The Cates Family: Disneyland!

We decided to take a last minute trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago. We had a $400 flight voucher from Dave volunteering to be bumped from one of his work flights (which totally worked in his favor!), a free place to stay at Rebe's in Irvine, and Dave got a new job (yeah!) so he had a few days off between jobs. It also worked out great because it was just a few days before Brady's 2nd birthday, so he could fly one last time for free. It was pretty much a "Why wouldn't we go?" situation.

We left Wednesday afternoon and flew into the Orange County airport. We were in the very back of the plane and ended up having the whole row to ourselves, so that was nice. Brady immediately fell in love with Rebe's house because she had a ball popper with 3 times the amount of balls his had.

The first night ended up being a disaster. We put Brady to sleep on Rebe and Tyler's bed at about 6:30, then moved him to a pack and play in the front room. About 11:30, Brady woke up and was wide awake. We tried everything to get him down again, but nothing worked. We tried watching Toy Story hoping it would make him drowsy, but even though he's never watched more than 10 minutes of a movie, he watched the whole thing. I tried swaying him in the bathroom with the fan on where it was pitch black for almost an hour, we read a few stories to him, Dave took him for a drive, but nothing worked. Part of the problem is there was nowhere to contain him and he would climb out of the pack and play within 3 seconds of being put in. Finally FOUR hours later, we moved the pack and play to the bathroom and just shut him in there. It was so dark, that I think he didn't dare try and get out and eventually went back to sleep. Let me tell you though, Disneyland sure doesn't sound appealing at 3:00 am when you've been awake for 3 hours with with a little crazy!

Brady slept in until a decent hour, which was a relief and we got out the door as soon as we could. It was less than a 20 minute drive and we didn't hit any traffic. We spent the day at California Adventure Park. Brady figured out rides pretty quick that you wait in a line, get on something, look at some things, then get off. He had a fun time. It luckily wasn't too busy and we got on most the rides in 10 minutes or less. He loved meeting Buzz Lightyear, but his least favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters. A little too much for him.

The weather was supposed to be rainy most of the day, but it only sprinkled for a few minutes. It was totally fine, and I think it kept some people away.

Because of signs like this:

Dave went on lots of the fun rides by himself. It worked out fine with Brady there with us, but I would have loved to ride some of those roller coasters with him! Here's some pictures of our day at California Adventure:

On a couple rides in Bugs Life Land.

He said more after going on this ride!

In front of Mater's ride in Cars Land

He was very concerned that some of the lightbulbs on the Carousel were burned out. (He has an obsession with lights!)

Brady's favorite thing at California Adventure was the Wilderness Adventure Park because he was able to just run. Sad this picture is so blurry!

We went into Disneyland for a few hours that day. Brady finally fell asleep in the stroller for a bit. Autopia was the last ride Brady and Dave did there. It was a little disastrous and the lady stopped Dave in the car and told him Brady had to sit down, which he had been trying to do the entire time. We left after that since Brady had just had it at that point.

That night, we started with Brady in the pack and play in the bathroom, so the night went much smoother!

Rebe, Tyler, and Bridgette came with us to Disneyland the next day. It was lots of fun having them there! I'm glad Dave had someone to go on the fun rides with. I thought the comparison with how much fun he looks like he's having by himself vs. with someone was funny!

By himself on a ride at California Adventure

Way more fun to ride with someone, even if that someone has freaky eyes!

When we first got there, Rebe went to redeem her Southern California season pass while the rest of us went into the park. When she called to find out where we were, we told her to meet us at the castle. She asked "What castle?" You can tell our family didn't spend much time at Disneyland growing up!

We started with the kiddie rides. Brady wanted to ride the carousel over and over, but had fun on the other rides. Rebe and I took the babies on other rides while the boys went and did some of the bigger ones.