21 months & Disneyland!

I can't believe our little boy is getting so close to being 2 years old! We have already started talking about his birthday party. We really need to have most of the planning done before October because that is going to be one hectic month for us, but it just doesn't seem right that we are planning his 2nd birthday party! I wish time would slow down already.

Ryder continues to be a very busy, active and super smart little boy (not baby, little boy). He says and does the funniest things. He amazes me with his language skills. He is definitely ahead of other kids around the same age as him. He can even count to 15, all by himself! We are working on getting to 20 now and I am sure he will have it within a couple of days.

I loooove to sneak in his room and see him sleeping! If there's one thing he does as well as playing, it's sleeping. He has the play hard, sleep hard motto. He still takes great naps too (2-3 hours, most days).

He literally plays with his cars alllll day long. I can't wait until it cools off and we can play outside again. He rarely even asks to go outside anymore - instead he stares out the sliding door and says, "It's hot outside." He could care less about the heat, but he knows I won't go out there. I feel bad that we've only been swimming a couple times this summer (he LOVED it last year), but the times that we have gone, he has hated it and just wanted out the whole time. I hope that will change. We really need to get into swim lessons, just didn't get to it this year.

A few weeks ago, Rudy had to go to LA for work. He was going to be gone for 5 days and I was seriously dreading being home without him for that long. Then we realized, there was no reason why Ryder and I couldn't go too. We could easily stay in Rudy's hotel room with him and they gave him a huge allowance for food - enough to feed all 3 of us. The only problem, was transportation. He was flying and plane tickets were too expensive, but I really didn't want to make the drive by myself, with a toddler (not to mention the price of gas - especially in California). Rudy's parents had been saying all summer that they wanted to go to Disneyland, because with his dad being military, they were able to get an awesome deal on tickets. When they heard I wanted someone to drive to California with, it all just came together. Ryder and I drove up with them and we met Rudy at our hotel (which ended up being REALLY nice). He had the first day free, so we all headed to Disneyland! His brother, sister and 3 nephews all came too.

Rudy had to be in classes the other days .... from 7am-5pm. Ryder and I spent another 2 days at Disneyland. Rudy came and picked us up the second day, after he was done and we went back and just relaxed at the hotel (since we didn't get back to our hotel till 1am the first night, I wanted Ryder to have a good night of sleep). The third day he came and met us at Disneyland when he was done and we stayed until closing that night. We wished Rudy could have been at Disneyland with us the whole time, but we still got to have some fun with him! And it was great having grandparents there to watch Ryder while we went on the bigger rides. :)

Pictures from our trip....

After 12 hours in the car (it took waaaaay longer than it should have) .... and Rudy had a 1 hr plane flight, haha.

Ryder in front of the Matterhorn .... which was closed this time.

Waiting in line to take Ryder on his first ride .... The Pirates of the Caribbean!!

Getting on the ride! He LOVED it! Couldn't get enough of the rides.

Waiting to go on one of my favorites ... Buzz Lightyear!

Autotopia ... we have a picture just like this from 5 or 6 years ago, the last time we went to Disneyland!

I was never a believer in "child leashes" until I had a wild little boy. We decided we needed to get one for Disneyland .... and it was worth every penny. There was no way he was sitting in the stroller or being carried the whole time and this was the only way we could let him walk around.

Waiting in line for "It's a Small World." I will forever love that ride!

On the boat .... I love that the guy in the way back, posed for the picture too! And when I looked at it, I totally turned around and called him out. It's hard to see on the computer, it was much more obvious on the camera.

Ryder was so fascinated on the rides! And they added a bunch of stuff to the small world ride. Now you can spot all the different Disney characters in their corresponding parts of the world - I thought it was really cool!

And then right before the fireworks started, this boy PASSED OUT hard. Slept through the loudest firework show ever, and he was RIGHT underneath it.

Day 2 we did California Adventure. I was SO EXCITED about the new Little Mermaid ride! And I enjoyed every second of it! I wish I would have gone on it again ... but I did take a video of pretty much the entire thing. :) Here's Ryder with his cousins, Nathan, Elijah & RJ.

Greatest ride ever!!!

(Side note: That's Rudy's dad next to me ... carrying his mom's purse. Gotta love a man that carries his wife's purse everywhere. Rudy would totally do the same thing.)

Nathan walking Ryder on his leash, hahaha.

Ariel :)

Waiting to see the Bug's Life 3D show. Ryder pretty much threw a fit the whole time .... good thing his Tata was there to take him out. :)

Day 3

Ryder's first carousel experience - loved it!

Petting Zoo

Waiting to go on Mark Twain's Riverboat

Nap time!

Yay, daddy made it!!!

We really wanted Ryder to see the fireworks that night, so we were trying our best to keep him awake ... tickling never fails! He didn't pay any attention to the fireworks and passed out immediately after. Rudy and I got to go on some rides while the grandparent's walked around with the sleeping baby.

He woke up at midnight, just as we were leaving the park and played the whole car ride home and then had a party in bed too. Maybe it was the ice cream that we devoured a couple hours earlier. You can't leave Disneyland without having some amazing ice cream!

We got back to the hotel room around 2am and Rudy's parents stayed with us that night as they didn't have anywhere else to stay and we thought it was ridiculous for them to be searching for a room in the middle of the night. The next morning Rudy went off to class and we all slept in a little. Then we went out to breakfast and to a few stores (we were staying in downtown Pasadena, which is an awesome shopping area). I had originally planned on spending one day just looking around and shopping, but when it came down to it, I couldn't resist Disneyland. I figured we may as well take advantage of all 3 days there. And Rudy's parents were so kind to drive back and forth to get us every day - even though the hotel was only 35 miles from Disneyland, it took 1.5 hours each way (gotta love LA traffic - I could NEVER live there).

We headed home - yet another super long drive, but Ryder was GREAT in the car. I was amazed with how well he did being in the car soooo much. Rudy stayed one more night and we were happy to pick him up the next day and then enjoy 2 days together, being lazy. He got paid for all the days he was there and it was nice to have his 2 days off when he got back. All in all, we had a great time! We can't wait to go back to Disneyland and I think it will take us until next time to completely recover. It is soo exhausting! It took a week for us to get caught up on sleep.