Disneyland Day 1

Curtis has been wanting to take Max to Disneyland for a long time now.  Max loves Disney!  He's not such a big fan of Pixar.  I'm not sure why that is. The next few posts will be our 5 days in Disneyland.

Our party of 7 (Curtis, Max, Kendall, Grandpa, Grandma, Claire and Me) arrived in Anaheim around 2 in the afternoon Sunday January 27th.  After a check-in at the hotel, we headed over to Disneyland.
As we entered the boys got to see Pinocchio, Pluto and Goofy.  Our first stop was the City Hall.  They gave us "First Disneyland Visit" pins for the two boys.  After that we headed down Main Street.

The first ride we stopped at was the Jungle Cruse.  Max loved the ride!  The adults were all entertained by our seasoned guide.  He was hilarious!

We walked through adventure land and spotted a "Princess and the Frog" street show."  Dad found us a great place to watch from.  Max got to sit on our shoulders.  He was so cute as he sang along and tried to dance from his seat.  When the show ended, the cast did a short parade and one of the dancers gave Max some Mardi Gras beads.  Max was enamored with Disneyland at this point.

Of course our next stop would only deepen his love for Disneyland; Choo Choo, here comes the train.
We loaded the train at New Orleans Square and headed to Fantasyland.  We headed to the restroom but when we came out Claire told us there was a parade coming   We ran down the hill to the roped off area to watch as all of Max and Kendall's cartoon friends waved to us.  There was Micky, Minnie, Pluto, goofy, The Three Caballeros, Lion King, Peter Pan, Hook, Tinkerbell, Aladdin, the genie  The Little Mermaid (Max and Kendall have not seen this movie yet), a whole lot of princesses: Snow White, Aurora, Rapunzel, Belle and Cinderella.  The Parade ended with Max's current Favorite character, Mary Poppins!

After the "Soundsational Parade" we went to Toontown to meet Goofy and Mickey Mouse.  The whole time Max just wanted to get back on the train so we headed there next.  We took the train back to New Orleans Square to pick up the strollers again.

We headed to critter country to eat at the Hungary Bear.  After Dinner Grandma was ready to head back to the hotel.  We all went back to get dressed warm for the World of Color show.  Grandma stayed with Kendall, but the rest of us went to California Adventure.  We had an hour before the show started so we went on Soarin over California.  Claire and I both got a little motion sick but Max, Curtis and Grandpa liked it.

When we arrived we talked to a cast member and let them know we got here late and there weren't any fast passes left for this show.  He was a really nice guy and made us his personal guest.  We got to sit in the front in the spot where you get wet.   We were ready, we had our rain coats on and you will need them if you sit here.  You don't get wet until the second half but you will get really wet during the pirates part.  It was a really great show.  Max loved the part with Wall-e.  Max was really sleepy with the time change we were already and hour past his bed time when the show started.

When we were leaving the park, we could see the fire works in Disneyland.  We stopped for a little while to watch but then headed back to the hotel cause Max was falling asleep.  We had a great first day in Disneyland!

It is official, We are going to Disneyland!  We are really excited and can't wait for all the adventures we'll have with the boys.  I have been doing research each day to see how to best handle Max and his needs.  So far we know to get the Guest Service Pass for him and to ask for a quiet place when he gets over stimulated.

I think I have read every blog post about Autistic experiences in the park.  The best part is each one said they had  a great experience and they were all planning on going back.  One parent said to take a recent photo of your child just in-case   I think we will take a photo every morning before we leave...then we will have the most recent and what they are wearing.  For those who don't know, Max is a runner.  We don't usually have a problem but you never know what could happen in a big place.

We have 2.5 adults to every kid so I think we'll all have a good time.

Any suggestions for fun things or must do's in Disneyland, please let me know!

Everybody wants to be a cat

Train Ride

 The long awaited day has arrived!  Tonight we headed to the Heber Valley Railroad for a pumpkin festival and a train ride.

 Our kids had so much fun!  They had a spooky train car parked to the side.  The kids were really nervous going though but it was mostly smoke, lights and some hanging sheets.  When we were through the kids were ready to go again.

 We each got to pick a pumpkin.  Max found a really good one and Kendall seemed happy with whatever we picked up.

