Big waves and big animals

One of my favorite places in San Diego has always been La Jolla, so we certainly couldn't go to California without a stop in La Jolla. It's just so beautiful on the rocky coastline! We had a nice lunch overlooking La Jolla Cove, although our table wasn't on the border of the patio so our view wasn't as fantastic as it was during our last trip a few years ago. It was still a very enjoyable lunch (and the kids' menu came with a little toy called Bendaroos which Benji had never seen before and was very happy playing with).

After lunch we headed down to the coastline to go out on the rocks. We considered going down to the beach, but when we looked down on the Cove it was completely packed and it must have been high tide since the entire beach was under water. It didn't look safe nor fun, so we stayed up on the rocks instead. And since Benji had enjoyed getting splashed at Cabrillo earlier in the trip we thought he would enjoy this as well. He was a bit disappointed with the first set of rocks we climbed on — there wasn't enough splashing.

But the second set sure didn't disappoint on that front. At first just Benji and Daddy went out further on the rocks to scope things out. They got some nice gentle splashes and were able to jump out of the way before getting too wet. So they decided it was safe for me to come out and join them. I think I was out there for exactly one spash — the giant one that got all of us soaked! That was definitely not the amount of splashing that Benji was looking for so it was time to head back to the car. On the way, though, we stopped for some ice cream at Cold Stone which sure put Benji into a better mood despite still being pretty wet.

Today was our day to drive up to Anaheim, so we ended our stint in San Diego with a stop at the Wild Animal Park on our way out of town. It's amazing how much hotter it is out at the Wild Animal Park than it was on the coast. If we weren't dry yet from the big wave, a few minutes out in the desert was all it took to finish drying off. On our way walking out to the tram ride "Journey into Africa" we saw one of those new giant tethered ballons. Benji was intrigued by the idea so we watched for a while while Mommy rested and had a cold drink. Benji's pressed penny radar also found his souvenir for this destination.

When we got out to the tram, Benji was disappointed that this wasn't a real ride (i.e. a roller coaster), but I had brought with his kids' digital camera so he quickly enjoyed himself being a little photographer. It was so cute to watch him trying to take pictures of the animals, some of which were pretty far away. He also tried to match some of the animals to the pictures on the inside of the tram.

After the tram ride, we went over to one of the special shows they had — the bubble show. This one didn't have any animals so I'm not sure why it was at the Wild Animal Park, but Benji and the other kids enjoyed it. He loved trying to catch the bubbles that floated out over the audience and he even went down to the front at the end when they had the bubble machines spewing out tons of bubbles.

By this time it was getting pretty close to closing so we didn't really have the time to see any other major exhibits. We looked at animals on our way back to the front and then we saw a very nice outdoor seating area. There were several sofas with cushions like you'd find on an indoor patio, and they were so comfy! We sat there for a long time, just enjoying the peacefulness and each other. Benji had a Goldfish and peanut butter snack and we had fun doing silly things with the Goldfish crackers. Funny how you need to go on vacation to a different state to enjoy such a simple pleasure.

But then it was time to really go and was starting to get dark. The last exhibit we saw was the nursery. There were two or three baby leopards or cheetahs (something like that) and Benji loved them. He decided they were "so cute!" We looked at the toys they had and talked about how we had to be quiet for the babies so they could sleep. At that time he didn't yet know about the baby in Mommy's belly, but his interest in the baby animals was quite encouraging.

And then it was time to finish our drive to Anaheim. I wonder what the next day of trip-o-logue will hold?



Benji enjoyed the rocky California coastline.





Splashes! Can't pose for a photo for Mommy when there are big splashes to watch.


Here's the second part of the rocks we visited. Daddy and Benji spent a long time out there enjoying the waves and splashes before they invited me out there.


While I was watching my guys, I also saw a dolphin and a sea lion in the water. This picture really doesn't do it justics and I don't even remember which one is in this photo.





A little rest from the splashes.


Mommy needs some pictures with my guys' faces.


Mommy and Benji with a big splash, but this was not the splash that got us all wet. Notice how wet my overalls are in the picture.


I really like this close-up and how happy Benji looks.


