Thanksgiving 2012

I really love Thanksgiving…
It’s a day full of eating food and hanging out with family, so what’s not to like?!

This was our first Thanksgiving back in AZ in 3 years and it also happened to be the Pleasant Lindsay Family Reunion.
Every other year, the extended family on my mom’s side gets together for Thanksgiving at Pioneer Park.

The fact that it was 80 degrees and glorious sunny on Thanksgiving was awesome.
And the fact that we got to spend time with cousins and aunts and uncles and cousins made it that much better.

After stuffing out bellies full of delicious grub, riding the train around the park, and playing at the playground, we went home to rest up before the big dance that evening.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the Lindsay Family Reunion is never complete without a family dance. 

When we were younger, we were always forced to dance with distant cousins while the line dance instructors did there best to teach us some moves.
Riker was so excited to be at a “dance party” and literally did not stop dancing the entire evening!

All in all, it was a fabulous Thanksgiving and we were so glad to be back with family for the holidays!

Disneyland: Day 3

By Day 3, our bodies were tired.
Riker slept in later this morning, which we were very grateful for!
TJ and I were achy from walking around for 2 days already, so we knew Riker was tired.
I don’t think he walked hardly at all on day 3…either TJ or I carried him every where we went because his poor little feet were just too tired!

We started our morning by doing one of the few rides we hadn’t done yet…Toy Story Midway Mania.
We all love this ride…if only the line wasn’t always so darn long!

Day 3 was full of character sightings.
Not as many as I wanted, but Riker loved every one of them.

Phineas and Ferb

The Incredibles

Jake

Minnie Mouse (Riker gave her a kiss on the nose!)

Winnie the Pooh
(lovingly referred to a “Santa Pooh” because of his hat)

and Tigger, too!

We mostly did repeat rides on Day 3, since we’d gone on practically every ride on days 1 and 2.
Riker loved Autopia and felt so cool to get to drive his own car!

TJ and I took turns doing Single Riders on Splash Mountain while Riker was having a snack break.
And in the afternoon, when Riker actually fell asleep while I was holding him, TJ did single rider on California Screamin’ 4 times before Riker woke up again!

We watched the fireworks show again and this time our position was much better because we got to experience the “snow”
Riker was mesmerized by it!

We hit up a few more rides and walked out of Pirates of the Caribbean right at the finale of Fantasmic!
What an absolutely perfect way to end our amazing vacation!

When we woke up the next morning, Riker cried when we told him we weren’t going back to Disneyland.
He had the greatest time and we loved getting to share this with him!

It was seriously so much fun and we are already looking forward to going back again when Olivia is old enough to enjoy it too!

Disneyland: Day 2

Because we bought 3 day tickets instead of just 2 days, we got a “Magic Morning” pass which let us into the park an hour early…
which was a great thing because despite the late night and time difference, Riker’s internal clock woke him up at 5:30 (6:30 AZ time).

Our first ride of the morning was the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland.
Exact same ride as Dumbo, which Riker loved…yet for some reason, he was not loving this ride and started to cry. I think going up high was just too much for him (he did go on this again Day 3 and loved it as long as TJ stayed low).

Buzz Lightyear was another favorite that we managed to hit up 4 times.
We had just watched all 3 Toy Story movies for the first time before coming to Disneyland, so this was very exciting!

Although, I think TJ was more serious about defeating Zurg than Riker was…

Finding Nemo Submarine was fun for Riker (less fun for TJ and I).

Tea Cups (again!)

Riker really wanted to go on the carousel and I really didn’t want to…
there is a carousel at the mall, so why waste our precious Disneyland time on the carousel.
But, this trip was about making everything magical for Riker, so we went on the carousel.

In fact, I think we ended up going on the carousel 4 times.
And every time, Riker would exclaim “I’m having the best time on this trip!”
So, I think it was a winner.

Our first character experience was Aladdin and Princess Jasmine.
Riker had no fear in walking up and talking to them.
He told them his age, showed them his “1st Visit” button, and was absolutely adorable.

