Universal Studio/Hollywood Tour

We went to Universal Studio on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun.  That day seemed to fly by.  We got to pretty much do most of everything we wanted, but it seemed like we were rushed trying to get it all done.  My favorite part was the Backlot Tour.  We got to drive down Wisteria Lane, that was pretty neat.

Where CSI is filmed

After we left Universal we went on a night tour of Hollywood. We mostly drove around and looked at the “spots” but we did get to get out on the Walk of Fame. We saw some of the stars, the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater.

We went to Legoland the day after Christmas. I would rather have been in line at Wal-Mart to return 15 gifts than trying to navigate through that place. The tour bus dropped us off at 10:30 am and didn’t pick us up until 7:30 pm. It was a long day of looking at Legos. Cade loved it so that makes it worth it…just a note to self – never let a tour bus drop you off at an amusement part for that long. At least we did get to see the Pacific Ocean on the drive to the park. That made it worth it. Cade’s been able to see every body of water surrounding the US. Considering Jay and I are 32 and just saw that Cade’s doing pretty good for his 7 years.

A gigantic Christmas tree made from Legos

Could it get any better for Cade?

The best part of Legoland were the miniture cities they built.  The band in this scene even played music and moved.  It was pretty neat.  Looking at all these models did kill a large chunk of the day (thankfully!)

Jay and Cade got their boat going to wrong way, which Jay that was just hilarious.  I thought it was obnoxious.

Cade made a Bionicle and a worker put it in a place of honor.

The Indiana Jones Incident

After we left California Adventure we headed to Disneyland. That was when Cade purchased his coveted Indiana Jones hat. He spotted it the first day we got to the park, but after seeing the price tag of $36 we tried to talk him into holding off to make sure that was really what he wanted. Since we heard about that hat all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we decided he really wanted the hat. That is one of the advantages of having an only child/being an only child. A $36 hat isn't a huge deal....$36 times 2 or 3 children is a whole different story! As soon as we bought it, much to my disappointment, he quit wearing his ears. That hat was pretty much glued to his head for the rest of the trip. He would freak out while waiting in line for a ride so he'd stuff it in the backpack, even though we might be waiting another 45 minutes. He didn't want to loose it, he loved his hat. The day we left for the airport our shuttle picked us up at 4:30 am. Needless to say we were all exhausted. Cade fell asleep on the ride to the airport. Once we got there it was a flurry of activity. Jay and I were trying to deal with the luggage and wake Cade up and get him out of the way of the cars in the unloading zone and deal with the driver and the vouchers and tipping. It was hectic. We got our stuff and Cade hauled into the airport, Jay and I got in line with the luggage and we put Cade on a bench. That's when it happened. Cade became hysterical because his hat had fallen off and we left it in the van. The van was long gone. Cade was crying and Jay and I were both upset and mad at ourselves. I mean the driver had reminded us to make sure we had everything. I tried telling Cade I'd order him another one online. At that point I would've paid $100 for the hat if it meant he would've quit crying. Then I remembered I had the phone number of the shuttle service and our confirmation number in my pocket. I called the dispatcher and she contacted the driver. He was still in the area and he would meet me out front of where he dropped us off. After giving the man another tip we had the Indiana Jones hat back in our possession. All was right in the world again. The rest of the day I was constantly mentally counting....2 backpacks, 1 laptop, 1 purse, 1 scrapbook and 1 hat.

Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland

We went to Disney's California Adventure after we left the character breakfast.  It's another theme park directly across from Disneyland.  It wasn't too crowded in there Christmas morning so we had a pretty nice time.  Some of the highlights were finally meeting Mickey and Minnie, Lightning McQueen and Mater, Cade carried on a conversation with an animated Crush from finding Nemo and the Disney Animation Studio.  We got to sit through a class that taught us how to draw cartoon characters.  We drew Dopey.  Jay and I could've sat through a couple more of the drawing classes but Cade was itching to get his Indiana Jones hat..