On our way back to the car Benji wanted to sit down on a bench and rest a bit. While resting he made a new game of the big waves. Also notice how very wet his hair is here.


Our little photographer is trying to figure out his camera.





I think Benji was practicing his photography in the station while we waited for the tram to depart.


Benji tries to find the animals on the guide in the tram.


I wonder what animals we saw.


The giraffes were my favorites on this ride.








Picture of Mommy!





Lions sleeping on top of an SUV. How silly!


Benji loved trying to catch bubbles at the bubble show. He was a bit disappointed that he couldn't get to the very front row to catch the most bubbles.


After seeing a cool bubble show, Benji had no interest whatsoever in the elephants. But I still thought this was a nice photo.


On one of the paths we saw some sort of deer, which we were worried had somehow escaped the habitat. After it wandered away an employee came over looking for it. She figured out it was actually a native deer and not "one of ours". Still, a little weird to see it wandering around.


Benji really loved the baby animals. I wish we had found the nursery earlier in our visit.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Who cares about Shamu when there's a bounce house?

Instead of getting tickets to just Disneyland for our California trip, we got a combo pass called a City Pass. For less than $50 more than the 3-day Disneyland pass, we also got admission to Sea World, San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park, and Universal Hollywood. There's no way I'd pay the $65 gate price for Sea World (especially since none of us could ride the new big rides), but it's a nice place to go if the price is right. So that was our main destination for Day 2 of the trip.

Benji's favorite part of Sea World was the rides — of course. The last time I was at Sea World (probably 20 years ago) it was all about the animals, but now they have several large roller coasters (Benji didn't meet the height minimum so we didn't go check them out) and Elmo's Bay of Play. He was quite fond of Elmo's Flying Fish (basically the Dumbo ride shaped like Elmo; strangely their policy was that I couldn't ride, but really, how dangerous could this possibly be?).

But his favorite "ride" was the bounce room. This was no standard bounce house where they cram 10 kids into a tiny inflatable. No, safety-minded Sea World lets 6 kids in at a time and the room was huge (maybe 15 feet x 15 feet). With so few kids in such a large area I could feel safe letting Benji run around in there. The first time in, he kept trying to stand up and run around like the bigger kids but kept falling down before he could even take a step. So he crawled over to the edge and complained at me that he couldn't do it. A bit of tough love was appropriate here so I just sent him back to the middle and told him to keep practicing. (Lately he's been getting overly frustrated when he can't do something perfectly the first time. Therefore we're working on the idea of practicing to get better.) He certainly didn't master it on that session, but it looked like so much fun and he knew that smaller bounce houses were fun so he asked to go back in many times. Very quickly he was running around like a pro! Later that evening we couldn't even get him out of the bounce room willingly to watch fireworks. It must be pretty fun in order to rate higher than fireworks in Benji's mind!

We did, of course, also go to the big shows — Shamu, the sea lions, and the dolphins. Benji didn't really like the dolphin show, due more to the fact that it had pyrotechnics including fire. We had to cover his eyes for about half the show. Admittedly it was quite hot when the fire was on and the show certainly would have been better with less fire and more dolphins. Perhaps we should have sit further back. We sat in the very last row of the "splash zone" which concerned Benji. He did not like those Splash Zone signs so we had to convince him that even if we did get splashed it would be a very little splash (we stayed completely dry). For Shamu we had to sit way back in the stadium even though we were still 15 minutes early for the show and I thought Benji was rather unimpressed by the whole thing. However, days and weeks later he's referred to seeing Shamu the whale. I guess you never know what information and experiences they're soaking in.

The other favorite part of Sea World was touching animals. They don't let you touch nearly as much as they used to (no more petting the sea lions or walruses and touching the dolphins costs a pretty penny) but they still have a tank to touch rays and a tidepool to touch starfish and crabs. We tried the rays, but they didn't come close enough to the edge of the tank for Benji to reach and he refused to let Daddy hold him up higher. (He still asks us why they didn't want him to touch them.) They starfish were much more successful. The tidepool was much shorter and had fake rocks to climb on so Benji could get up over the edge to touch things much more easily. There were lots of starfish in there, so we went around the whole tidepool touching various starfish. He also liked picking them up. There was a sign that said not to take the animals out of the water (which he read, of course) so we told him he could pick up the animals (gently) as long as they stayed under the water. He liked feeling the bumpy starfish and looking at the underside. There was one crab in a very large shell that apparently was quite heavy and impressed him.

