Parsons 411: Disney

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

We love visitors!

It's been almost a year to the day that we've lived here now in San Diego.

I've said it before, but one of the perks about living here is that people actually WANT to come and visit you. I mean, I would hope that the appeal of spending quality time with the Parsons would be enough to tempt those friends to get on a flight with kids, but who am I kidding?

It helps to have things like the beach, Sea World, a really cool zoo, Legoland, & Disney on our side.

Last week, our old neighbors, The Kemmerly's came out for a long weekend.

We squeezed a whole lot in just a short amount of time.

I borrowed some of these pictures from Kurt, and love that he shared them...especially this one.

Doesn't this face just say, "stinker"....I mean, cute stinker of course.

I almost peed my pants when I saw this one.

What is Miss Sass doing?

Holy cow this girl...

Addison had an absolute blast hanging out with Margeaux for four days.

Another way to see the zoo....

This helps, since we have seen it 15 times since we've been here.

I kid you not. We have more than gotten our money out of our annual pass.

Then on Sunday we headed off to Disneyland.

It was so fun seeing the whole place decked out for Halloween.

Not so fun dealing with "fall break" crowds.

The Kemmerly's treated us to Breakfast with Minnie, which was so fun.

Addison was all about seeing the characters.

Graham wasn't so sure....

I mean, to the guy's credit, I've never introduced him to Winnie the Pooh, so for all her knew this was just a really tall creepy yellow bear who didn't talk.

Dale from Chip n Dale played a little hide & seek, and Graham started to warm up.

Addison really enjoyed Minnie. When we went last year for her birthday, she honestly didn't even know who Minnie or Mickey were.

But we've racked up a lot of hours of Mickey Mouse clubhouse since then,

so she was well prepared.

We plowed through naptime.

another "celebrity" sighting

spent some time at California Adventure

and while not the most natural smile, we're working on it.

Instead of her saying "cheese", she is now just "showing me her teeth"

Whatever works.

Graham was a little overwhelmed by Buzz, but at the same time probably trying to figure out which button to push to get him to actually speak.

and then for the real celebrity sighting.

Graham is OBSESSED with Cars.

They are building a "Cars Land" at Disney, but it won't be ready until next summer.

He just saw the sign and went ballistic.

I don't know how we'll ever get him out of the park when it does open.

Since his birthday party this year is going to be cars themed, I though I could maybe snap a quick pic for his invitation.

The bottom picture is what I got when I asked Andy to help me "situate" him.

and looks like I'll still be working on that invite....

riding the Nemo submarine

we had split up with the Kemmerly's the majority of the day so they could do everything on their list. One was visiting the Bippity Boppity Boutique, where Miss Margeaux got made over into Sleeping Beauty. When we met up with them on the bus back to the parking lot, Addison was in awe and just kept telling Margeaux how beautiful she looked. So cute!

We had such a great time with Kurt, Trina & Margeaux.

October is the month for company. Andy's parents got here last Thursday and will be here through Saturday and then my mom comes on Sunday!

We are so thankful that our family is willing to travel....

not just because we miss them so much but more importantly, our kids LOVE getting to spend extended time with their grandparents.

AND.....

those wonderful grandparents were willing to keep our kids for three days so that Andy and I could get away and spend some much needed time with each other.

It was amazing....post to come soon!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Happiest Place on Earth

Addison's birthday is coming up on Saturday.

I usually LOVE throwing a party. I'm one of those people.

But seeing as how we're just finally starting to settle in a build friendships, I didn't want to beg our new friends to come to my 3 year old's birthday party.

That, and I wanted to go to Disneyland.

So we planned a weekend at Disneyland.

Addison has been so excited, talking for weeks about having breakfast with the princesses for her birthday. Our plan was to drive up Sunday morning, spend the night in a hotel, play all day Monday and come back that night.

Well, Saturday morning she woke up with 104 fever.

We took her to the doctor to see if we could get an antibiotic or something and we heard the dreaded words, "just let it run it's course."

So, what is a responsible parent to do?

I don't know.

You'll have to ask them.

We took her to Disneyland.

Oh, and we took him too.

Front car in the monorail....

"We're going to Disneyland for my birthday!"

Well, unbeknownst to me when we planned this little trip,

California's spring breaks fall in April.

Surprise!

The Happiest place on Earth is not so happy when you have to wait 45 minutes or longer to ride a ride......with toddlers.

Like toddler rides, not even cool rides.

So we headed to "It's a Small World" after the tea cups.

The line looked a little scary, but wasn't so bad.

One of many diaper checks.

