Akido-land!

More commonly known as Disneyland, Jack's Akido-land was the destination of our family vacation this summer. We joined our Henrie and Olson friends for the adventure, who hooked us up with a stay at the posh Disneyland Hotel. We could hardly contain our excitement. 

After a surprisingly smooth drive down and a music-filled visit with the Christian family, we met up with our friends at our humongous hotel. David lived up to his resemblance of his mom as a child by getting lost in it first thing the next morning. After a panic-filled 15 minutes of searching, I calmed down, listened to my gut and ran up 2 flights of stairs and down a hallway, straight to where he was. He was roaming one of the upper halls with a security guard looking for us. After a tear-filled reunion and embrace, he said, "I knew you'd find me mom." Then the troops headed out, adorned with not one (we were celebrating David's birthday at DL) but 6 birthday buttons. Yep, 6 of our 10 member group had birthdays that month. I'm sure the DL workers thought we were liars. Nevertheless, they all held to their responsibility of giving us all birthday greetings when our buttons were spotted and filling our hotel rooms with 6 sets of birthday balloons. 

Our first ride, California Soarin' took us on an incredible simulated flight over the sites of California. We were pleased to see David enjoying it, since he is an extremely cautious child and this was his first amusement park ride experience. This success boosted his confidence enough that when Rich and I stayed behind to watch the little kids at the next stop, the Tower of Terror, David ignored us and ran off to join the big kids on the ride. By the time Rich reached the line in his pursuit, David and the rest of the group had already entered the ride (uncharacteristically short line) and there was nothing to be done to prevent the terror David was about to experience. I waited helplessly in agony as the ride, which simulates a ghost haunted hotel elevator that unexpectedly rises and drops to various floor levels... by far the scariest and most heart-dropping ride in any DL park, introduced our little boy to the physics of falling and the feeling of g-forces. Sure enough, he exited the ride in hysterics and demanded to know why people would "go on a ride like that." Then he told me, "I was hoping you would come save me again Mom like before." Ouch. Then he experienced a breakthrough. He realized that he was fine. He had faced his ultimate fear and conquered. Before each ride for the rest of the trip, there was that initial panic and he would ask whether there would be any falling, but he braved through most of them and has been braver since then. He's a stronger kid than we thought. 

The highlights of California Adventures for the kids were the shows: Playhouse Disney and The Muppets in 3D and the time when Rich, by conversing (as he does) with a ride worker, got all of us a pass to go to the front of the line of a ride for absolutely no reason. I love that man. 

Days 2 and 3 were spent at Disneyland, where it was much for crowded and we became very grateful for the technology of Fastpasses and Kid Swap passes. David's favorite ride was Star Tours, which he was first wary of when he entered a room resembling the elevator from Tower of Terror and buckled our very similar seat belts. After assuring him many times that we wouldn't fall, he started to relax. By the end, he was convinced it was the best ride ever. He shouted, "That was wicked awesome holy moly guacamole! I could not believe my eyes!!" The kids also loved It's a Small World. Jack kept giggling and  pointing. He thought the tiny, costumed, dancing children were hilarious. I couldn't disagree.

Another highlight was the Captain EO 3D movie with Michael Jackson. The 25 year old movie attraction was brought back, and I couldn't have been more ecstatic. I remember seeing it during my 1st DL visit as a 5 year old and it had left a big impression on me, so much so, that I got emotional seeing it again. Viva MJ! 

Jack was SO into the movie. He kept yelling angry, unintelligible things and shooting Spiderwebs at the scary spider lady. Then, while exiting the theatre (and walking independently for the 1st time that trip), he suddenly halted in the middle of the lane and began dancing his own MJ impersonation complete with a "whoo!" yell at the end. He had everyone nearby laughing. I love that about Jack. You just never know what to expect from him. He and David loved seeing all the DL characters cruising around. After watching Mr. Incredible lumber down the street and smash a trash can, he exclaimed, "You mean everything I see on TV is REAL?!" Oh, the magic of Disney. 

Jack went nuts with joy when he spotted the real "Akido." Aka: Mickey Mouse. Yep, Jack has invented his own language, where his words do not resemble the actual words in any way. David usually translates for us. He spent most our trip spotting things with Mickey Mouse on them and yelling, "Akido!!" We spent some of our favorite moments in Toon Town. The kids were able to run around and jump on things and everyone found something fun to play with.

Then Rich and I were finally able to lock up our kids and get some quality vacation time together. :) Nah.... that never happened. Someday. The vacation part, that is, not the locking up of children. We're not that desperate.... yet. 

Here is a little video clip of Toon Town and another highlight of the trip: Rich getting his tongue frozen to a popsicle. Like I said, I love that man.   :) 

After enjoying some incredible Indian food in Santa Monica, our friends headed home while we returned to the Christians' house for a day at Oceanside Beach. After leaving us, 3 year old Nyla said, "Where is my Jack right now? My Jack is not supposed to miss." Jack didn't miss out on some beach fun. It was his 1st time seeing the ocean, which didn't impress him much. What did impress him? The sand. Our little sand crab asked to be buried. He would have been content to remain buried all day if we'd let him. It was the happiest we'd seen him... well... ever. 

Jack's sandy toe-head was the highlight of the beach that day for... basically everyone. He had a crowd of tourists taking pictures and video. The other highlight for everyone... Rich in his notorious Speedo prancing and cartwheeling across the beach. Once again, I love that man.   :)

Here is a video of our beach day fun: