The Happiest Place on Earth

Disneyland!!!

We have been looking forward to my Spring Break for quite awhile.  We have seemed to make this our time to take vacations - last year going to Arizona and this year,  Disneyland!  After being home for a good 24 hours I am already ready to go back!  We had so much fun!  We drove down to Anaheim Easter Morning and arrived about 4pm.  Chad's brother, Troy, who lives in San Diego and my brother, Matt, who is in LA met us to hang out for Easter Dinner.  It was great to see both of them and it was obvious Cooper enjoyed their company.  We had an awesome Dinner at ESPN Zone and strolled Downtown Disney.  Cooper enjoyed all the different musicians playing their music - he loves to dance by either shaking his head side to side, or his upper body and sometimes pumping his hips forward and back - he definitely gets his dance moves from his mommy! :)

Coop and Uncle Troy

Uncle Matt and Coopie

On Monday, we woke up, got ready and walked from our hotel to Disneyland.  We stayed at the Red Lion - which is only .5 miles away - so walking worked out perfect.  It was great to be back at Disneyland - it had been at least 4 years since I have been there and it was awesome to see Cooper's face and hear his little comments while we walked down Main Street for the first time.  I even almost shed a tear when Cooper first saw the horse carriage and said "Neeehhhh" so loud...the sound of voice was pure happiness and excitement.  Gosh, being a Mommy is an amazing feeling!  

So we walked around, went on many rides - Snow White, Storybook Boats, the Train, Roger Rabbit, Tea Cups, Alice and Wonderland, Buzz Light Year and more - we looked for the shorter lines because there was no way we could see Cooper staying in a line longer than 30 minutes.  We spent a lot of time in Toontown, playing around in the houses and the best part - seeing Mickey!  Cooper's face lit up...he gave Mickey big huggies, stared into his eyes and loved to touch Mickey's big, black nose.  We also watched the Celebration Day Parade and saw the fireworks at night.  

What a great 1st day at Disneyland!

So happy to meet Mickey!

Family Picture with Mickey

Cooper loves doggies so of course Pluto was one of his absolute favorites!

Chip and Dale's Tree House

Coopie's in Jail...probably for screaming "NOOOOOO!!!!" at the top of his lungs

(that's the only bad thing he seems to do lately)

Posing with Daddy and the Sword

Giving Mommy kisses while waiting in line patiently

Waiting for the parade with a very happy Daddy!

Cooper LOVED Buzz - so we "had to" get him a Buzz toy on the way out of the ride.  

On Day 2 we had hoped to get up and be at Disneyland by 8am...haha, we tried, I guess.  Cooper is not a morning person and he often stays in bed until we drag him out (another thing he probably got from me)...so if he is sleeping so good it's tough for Daddy and Mommy to wake, too!  We ended up getting to Disneyland about 9:30am...still early enough to catch some good rides before the lines were too long.  We went on It's a Small World and Dumbo, which were 2 of the buddy's favorites!  We also went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Autopia, the Jungle Cruise and visited the Tiki Room.  At about 12:30 we decided to go to California Adventure - and experienced all the fun stuff there.  Cooper loved the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Show and all the Bugslife rides.  It was definitely a successful Day 2 at Disneyland.  We ended up going back to our hotel at about 4 to rest and then went around the corner to the Anaheim Gardenwalk for Dinner.  It was a relaxing evening after a couple long days at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Cooper and Mommy happy to be on Dumbo

Family Picture time on The Jungle Cruise

C is for Cooper and C is for Chad

Mommy's 2 little bugs!

Posing on the little "yewoh" chairs!  He didn't want to get off these things.

Scooting along oh so slowly on the catepillar ride

On Day 3 of Disneyland we were also driving home the same day so we drove and parked at Disneyland this day - so we were able to ride the tram to the park - or as Cooper would say the "choo choo" and move his arm up and down.  We went on all the rides we had not been able to ride yet - except for the Submarine ride - that line was always at least an hour and we couldnt bare to do it...so we will save that one for next time!  We went on the rockets, the Buzz ride again, the Haunted House, Pinnochio, Winne the Pooh, the Carousel and Cooper was able to play in the petting zoo - which he could have stayed in all day!  Such a little animal lover he is.  We left the park about 12:30 - and headed back home after a perfect little family vacation.  

Mommy and Cooper on the "choo choo" Tram!

Going "Up Down" on the AstroBlasters.

A close up of our little boy who is just so absolutely PRECIOUS!

Full of smiles and laughs on his horsey!

This pictures makes me realize how fast Coop is growing - he is able to lean over off his horse, hug daddy and smile big!  Best Buds!

Family pic by the lake

Meeting and loving Eeyore

Coopie loved Tigger - he gave him High 5's, fists and "bounced" all over with him.  

Trying on some Mickey Ears!  

We decided to buy some during our next trip to the world of Disney.

A must have family castle picture!  What a magical place!

We sure did celebrate a wonderful few days of nonstop family memories!  

I love my little family!

