Monday, August 16

San Diego: Disney Land & The Beach

We headed out onto the open road promptly after Conrad's nap Thursday afternoon, (being that this is the happiest time of his day). We were all excited and ready for the beach and to spend time together getting to really relax and have some fun. We entertained our toddler with toys, snacks, & books for the first 3 hours of the car ride, but sadly, the last 2 hours he spent crying and kicking the backs of our seats. Awesome. 
With 2 ear infections, molars popping through his gums and being bored out of his mind,
 I can understand.
 I call it a success only crying for 2 out of the 5 hours that we traveled! 
Friday, we headed to Disneyland thinking that since it's the happiest place on earth, our son would be the happiest baby on earth. Not the case. I should have known that the people in costumes would scare him. 

A few weeks ago we went to town square for dinner where a man dressed in an ice cream cone stood outside of Dairy Queen as still as a statue and once you got closer, he jumped up and said "Rawr!" (Since when do ice cream cones roar and jump up in the air with their arms out and hands flexed like claws?) Conrad was on my father in laws shoulders and quickly went into hysterics clinging to his head and trying to find his way down while he screamed and cried. (It was hilarious), but also really sad.

I should have known that Mickey and Minnie would be just as frightening.... 

So we tried to ease our way into the Disney festivities. Our first ride was the carousel. In this photo below, Conrad had just started to cry, wanted to be turned around to be held, and at this point, i pulled the Binky out to see if we could get back on track and not totally flip out by the moving, robotic, fake horses and flashing lights. Nope. He stayed like this the entire ride.

After the carousel disaster, we walked around to find some lunch and see what other rides we could check out. Everything else looked way scarier than the carousel, so we continued to walk around. I thought it might be cute to get a photo with Ariel and it just so happened that she was right next to a pond of ducks, so instead of looking at the pretty lady standing next to him and turning so mommy could get a photo, they just pointed at the duck together. (We spend the next 30 minutes at this pond looking at this duck. It was the high light of his trip to Disney land. Dustin hunted down the security guard to ask him if there were any other ponds or animals in the park. The security guard said that he could escort us to a restaurant where a lot of stray cats hang out and we could feed them, but we opted not to feed stray cats. Instead we pointed at a duck for a half hour. Disney Land was truly memorable.) 
After we visited the duck, we headed over to the California side and found a little water park. 
The guys hanging in the back yard of our friends house watching air planes fly over.
The beach started out rough. He HATED the sand just as bad as he HATES grass apparently. Again, we should have known! The waves were his favorite. He actually smiled and enjoyed the waves, which was cute to see.

He wouldn't let me put him down to walk... 
Holding his legs up so he doesn't touch the sand... 
Over all, our trip was really great. Sunday was the day of my race (which was amazing. I'll write about it soon.) We spent the afternoon with our friends Matt & Vicki enjoying their company, going down town for delicious cup cakes and the kiddos got to play together as well. Before we headed back to Vegas, Matt cooked us up an incredible dinner which was so nice. Seeing our friends made us realize how much we have missed them. 
Matt & Dustin.
Conrad fell asleep on the way home and slept for the entire 5 hour drive 
(plus, he slept in for 2 hours this morning! Score!) 
I have a feeling we will be going back to San Diego soon. 
We had such a wonderful trip. 

12 comments:

  1. Your family is so precious!
    When I was little they had a man dressed up as a box of macaroni and cheese and I was terrified of him. hah. To this day it freaks me out to see people dressed up like that hah.

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  2. okay...this is going to sound totally weird, but in that picture of your husband and his friend there is also a picture of a friend of ours! hahaha...tyler riggs...male model...he was just in an Urban Outfitters catalog. how funny that i spotted him in your picture! he is the one right above your friends head on the left! he left tampa, went to new york, and suddenly was all over the place. crazy world!

    and secondly...olivia HATES the sand as well. can't stand. and i love the beach. so this is something we have had to work on!

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  3. it looks like an awesome trip. i'm glad that conrad slept so much on the way back. that makes the ride ride back a whole lot more bearable.

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  4. first of all I LOVE that bathing suit and that looks like a lot of fun!

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  5. Precious.
    Your boy is the cutest thing ever.
    The last little picture of you and your family is so so cute.

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  6. OMG, your family is too darn cute! What a great trip! Love ALL the pictures. The one on the carousel is precious. And the last pic is gorgeous! LOVE your yellow suit. :)

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  7. you look stunning in your yellow bathing suit! i love it!

    did you go on it's a small world? it's way less scary and psychedelic than most of the kiddy rides(seriously some of the inventors of these rides were on some serious crack or something)

    glad you had a great trip!

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  8. that's sad he hated disneyland. boo. at least there were ducks :)

    looks like such a fun trip! & i agree with the rest..that yellow suit is pretty incredible!

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  9. Looks like so much fun! Another reason why I should live out West!! Beautiful photos! Especially the beach ones! How cute!

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  10. Im scared of animatronics/mascot costumes/taxidermy/statutes too. So he's in good company. In fact, my mother can tell you about how I cried all the way through the Pirates ride.

    But the stray cats? Joel and I busted a gut over that. Good for the security guard for thinking outside the box at least?

    And you look smashing in yellow.

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  11. hi! thanks for the compliment! your family is pretty darn cute too!!

    i love your bathing suit too! gorgeous!!

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  12. Gorgeous beach photos! Your bathing suit is adorable and Conrad's faces are hilarious... though I'm sure it made for a slightly frustrating trip.

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