We set off for sunny California this past week because Bryson is off track and we thought Disneyland would be a fun place to celebrate his 7th birthday.
Bryson has been DYING to go to the Jedi Training Academy in Disneyland ever since he first heard about it. Since that's pretty much the main reason we chose Disneyland, I'll tell you all about it first.
Actually, I'll just let this video of the experience do the talking (the scream you hear at the end is Mommy Kim getting the daylights scared out of her by Darth Maul)...
Not everyone gets picked, so we were excited that Bryson was. He pretty much thought it was the coolest thing ever and he was excited he got to fight Darth Maul.
He also got to create his own light saber, which he thought was just as cool as fighting Darth Maul.
And he created his own droid. He picked an Indiana Jones hat for his droid (because he loved the Indiana Jones ride) and named it "Indiana Droid R7526."
Okay, now that I've gotten the most important part of the trip out of the way, let's rewind a bit.
We decided to road trip it to California and had a great drive. Mike always makes the time pass fast because he is a very entertaining driver. At one point I glanced over and found him casually wearing three pairs of sunglasses. I'm not sure he could even see, but it's just one of the many silly things he did to make the trip fun.
Rather than driving the whole way in one day, we stopped in Vegas for the night. We walked up and down the strip and that was quite the cultural experience--enough said. We especially loved watching the fountain at the Bellagio Hotel and visiting the M&M store.
Disneyland was a blast. It was just as magical as I remember.
Mommy Kim was already planning on spending her Spring break in California so we invited her to Disneyland with us. We always love spending time with her.
Bryson loved all of the rides except Mickey's Fun Wheel (the giant Ferris Wheel in the pic above & below). For some reason he especially hated that one. He was tall enough to ride on every ride except California Screamin' (the roller coaster in the pic below).
But that didn't stop Mommy Kim and I from enjoying it! We loved that ride...yeah buddy!
Here's a short clip of Mike and Bryson on two of the kiddie rides...
Bryson's favorite ride was the Tower of Terror. I hated that ride with a passion but he made me go on it TWICE! He thought it was so funny but I was not at all happy about it.
Mike and Bryson about to get on.
Here's a shot of us on the ride (not quite sure what Mike is doing).
Toontown was brand new the last time I was at Disneyland almost 25 years ago (sheesh, I'm getting old!). It was fun to show it to Bryson.
Innoventions was cool. Bryson got to virtually pretend he was Iron Man.
We also learned about Honda's most advanced humanoid robot
Asimo. He can walk up and down stairs and even run. It was pretty amazing to watch.
There was a lot of line waiting, but we made the best of it and found ways to make it fun...
On the super fun Cars ride...
Bryson loved the parades and we had a fabulous time.
We broke up our three days of Disneyland with a day at the beach. We went to Huntington beach and it was so beautiful and relaxing.
Of course we had to follow tradition and bury Bryson in the sand.
Mike was feeling left out so we buried him too.
We rented a four man bicycle cruiser thing and enjoyed riding up and down the beach.
Bryson's school teacher, who is very aware of Bryson's love of Lego's, told us there was a Lego store at Downtown Disney, so of course we had to check it out. Bryson bought himself a little Lego set which kept him busy back at the hotel.
On the way home we detoured through Mesa, Arizona so we could visit some of Mike's family who lives down there. We got there just in time to see Mike's niece Grace in her school play. She was so cute and did such a great job.
Bryson loved hanging out with his cousins Audrey, Jenna & Claire. They loved chasing him around and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed all of the girl attention he got.
We stopped by to visit Mike's sweet Grammy Miller.
And we also got to spend time with his Grandad and Grandma Jones. He is so sweet with his grandparents and loves them so much.
As you can tell from the pics above, we left our little Lilly at home. Her aunt Cali & cousin Oakland watched her and she had such a great time. They played dress up, painted their nails, fixed their hair, played Barbies and danced all week long!
Cali texted us the cutest pics of Lilly all throughout the week. We loved getting her cute updates.
We missed Lilly SOOOO much and couldn't wait to see her by the end of the week. Here's a video of her seeing us for the first time in eight days. I was so happy she still remembered us. Thank you so much Josh & Cali for watching her!
Favorite quote this week:
"Being rich isn't about how much you have, but it's about how much you can give."
Life rules!