Prior to the Sea World part of the day, we did the "Mommy & Daddy" part of the day with a trip over to Balboa Park. Since we were unsuccessful with Balboa Park and its artist galleries on Sunday, we decided to try again. As we were parking we heard the organ playing, which was quite surprising. Of course we had to check it out. It turns out that there would be a performance that evening for an organ festival they were hosting, so some folks were rehearsing. So while Matthew missed the real concert the afternoon before, he ended up with his own private concert with a front-row seat. I'm so happy for this serendipitous finding. In fact, it was so lucky that by the time we walked past later in the afternoon it was all done.



Organ rehearsal at Balboa Park.


Just like on Day 1, Benji continued covering his face for photos and laughing.


Styling in his sunglasses.


Doesn't Daddy look good in the Elmo fish ride?


And to think this was considered too dangerous for me to ride.


I loved the view of the bay from the sea lion and otter show.


Oh yeah, there were sea lions at the show, too.


Shamu!


Back to the Elmo ride. Better than Shamu, right?


Benji's favorite ride, the bounce room.


Benji was a little upset that the triangle music station was missing its stick, so we had to show him you could hit the triangles together. There were similar hands-on activities at Disneyland, and he enjoyed those too.


He waited and waited to play the giant xylophone.


It's hard to touch a ray when your hands only go 2 inches into the water.


Did you know that starfish are bumpy?


Benji touched so many starfish! We went around the entire tidepool touching every starfish he could reach.



I think this is Benji picking up the crab in a large shell.


He also loved turning them over and looking a the bottom. I'm happy to say he was very respectful of the animals.


Back to the bounce room for some wild fun! Late at night the line was super short so he got tons of play time (although it was too dark for good photos).

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Our California adventure begins

The highlight of our first day was definitely Cabrillo National Park. We didn't even end up making it up to the lighthouse, but that's OK. Because they closed earlier in the day, we decided to start by driving down to the tidepools right down on the water. We were approaching low tide so we could go quite far out onto the rocks. Benji just loved the waves. He would get all excited when a wave would come in and he'd wait for the splash, yet he would also hold both hands up "to protect [himself] from the splashes." Apparently even low tide was too high today to see much sealife in the tidepools (or at least that's what the sign said) but that didn't matter. We still saw two small crabs, which was apparently enough for Benji (and he'll see plenty more tomorrow at Sea World).

After we climbed back up to slightly higher ground, Benji enjoyed looking around for big rocks to sit on. We also watched the surfers and talked about how hard that must be. Then when it was time to get back in the car so we could go up by the lighthouse he thought we were going so far. We had to show him the lighthouse on the top of the hill and asked if we wanted climb all the way up there. He decided that no, we didn't want to climb that mountain. I don't think Uncle Dave would agree with Benji's definition of a mountain!

Back at the top, we spent a bit of time in the gift shop, where we all got our National Parks Passports stamped. Although we had started a book for Benji back in Richmond, he didn't remember that at all. I think, however, when I talked about getting our books stamped that he thought we were getting his "book map" stamped at the library and that we were getting a prize. I suppose he did get a prize of sorts, though, since he picked out a souveneir all by himself — a small book of mazes in the shapes of sea shells. Still, no coloring books for this kid. But mazes, yes! We also did a pressed penny at his request and he even turned the crank most of the way (with a bit of help from Daddy; note that this clip is VERY long so it may not be worthwhile with a slow connection).

Other places we went today included Old Town (our favorite art gallery/co-op that had been there since my family had gone to San Diego 20 years ago was gone — big disappointment) and a failed attempt to see the organ concert at Balboa park (drove forever and still couldn't find a parking spot). We also had a nice dinner at Seaport Village. The restaurant wasn't just on the water's edge, but was literally on the water — on stilts. Matthew and I both enjoyed the seafood (I even got the three-fish platter — yummy) while Benji ate every last noodle of his macaroni and cheese. Benji also really enjoyed watching one particular seagull walk around outside our window. There was a small walkway around the perimeter and the seagull walked back and forth the whole meal, with Benji getting excited every time his bird friend walked past our table. After dinner we strolled around the shops and shared a piece of fudge.

