Our Little Corner of the World: March 2011

Draft 2, after blogger deleted the first *sigh*.

So after planning our 2 week trip to Arizona for the second half of February, Gary had the idea of doing another family trip to Disneyland. Mom and Gary had taken all of us kids and JJ three years ago when James was just one and a half. We extended our trip and my brother Joe and his wife Lauren made plans to join us. Dan cashed in some frequent flier miles to join us for 2 of the 3 days.

On Wednesday, we all flew together to LA. My kids thought it was so novel to be on a plane with Nana and James even got to sit in a window seat, which he usually never gets to since Ruth's car seat has to be at a window and I won't let him sit in a different row.

Our first stop was my Grandma Carla's house. It was so good to see her, and the kids loved running laps around her house. Her friend and housemate, Linda made us a delicious dinner before we headed to the hotel.

At the hotel we were greeted with yummy Micky rice Krispie treats. So good! Ruth woke up about ever 1-2 hours that whole night. I have no idea what the problem was, but it definitely made for a tired first day at Disney!

Our first day, we spent mostly doing the little kid rides at Fantasy Land and Toon Town. Ruth was a little intimidated by a lot of the Fantasy Land rides. Looking at it from her perspective, we put her in a car with a metal bar over her lap then rode into a dark place with bright lights flashing and loud noises. She kept asking how and when we were going to get out, which makes sense since she had no experience to tell her how long the craziness would last. I think she is just the right age to question the situation, but not quite old enough to understand or appreciate the explanation.

Because it was a Thursday, the park closed early that day. We went back to the hotel just in time for Dan to arrive, and later Joe. We were all excited to see Dan after a 2.5 week separation. Ruth was especially effusive in her excitement, holding onto his face and saying "Daddy" over and over again with lots of hugs and kisses. It was very sweet.

Friday we started at an early Toon Town production especially for park hotel guests and then stayed to greet the characters. Nana had bought James an autograph book for the characters to sign, and he was on a mission to complete that task! Ruth was adamant that she did NOT want to hug Goofy, only Mickey and Minnie. She was eventually convinced to pet Pluto, once Nana compared him to her dog Kattie. We also spent some time in California Adventure on Friday.

I went on Grizzly River Run, without realizing it was one of the ones not recommended for pregnant women. It was one of my favorite rides of the trip...probably because the other fast ones were banned. James loved the ride as well. We were all planning to go on California Soarin', but the line was rather long compared to the other rides that day so everyone decided to come back on Saturday. James was so disappointed, that Dan and I decided to send Ruth along with everyone else (she was too short for the ride) and take James on Soarin. After 45 minutes of patient excitement, we were about to get on the ride, and James' questions led him to realize that we were not actually going on a real plane over California! His face totally fell. It was a sad, but hilarious moment. Fortunately, he loved the ride anyway and, for those of you who have been on it, could not get over how sure he was that the golf ball was going to hit him!

Friday night, I took Ruth back to go to bed after a late and delicious dinner of clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. James stayed out with Dan to go on a few extra rides. Pirates of the Caribbean was one of James' favorites. He had gone on it Thursday night and actually enjoyed the unexpected drops, which was a turning point for him in the trip as far as not being afraid of more exciting rides.

After James was asleep, Gary stayed to watch the kids and we went back to the park. Mainly, Joe and I were on a mission to get ice cream. I love going to the place on Main Street. Then we saw Captain Eo, which is the most absurd thing I have ever watched. Really. I was so exhausted by that time that I decided to go back and let the rest of the adults go on big kid rides without feeling guilty. My mom, Joe, Dan, and Lauren (I think) stayed to go on a few more rides.

On Saturday, we took pictures by the castle first thing, then spent a lot of time doing the "big kid" rides. I took the stroller around getting fast passes for the other riders and hanging out in line with them since I couldn't go. I also took Ruth on "It's a Small World" for the third time! We spent some more time in CA adventure, including lots of water rides and play areas. It was pretty warm! While everyone went on the big Ferris wheel, Dan and I took Ruthie on a small carousel over and over again. Finally something she wasn't scared of. Then Dan found some front of the line passes to a Toy Story ride that had an enormously long line. Ruth was in hysterics, not wanting to get on, and it took her half the ride to calm down, even though it was light and slow. When we got out, she said something like, "We never went up and down". She had told us that she did not want to go on the big roller coaster in CA Adventure, and when I asked she confirmed that she had thought we were going on that one. Not sure if she actually had, but her fear definitely seemed proportionate!

After that, we all went back to the hotel and put the kids to bed. Joe and Lauren, Mike and Linda, and Dan and I went out to dinner at a restaurant in Downtown Disney and then went back to the park. We went on the Jungle Cruise and a few other rides before we got kicked out at the park closing. We even got more ice cream on the way out :) Yes, I gained weight on this trip beyond pregnancy!