We also ran into Pluto!
Riker isn’t as familiar with the classic Disney characters, but he knows who Mickey is and he was happy to meet Mickey’s dog.

We headed over to California Adventure and hit up Bug’s Land.
I thought Riker would love these spinning lady bugs since they are like the tea cups, but this ride ended in tears…
TJ said they go much faster than the tea cups and you can’t control it at all.

But all the tears went away when we got into these bumper cars.
Riker loved being able to steer all on his own, but said it was “dangerous” to bump into other cars.

We waited in line for 15 minutes for this Chew Chew Train.
I remembered it being awesome, but guess what…it’s not.
Riker thought it was great, but the whole thing lasted maybe 1 minute.
Definitely not worth a wait in line!

The new Cars Land was so fun to see, the street looked like it was pulled straight from the movie!
Of course, it was also the busiest area in the whole park.
Luigi’s Flying Tires was fun, they are like bumper cars but float on the air like an air hockey table.

And the Mater ride was really fun, the seats swing around while the tractor spins.
We only did these rides once, since the long lines (45 minutes!) and an impatient toddler don’t work well together!

My absolute favorite part of Day 2 was meeting Rapunzel and Eugene.
Riker has seen Tangled so many times, he can practically quote the entire movie (and he often does!).
When it was our turn to walk into their house, he just lit up.
It was adorable because he was a little shy…these are his favorite characters, after all!

They got right down to talk to him and he answered all of their questions.
He even asked Eugene if he could see his sword, but Eugene pointed out the frying pan hanging on the wall and said he uses that instead now!

When it was time to snap this picture, Riker put his arm right around Rapunzel and stood close! What a charmer!
A while after we left, Riker stopped, put his hand on his head and said “Aw man, I forgot to ask where Pascal was!”
He had all sorts of things he wanted to say to Rapunzel and Eugene, but I guess he got a little star-struck!

Disneyland: Day 1

Be prepared for picture OVERLOAD!

The last few months, TJ has been crazy busy with work and was traveling a LOT.
We knew that as soon as the election season was over, we wanted to take a fun vacation…it was a no brainer to head to Disneyland.
Poor Olivia got left behind. It simplified our trip not having to worry about bottles and diapers and naps, plus she hates being in her car seat so a 6+ hour drive would have been miserable.
No worries though, she got to hang out with her super cool aunt and play with some cousins so life was good.

Day 1 of our Disneyland trip was actually completely unplanned.
We left our house around 9am and anticipated arriving at our hotel around 5 or 6 that evening.
Surprisingly, Riker only needed one extra bathroom break and we forgot about the time change, so we actually arrived at 3pm.
We decided to walk to the Downtown Disney area, look at some stores, and get a bite to eat.

Well, our plans quickly changed when TJ said “why don’t we just go to Disneyland right NOW!”

I know TJ and I were more excited than Riker as we walked in…
he had no idea what he was about to experience and we were so excited to see the magic through his eyes!

The first ride we went on was Snow White for 2 reasons:
1. There was no wait.
2. Its one of the scariest rides so we wanted to see how Riker would react.

He LOVED it!
He did say that it was a little scary “but that’s okay, it’s just pretend!”
after that first ride, we was HOOKED!

And he was super thrilled for Dumbo!
mid-ride, he was a little nervous about going up too high, but still loved it!

Pretty much every ride was met with wide eyes…this kid might not act super excited, but he was definitely amazed and wanted to take everything in!

Tea cups were definitely a favorite and Riker went on these 4 times with his dad (his mom doesn’t go on rides that spin around…)

It’s A Small World was another favorite.
He loved all the lights that were up (he was a bit confused the next morning when there were no lights!)

See…pure amazement!

We watched the fireworks and, although Riker said it was too loud, he loved them.

One train ride later and this boy was completely wiped out.

Our hotel was just down the street, but carrying an extra 30 pounds sure made it seem even farther away!

We all crashed as soon as we got into bed that night, already dreaming about the fun rides we’d get to go on the next day!