Britney Concert

Yes, it's true, I went to see Britney and I ABSOLUTELY ENJOYED EVERY SECOND OF IT!
I've always been a Britney fan - from "Hit Me Baby One More Time" through the past couple years of all the crazy decisions she has made. If only I could upload a video I made with some girlfriends in High School of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" we could all get a great laugh...Well a couple months ago my mom asked my sister and I if we would want to go to see Brit in Sacramento and of course we both jumped at the chance. It turned out to be a wonderful girls night out. Chad, Coop and I drove to Stockton Saturday morning and just hung out for the day. We got to visit Grandma Patti and relax. Then my dad cooked us a delicious Spaghetti dinner and afterwards us girls took off to Sacramento.

Here we are posing for our photo shoot before we left!

CLOSE UPS are always necessary!

When we arrived at Arco Arena we could not believe how many people were there. Most were girls ranging from age 16 - 30...all about Britney! It was quite entertaining checking out all the crazy outfits some of the girls had on - from circus outfits and tutu's to shirts that said stuff about Britney. Once we got to our seats we enjoyed the entire 3 hours of the show. The Pussycat Dolls opened up for Brit and they were great. They got the crowd on their feet - and of course, we always love watching people dance - and they did a lot of it! Before Briney came out, there was like an entire Circus act - to go with her album Circus! It was so entertaining! And then came Brit - with the entire crowd chanting "Britney, Britney!" Whether she lip syncs or not - she was AMAZING! She looked fantastic! It was a true performance - with singing and dancing and everything you can imagine. Her backup dancers were outstanding. There was never a dull moment. I loved that she sang many songs from her last couple albums to go along with her new one. I would totally go back and see it again! Thanks Mom for the tickets and for the great night.

Waiting for the show to start...

 

Pussycat Dolls dancing it up

BRITNEY, BRITNEY, BRITNEY!

Yay for concerts, Yay for Britney, Yay for Sister and Mom!  Fun Night!

UCLA Baseball Game

There he is, the wonderful UCLA Baseball Student Manager - working hard, taking video, notes about pitches and holding the speed gun! My brother is in his 2nd season working for the UCLA Baseball Team. He absolutely LOVES it and I don't blame him. We grew up loving baseball - we would go to my dads fastpitch softball games (which he began playing after playing baseball at Cal Poly), we always enjoyed watching the pros and then of course we watched my brother play from T-Ball through High School at the Creek! For Matt, being a student manager for the team gives him the opportunity to be involved with the sport he knows and loves. He has had the opportunity to travel with the team, meet new people/friends, get lots and lots of free clothing and gain excessive knowledge about college level baseball. I say excessive because Matt last told us "If Cooper is a left handed batter he will have a much better chance of getting a baseball scholarship!" Haha...not that we are thinking of that - we were just in a conversation about whether Coop is left or right handed...anyways...UCLA had a series at Stanford so we were able to go see a game. My parents and Mallory were there, too. Chad's dad came to the game with us - it was a great family evening at the ball field!

Cooper loved seeing his Auntie Mall Mall again! She came home with us and stayed the night...Cooper was in absolute heaven. It is so adorable watching him love his Auntie so much.

Going to see Auntie "Mall Mall"!

As you can see, Cooper LOVES his Auntie "Mall Mall"!  

All 3 years since Mallory has been at Fresno State she has been a member of PDT - Portable Dance Troupe - which is a Fresno State Dance Company.  Each year they do a performance during Spring Semester and we have been lucky enough to go see it.  The first year I was pregnant with Cooper so Chad and I were both able to see her perform.  Last year we all went to Fresno but since we cannot bring Coop into the show he had to stay at the hotel with him.  This year my dad offered to stay back at the hotel with Cooper so Chad and I could both see the show.  THANKS, DAD!  My mom and dad had gone the weekend before to see the show, too, so at least he was able to still see it once.  I definitely know Cooper enjoyed his time with Poppie because the next morning when he woke up the first thing he said was "Poppie, Poppie" and he cried hysterically because we couldnt go wake you up to see "Poppie"...Cooper sure does think you're pretty great!  Anyways - Mallory's show was great.  She works so hard at what she does and I'm so proud she continues to follow her dreams.

Before the show, we went out to dinner...her is Cooper with Grammie and Poppie afterwards. 

Sister and me after her show - a beautiful dancer she is.

Mallory's good friends from High School came to see her show too - Isaiah, Ashley, Sheri, Mall, Me and Chad.  Good Times!  And such nice friends to come see her show.

All the girlies.

On our way home from Fresno we decided to stop at a cute little place called Casa de Fruita.  We have driven past it many times and have been told by many people "you need to go there!".  So as we were getting close, Cooper began getting quite bored of the car so I thought why not stop today...it turned out to be a great couple hours!  We ate lunch and then walked around and saw all the cool stuff that Casa de Fruita has - train ride, carousel, a fun park and cute little stores.

Here is Chad and Coopie waiting for the Train ride.

Playing on the Orchard Express.  Peek!

Daddy was a bad, bad boy.

Happy to be riding the choo choo train.

A happy boy on his horsey...

Driving the train...he always wants to drive - his new favorite thing to do is climb in the front seat of the car and pretend to drive and press all the buttons - boy oh boy!

Such a fun weekend trip!  Family is the best!