Disneyland Trip - Day 3 - Happy 5th Birthday, Aidan!!

Dear Logan,

Today's your brother's 5th birthday!  Even though he's been getting many "Happy Birthday" greetings ever since he got the birthday button at Disneyland on our first night there, it didn't dampen his excitement at all.  The night before, he didn't sleep until 11 p.m., yet with all the blackout curtains, he still woke up at 7 a.m.  I would love for him to sleep in a little bit, but he just couldn't contain his excitement. He was jumping up and down, playing with his toys and watching Playhouse Disney, all the while when Daddy and Mommy tried to sleep in a little bit.


I have already made reservations to go to "Surf's UP! Breakfast with Mickey & Friends" at Paradise Pier Hotel.  Let me tell you, having breakfast with Mickey is not cheap!  But Oh well, Aidan loves Mickey Mouse and this is the only character meal that he will show up, so I just wish the money would be well spent.  Reservations was made for 9:20 a.m., but I wished I had taken the 8:50 a.m. slot instead.  I think Aidan was a little too hungry.

When we got into the restaurant, we were greeted by Mickey Mouse.  We had the obligatory picture of Mickey Mouse, just like the picture we took at Goofy's Kitchen last time.  Of course, Aidan was excited to see Mickey, but if he has slept more and with a full stomach, I think he might be more excited.  The restaurant was small, and the atmosphere was definitely casual and beachy.  I much preferred the restaurant at Goofy's Kitchen.  The place wasn't full, and was actually quite empty.  We got settled, ordered our drinks and then I took Aidan to get some breakfast.  The quality of the food was just OK, and you definitely go there just to see Mickey Mouse.

Our table was first approached by Daisy, who was very sweet and lovely.  Then Minnie Mouse, Stitch, and Pluto.  These were basically all the characters present.  Aidan was a little apprehensive when taking pictures with them at first.  While we're eating, the staff started some dancing with Mickey Mouse and Stitch and tried to get the kids to join in.  I tried to get Aidan to participate, but he was being a party pooper.  He preferred to just sit down and eat.  Well, I couldn't force him, but on the other hand, I wanted him to join in (I paid that much money for an OK breakfast all because of the entertainment!).  After some food in his tummy, he was in a much better mood.  I was glad to see that the dancing started up again, and this time he participated!

After some dancing, it's time for a birthday cake!  This is a tiny little Mickey-shaped "cupcake" with Mickey-shaped sprinkles.  It's Aidan's favorite chocolate cake.  He enjoyed the very rushed birthday song sung by the staff, blew his candle, cut the little cake and definitely chowed it down.  A nice end to a breakfast, and it's free.

After breakfast, we went to the California Adventures Park through the direct entrance from the Grand Californian Hotel.  Man oh man, what a nice hotel!  It's so grand!  No wonder they charge so much for a room.  Next time, I got to spend a little more time checking out this hotel lobby since I can't afford to stay there.  Upon arriving at the park, we got Fast Passes for "World of Color", even though we saw that in August.  We figured it wouldn't hurt just to get the passes and not go, since they're free and the park was pretty slow.  We first went to the Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel, as that was the first ride that Aidan really wanted to get on.  It's quite interesting how 6 months ago he wouldn't go near any ferris wheel, but now that he's FIVE years old, he's such a big boy that he's not scared.  And guess what, Mommy was the one that was a little scared.  It was quite high up there! Daddy and Aidan then went on the Golden Zephyr, Mommy and Aidan went on the Jumping Jellyfish.

We also took some pictures, and walked back to the Hollywood area.  We watched the Playhouse Disney show again (same as last time but a different hostess), went on the Monsters Inc. ride and snacked past lunch hour.  The turning point of the day, was introducing your brother to a bad experience of a 3D movie.  We went to see the Muppet Show 3D, and he was so scared that he cried and wanted out. We should have warned him about what to expect.  We hope we didn't scar him for life and he would hate all 3D movies from now on.  After this experience, we figured it's time to go back to the hotel for a nap.  He's tired and hungry, not a good combination.  We walked back to the hotel and Aidan took a good 2-hour nap.

Our plan was to have dinner at ESPN Zone and played at their arcade area, since we got a $20 coupon.  The games were fun, and we spent a good amount of time there.  Who knew it would take a while for us to spend down that $20.  After we're done, it's about 8:00 p.m., and we planned to take the Monorail back to Disneyland.  Unfortunately, they closed the Monorail down as they closed early for the 8:45 p.m .fireworks show.  I forgot the show was earlier on a Sunday.

