The Fairbourn Identity: Disneyland

For Christmas our gift from Marv & Dana was a trip to Disneyland with the whole family. They flew those of us with kids there and the adults with no kids drove. Kaden has never been to Disneyland before so it was so fun to get to experience the magic through his three year old eyes. We left the twins with my parents because they were little enough they wouldn't be able to do much and don't sleep well in a stroller and we didn't want to be back at the rental house all day long, so we figured it'd make for a more fun trip to just have Kaden.

May 17- Day 1

As we were about to take off on the airplane Kaden was looking out the window and yelled, "Mom, when do we blast off?" :) It was so cute and most of the people on the plane near us thought it was pretty funny. Our first day in California was mostly a travel day since we had an 11:30 am flight and it took us forever at the rental car place so by the time we got to the rental house it was almost dinner time. Kaden had an absolute blast playing with Jace and Jackson. He loved the rental house- every room was themed, a Peter Pan room, a Lego Room, a princess room, a Cars (like the movie) room, etc... It was really clever. Kaden had the Lego Room and he had a bunk bed with a slide in there and the whole thing looked like Legos. Super fun! I didn't even think to take a picture of the rooms. Bleh.

May 18-Day 2

We spent the first day in California Adventure. My friend Amy told me about a "disability pass" that you can get since Kaden has been diagnosed with a sensory processing disorder. (If you don't know what that is, since I didn't either, it's basically that his brain gets overstimulated by things that wouldn't bother the average person. His big one is noise, but also a lot of textures bother him too- certain foods he'll gag right up, tags on shirts, athletic shorts (he'd rather wear jeans) etc...We know a lot of his triggers- loud toilets in public restrooms, fireworks, buzzers at the hockey game, a blender if I don't warn him that I'm turning it on, etc... but we can't always predict what will send him into a complete meltdown. We figured an amusement park could be really hard for him with the things like bright lights, loud noises, waiting in lines for a long time, since all of Disneyland is themed around songs, characters,etc... and waiting in line is just as much of the experience as the actual ride. It was such a blessing because we could go scan the pass, tell them what ride we wanted to do and then 15 minutes later we walked right on. Before we'd start a ride that we thought might be loud or "scary" we'd put Kaden's noise canceling headphones on. We could take up to 6 people with us on it so we used it a lot to get the kids on the rides with less wait time. The one or two rides where we were actually waiting in the full, long lines so we could be together as a group he'd about had a complete meltdown by the time we got to the front so I realized what a tender mercy this pass actually was for us.

We met Lighting McQueen and saw Mater but didn't feel like standing in another line to get a picture.

May 19- Day 3

The next day we headed to the Magic Kingdom...

All the little boys brought their light sabers but Jace didn't want to get out of the stroller and walk or use his. Ha ha. In fact we were all cracking up because he mostly just wanted to be in the stroller and was really tired and kind of scowling at everyone. He's a very animated kid so his faces are hilarious.

Jackson & Kaden

Kaden loves music and was mesmerized with the Disneyland band that he saw when we came in. We stood and listened to them for quite a few songs. They were super cute with him and kept trying to ask him questions or give him high fives between songs and he kept hiding behind us.

Kaden loved the carousel and especially this horse because he was "making a silly face."

This creepy picture was taken while waiting for Kylo Ren. The boys wanted to meet him so badly...

... and yet they were all TERRIFIED of him when we actually got in there. Jace kept saying he was going to "fight Kylo Ren in the face" when we saw him. So much for that. Ha ha!

May 20- Day 4

We took a break from the parks since we were all super worn out from getting up early, long days in the sun and just hung out at the rental house. We slept in, played in the pool and on the backyard playset, went to Downtown Disney, etc...We went to Downtown Disney in the morning. We had fun in the Lego store playing with Legos and looking at the life size Lego creations they had.

Then we headed over to the Disney store. Kaden picked out a life size Mickey Mouse. It was the first thing he saw when we went into the Disney store and he immediately picked it up, hugged it and said, "this is my friend Mickey. I hope I can take him home with me." How do you say no to that? Even when it is $50. Ach. You don't. You just say, "oh well. We're on vacation and this is the thing my little boy wants." We're such softies.

Kaden has been so worn out this whole trip that he fell asleep on Curtis' shoulder on the way back from Downtown Disney.

This is a view of how many shoes were piled by the front door at our rental house. Amusing.

After lunch we hung out in the rental house pool and played.

Curtis, Brad, Kyle and Jason were playing this game of doing a water obstacle course. They had to jump in, swim across the pool, paddle back on the inflatable caterpillar thing and something else. It was quite funny to watch. They timed each person and the fastest person won. I can't remember who won though. Ha ha.

May 21-Day 5- Magic Kingdom (Part 2)

We went back to the Magic Kingdom and did all the rides we hadn't done yet and re-did the kids favorite rides. Dana bought all the girls Minnie Mouse shirts and bought all the boys Star Wars shirts.

The Storybook ride. I've been to Disneyland about 7 times and I've literally never even heard of this ride until this trip. First time for everything I guess. It was really cute!

The boys loved all the musicians throughout the park.

Kaden really liked Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (with headphones that is)

The boys loved Toontown and Kaden's favorite ride was the Goofy Rollercoaster. I wish we hadn't discovered it at the end of the last day because we ran out of time to ride it more than once.

The Light Parade and Fireworks was the best thing ever! Both kids and adults loved it!

May 22- Day 6

Sunday & the Beach

We went to church in a ward in Anaheim and then headed to the beach. It was freezing and super windy which made me glad we decided only to do a 1/2 day at the beach instead of a full day. We all wore our sweatshirts most of the time, even when we were in the water. Ironically enough the water was warmer than the air. But not by much. Aka freezing cold too. That didn't stop everyone from having a blast though!

Just like when he was a baby, Kaden rarely stops moving long enough for me to get any pictures of him and he doesn't like to be bothered to "smile" when he's busy playing... So I've just learned to adapt and take pictures of whatever I can get of his face.