Disneyland

Since we'll be a little busy around Zak's birthday, we decided it was time to take him to Disneyland for a little early birthday present. It was also Adam's first trip - since he grew up on the East Coast, he has been to Disneyworld, but I just found out this morning it was only twice - once when he was four and once when he was in sixth grade. I'm not sure who was more excited... We decided to get the annual passes, since Zak is old enough to enjoy it, and he's still free for another year :) Plus, Disneyland is only 20 minutes from us, so we hope to get good use out of them. After the hour ordeal to get our tickets and pictures for the passes, it was time to head inside. All week when we asked Zak who we were going to see at Disneyland, one of the first characters he mentioned was Goofy. Well, here's what happened when he actually met Goofy:

On the Buzz Lightyear ride

On the carousel - this was progress. The last couple times he went on one (or tried), he melted down - he was serious, but definitely enjoyed it this time.

He really liked Dumbo

As you can see, Zak spent much of the day on Daddy's shoulders

After lunch we watched the Jedi Training Academy

Zak pointing out the bad guys

Autopia - Zak did not like this ride. Only at Disneyland can a 22 month old drive

Modeling the new Incredibles shirt he got (he would not let us out of the store without putting it on him)

Look - I was there too. The weird lean-in pose I have is because I was originally too close to Mickey - he was making Zak laugh - so I had to step back, but never moved back in for the picture. Zak was much more receptive to Mickey than we was to Goofy. I think he just saw Goofy a little too early in the day.

The traditional front of the park shots that we got on the way out

Me in my 8 months pregnant glory

After leaving Disneyland we went over to California Adventure for about an hour. Here's Zak getting ready to watch the Muppets 3D show

After walking around the Bug's Life area for a little bit, it became apparent that Zak was about to crash (or so we thought). This is the only time he actually sat in the stroller (he is enjoying a piece of churro).

Like I said, we thought he was about to crash. We were all exhausted when we got home, so the idea was for all of us to nap. Well, Zak wasn't really in on that plan. I take back all the good progress I had previously posted about the big boy bed. Now that he realizes that he can just pop out of bed if he doesn't want to go to bed yet, bedtime has been a nightmare lately. We've tried the gate at night a few times and he just screams. When I tried it this afternoon, I heard him playing for a little while, then silence. Here's what I found when I went to check on him.

All in all it was a good day. It was amazing how crowded it got so early. By the time we made it in and over to the Nemo ride, it already had a 45 minute wait. At least next time we can just go right in and hopefully hit the rides a little earlier. We didn't think Zak would appreciate the long waits, so we just hit the ones that we could either get a fastpass for, or had short waits. Luckily, many of the little kid rides didn't have too long of a wait.