So Cabrillo wins today. It's especially nice because it's somewhere that Matthew and I would have gone to without Benji yet it was fabulous to see it through his fresh eyes.



When we first got there I stayed behind a bit since I didn't want to fall. After scoping things out and seeing how much Benji loved it, Matthew came back to get me and help me down onto the rocks.





From a distance I couldn't figure out what Benji was doing, but it turns out the upturned hand was his attempt to stop the waves.


Since these are tidepools, Matthew is trying to point out a crab (I think).


Oooh! Big splash!











Wait! Someone other than Benji as a focal point in a photo? Isn't he good looking, too?





Family self-portrait off-center.


Benji started an odd habit on this vacation. He thought it was totally hilarious and silly to put his hands in front of his face for photos so we had to get creative to get decent photos.


Ah, finally the whole family!











Benji got tired of my taking photos and started blowing up his cheeks and popping them. Another view into his growing sense of humor as silly preschooler.


Which one will be our new computer wallpaper?


The "bored teenager" look.


After we finished with the tidepools themselves we walked a bit around the overlook.





This one is a favorite of mine!


Benji's seagull friend at dinner.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

This is why we don't go to Disney World in summer

For some variety, the fourth day of our trip was spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios). This park really focuses on shows, but it also has two adult thrill rides (including Tower of Terror) and the brand new Toy Story Midway Mania. It turns out, Benji doesn't really like the shows and kept asking all day for the roller coaster and Magic Kingdom.

Unfortunately the only real ride he could go on was also the one with the insanely long line. Toy Story opened earlier this year and has some pretty neat technology so it definitely had the longest line anywhere in the four parks. When we arrived, Fast Passes were all the way out to 4:20 and the line said it was 50 minutes. Now, if we were there during the summer every ride would have one or two hour lines, but we're totally spoiled and balk at 20-30 minute lines. Still, we hopped in to wait it out for the new ride (unfortunately, the wait was actually 80 minutes — I think it broke down while we were in line).

The queue area for Toy Story has a lot of detail and is fun to look at. There are giant toys everywhere and they're actually the toys as they would have appeared years ago. Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling doesn't look like Benji's current edition — very retro. Toward the end of the line is the highlight of the queue — the animatronic Mr. Potato Head. He sings and moves and his eyes blink. He's supposed to be able to take off his own ear, but that apparently wasn't working the day we were there (and I had read earlier that they were having trouble with that part of the technology). The ride itself takes you around to many different stations where you play carnival midway games with 3-D glasses and a shooter. For example, you pop balloons at one station and "throw" rings around the aliens from Toy Story at another. I was surprised at how quickly the car moved from one station to the next, but that made it a bit more of a thrill ride for Benji. With our Fast Passes, we were able to take advantage of a loophole and got Benji on the ride three times total — once by waiting in line, once with Daddy's pass, and once with Mommy's pass.

With the rest of our time at the Studios, Benji spent a long time in the Animation walk through attraction. You see, there were computers to play with there, including his favorite computer coloring book. Daddy and Benji hung out there while Mommy took a ride on Tower of Terror. I thought they might go to the Little Mermaid show, but apparently Benji got angry when Daddy tried to leave the computers.

In the evening we took the boat over to EPCOT for our dinner reservations at Restaurant Marrakesh. The food was pretty good and there was a belly dancer during the meal. Matthew, however, didn't feel very good that evening and didn't really enjoy this restaurant. So, he headed back to the hotel after dinner and Mommy and Benji took a "romantic" stroll around the World Showcase lagoon. He behaved really well and held my hand as we walked in the moonlight. On the other end of the lagoon is the Norway pavilion where we rode the Maelstrom ride. It's not very exciting by my standards, but there's a little hill on the boat ride similar to the little hill in Pirates of the Caribbean and Benji quite enjoyed it. So we rode another time and then stepped out of the ride to be greeted by the fireworks show.



Benji's favorite part of the Toy Story queue was at the very beginning — Candy Land.

Because the lines weren't as long as they would have been, he even got to walk on the game board!


