Disneyland

Travis and I decided late last year that we wanted to surprise Merrick with a trip to Disneyland for his 6th birthday.  After lots of research and planning, we got a trip booked in early January.  Lucky for us, the Handasyde family wanted to join us, which made the trip planning that much more fun!  Darryl and Rebecca told Dakota that she was going to Disneyland about a month before the trip.  Merrick took the news like a champ and was even excited for Dakota when he found out that she was going to get to stay the night with us before the trip and that we would take them to the airport in the morning. 

We had a 6:50 am flight, which meant an early rise time for all of us.  Merrick wasn't quite awake when we told him the news that he was going to Disneyland and it took a few minutes for the news to sink in.  He quickly ran and told Dakota that he was going with her.  The first excitement of the day was finding out that we were going to ride in a taxi to the airport.  I honestly think Merrick might have been just as excited about the taxi as he was about going to Disneyland.

Merrick & Dakota at the Orange County Airport sporting their "I'm with Goofy T-shirts" and custom Mickey and Minnie bags

The nice thing about an early morning flight was that we got to our hotel and dropped off our bags by 10:00 in the morning, which meant we had a full day at the park.  The first small hiccup in the trip was that the computer system at Disney was down.  Not a big deal if you have your confirmation paperwork with you to show that you have purchased tickets (unfortunately we did not).  Fortunately, they took our word for it and gave us tickets to the park.  How's that for customer service?  Travis was our navigator for the trip and had his handy phone and disneyland app that told him what the wait time was on all the rides.  We decided to ease into things and hit the Jungle Cruise first.  The only problem was our little boat ride turned into a short version of Gilligan's Island.  What was supposed to be about a 7 minute tour, turned into a 20+ minute tour as they had some malfunctions on the ride.  When we finally made it back to the dock, they gave us extra fast passes (for those of you who don't know what a fast pass is, it's like a golden ticket that gets you to the front of the ride line).  Again, Disney came through on the customer service front. 

The crew on the tea cups

I could bore all of you with the play by play details of our trip, but I'll save both you and I the time. I will bore you with lots of pictures, which as they say... are worth a thousand words. If you really want details, the next time I see you, be sure to ask.  What I will say is that we had a wonderful time.  I would say it was probably the best family trip we've been on and we created lots of memories. 

On the Mickey Ferris Wheel at California Adventure

Playing at the water park at our hotel

Tower of Terror - One of my favorite rides

Screamin' California was one of our favorite rides.

We surprised the kids with breakfast with the characters on our last day.

After our last day at Disneyland and California Adventure

Mr. M. turns 6!

It's hard to believe that Mr. M. is already 6 years old!  I know they say that time flies when you're having fun, but I had no idea it went this fast.  Merrick truly is the light of our lives, he is smart, sweet, funny, compassionate, inquisitive, and I could go on and on.  One of the things that I love about M is that he still loves to snuggle and get kisses and hugs from his mom & dad.  Since he's my only one, I savor these moments because I know they won't last forever.  I know the day is coming when he won't want a kiss when I drop him off at school and will be okay with a hug and then it will be no kiss and no hug and just a "bye mom" as he runs to his friends.  So until that time comes, we will cherish these moments with him.

Since M is our only one, he does tend to get SPOILED.  We've been planning a surprise trip to Disneyland to celebrate his birthday since January.  Originally we weren't going to have a party with his friends and keep the big celebration for "The Happiest Place on Earth", but once we knew for certain that we were moving, we decided to give him one last party here in Portland with all his friends.  We let him pick the location, and he chose Pump it Up.  So Friday, May 4, 20 of Merrick's closest friends (and their parents) headed to Pump it Up for a fun evening of jumping, sliding and cake. 

 The whole crew (let's see you try to get 20+ kids cooperate for a picture!)

M and his best buddy Zachary.  These boys are only 4 months apart in age and have known each other since M was born.

Megan and M.  Megan and M have known each other since the day M was brought home from the hospital.  Her mom and I walked many, many miles pushing the kids in strollers when M was an infant trying to keep him happy and to stop the CRYING! They both lost their first tooth this past week.  So fun that they reached that milestone together.