3 days ago, the only knowledge Scott and Charlotte had of snow came from Max and Ruby's Christmas DVD. For those of you who are wondering, Max and Ruby are a cartoon brother/sister bunny team. Max and Ruby build a snowman, go sledding and make snow bunny angels. So sort of like Disneyland, Scott and Charlotte were excited to go to the snow, but really had no idea what was in store...
We spent 2 full days at South Shore Tahoe, right on the border of California and Nevada. The drive there was pretty fun as Scott and Charlotte were both THRILLED to see snow along the way. Our first day, we found a cool snow race track for intertubes. As usual, Scott was thrilled to do it with Daddy, and Charlotte would get up to the top of the track, then wimp out. Then we found another place where we could just make snow angels and play.
The second day we went to a place called Adventure Mountain, up on Echo Summit. The snow around the hotel was pretty sparse and very crunchy, so up at the higher elevation we found LOTS of great places to play! Scott just loved sledding. He couldn't understand how I could possibly get a video of him sledding because he was going SO FAST! And Charlotte thought building a snowman was the greatest thing in the world. She probably spent a good 90 minutes just 'decorating' the snowman we built by putting what she called "tiny snowballs" on and packing it on. She was very proud of her creation and loved to give her snowman hugs. Pretty cute!
Practicing sledding before the big trip; Charlotte was so excited to be wearing her purple jacket and boots from Molly:
We wished they slept this soundly through the nights... We were not so fortunate:
Video of Scott and Drew on the intertube, Charlotte sledding on her MONSTER hill, Scott sledding SO FAST and Charlotte decorating her snowman:
And just before bedtime, Uncle Jeff knew about this cool thing on Google that tracks where Santa has been and where he is going. He and Scott checked it out. Santa was in South America when they started watching, and his last stop that we saw was Charlotte, NC. Once in bed, Charlotte was not being very quiet and Scott was getting a little anxious, knowing that he had to be asleep for Santa to come. He kept telling her, "Charlotte, Santa is already in North Carolina! We have to hurry and go to sleep!"
Scott wanting in on the nail painting... Fortunately he scraped it all off after an hour:
So now that Scott is 4 1/2, we figured it was time to take him for his first Disneyland experience. We have been talking up the trip for a while, and although I don't think Scott and Charlotte really knew what they were in for, they were excited about going. And we were especially lucky to have 13168 Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) and Aunt Shannon along for the party!
The highlight for Scott was the Buzz Lightyear ride. We called it the Zurg ride since (if you haven't been on it) it is like a laser tag game where you are shooting at targets all marked with a "Z". I think we went on it about 6 times during the 2 days. Fortunately the ride is also fun for adults, so nobody minded going over and over. And just ask Scott -- his high score was 80,600. And as you exit the ride, they of course have you walk directly through a store filled with Toy Story and Cars stuff. The first time after the ride, Scott desperately wanted another Lightning McQueen shirt. The second we bought it, he took off the Lightning McQueen shirt he was wearing at the time to replace it with the new one. And as of today (6 days later) he has worn it every single day.
Scott's follow-up note to Zach about his favorite ride:
Scott also thought the tea cups ride was hilarious, and really liked driving the cars in Autopia. He did go on the Matterhorn, but that was a little too scary.
Charlotte did fine on all of the rides she went on. When she was scared, she just would cling to whoever was holding her, rather than scream. That was fine with me. She did say, "That was fun!" after the Alice in Wonderland ride... I think her favorite part of the trip was the parade and the princesses. At one point we went into the all-princess store and she was in HEAVEN. She spent a while picking out her crown and her Sleeping Beauty sunglasses.
Doesn't she look spectacular? I haven't been able to convince her that the crown is not supposed to be warn like a headband, but I guess when you are a princess you can do whatever you want. And while Charlotte was getting decked out in all things princess, here is a picture of Scott, totally bored to tears while being surrounded with all this lame girly stuff. It took about 5 minutes before he was out cold:
Both kids were NOT excited at all about seeing the Disney characters in person. We did the character breakfast in the park, and Minnie, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Chip and Dale all came to our table while we were eating. Scott hid his face anytime one of them showed up. Charlotte did sort of warm up to Minnie and gave her a high-five and a tiny hug. But when we saw Buzz Lightyear and Woody in the park, neither kid wanted anything do to with them.
My favorite part was the parade and fireworks. I have never been to Disneyland when it was dark, so those two events were brand new to me. We saw the parade both days and we all loved it! And the fireworks were absolutely spectacular.
Needless to say, we had 2 tired kids and exhausted parents and grandparents at the end of each day. 2 days was just the right amount of time and December is definitely a great time of the year to go because of the Christmas stuff and the short lines. It was all magical...
Family Vacationing in the Beautiful Black Hills
8 years ago