Notice the retro Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling.


Got to have those 3D glasses. Notice the shooting mechanism on the left. This one has you pull a string rather than push a button.





So much detailed theming, even in the loading area.


High fives for Mickey. We eventually met Mickey at all four parks.


Celebrity sighting — WALL-E!





All tuckered out sleeping on the boat ride.


At then end of our evening, Benji was happy to pose with Spaceship Earth all lit up for the night.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Rain, rain, go away

While "yesterday" was hot and humid at Disney World, "today" was our rainy day of the trip. The morning started off great — a wakeup call from Mickey and Stitch and then breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. Last time we were at Disney World, Benji hugged the noses of all the characters; this time he talked to them, gave high fives, and posed for pictures with "the animals". It was more crowded than last time, so we didn't see the characters many times. But Benji was pretty happy with the visits he got. He was also very happy with his chocolate chip Mickey mouse pancake. I'm not sure which he liked more — the Mickey shape or the chocolate chips. In either case, he had a good time at our character meal.

After brunch we again headed off to Fantasyland. And Benji was upset again that the castle was closed. But I asked around and figured out when it would open for the day and we rode some rides in Fantasyland in the meantime. We rode the carousel, Dumbo, and Winnie the Pooh and saw Mickey's Philharmagic. Philharmagic was the only attraction during the entire trip that Benji actively disliked. He didn't cry or scream, but halfway through the film he asked "is it done yet?" and looked rather perturbed. We took off his 3-D glasses for the rest of the film and he was OK, but he was still happy when it was done. We think he didn't like the way things look like they're coming out at you in the film, so no more 3-D films for a while.

Then it was back to the castle to see if we could go inside. The doors were finally open so we could walk from Fantasyland through to Main Street. It really is beautiful to look all the way through the castle. On one hand Benji was happy to finally get in the castle, but on the other hand he was disappointed that there were no games or rides inside the castle. Benji's perspective on the world is so different than ours and so wonderful!

Our next stop was Toontown for a few spins on the roller coaster and a visit to Mickey's house. It was a magic moment to see his excitement at meeting Mickey. We were escorted into a room to meet the Mickey and Minnie and Benji ran towards Mickey, came back to us, and ran to Mickey's arms when we said it was OK. He hugged both Mickey and Minnie and happily posed for photos. While we were riding the roller coaster this afternoon, it began to drizzle and quickly turned to heavy rain.

We waited out some of the rain in the gift shop by the roller coaster while Benji ate a Mickey lollipop. We finally got tired of that and ran over to the train station and rode around the park a few times. We eventually got off in Frontierland for dinner at Pecos Bill's and some rides and shows over there, including Country Bear Jamboree, Aladdin's carpets, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Frontierland is a great place to watch the parades, so we saw the electrical parade and then rode the magic carpets over and over again while waiting for the fireworks. It was so empty that they didn't make us get off the ride and we rode until they shut the ride down, including one ride as the fireworks were starting. I think it spoiled Benji a bit because when we came back later in the trip he thought he would get to ride again without waiting in line. We finished off our evening by sharing a piece of fudge with three friends in the hotel room. Yummy!



One of my few "postcard" photographs. It was such a beautiful morning it's hard to believe how much it rained later in the afternoon.


Big hugs for Tigger!


Mommy gets to pose, too.


We definitely didn't get Benji to pose with the characters last time. Now, however, he is happy to pose for pictures (and he looks at them afterward on the camera screen to check himself out).








I wonder if the best part of brunch was the characters or the Mickey pancakes.


I wonder what Piglet and Benji are laughing at. Perhaps one of Benji's knock-knock jokes?


Big hugs for Pooh!





We only rode the carousel once during our trip. I guess it wasn't thrilling enough for Benji!


So cool in his 3-D glasses!


I was surprised at just how excited Benji was to meet Mickey and Minnie.





Benji has been on a lollipop kick for a while now so I brought some Dum-Dums on this trip in my purse. Somehow they just didn't cut it when he saw a 5-pack bouquet of Mickey lollipops. He asked for them in every store we went into, so during the rain we gave in and used some of his splurge money from Grandma and Grandpa on lollipops. He loved it!