 Max was so excited to get on the train, we had to pace back and forth until they would let us on.  We were totally the first to board.

 Kendall liked the train as long as we were moving.  He was a little restless when we were stopped.

Max was so happy!  he even let a girl paint a bat on his face.  Grandma, Grandpa, Kenton, Angie, Jeremiah, Isaac and Emma came too.  Right before we ported to get off, Curtis took Max to the dining cart to see what it looked like.  Turns out they were selling hot dogs.  We totally could have had dinner on the train.  Next time.

FREEDOM

Max and Kendall were busy playing and watching a movie so I thought it would be a good time to shower.  After a quick rinse I came to check on the boys only to find my front door wide open and no sign of the boys.  I couldn't run out in a bathrobe so I threw on some quick sweats and ran into the cul-de-sac screaming for Max.
Max usually heads for the school so I went in that direction.  Everyone who has been to our house knows we have a lady who sits on her porch ALL the time.  I asked her if she had seen two little boys about 4 and a year and a half.  She observed the empty neighborhood and then pointed up the street, "Those two?"
I looked up to see Max and Kendall running home with huge similes on their faces.
I was still shaking a half hour after the event.
I have no idea how long they had been outside.  There was a big semi at the end of the street dropping off shingles.  I guess they wanted to investigate.  I'm so glad Kendall stayed with Max.  When we go outside Kendall always goes straight for the road.
Thank goodness for quick answer to prayer and a neighborhood watchman.

Hay Ride

 For family night we thought it would be fun/festive to go to the big red barn in Santaquin.  They offer a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where they have 2 big slides, a maze, a big sandbox and a lot of pumpkins.

 Max really loved our ride out and totally ditched us to get to the slide first.  He loved it!

 They had this fun old truck out in a field.  Max wanted to drive, but Kendall just wanted out.

 We found the maze (I'm sorry we didn't take any pictures of it).  It was made out of old wooden apple boxes.  Curtis and I could see over the top but the little boys had no idea.  Max lead the way.  It was amazing, he never missed a corner and took us all the way to the end without any mistakes.

 At the end if the maze, there was this tractor so Max climbed on.

 We were going to spend some time in the pumpkin patch, but as soon as Max saw the hay wagon he climbed on.

On the way back, they drove through the apple orchards.  It was beautiful!  I love spending this time with Max and Kendall....Curtis too.

4 years old

Max is turning 4! Max loves Trains but we did a train party last year. One of his favorite songs is dinosaur train (PBS show). We decided we would go along with the dinosaur theme.

 I found these awesome hats at the dollar store last month.  They were a big hit.

 We served dino nuggets (Chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs), hot dogs, chips, veggies and mangos.  After lunch we had a dinosaur egg hunt.

 The kids had a lot of fun finding the eggs.  We had stuffed a few with candy but most had little plastic dinosaurs in the.

 Once we found all the eggs, the kids emptied the prizes and put the eggs in a dinosaur nest.

 Curtis headed up the next activity.  He had hid some dinosaurs in some sawdust. 

 I Originally found this fun kit on line.  It is a brick of clay and sand but there are plastic pieces of a t-rex skeleton inside. The kids took turns hammering out the pieces.

We ended up buying this kit at costco.  It came with 2 other kits.  One was a volcano and the other was Triops.  Triops are ugly water creatures you do not want in your house.  I know this because we grew them in our house for two weeks.

 I totally forgot to get some candles for the cake but max was a good sport and still blew when we finished the birthday song.

Thanks to all of our friends who came to help celebrate!

We ended the party with the volcano.  Sadly, it was a bit of a let down.  Oh well, the rest of the party had been a lot of fun.

Kendall had fallen asleep at the beginning of the party so Claire kindly put him on a bed in grandma's house.  We are not sure when he woke up but Curtis found him wandering the house crying about halfway through the party.  It was really sad.

After the party was over, we were cleaning up.  Curtis had put the balloons in the car but I thought they would pop from the heat so I opened a door. I was standing right next to the car talking to Claire when Kennedy came running from the back yard telling us the balloons got away.  We looked to the sky and there they were 10 feet above our heads. Max's reaction was great.  Curtis showed him the balloons floating away and he immediately looked to where they had been tied for the party, then back to the sky.  "Uh-oh!"