Disneyland (no kids!!!!)

From April 11 through April 15, 2010, Chad and I had the opportunity to go to LA without children. We flew to LA and went to Universal Studios for a day then Disneyland and California Adventure for 2-1/2 days.

Universal Studios is about an hour away from Disneyland so we bought tickets for a tour bus to drive us there and take us back. It worked out well. I had never been to Universal Studios before and while it was fun I would never return. If my kids want to go they can pay for it themselves when they're adults. There isn't a whole lot to see or do there and it is about $60/person to get in. We did the studio tour, which lasts about an hour and was interesting. They were filming Desperate Housewives outside on Wisteria Lane and Parenthood in some of the soundstages when we were there. We saw the Jaws set and learned that they have generic mexico town, small european villag set, ancient rome set and several others that they just fix up differently for different movies. It was weird to see them when the guide rattled off various movies filmed in the various generic sets. We also rode the Simpsons Magic Motion ride a couple of times, the Mummy roller coaster and Jurassic Park freefall ride. We watched the Shrek show and the Terminator show. That's about all there is. We saw Lisa and Bart Simpson, the Shrek characters and some of the Madagascar characters. That's it for famous people.

(Lindsay in front of the famous Universal Studios sculpture at the entrance to the park)

(This is Chad taking his Benadryl before the bus ride to Universal so he wouldn't get carsick. This little papercup thingy came with his single dose Benadryl and was hilarious. It was really funny watching him drink from it.)

We spent the next day from open until one hour before close at Disneyland. The day after that at California Adventure from open until close then Disneyland for a few hours after that. We even spent a few hours at Disneyland on our last day, the day we flew home. We started with Space Mountain and worked our way around the park. We rode everything we possibly could at that park, from the biggest roller coastsers down to the kiddie rides. We couldn't ride the Matterhorn because it was closed and we didn't do the spinny rides like Dumbo and the Teacups because then we would have thrown up. We rode Thunder Mountain about four or five times, Splash Mountain twice, Indiana Jones twice and several others.

We really enjoyed California Adventure. I had never been there and this was Chad's first time at either park. There is a really fun Toy Story game ride where you shoot things and compete with the person you are riding with. It was the longest ride in the park but worth the wait. We did it twice. There is an amazing roller coaster called California Screamin' that has everything from a 0-60 in 3 seconds start, a loop, twists and several free falls. Chad rode it with me twice and I rode it two more times by myself. It was on the last ride as I was going over the loop that I got this sudden panic about my harness coming off and me falling to my death, along with my aching back and pounding headache that made me finally stop riding it. They have a really scarey free fall ride called the Tower of Terror that we did twice. We both hate free fall but did it just to do it. We decided to try it one more time at the end of the day and try to enjoy it a little more. It wasn't as bad the second time around because we knew more of what to expect. We saw and rode everything we could at the park and when it closed at 7 PM we headed over to Disneyland for more rides there until we were exhausted and couldn't do anymore. The lines were next to nothing at the parks so between that and Fast Passes we hardly did any waiting at all. It was amazing.

Our last day, we headed to the park for about five hours in the morning but were pretty wiped out and the lines were extra long. We didn't ride a whole lot. We spent more time just walking around and doing our souvenir shopping.

(Lindsay in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle. It was incredible to watch Tinkerbell fly from Matterhorn mountain to the castle on a fly line during the fireworks show.)

(Chad with California Adventure behind him. You can see the crazy ferris wheel that has cars that spin as well as the California Screamin' roller coaster.)

(View of the ferris whell from the bottom. It's sideways though because I forgot to rotate it)

(Where's Lindsay? Can you find her waiting for California Screamin' to shoot off for the ride?)

(This is a close up of Chad's face during one of the roller coaster rides. His face always looked hilarious in the photos they take. He always looked like he was going to die.)

(Lindsay and Chad on California Screamin'. Chad is making a concerted effort to smile and not look terrified for the photo. My smile is genuine. I loved that ride.)

(This is Lindsay and Chad free falling to their deaths on the Tower of Terror the second time. The first time my eyes were clamped shut and I did not look happy.)

(Chad with the Tower of Terror behind him. On the ride you go up to the top, some of the windows open so you can see all of LA in front of you then you just drop.)

(Lindsay and Chad on Splash Mountain for the second time. Lindsay is wearing a rain poncho. It was late at night and cold but Chad made her go on this ride. While walking into the ride someone walking out was offering up the rain poncho they had purchased. I grabbed it and it worked beautifully. I decided to pay it forward and offered it up to some other people entering the ride as we were leaving. I often wonder where that poncho is today. It brought me such comfort when I needed it.)

(A duplicate of Lindsay and Chad on California Screamin'. Whoops! If anyone can tell me how to delete photos from a post in progress, please let me know. I can't figure out how to do it.)

(This is the shot of Jaws I miraculously got as he jumped out of the water next to our tour tram.)

(Chad at the entrance to The Simpsons ride at Universal Studios.)

Below are pictures of us with famous people we saw while in LA:

(Lindsay and Yoda)

(Chad and Goofy)

(Chad and Chubaca)

(Mickey Mouse and Pluto)

(Mickey and Minnie Mouse)

(Lindsay in the jaws of Jaws)

(Lindsay and Chad with Mater and Lightning McQueen - Grant loved this picture. We texted him one when we were there.)

(Lindsay and Lisa Simpson)

(Chad and Lindsay with Alex the Lion and two of the Penguins from Madagascar)

(Chad with Bart Simpson. We kept a look out for Homer but kept missing him.)

(Lindsay and Chad with Shrek, Fiona and Donkey.)

All in all the trip was great fun but we were tired when we came back. Chad left just a few days later for a work trip to Boston and we just got back from Seattle. We have done a lot of traveling and are glad to be home for much of the summer.

Grant's letter posters

Mishmash

Grant and Ava decided (well actually Ava decided and Grant went a long with it) to have a picnic on our front porch. They are enjoying apples while they snuggle. Aren't they adorable?

Cole is quite the snuggle bug. Far more so than Grant every was. He loves to snuggle up by his dad and watch TV. In fact, recently Cole has started asking for the TV to be turned on. I'm not sure I should admit that though.


This is Barry taking liberties on my side of the bed.


We went downtown one Saturday afternoon to walk around the square. I think something was going on but I don't remember what. Grant has started taking pictures when we are out and about and took the following two while we were at the square.

I let Grant do some unsupervised painting while I took a shower one morning and this was the result. He his hand completely covered in paint and was ready to work on his belly when I intervened. I love that he loves art though. In the back is Cole trying to climb into the bathtub.


The boys love to color and often sit at the table working on pictures. I keep a big stack of scrap paper for just this activity. Grant is teaching Cole how to color and draw.

On March 27, 2010, we took the boys to the Phoenix Zoo. We loved it. We saw all the animals and even ran into Sarah and Eddie and their boys. She was trying to make herself go into labor with all of the walking around. It didn't work. In the evening, after the zoo, we took Cole to my mom's house and then took Grant to his first pro-hockey game to watch the Coyotes play their way into the play-offs. He loved the first two periods but was ready to go during the third. He did a really good job but was disappointed that they didn't sell ice cream. It was too cold.

In addition to working on their Jeep with their tools, they like to help their dad with his projects. Chad had a day off of work and decided to do some work on his bike so the boys jumped in to help. They were at this project for a good 15 minutes.

We took an afternoon outing to Goldwater Lake with our friends Laura, Tiffany and Raynee and their kids. They kids threw rocks in the water and played on the playground.

Another picture of Cole coloring.