Libellés : Benji, vacation

First day in the parks

After much waiting and excitement, we finally made it into the parks today. Because we had lunch reservations at Le Cellier, we started our trip and our day over at EPCOT. Benji didn't take too kindly to this as the kiddie rides are over at the Magic Kingdom. But we were able to appease him with the Nemo Ride, especially since he is so fond of the Nemo movie. Prior to lunch we rode on The Seas with Nemo and Friends and saw Turtle Talk, as well as riding Listen to the Land and Soarin'. Finding Nemo is probably Benji's favorite Disney movie, so it's no surprise he really liked the Nemo ride. Turtle Talk is very impressive, as it has an animated Crush that actually interacts with the children. Only I got to ride Soarin' on the first day since Benji is too short and we ran out of time before our lunch reservation for Matthew to ride. I really wish he had been tall enough to try it out, but I guess we need something new for next time.

For lunch we had coveted reservations at Le Cellier, the steakhouse in Canada. It's so famous for the steak that even I had the filet minon. The free dining plan was a huge reason this trip was fun for all. As I've said before, this makes it our "cruise on dry land" — tons of great food and totally self-contained.

The rest of our day was spent in the Magic Kindgom (which is also where we spent a large part of the rest of our visit). It was hot and humid, but that didn't matter to Benji. We were finally at the park for him! When we saw Cinderella's Castle down Main Street for the first time, Benji got so excited. I was actually quite surprised at how excited he got by the castle, but he had seen it before in a Sing Along Songs DVD I had gotten for him. Because of some shows on the castle stage every afternoon, the walkway was closed off. So we chose to go to Fantasyland via Tomorrowland and stopped off at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin along the way. But Benji was completely insistent that we needed to go to the castle so we didn't go to any other rides and made a beeline for the backside of the castle. At which point he burst into tears. Here we were at the "happiest place on earth" and Benji was crying and crying about how he wanted to go into the castle. It turns out he thought there were games and rides in the castle (we think partially due to the influence of Enchanted Castle) and that we were keeping him away from them. Despite all the rides he could see, he was upset about the (nonexistent) ones he couldn't see. Seeing all this, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother came over and helped to calm Benji down. Only at the Magic Kingdom would you have a real Fairy Godmother available calm an upset kid.

He finally calmed down and realized there were tons of rides he could go on and we began exploring Fantasyland. We had the first of many rides on It's a Small World, Dumbo, Pooh, and the Teacups. Then it was time for dinner at Cosmic Ray's and some air conditioning. Refreshed, we set out again for the rides. By then it was evening so the park was much cooler and more pleasant. We headed off for Toontown where we found what would easily become Benji's favorite ride — The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm (a.k.a. Goofy's Barnstormer). He loved the roller coaster. We went on it twice that evening before it was time for the fireworks, but we would return every day we were in the Magic Kingdom.

We watched the fireworks from Fantasyland instead of the more traditional in front of the castle, but I think I actually preferred this view. And as long as Mommy covered his ears, Benji enjoyed the fireworks. After the fireworks (when the park is technically closed) we saw that people were still getting on the Teacups so we hopped in line for a bonus ride before heading hope (or so we thought). They were still letting people in line when we were done, so we tried again. The third time they asked for our hotel key; it turns out it was Extra Magic Hours, which was a very pleasant surprise for us. So we took advantage of it and rode the Indy Raceway twice, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (a.k.a. the Peoplemover), and Buzz Lightyear. Afterwards, we sat on a bench in Tomorrowland and ate some chocolate cake leftover from dinner as a nice evening treat. It was so pleasant to sit there and take in the evening atmosphere. While waiting in line for the bus, I got another pleasant surprise as we saw the Electrical Water Pageant pass by on the Seven Seas Lagoon. It's not very fancy, but it's a very old tradition at Disney World and I had never actually seen it.


An area that would become very familiar to us is the bus waiting area. Here, however, we are on our way into the park.


EPCOT focuses more on educational rides than thrill rides, including Living with the Land. Benji actually enjoyed "the farming boat ride" and we went on a few more times during the week.


On the faming boat ride, we get to see so many foods being grown, including these Mickey pumpkins. Benji was also interested in the banana trees.


