I don’t know why I had this vision in my mind of seeing Ryder’s toes in the sand one last time before he has to share his Mommy and Daddy with an infant that demands attention 100% of the time, but I did. I know Ryder won’t remember the trip and he did not wake up one morning demanding we take him to the beach “or else!!!” but my understanding hubby agreed we could take one last trip with the three of us. (TJ couldn’t join in on the fun this time because he’d already missed so much school from traveling with us, his mom’s family and some karate tournament trips he had taken.)
So off we went to Newport Beach! (We stayed at Hyatt Regency and loved it!) Let me just say that Ryder is an excellent traveler and I’m always so impressed with how well he handles hotels, planes, time changes, different bed, etc. This was his 15th flight and we’ve figured out what works for us while traveling to make things go as smooth as possible.
We had never been to Newport Beach so I didn’t know what to expect. Of course, it’s beautiful! We didn’t get lucky with the weather this time and it was kinda overcast and rainy the whole trip. But we still got in some beach time and decided last minute that we would spend a day at Disneyland since we didn’t have “beach” weather. Disneyland was a 20-30 minute drive from our hotel and we spent the entire day there! Tooth and I have never been huge fans of Disney. Not that we dislike it. We’ve just never been Disney obsessed like some of our close friends (you know who you are!!! LOL).
Surprisingly, this ended up being our favorite day of the trip! I didn’t even recognize myself buying Minnie Mouse ears and souvenirs at every corner. There is just something about your babies “first” time doing ANYthing that brings you so much joy as a parent. I think we went on a total of three rides – haha! But Ryder enjoyed every minute of it and took a great nap in his stroller half way through the day while Tooth and I munched on hotdogs, pretzels, churros, cotton candy, ice cream, etc. LOL. Apparently, we like food. We also saw a live Aladdin show and it was hilarious for us, and so entertaining for Ryder. He sat there the entire hour completely into it. So cute!
We did try to get some pics on the beach together. But the photos I had envisioned (Pinterest inspired, of course. What else?!), just weren’t happening. Ryder was totally freaked out by the sand getting in his toes and wanted nothing to do with getting wet. This was such a shock to us! He’s all dude and generally likes to play/do anything that involves getting dirty. The last time we were in Cali (Lake Tahoe for my Dad’s wedding) he ran right into the water fully dressed and didn’t care one bit that the water was FREEZING!
All in all, the trip was a success and I’m so glad we have these memories with our little man before our baby girl gets here this July. I love taking short little trips like this with our family and I am forever grateful for the fact that we are able to experience these things with our kids. Here are some of our best moments: (I'm sorry in advance for the pic overload!)
We took a bike ride along the coast. It was really fun (and easy for me because I was mostly pretending to peddle) and Ryder loved it. He kept putting his hand back behind to help us steer. So cute!
We were expecting him to love the sand but it just kinda freaked him out this trip.
Yup, freaked out!
I have many pictures with my parents very similar to this. Near the beach and drinking a Slurpee.
Safe to say he loves his ICEEs as much as his Mommy!
This kid is a MAJOR Daddy's boy and loves everything he does. Watching them play together completely melts my heart.
The start of our rainy day at Disney which turned out to be a blast!
Apparently, bagels and cream cheese tastes better when it's shaped like Mickey :)
I had this vision of getting a picture of Ryder in his personalized Mickey Mouse hat. Epic FAIL. He wasn't into it. And it was so sad but so cute! We couldn't help but laugh :)
Ryder loves anything that has a steering wheel and loves to "drive". This becomes a problem when he's actually steering. LOL He LOVED sitting on Daddy's lap and steering the boat. Clearly, he took this job very seriously HA!
I desperately wanted to get pictures on the beach with this adorable, goofy boy of mine. But he wasn't having it. Still not sure why the sand freaked him out on this trip but he didn't want anything to do with getting his feet sandy or getting in the water.
Would love to hear some of your favorite places to travel as a family. Any recommendations?
So refreshing to hear you say you guys liked Disney! My husband and I never thought it sounded like a fun thing to do because we too, are just not Disney people. After reading this though, we may have to give it a try I think.
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