Sunday morning, we packed up and headed for the airport. Dan headed back to New York, Mom, Gary, and Mike went to AZ, and the rest of us went to San Fransisco to meet up with my dad. We visited my Grandpa Joe in the hospital and got to introduce Joseph Jeppson VII to Joseph IV. We took pictures of all 4 generations together. Then we got to visit my grandma Ruth nearby, who had never met my Ruth in person. Monday we spent the day in San Fransisco. We rode the Trolley, walked to Fisherman's Wharf, saw the Sea Lions, ate clam chowder in sourdough bowls, had ice cream at Ghiradelli Square, then headed back to the hotel. Tuesday was an early morning followed by long flights back to NY. Fortunately, my short layover was not a problem and we made it to Buffalo safely and on time. It felt great to be home! The kids were actually really good on the flights too. That's not to say they never gave other passengers reason to complain, if they were grumpy people, but overall I did not feel overly stressed or frustrated and even got a 45 minute nap--success!

Thanks Mom and Gary for such a fun trip! And here are a lot of my photos.

Ethan loved meeting the characters, especially Mickey.

These castle picks are not condensed, so they'll probably look pretty bad on the screen. I bet if you click it will look better.

These are the shirts I made, by the way

Mom, Gary, Susan, and Angelina

The whole gang! This is a weird dimension because I had to add in the top of the castle.

Lauren, Joe VI, and VII

Nana and Papa and their troops

My kiddos in the adorable shirts Lauren made. Ruth's even has a little ruffle sewn on the bottom. At one point on the trip, I had sent Dan back to the park to get the stroller and meet us in CA adventure. When we met up, he had grabbed the wrong stroller! It looked similar, just less rusty and with the sun shades on. Oops! I did the swap the next time!

watching the exciting show at toon town. Isn't 7 a riot?

They LOVED the carousel!

love the finding Nemo ride

waiting for the monorail, another favorite "ride"

Making good on her assertion that she would only hug Mickey and Minnie.

and daddy, of course. She was very attached to him all weekend after missing him so much.

Ethan really loves Nemo.

We went to a character lunch at one of the hotels. James loved getting more autographs and Ruthie reminded us with every character that came by that she, "does not want to hug that one". At one point Snow White came up behind Ruthie and was playing with her pigtails. Ruth was all smiley and then turned around and saw who it was and immediately clammed up.

James is our little dancer and it was awesome watching him groove with Donald.

all the kids got in on it eventually

Aunt Lauren subbing in since I am not allowed on bumper cars.

Uncle Joe being fun.

Uncle Joe drew a mustache on James finger.

Staying together. James got separated from us for a minute once, but he did exactly what we'd talked about and stayed right where we had been separated. Good kid!

Ruth's favorite game with Daddy "got your ears" "got your nose" "got your eyes".

did I mention she was happy to have Daddy back? When we separated on Sunday, it took awhile for her to be willing to give him a hug because she didn't want him to leave.

Dan remembers getting a big kick out of this Bug's Life ride last time. I think he was a little disappointed this year.

I should edit this one some, I like it.

riding in front of the monorail

Can you believe Ruth is big enough for the Matterhorn? She went twice. She was excited to get in line, objected to getting in the car, but then said she liked it at the end. James liked it! He was a great age. Everyone should be 42" when they go to Disney so they can go on most the rides.

Awwww....

cooling down

Nana took Ruth on this while I took James on his favorite ride: the Buzz LightYear laser shooting game!

Dan and I took Ethan at one point. He got mad at us for putting him in the stroller instead of waiting for him to do it himself. This was his tantrum, laying on the ground silently with his head down (well, I guess in this one he had picked it up for a minute). Ruthie was not impressed. She must be thinking that she has some serious tantrum effectiveness strategies to teach him!

Pics from Thursday. From a different camera.

Can you feel the excitement?

with the shirts Linda made and the ID wristbands I made.

and the exhaustion?

First night was above. They woke up in the night fighting over the covers, so I had them sleep the other direction the other nights. They liked falling asleep watching the Disney Princesses telling bedtime stories on the hotel TV.

She still wasn't champion sleeper, but she did much better than the first night. I even got her to nap in the stroller at the park. Sometimes it took purposefully walking her in bright sunlight so she'd close her eyes, then I'd put a shad over her.

a few stories I forgot:

When in the Tarzan treehouse, Ruthie stopped in her tracks at the fake Jaguar growling from the treetop. She would not walk past until I told her it was pretend. Then she very seriously said, "He's trying to scare me!".

In Pirates, Ruth would click her heels at every dark part to make her shoes light up. Then she'd say, "now we can see". She really did not like that ride. Too dark and long.

Joe IV, V, VI, and VII!!

We also got to see my Aunt Diane and my Uncle Dave there! Uncle Dave successfully freaked out both my kids. He kept giving Ruth the evil eye, which she is used to dishing out, not taking. And when we first got there, Dave picked James up from behind and started walking away with him before even introducing himself. Amazingly, James ended up really liking him by the end :)

Ruth and Ruth. Ruthie was so tired and so done with posing with people, that it was really difficult to get her to sit with Grandma! In fact, in this picture she is on Aunt Linda's lap with Linda leaning out!