Aidan was disappointed, but we bribed him with gifts at the Lego Store, and more importantly, he built his own ride at Ridemakerz.  Daddy was very excited to assist with building the ride.  Aidan selected a red (no surprise there) Mini Cooper with red tires and black rims.  Daddy then obtained instructions on how to put the car together.  We did that, got batteries and his ride  was ready to go.  He played with the car for a while at the store to test it out, and continued playing in the hotel room.  By the time we're done at Downtown Disney, we're all tired and wanted to go back to the hotel.

This pretty much ended our trip, as we're driving back home the following morning.  This 4-day trip was basically a 2.5-day trip. Driving really wasted quite a bit of time.  Maybe next time we'll fly, or even spend more days there.  There's so much we haven't seen.  But I figured, as Aidan grows older, we get to explore more.

Aidan was already excited and wanted to go back on Jan 7, 2012, and have his birthday party at school the day before, exactly like this year.  Most importantly, I am glad he had so much fun he wants to plan for another visit already.


Love,
Mommy

Disneyland Trip - Day 2

Dear Logan,

The second day, we tackled Disneyland bright and early.  Ok, maybe not as early as other visitors, but we did get into the park at around 9 a.m.  Compared to the crowd back in August, this January crowd was nothing!  The usual attractions that your brother liked, e.g. Dumbo, Tea Cups, Mickey's House, Carousel, Choo Choo Train, and the Circus Train, the wait was so short!  The only long line that I saw at Fantasyland, and was the Peter Pan ride. So, we didn't try.  I was very surprised, esp. since it's also a Saturday.  And because I got the Fast Passes for the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride, we were able to get on that twice without waiting for long at all.

We also stopped by the arcade area.  I know it's kinda silly to play arcade games like air hockey and alley ball at Disneyland, but you know how your brother loves those games.  Since this was his birthday trip, we basically just did whatever he felt like it.  I got $5 worth of tokens and just had a little fun.  Luckily, Aidan was willing to leave after I told him it's time to go when the tokens were all used up.

During lunch time, we caught the Jedi Training Academy Show.  This is the first introduction of Star Wars for him.  He was very interested in the show, but the scaredy cat that he is, he did not participate.  I think next time when we go back, he might be willing to try.  It was a very interesting show and I bet all Star Wars fans would love it.  At the end, Aidan said he liked the "white" guys aka Star Troopers because they had guns.  I guess he's with the Dark Side in this sense.

We all went back to the hotel for a quick nap, since we woke up early.  We wanted to go back into the park and stayed a little later, hopefully, get your brother to watch some fireworks.  I am prepared this time around.  I bought ear muffs, hoping they would minimize some of the sound effects, yet warm his ears.  Or, it would just create an illusion that the fireworks weren't really as loud.

After a fun but a little scary Nemo ride in the submarine, we hit the "It's a Small World".  The Nemo ride was probably the longest that we've waited for, and even that was probably about 30-45 mins.  I was glad to see that the "It's a Small World" ride was still nicely decorated with holiday lights.  When we're done, it's almost fireworks time.  We picked a spot away from the Cinderella Castle, thinking it wouldn't be as loud. WRONG!  We moved to another spot into Fantasyland by Dumbo, WRONG again!  But we ended up just staying there.  It was loud in the beginning for your brother as we're standing in between two displays of fireworks (thus, it's best to watch it facing the castle, then you could see both displays).  We saw one of the Cast Members, who seemed to know exactly when the fireworks shot up.  He was in a way "conducting" the fireworks.  By following him, we knew exactly which way to turn to see the fireworks.  Aidan ended up copying how he moved and was "conducting" the fireworks himself.  It was just too funny!  But at least he's not scared!

*video is dark, might need to turn up the brightness*

When the fireworks were over, we took the Monorail back to our hotel.  We saw some people getting into the front seats and inquired about them.  Found out that if you ask, then you'll get what you want!  We had to wait for a little while, as two other parties wanted to occupy those seats.  I think it's worth the wait, as it was pretty interesting to see where we're going.  I never noticed we passed through the Golden Gate Bridge at California Adventures Park on our way back to Downtown Disney.

By the time we got back, and finished the night time routine, it's already 11 p.m.  That's pretty late for him.  Tomorrow, would be his birthday and it's going to be another fun day.


Love,
Mommy

Disneyland Trip - Day 1

Dear Logan,

We're back from our little trip to Disneyland to celebrate your brother's 5th birthday, and Daddy and Mommy's 4th wedding anniversary.  It's a short but super fun trip.  Let me tell you all about it.

On Friday, Jan 7, we left our house a little past 9 a.m.  Mommy drove the first leg of the trip.  We stopped by Harris Ranch in Coalinga for lunch.  You know how Daddy loves his steak.  Last time we did a road trip, we stopped by Harris Ranch as well.  After a quick lunch, we continued our journey down south.  Traffic in LA was horrible.  There were accidents on the freeway everywhere, and we're stuck at this one short stretch for a long time.  Aidan kept on asking how much longer we had to go.  Unfortunately, we couldn't go any faster.

