celebrate good times...c'mon!

When I think of Disneyland when I was little I can hear the title of this post playing in my head...ah the good 'ole days, Disneyland as a kid is the best, second only to being a parent at Disneyland seeing it all through your kids eyes.

We decided to take the trip because this year if you go to Disneyland for your b-day it's free, and Cole isn't 3 yet so he was free, and that left us with only Justin's ticket to purchase. My b-day was kind enough to fall on a tuesday in may, which makes for little to no lines and a much less crowded main street. We were lucky enough to have my parents and one of my brothers and his girl come with us. Just one of the joys of having a family from San Diego!

This trip was magical. Cole LOVED every minute and was such a sport. He made it through the very long day without any melt downs, pretty good for a little guy! and were was Ali you ask? She was chillin' with Grandma Amonette, who was nice enough to give Ali a fun filled day of her own.

Toon Town was a HIT to say the least! Here we are in Goofy's house.

The best part about toontown is that you get to see the characters all in one swoop...so unlike my childhood where you scowered the park hoping to find them, only to be stampeded by the mob who had also spotted them, and hope to get a picture before they scampered off. None of that, now you wait in a nice safe line to meet them and walk through their house. Luckily the lines were way short and we were able to get some cute pic's.

Look how much he loves them. Thanks to his obsession with the mickey mouse club house show, he knows them all well, and was in awe that they were right there, waiting to talk to him!

We were pleased that he wasn't scared of the enormity of them...he was quite willing to go to them when it was his turn.

okay, if you know Cole well, then you know of his obsession with garage's...random, we know, but anyway, that is why this picture is adorable to us. He was sitting in a tire in Mickey's garage, it was like heaven to the kid.

How sweet is this? Even sweeter when you know that he has just said "I love you" to Pluto in the cutest voice ever.

He thought goofy was great, he was pretty cute with Cole.

As for the rides...he was a champ! He loved Dumbo...esp. when he got to go so high. I was shocked, I thought he would freak out a little, but he was up for it all.

So, since he was so good on the kid rides like Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, nemo, and tea cups, we decided to try the bigger rides...they were also a success! I still can't believe how great he was. We took him on pirates of the carrabean, the haunted house (which stalled for like 5 min right in front of a part with ghosts popping out, during which Justin kept saying "Cole, look at the cool birds flying around" in hopes of minimizing any trauma), the jungle cruise, and splash mountain. His favorite part of splash mountain was the huge drop, and his face on the $15 unpurchased photo that they take was hilarious. He just wanted to jump in the water and kept trying to take his shoes off.

On Autopia he thought that driving was great! Justin pushed the peddle and let him steer. I was in the front car and all I heard was "bang" followed by a very cute giggle repeatedly. My parents were in the car behind and were laughing the whole time at the sight of Justin's head being jerked around as Cole ran into the bar that the car is tracked on. He also thought that the fake driver's liscence they give you was amazing.

Here is proof that my parents were with us...I snapped this when they were watching Cole ahead of them. It was so fun to have them along, and great to have 2 extra pairs of eyes watching Cole.

Justin has always wanted to visit the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house...which is now the Tarzan tree house. Which is basically the Swiss Family Robinson one, with Tarzan stuff in it. I love this pick of the boys climbing together.

How cute are they? Cole really loves his dad. It is so fun to see them play together.

Cole went straight for the climbing rope when he saw it, way to make dad proud Cole!

and here, he decided it looked like way more fun on the other side of the fence.

Here we are waiting for the parade. We had great seats and Cole was excited for it all to begin! He was exhausted by this point, but still awed by all of it. So we sat on main street eating enormous ice cream cones, and soaking it all in.

Earlier in the day we had tried to see Tigger but they said he had to leave, so there Cole sat watching other kids get hugs and he was told he could not go to him. It broke our hearts to watch his little 2 year old mind not understand. But luckily tigger glanced at him as he left and waved, to which cole said "I love you Tigger". So, it was perfect when Tigger came up to Cole during the parade and Cole got his moment.

You know you're a good dad when...

...you will dance in a parade just so your little guy can have a memory.

and his favorite thing at the parade? CONFETTI, he was obsessed with picking up all the mickey mouse shaped paper.

It was a perfect day, with perfect memories.
A day filled his sweet voice saying "look at that!" in awe. He hasn't stopped talking about it all since. He has many things to help him remember, like suveneirs bought by grandma and grandpa, a sweet hat from dad, the coolest stuffed Jack Sparrow Mickey mouse from Uncle Lance, and ten thousand pictures courtesy of mom. But mom and dad need no reminders, we are going to be talking about this for years to come. It was a great day, that lived up to the promise of the happiest place on earth...at least for that day.