Sunday, June 3, 2012

Cotton Days

After we got back from California we almost felt bored sitting at home. Luckily that week was Cotton Days in Washington. On Friday we went to the movie in the park and on Saturday we woke up early to have breakfast, go to the parade and do all the fun activities. It was a little funny to see Claire's reaction when I told her we were going to a parade, but it was a little different of a parade.
They had a few little rides that Claire wanted to go on. She was already having Disneyland withdrawls and even though it was a ripoff ($3.50 for one ride!) We let her do it.
We decided our money was better spent on the blow up slide. These pictures crack me up! Her face is hilarious.

the BEACH...dun dun dun

No we didn't see a shark or even a beached whale but Claire did have a pretty crazy time at the beach. I insisted that we stop at the beach before we left California even though it was cloudy and only about 10 am. The only two days it was really sunny and hot were the days we went to Disneyland so this was our last chance to go to the beach. It was Claire's first time and I knew she would love it! I told her we could look for seashells and put our feet in the water. When we got there a guy was playing catch with his dog so of course Claire had to join. In case you haven't notice Claire is not very shy. The guy let her throw the ball back and forth a few times to the dog. Now Claire won't quit asking for a dog that she can play catch with.
We had fun just running and jumping in the water. It was pretty cold so we just ran from the water before it got our feet. Claire thought that was pretty fun until....I was running next to her and the water just came so quick and she fell to one knee and then flat on her face and as the water came over the top of her! I picked her right up and she was fine but was pretty upset. She kept say no water no beach. She had sand EVERYWHERE. In her ears, hair, mouth, down her shirt in her underwear, EVERYWHERE. This was great since we were just about to leave and drive for 8 hours. We had to strip her down wipe her off the best we could and unpack some clothes for her.
So sad, but kind of funny. Even after we left and were driving she still said she wanted to go back to the beach. Everyday for at least a week she said "momma member when I fell in the ocean?" She had to tell everyone she fell in the ocean, but she still says how much she loved it. And we kept her seashells to put on her bookshelf in her room. They are the perfect decoration.

Happiest Place on Earth day 2!

Yes it is the happiest place on earth but I am pretty sure it also one of the most tiring. I don't know how people do more than 2 days there! I wouldn't last and I LOVE Disneyland. On the second day we started out at California Adventures. Although a lot of the rides were too big for CLaire, there were a lot that were so much fun that she loved! They had so many rides from movies that she watches right now so she thought it was awesome! Some of her favorite rides were monsters inc, and the little mermaid. We went on those rides multiple times. She also loved the bugs life world.
We ran into a few of her favorite people which made her day! She thinks Mickey and Minnie are her best friends!
Trevor loved flexing next to Mr Incredible. (sorry trev i think his muscles win) Another one of Claire's favorite rides was the huge farris wheel. I tricked Trevor and just told him to follow me and then I went in the line that the basket you sit in swings back and forth. I knew Trevor wouldn't want to go in that one if he knew. Once we were getting close and I could see how high and fast they were swinging I was starting to get nervous. Apparently Trev and I are babies because Claire was laughing her head off the whole time and thought it was the funnest thing ever. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face but I was holding on for dear life so getting the camer out was not an option. You can see the farris wheel in this pic...
One of my favorite things to do was go to the Disney Playhouse Live! It was nice to go inside where it was cool and just sit down for a little while and Claire had so much fun. It is such a cute show it has life size puppets of the different shows that are on the Disney Channel and they play music and games. They even had bubbles and streamers and confetti come down from the ceiling. Claire danced along and shouted out answers the whole time!
Overall we had a fun day at California Adventures but after we had done all the rides there we headed back to Disneyland for the rest of the day to ride some rides we had missed the day before.
Claire had a blast looking for animals on the Tiki Tour Boat
It was a little embarassing that Claire would not get out of the street waiting for the parade to begin. She just stood out there and posed and danced and sang while everyone stared...hmm I wonder if she likes attention?? Once the parade began Claire was going crazy! She was waving and shouting to all the characters. She had a permagrin on the whole time. You can tell by the pictures she was a little excited...
After the parade ended we rushed over to California Adventure again to watch the World of Color Show. Everyone kept telling us to make sure we went to that show and I am so glad we did! If you have never seen it, it definitely worth going to. It was hard because you are suppose to get a ticket to in the morning and then you still have to get there about an hour early and you have to stand and the show is about 30 mun so it is a lot of standing but it's so awesome. It is hard to even explain the show. It is like a big water show and the water changes colors and shoots everywhere but then it turns into like a mist and they project different Disney movie scenes across it. Anyways, it is just cool and Claire thought it was amazing.
And that was it. That was the end of our Disneyland Adventure. Claire passed out on the walk back to the hotel and Trevor and I collapsed as soon as we got into the room. We had so much fun and I was kind of sad it was over. I knew that this was just the beginning, now Claire is going to ask everyday if we can go to Disneyland and she is gonna beg to see Mickey and the princesses. I guess she will have to start saving her money so that we can go again!