When we got to the park on Christmas Day it was unbelievably crowded. It was pretty much awful. Once we got Cade's hat we got in line for the Jungle Cruise. That was probably a 45 minute wait or so. Then we walked around trying to decide what to do next, but it was all so overwhelming. We managed to find the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh so we rode it. I took a picture of the inside of the store. All of the decorations were incredible. We also had a chance to see Pooh and Tigger, but the line was so long. We settled for getting them on the video camera. We then decided to try and find something to eat. The lines were so crazy. Absolutely crazy. While looking for a place to eat we stumbled onto Santa and his reindeer. Santa also had a neat little cabin set up with Christmas dinner on the table and the reindeer halters hanging on the wall. After that we decided to leave the park. We headed to Downtown Disney to find a place to eat. It was even worse there than in the Park. The restaurants had lines out the door just to put your name in. We ended up leaving and trying to find a place off the property, We ended up at a buffet that was absolutely terrible...but they had a table on the patio we told them we'd take if it meant me could be seated. The only thing we could say was that at least we weren’t hungry anymore. It definitely wasn't the usual Christmas Dinner for us...but then again it wasn't our typical Christmas either.  I read later that Disneyland almost reached capacity that day which is 70,000 people.

All Ears

After we left the Character Breakfast we made our way through the Downtown Disney district and headed to Disney's California Adventure.  We made a detour at the All Things Disney store so I could buy some ornaments.  They were half-price and wouldn't last all day you know.  That is where we bought Cade's set of ears.  I thought he was the cutest thing.  Jay kept telling me to say he was handsome, but he wasn't.  He was stinkin' cute.  Just look at the picture of him in the Pujols jersey watching the TV's in the waiting area for the Muppet 3-D show.  Don't you want to squeeze him???

Isnt' that too cute???

The Character Breakfast

We went to our Character Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen on Christmas morning.  It was such a neat experience and I'm so glad we did it.  It was so exciting to see the characters walk up to your table and give you their autograph.  I got as excited as Cade did.  We first had our picture taken with Pluto before we were seated and then after that they walked up to our tables.  Goofy also did a dance and included all of the kids in it.  If anyone ever takes their children to Disney World or Disneyland you need to spring for the character breakfast.  It is definitely worth it.

Santa did find Cade all the way in California

Pluto

Snow White

Baloo

Goofy

Chip

Mulan

Captain Hook

Dale

As you can see in the picture with Mulan, the resturant used Fiesta dishes.  Even though we were far from home on Christmas morning I still got to drink my coffee out of a turquoise mug!

And because it wouldn't have been a breakfast at Disney without these...only wish I had thought to take the picture BEFORE I put butter on them...

Traveling and Christmas Eve

I tried to keep the blog somewhat updated on our travels from KC on the 23rd.  As I reported earlier we did miss our connecting flight out of Houston.  I almost cried.  Luckily Continnental got us on another flight and they put us in a hotel room for the evening.  It really wasn't too bad.  I'm just so thankful we were able to get on another flight and to California reasonably early.  It really only put us behind a few hours.

Once we checked into our hotel and showered/changed into clean clothes (Yea!) we grabbed some lunch and headed to the park.  We got there about 2.  As soon as we walked in the gate a guy handed us some Fastpasses to Indiana Jones.  That was the first ride we got to go on.  We were so lucky that we got those then because I don't know that we would've ever got to ride it.  The rest of the time we were there the ride was broken down some, the Fastpasses were gone and the stand by wait time was 110 minutes. 

Inside of Indiana Jones

The next thing on our agenda was the ride Pirates of the Caribbean.  With the first pirate movie Cade got a CD that had the Wonderful World of Disney that showed the opening day of the ride.  We've watched the movie of the ride about a million times so this was a huge highlight for us.  Knowing that Walt Disney created most of that in the 60's was amazing.  The attention to detail is something else.  Now they've added some of the characters from the movie.  Captain Jack Sparrow was so real looking.  You just expected Johnny Depp to stand up and start talking to you.  Cade was so cute  - he sang Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirates Life for Me right along with the ride.

After that we got to ride the railroad around and it's a small world.  We're also lucky we got on the small world that day because the rest of the time the wait line was pushing 60 minutes.  We were able to walk right on it.  The crowds were so light that day we were able to get quite a bit accomplished, which turned out to be a good thing considering what the rest of the time of Disneyland would be like.

It's a Small World

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Cade on the Sailing Ship Columbia