The Disney Dining Plan includes dessert with every meal, which was Benji's favorite part of every meal. We had so much chocolate on this trip!


Cinderella's Fairy Godmother calms Benji down when he can't go in the castle.


Benji's first of many character pose photos during the trip.


Benji was looking forward to the Teacups for weeks before our visit. He has a Little People amusement park that includes a teacup ride and we had watched a Disneyland Sing Along Songs DVD that includes time on the Teacups, both of which got him excited for this particular ride.





The Teacup ride lived up to Benji's expectations.


Try as he might, Benji could not pull the sword out of the stone.


Despite Dumbo's long lines, Benji loved "the elephant ride".


Playing on the fence in line for the roller coaster looks like tons of fun.


Before the roller coaster, Benji doesn't know just how much fun this ride will be.


But afterward he was so happy and ready to go again. It was "so fast and fun." He told us how we "go fast and faster" with such amazing excitement.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Getting there is half the fun

While our trip down to Florida went very well, I know that it wasn't half the fun. That would be pretty sad if our flight to Florida were half the fun of a ten day trip to Disney World, wouldn't it? Anyway, we flew out of Milwaukee and left with plenty of time to spare so we were actually able to get on the flight before our scheduled flight. It's always nice to start a vacation early and not have to spend as much time in the airport with an antsy kid. We had to split up two and one, but Benji behaved very well for Mommy. He enjoyed his airplane surprise and between that, his Fun Pad, and candy the flight went pretty quickly. The descent was a bit troublesome but he was happier after Mommy covered his ears.

The whole day he kept wanting to know if we were in Disney World yet and if we could go on rides. Unfortunately, we had no plans to go into the parks that day so we basically kept stalling. We played Twister in the courtyard of the hotel and checked out the giant stuff in the architecture of the Pop Century resort. We also went to Downtown Disney for dinner, where they have a small carousel. We paid our $2 and placated him with a ride, but of course he knew that wasn't the bid deal of Disney World. That evening he wanted to get in the car and drive home, so it was a bit tough to convince him to go back to the hotel (for all the following days he was quite content to go back to the hotel once he figured out how much fun this place was). In any case, the excitement was mounting and none of us could wait until the next day when we would really see Disney World.

Libellés : Benji, vacation

Our Minnesota getaway

As we're waiting for the big vacation this fall, we took a quick getaway to Minneapolis-St. Paul to have some fun and visit Aunt Megan. While I know that I enjoyed it more than Matthew (how much girl talk can he handle?) it was a nice break from the routine. And hey, Megan has a Wii! Benji was also quite fascinated by Megan's two cats. He didn't run up to them, but when Megan invited him over to pet Blackers he touched her ever so gently. They didn't seem too fond of him, especially when he stood by their food bowls and told them they needed to eat. Megan was excellent tour guide, taking us to the farmer's market, the sculpture garden (where Benji thought the Spoon Bridge and Cherry sculpture was a water slide), and one of the 10,000 lakes (Lake Calhoun, I think, where Benji wanted to go swimming).

As far as Benji was concerned, though, the best part of the trip was the Mall of America — and the amusement park inside. He could go on some of the rides all by himself and the ones where he needed a chaparone didn't need a ticket for the adult. So we got him an all-day pass and let him ride over and over. I think he rode his favorite ride 10-15 times!



Benji and Matthew got a head start on the rides while Megan and I went shopping. It looks like they took a stop on the carousel.


They also rode the giant ferris wheel. I think here Benji is looking up at the top of the wheel.





Benji loved the hot air balloon race. He felt like they were flying!





By far his favorite ride was "bouncy bouncy bouncy". We have no idea what the real name of the ride was (they were all named about Nickelodeon shows and we don't have that channel), but I think bouncy bouncy bouncy was a very appropriate name. (I think this video clip is especially long.)








Some of the other kids were upset on the ride, but Benji was an old pro. I liked that it had two restraints, including a seat belt that only the operator could unlock.


After we were done shopping, I took Benji on his first roller coaster. He loved it! We might have some trouble at Disney because he'll want to go on all the coasters, but we'll have to steer him to Goofy's Barnstormer.


He had to take Mommy on the Balloon Race!

Libellés : Benji, vacation