The Happiest Place on Earth

I thought Disneyland needed its own post in itself. Get ready for a picture overload. We had so much fun and I just want to make sure we document it ALL! We woke up bright and early on Monday morning so we could get there right when Disneyland opened. Luckily our hotel was only about a five minute walk. I knew the first thing i want to do was go meet the princesses. I have heard that the lines for that can get backed up quick so I wanted to hurry and get in line. I am glad we went when we did but the line was still an hour long! I hate that you have no idea which 3 princesses will be in there but I am so glad we went there. Claire LOVED meeting them! After I could hear other kids go in there and start to cry and parents trying to coax them into getting a picture, I was a little nervous for Claire to meet them. Once we got in there we had NO problems! Claire wanted to hug them and get their autograph and take pictures and she just stared at them in awe! She thought they were so beautiful and the rest of the day and week and even now like 3 weeks later she says "remember when jasmine said she rode her carpet," or "when snow white gave me a hug" she talks about them ALL the time!
Of course Rapunzel is so popular she has to have her own house and her own line. We were pretty excited to go wait another 70 mins to meet Rapunzel (that was sarcastic) Claire loved Rapunzel though so I am glad we met her but our fist 3 hrs at Disneyland was spent waiting in line for those darn princesses!
I wanted Claire to meet Tinkerbell because she loves her but that was another 45 min wait and we just couldn't do it! I was way too excited to go on some rides. Trevor thought I was crazy because I was speed walking everywhere and had every ride that Claire was tall enough to go on mapped out. We only missed 2 rides in all of Disneyland that she could actually ride. I was a little sad because she was only like 2 inches short of riding all the rides like space mountain and thunder mountain and I know she would LOVE them! She is such a thrill seeker. The lines to rides weren't too bad, the longest we had to wait was 20 min so that was good.
Claire with her drivers license at the bumper cars
Claire had to wave and blow kisses to all the dolls on It's a Small World
I was so mad my camera died on the first day! I got a lot of good pictures but we still had so much of the day left and the parade! Luckily we had our video camera and it also takes stilll shots but they aren't the best. We took lots of pics with that and also recodered her a lot especially during the parade. I made sure the camera was fully charged for the next day and we ended up staying for the parade again so I got some good pictures.

Friday, June 1, 2012

CALIFORNIA

We finally decided to plan a trip to DISNEYLAND! Claire is starting to love Disney movies and she is obsessed with all the princesses. I knew that she would be in HEAVEN meeting all the characters and would LOVE all the rides. We decided to go a few months ago so Claire starting saving all of her "money" in her piggy bank for Disneyland. We ended up leaving on a Friday and staying in Vegas for the night. I am not gonna lie we stayed in a pretty ghetto hotel. There was a lot of things going on that weekend like UFC fights, Supercross and it was Cinco De Mayo so all the hotels were booked. It was so funny Claire loved our ghetto hotel, she kept saying she wanted to live there and she wished it was her house... apparently we are overspending on our house! Good to know she is not very high maitenance! We woke up the next morning, went shoppinh for a bit and then drove to Anaheim. Right when we pulled into town Trevor remembered that their was an Anaheim Angels and Blue Jays game that night and really wanted to go. I was kind of excited because I have never been to a professional baseball game before and have always wanted to go. We literally went to the hotel and got settled and got ready and went to the game.
The stadium was so awesome I loved it! I just loved the whole atmosphere. I am not gonna lie, I was mainly excited for the food! We got free stuffed animal monkeys because it was Cinco De Mayo, which Claire loved.
We had so much fun and Claire almost lasted the whole game! She was pretty excited when someone got a home run and the fireworks went off. She also thought it was hilarious when the crowd started doing the wave! We had fun just eating nachos and pop corn and singing take me out to the ball game. I definitely want to go to another baseball game
After the baseball game we went back to our hotel and finally got some reast. The next day we woke up and went shopping all day! We were going to go to the beach but it was a little cloudy and not very warm so we decided to get some shoppinh in and go out to eat. We wanted to relax a little bit before Disneyland the next day.