Mickey Park

On Monday of this week Ace, Grammie, Aunt Shelley, and myself ventured off to Mickey Park (or more commonly referred to as Disneyland and CA Adventure.) Ace awoke bright and early a little after 7 and said 'I see whales!' ... hehe while we are planning to venture to Sea World next week ... nope *today* we get to see Mickey! Oh boy did that get him jumping out of bed.

We arrived and went into CA Adventure first and got my mom her season pass figured out. Then we headed to wander around. Ace really wanted to 'run around' but we had to find a 'contained' area to do that in. That's easier said than done :) We headed over to A Bug's World and got in line for Ace's first ride of the day. It was a new one for him (since it was his ... and Grammie's first time in CA Adventure.) He loved it so much he didn't want to get off the ride when it was time to go. He quickly recovered from his protest and we continued to wander around - oh and I got a craving for cotton candy. Yum! So we made a stop and I got some. Ace enjoyed eating some as well.

We then collected our purchased 'picnic lunches' which also reserved us a seat for the World of Color show at 8:15pm - and ate an early lunch with those. Ace had a great time playing with Shelley's reflective sunglasses that he could see himself in - and then of course requestingn to ride on her shoulders - which she happily entertained. We walked around the park on our way to see Mater and Lightening McQueen!

After a somewhat skiddish and hesitant visit with the 'life size' Cars pals we headed on into Disneyland! First stop was of course the Mad Hatter store. I was hopeful since it was roughly 1pm that perhaps Ace would fall asleep as we strolled around the park - but he wasn't too interested in that so after the mad hatter store we headed to Toon Town! Ace had a good time running through Mickey's house and said he wanted to meet Mickey - which he did until the minute it was our turn. :) He cautiously observed as mom giving Mickey a hug and we took our pictures.


After that we attempted another long stroll for a nap - which did not happen - we went to find some rides to go on! Buzz and Nemo, Ace is a seasoned pro on (he's been to Disenyland twice before.) So we started with those. He enjoyed them both - and then we decided to try out a new one (for him): Autopia! He had a good time getting driven around and even helping with the steering wheel some. Ace did great (for 99%) of the waiting in line process, and even at times entertained himself by 'styling' Aunt Shelley's hair.

Next up was a ride on the train which we took from Tomorrow Land - over to New Oreleans :) which meant we got to 'go through' the Grand Canyon and Dinosaur Times! Ace enjoyed the brief stop at both of those and then it was onto Pirates and the Jungle Cruise (a favorite of Ace's.) next on the list after that was dinner time! Headed back to Tomorrow Land - where they have the chicken nuggets for the boy - and enjoyed some dinner - followed by some good dancing around by the boy... which was good since we were about to head back to CA Adventure to wait for quite a while for the World of Color show to start. Before heading over - I changed the boy into his pjs and then we were off!

Ace did great waiting for the show to start - he remained in his stroller (since our space was excessively limited) and played with his 'toy' that he had gotten in his World of Color picnic meal. Had fun with that and playing around with Shelley. When it was time for the show to start he got to get up on Aunt Shelley's shoulders so he could see. Which is good - since he's about the only one that could. I could see because I used my camera above my head and tilted the screen down - but unless you're in the 'front row' your full view is obscured. They need to come up with better seating arrangements. From what I could see it was GREAT!

 Ace had a BLAST - seriously loved the whole thing - screaming out the colors he saw or saying 'boom' for different 'scenes' :) He was happy and awake through the whole thing - but as soon as it was over - as you can see in the final picture of the 4 of us - he was on his way out. He finally crashed at 9pm as we were walking out of the park.

He remained asleep even on the tram - was awake once we put him in the car for a little bit - but then was out even as we took his car seat out of the car and brought him in the house. Then even after that the stripping off his flannel pjs (much hotter at Grammie's than outside at Disneyland) and placing him in bed. He had a great day at Mickey park!