We finally arrived at Disneyland Hotel at around 4:30 p.m.  When we went into our hotel room, I was so relieved and excited.  The extra money that we paid on this room was totally worth it.  The newly renovated hotel room had the headboard with fireworks display.  I've read about this so much, but I was still in awe when I saw it.  I told Aidan that this was his special fireworks for his birthday.  The room was larger than an average hotel room, and it was nicely and modernly decorated.  Little touches of Mickey Mouse here and there.

Mommy has previously ordered a birthday gift basket for your brother.  It was delivered shortly after we're in the room, and your brother was a little excited and confused when receiving it.  Inside the basket was a Mickey Ears birthday hat, a picture frame, a bag of chocolate pretzels and a Vinylmation Space Mickey Mouse.  That hat was on your brother's hat for the next two days.

We then explored Downtown Disney and found a restaurant for dinner.  We selected the Uva Bar, as we ate there 2.5 years ago and had the best Mac and Cheese of my life.  Unfortunately, it's not on the menu but the food was still OK.  We walked around Downtown, checked out the stores, and of course, did a lot of shopping at the World of Disney.  Since Aidan got some birthday money from Grandma, Yeh Yeh, Ah Gung, Ah Po, Ah Yee and Kau Fu, we basically bought all the toys that he wanted.  Luckily, he doesn't have expensive taste and just chose little toys here and there.

After shopping, we went back to the hotel room and called it a night.  We planned to start our day early the following day and spend most of the day inside Disneyland.

Check out the fireworks on the headboard!  We all LOVE it!  OK, maybe not the best video, but check it out!

Love you,
Mommy

Disneyland Pictures

Back from rainy Hong Kong, to rainy Macau

Hi Logan,

How are you? Mommy is back from Hong Kong and now I can have internet access again. Hong Kong was fun, but it was raining the last two days we're there, esp. when we're at Disneyland. What a drag! That didn't stop us from going, since we paid so much for the tickets and the hotel. We tried to make the best of it, braving the rain with rain gear and wet clothes and shoes. At least there weren't a lot of people and we didn't have to wait in line for rides, right? We had much better luck when Uncle Carlos, your brother and I went to Ocean Park. It was cloudy with a nice sea breeze. Still a pretty warm day, but it could be sooo much worse.

We have taken over 2000 pictures with all of our cameras. I still need a lot of time to sort through them. When I'm done, I'll show you some highlights of our trip, ok?

I wish you and Daddy could come along with us. I saw all these cute baby clothes at Disneyland and at the outlet mall, and immediately thought of you. You would look so cute in that baby blue Mickey Mouse onesie.

Ah Po checked into the hospital this morning to prepare for her sugery in two days. Today and tomorrow, she is going to rest up for the big day. She is very worried about the anasthesia that will be done. I guess because of your passing, and also her best friend's recently, she was concerned that she might not wake up. So, you need to watch over Ah Po, ok? Her surgery is not a super big, serious one, but all surgeries have risks, as we know. I am sure she'll be fine.

Mommy gotta go now. You take care of yourself and Daddy.

Miss you lots,
Mommy

So much to say...

So much has happened since my last blog. I've been wanting to write all about it: S. Cali trip, sleepless nights, and pumpkin patch experience. However, now that time has passed, I don't feel like writing everything down anymore. Maybe just a brief update.

Oct 10-13
We drove down to S. California to visit Disneyland, California Adventures park and Legoland. We first stopped at Harris' Ranch for some yummy meat and then dinner at Downtown Disney. I had one of the best Mac and Cheese at Catal Restaurant.

Second day, we went to Disneyland. Overall it was a great experience and I think Aidan had fun. The only lousy experience was trying to meet Mickey Mouse at Toontown. There were soooo many people (you couldn't tell when you first lined up), and the line was moving super slow. We just left after half-way through Mickey's enormous house. California Adventures was fun as well. Aidan's favorite was the water park. Anything water was fun to him! The same day after California Adventures, we drove down to San Diego, checked-into Doubletree Del Mar and headed out for dinner. The following day, we drove up to Carlsbad to Legoland. I was a little disappointed. I heard this is a great park for little kids, but Aidan was a little TOO little. He didn't meet most of the height requirements (34") but he did spend a lot of time at the water park area. It's more fun if your kids are over 34" because the lines weren't that long and kids all seemed to have fun. We drove back home the following day.

What I learned from this trip, is not to jam packed so many theme parks! I should have stayed in Anaheim another day, instead of driving down to San Diego. Just too much too little time. Also, next time we're definitely flying. Sitting in a car with a 21-month old is not fun anymore. It was too long a drive for Aidan and for us.