at that pumpkin!" But when he saw this one he was speechless.....for once.
We couldn't get Jake to turn his head around because we were facing the sun. Plus he kept watching the people behind us. I'm glad we got a couple good pictures where everyone is smiling and facing the camera this trip!
This is riding Peter Pan. Connor liked this one because that's one of his new favorite Disney movies. He doesn't really watch Nemo, Cars, Incredibles, etc anymore. He's into the older ones now like Peter Pan, the Aristocats, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, etc. I love watching those with him and having total dejavu!
This is riding It's A Small World BEFORE the ride. No one was smiling after the ride. As soon as we were outside Mike turned to me and said, "I think I just got stupider after riding that one" and then a minute later Connor turned to me and said, "I don't like that ride". I died laughing, me and Jake enjoyed it! The whole time he danced to the music and looked around!
Connor didn't like this ride either. I think he smiled twice. He's such a funny little boy. I think when you just leave him alone and let him soak in everything instead of constantly looking at him and saying, "Isn't this fun! Isn't this so cool? Do you like this? Are you having fun?" he likes things a lot better. I noticed when Mike just sat back and let him observe without us saying anything, he was a lot happier. At least I'm figuring out one thing with this kid! He's as complex as his father and mother together!
These guys were in California Adventure Park and were the army guys from Toy Story. They looked so strange because they were covered in green paint and had these vinyl looking uniforms on. They had to be so hot!
Last year we got a picture of Connor on the C. I wanted to get one this year to compare the two, but Connor finally fell asleep right before we took this picture. Till Jake hit him with the water bottle 5 minutes later.
And here are my sweet angels before we even got on the freeway! Connor took 2 bites of his doughnut and fell asleep with it on his thumb. Jake fought it longer and squealed and screamed at Mike and I a little longer and then suddenly conked out.
We won't be back to Disneyland for a couple years, so it was fun to get in our last little "Hoorah!" and have some fun family time there! What a blast it was! Although Connor was still 1/2" too short for the rides, he'll be able to ride them next time and probably not get scared.
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