CA - Days eight, nine, & ten

I don't have a single picture of day eight, our last Saturday in California.  We didn't want to fight crowds so we didn't do anything touristy.  We spent the morning thrift shopping and we each got something fantastic so we each went home really happy (Are you interested in seeing what we found?  Maybe I'll have to take pictures and do a later post).  Then Diane and Tom babysat again so Larry and I went out for Chinese and a movie.

Sunday was another relaxed day.  Church in the morning, a big dinner.  There were wildflowers all over so we headed to a nearby field after dinner to take some pictures, but we were a little too late and didn't quite have enough light.

Monday morning we did some shopping, let Creed play in fountains, and then headed Sprinkles Cupcakes

Larry and I left Creed with grandma again and then spent the rest of the day in LA.  We went letterboxing, which brought us to the LA airport and Randy's Donut's.  Then we stopped at Tito's Tacos (because Larry cannot go to LA without stopping there) then we went to Sony Studios to watch a pilot taping of Waiting to Die.  It was very funny so I hope that it gets picked up.

The taping took a while, but Pink's is open late so we still had time to stop for a hot dog at Pink's.
I ordered one of their famous chili dogs + guacamole, Larry on the other hand ordered a Poli-bacon chili cheeseburger.  It was like a polish dog, blt, and cheeseburger + chili and it was huge (and disgusting in my opinion, but all the guys in line wanted to know what it was so they could order it)
We headed home on Tuesday and didn't feel too bad about it because it was crazy hot.  Creed insisted on wearing his Mickey ears as we packed up the car even though we kept telling him he'd be cooler if he took it off.

Now I'm ready for another vacation!

CA - Day Seven, Balboa Island

I don't often wish for riches, but every time I visit Balboa Island, I find myself dreaming that we could be millionaires so we could own a home there.  Before Keri and Jack left town, we spent a day on Balboa Island.  We took the ferry over for an added adventure.

I loved this view (the boys and the water.) This photo reminds me of how tiny Creed still is.  Sometimes I forget.
I have a crush on all of the homes there.  Each one is cuter than the next.


And is=f you lived in one of those cute homes, everyday you could walk to get a Balboa Bar with your favorite topping.
We opted to get Creed ice cream because we thought it would be easier for him to eat.
The original plan was to rent a surrey or some bikes and ride around, but it got hot so we skipped it and headed for the beach.  Thanks to Keri and Diane, we took a few family pictures
This is my current favorite!
And our jumping inspired Jack too!

CA - Day Six, The Magic Kingdom

It's so fun being maried to someone who loves Disneyland as much as me (ok, maybe even more than me because he told me over and over how excited he was to take Creed to Disneyland.  He couldn't sleep the night before.  He was like a kid on Christmas Eve).  We arrived bright and early just after the park opened.  Make fun of me all you want, but we all wore matching Mickey ears.  This day was all about Creed and he looked so stink cute that it was totally worth it.

His favorite ride is still the Casey Jr Train (I don't think I EVER went on this ride until I had Creed)
When we were back in Utah prepping for the trip I was talking to Creed about how we were going to Disneyland, where Mickey had his house, and we were going to go on ride there.  I asked him if he remembered going on rides there last fall.  He said, "Train!" which I didn't think much of because we ride at the train at the zoo all the time, but them he said, "Elephants, flying!"  What?  How did he possibly remember that?  He was a little more nervous to ride them this time.
But he warmed up in the end.
He LOVED meeting Mickey.  He got right down on the floor and tried to play cars with him.
And he gave him two hugs goodbye.  You have to love this age!
And since trains are big at our house, we also had to go on the monorail.
Notice that Creed is always riding with me.  He still likes to hold onto his Mamma when he is nervous.
We caught several glimpses of Creed admiring his Mickey shadow as he walked around the park.
Mickey ears and skinny jeans, does it get any cuter than that?
Larry's best friend from medical school and his wife Alex showed up at noon (Ben and Alex, who shows up at Disneyland at noon?)  Creed is a big fan of Alex and it was so fun having friends with us for the rest of the day.
The park was really crowded but they had all the lines on all of the rides going so the lines weren't too bad.  In the midst of all of that, we walked right off The Pirates of the Carrebean and ran right into my cousins.  What are the chances of that? My cousin Weston said he always wanted that hat when he was little and his parents would never buy it for him so he HAD to have it on this trip.  I guess lots of dreams do come true at Disneyland.
Creed was really, really good.  We only had to resort to pulling out games on my Ipod twice and that kept him busy.  He fell asleep on Larry during the parade and slept all the way through the Haunted Mansion (with all the movement and screaming) and most of the line for the Finding Nemo Submarines.
It was a really great day, and to make it even better, Larry's mom and Keri picked Creed up at 9:00, and we stayed with Ben and Alex until the park closed at midnight riding all the grown-up rides we missed during the day like Indiana Jones and the Matterhorn.
Oh, and I did I mention the tea cups?  A word of advice, use extreme caution before getting into tea cups with two strapping young men! (Thanks for the video Benji and Alex!)

CA - Day Five,

This picture makes me crack up.  It is so Creed and Jack.  Creed adored his cousin Jack and wanted to do whatever Jack was doing, while Jack patiently put up with it.

At least they both really enjoyed spending the day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I will never get tired of watching Creed's amazement as he learns about nature.




Of course the tank full of Nemos and Dori fishes was his favorite (he only watched Pixar movies and besides Wall-E and Cars, he is only interested in watching about 15 minutes at a time.  He is absolutely not interested in The Lion King or Peter Pan or Curious George.)

The whole thing was free thanks to tickets from our friends the Goodlings and they even met us afterwards for lunch.  Creed has since asked to go back to the "fish museum" about a billion times.
But Creed never complained about going back to Grandma's because not only did he love Grandma Ward, he LOVED Tom's train collection.  Every night looked something like this.

CA - Day Four, Disney California Adventure

Luckily we were in California during Disney's 2fer pass for Southern Californians; for the price of a one day pass to Disneyland or California Adventure, you get a second day at the other park for free.  That meant that we could spend a surprisingly relaxed day at California Adventure without feeling like we needed to rush and get our money's worth.  It also meant Creed had a day to get used to the rides, which made Disneyland much more enjoyable a few days later.

Not so wisely, we started off with the new Toy Story ride while the line was still really short.  We thought Creed would calm down once he was on the ride and he recognized the Toy Story characters, but not so much.  He was terrified!  I felt so bad.  After that we decided to opt for something that we knew he would like and took him to the Disney Playhouse show.  He loved seeing Mickey and friends and the Little Einsteins on stage.  He clearly thought he was seeing the real characters and was in awe.  That alone made the whole trip worth it.

A few other highlights from the day were that we attempted the Monsters Inc ride and Creed actually seemed to enjoy it
He was thrilled to see this little Wall-E cutout
He even had to give it a hug and a kiss before we moved on.
While Larry was on the Tower of Terror I got in line with Creed to take his picture with Lightning McQueen and Mater.  Creed had no idea what we were in line for until Larry arrived and Creed caught a glimpse as I set him down.  He darted through the line and into someone's picture to give Lightning a hug and he was dancing with joy.  It was really hard to wait for our turn, but he made it.
We literally had to pry him away after he gave them hugs, and then he talked about seeing them the rest of the day.
He napped like a champ in his stroller.
And he didn't mind waiting for the Pixar Parade (which was one his other favorite parts of the day).  He just pulled out his cars and played in the street until the parade came.  He has been asking for Sally from the movie Cars, but we hadn't been able to find one until Keri picked the last one up when they were at California Adventure.  I think he will love Keri FOREVER for that.