Feeling happy!

Graham was mesmerized.

Forgive the poor phone camera shot.

Then it was off to princess storytelling.

So we had been in the park 3 hours and had ridden teacups, small world, and a story.

They don't make fast passes for the kiddie rides.

Andy was antsy for a "real ride".

He wanted to take Addison on her first roller coaster.

Space mountain, it wasn't.

This is Addison & dad waiting in the 45 minute line.

Graham and I escaped to toon town, and a diet coke and chocolate chip cookie later, we were doing ok.

Yes, he got them too, don't judge.

After an hour, we went back to find that Addison and Andy had just made it on the ride.

that lasted 19 seconds, I'm not even kidding you.

She said she had fun though she looks a little unsure here.

So 3 1/2 rides down, it was about naptime.

I had such high hopes for our trip, that I had mapped out a whole itinerary for the rides we could take the kids on and the "can't miss opportunities".

Silly me.

I think I assumed that we would have the whole park to ourselves or something.

After each ride, Addison would say, "Ok, now I want to go to Disneyland!"

Um, this is Disneyland.

Oh.

Graham was so far gone past nap at this point.

More lines for Toy Story......

Trying to distract, control, and pass the time in the 45 minute line.

But then.......

Addison was VERY excited to see Tinkerbell.

Dad & Graham took off across the park to get our tickets for World of Color.

So we had a little girl time.

We waited about 30 minutes, which wasn't too bad.

She was in awe. I mean this is the girl who watches all 3 Tinkerbell movies relentlessly.

And then it was time!

And she was frozen.

But eventually, she gave Silvermist a timid hug.

No words.

Starstruck.

And off to the carousel after riding Peter Pan, which Addison loved!

Graham was such a big boy, riding all by himself!

Finally, at 4:30 we thought we should head back to the hotel for a quick nap.

Addison was in HEAVEN. We could have just taken her to the hotel and that would have been enough. She talked on the phone non-stop.

I have the video in another post, but she would pick it up and say,

"Yes, this is Mewissa....I'm checking in. Yes, just a minute."

We put Graham down for a nap in the pack n' play (in the bathroom) and I caught an episode of Sister Wives.

What is it with that show? It fascinates me.

The beds were so cool in our room.

The headboards has the castle carved into it and the fireworks would light up while it played music for you to fall asleep to.

But Addison wasn't up for sleeping.

Ready for Round 2.

We headed back to California Adventure that night for the MOST UNBELIEVABLE SHOW I have even seen. If you make it to Disneyland, you must see World of Color. Click on the link to see a little bit of it....it's amazing!!!~!

Ok, so let's take a moment to talk about after the show.

Andy decides that he would LOVE to go ride some roller coasters.

Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, here he comes!

I meanwhile, took our two EXHAUSTED kids back to the hotel.

It was 10:30....no nap and sick kid, remember?

Addison actually begged to get into bed and go to sleep, which was great because I wasn't sure how it was going to go sleeping in the same room as her.

While I was putting Graham down in the bathroom, I hear her talking on the phone.

She is carrying on a full on conversation.

Checking into the hotel again, then telling whoever is on the other end that she has to go to bed now.

I'm thinking, "Oh, that's so funny & cute...."

Until I hear another voice on the other end of the phone.

I just grabbed the phone from her, hung up and said, "NO more phone!"

Bedtime.

We are crawling into bed, and the phone rings.

I answer and they say,

"This is hotel security. It has been reported that 911 was called from this room. Is everything ok?"

O.M.G.

After apologizing for my lack of parenting, I quickly hung up and called Andy who laughed and told me about all the roller coasters he was riding.

The next morning we headed to Ariel's Grotto for breakfast with the princesses.

This was the big event we had been talking up.

Our birthday girl was pathetically sick.

But I mean, we had to go, right?

Meeting Ariel. By the way, this is the photo that they tried to sell us for $36.95.

I am not even kidding. Taken by a "professional" photog.

I just laughed at the waitress, before returning it, but not before taking a picture of the picture.

The food, Part 1.

Somebody was happy! I mean, there was food, so of course he was happy.

And then the princesses made their entrance!

They each came to every table and I think Addison was a little starstruck.

It was so cute.

Birthday brownie.

Sleeping beauty was her favorite.

But I thought Cinderella and Belle were both precious. They took so much time with her.

"I'm gonna be free years old."

She wouldn't smile, but she just took Cinderella's gloves and wrapped them around her.

This one made me laugh because you know they are trained to just keep a plastered smile for pics....even when little brother wants to run in on the action.