Happy Birthday, Baby!

Chad's birthday was on Wednesday. We were able to celebrate with his family last Sunday and then, we took advantage of Disney's free birthday pass to celebrate with Mickey.

We left Tuesday night after Chad got home from work. We made it all the way to AG before we had to stop and eat. I know. I know. It's only 45 minutes away. Still...we stopped at Baja Fresh and had yummy burritos then loaded back up and were on our way.

Joseph woke us up bright and early Wednesday morning, bouncing on the bed and saying, "I can't WAIT to go to Disneyland!" We ate breakfast, got dress and headed over to the House of Mouse.

I love Disneyland off-season. It was amazing. No crowds, few lines and, best of all, it was still warm and sunny. We started off in Tomorrow Land and hit up Astro Blaster for the first of many times. We followed it with a brief stay at the Jedi Training Camp. (Joseph loved it. Must be his aunt's influence.) We wandered over to Fantasy Land where we met Melissa. We rode Dumbo (of course), Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan (a new fave...I'd never been on it before), the carousel, and then paused for lunch.

Lunch was awesome. I'm never impressed with theme park food. It usually tastes very...cafeteria...but this time we found a Mexican restaurant tucked behind Frontier Land that was awesome. Seriously...look at this stuff. It was a little spicy, a little cheesy and very yummy. While the prices were a bit higher than they would be at home, for $10 each we got enough food that we could have shared. Scratch that. I could have shared. Chad ended up finishing both his and mine.


Side note: You can tell I'm pregnant. I'm taking pictures of food.

By noon, it was getting a bit too warm and sunny. As the mercury climbed past the mid 80's towards the upper end, Joseph and I ditched Chad and Melissa to go back to the room and take a nap. I was feeling pretty tired, swollen and sweaty. Not an attractive combo. Joseph was feeling cranky, tired, and sweaty. Not a pleasant combo.

After our naps, we met Melissa and Chad back at the park. They'd been hitting all the "thrill" rides that don't allow pregnant women or children under 42". By the time we met up, they were ready for a nap. We went back to Astro Blasters. (We seriously loved this ride.) Then went on Nemo and watched the Jedi Training Camp. Again. Melissa felt a little chemistry with the Master Jedi Knight. He was pretty cute, but I've been married too long to sense the Force when it's around.

We wandered over to Toontown where Joseph saw Goofy. What a difference a few months make! When we went last August, the characters freaked Joseph out. This time, when Chad carried him over to Goofy, Joseph leaped from Chad's arms into Goofy's. Toontown is a great place to let the kiddos run wild while the Mommy sits and eats her oranges. Chad and Joseph clambered all over Goofy and Donald's houses.

After we exhausted Toontown, Chad and Joseph went over to the Winnie-the-Pooh ride while Melissa and I went on Pirates. At this point, we were almost done. We walked over to Pizza Port for dinner - Joseph was having a bit of a meltdown, something only pizza can cure. After dinner, we went for one final Astro Blasters ride where Joseph picked up a bucket of aliens.

Of all the toys in the entire park, he fell in love with a bucket of 25 little green men. He has carried that bucket around with him ever since. He even sleeps with it. Occasionally, he takes the men out, lines them up, knocks them down and then puts them away. I have a strange child. (He looks so tired in the picture, poor bug.)

We finished up our evening by taking a spin on Autopia. Walking back to the hotel our steps were slower. We were beat.

Chad said it had been a great birthday.