3 Days of Disney

We decided we wanted to stay and The Grand Ca hotel at Disneyland for one night with kids, the hotel was so awesome that 1 night turned into 3!!! The convenience of walking straight into Ca Adventure from our hotel, the amazing pool and water slide, getting into Disneyland an hour before the park opens to the public and being able to go back to our room so the kids could nap were just some of the things we loved about staying there. And I know will be going back soon!!!

View of Ca Adventure from our Hotel room

Riley spent PLENTY of time on this ride! Clearly his favorite...

Late night ice cream and Sidney napping while waiting to watch World of Color

My Brother Jared and his Wife brought their kiddos up one night we were there, Riley and Aven are such buddies!

RIley was in Heaven sleeping in a bunk bed!

This hotel is kid friendly, even life jackets by all the pool

Critter Breakfast

Riley LOVED spending time in the lobby in the kids recliners watching Disney movies

San Luis Obispo

We love heading up north to visit Pauls brother and his Mom. (Oprah recently aired on her show that this town has the happiest people in America)!  We have a few favorite stops along the way but because we left so early in the am our favorite breakfast place in Westlake wasn't open. So we drove around a bit and found this GEM of a restaurant "HAROLDS HOUSE OF OMELETTES". The food was good (they put anything in an omelette including peanut butter and jelly) but seeing the people who ate there was what we remember most.

We also made a stop in Buellton. We've never stopped to try Andersen's Pea soup so we decided we would. Well, we tried it, wasnt that great so we dont ever need to do it again. haha

Playing in Grammys driveway

Paul and I were in search for a cheese shop in downtown SLO. We found a great one near the train station called MEEZA and of course we had to stroll along the train tracks per Riley's request.

Putting penny's on the track

There is a cool skate park in Los Osos that the boys love. The picture above is Riley's cousin Trey and below is Paul. Riley decided to be a spectator just watching everyone until we finally left and he wanted to skate in the parking lot!

This is the school house behind the skate park, I LOVE it so much, its so charming and Sidney loved playing near it

Paul, his Mom and his brother Ryan

Playing at Treys and Coltons house, making a tunnel for the train to pass through

Swimming in the hotel pool, Sidney has NO fear of the water! She will just throw herself right in, Swimming lessons are starting in March to get this girl water safe!

Saturday am we checked out the local farmers market (which was awesome) and then headed to Laguna Lake Park to play, ride bikes and check out all the geese and ducks. They ran straight up to the car as soon as Paul opened the door!

Breakfast at Madonna Inn

Disneyland

When I woke up Tuesday morning and looked outside I thought what a perfect day to take Riley to Disneyland,  (just the two of us) and man was I right!!! We got there at 10am and the park was practically empty. It also seems 40 inches is a life changing height because you can ride the roller coasters and Riley just made the height requirement at 41 inches!

He had no idea what he was about to experience but I will paraphrase his reactions to rides we went on (none of which we waited more then 15 minutes for)!

SPACE MOUNTAIN: Mom, that was Dark and twisty
THUNDER MOUNTAIN: Mom, I don't like that one, its to bumpy
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: No reaction
TOT STORY MANIA (CA Adventure): LOVED IT! LOVED IT LOVED IT! (This is a standard favorite for him)
SOARING OVER CALIFORNIA: By this point in the day he didn't trust that I wasn't going to take him on more scary rides, and I don't blame him but I knew he would love this one and he did!

I didn't bring my camera but here's a few photos from my iphone

 Big Thunder Mountain

Pirates of the Caribbean

Toy Story Mania 

Toy Story Mania

Sea World

Riley and I left Sidney and Paul at home so we could have a mommy day at Sea World with Riley's pre school class and all of Miss Dianne's other classes. It was such a fun day, I love seeing friends I don't get to see very often and of course spending the day with my sweet boy!

 He carried "the blue book" with descriptions of the animals all day trying to match up what we were looking at. The penguins seemed to be his favorite but when I asked him at the end of the day what his favorite part was he said " The Shamo store". Awesome, so he only remembered the stuffed Shamo he got! haha

 I love this sign,
"SHARKS DON'T EAT PEOPLE VERY OFTEN"!

And Riley with Phoinex and Elise checking out the sharks

Watching the Sea lion and Otter show

Touching the manta rays. It took him a minute to be comfortable touching them but after watching his friends do it he couldn't get enough!

Checking out the Eels, personally the ugliest animal I've ever seen!

After a fun day, a nice quiet drive home with Riley and Shamo