Road Trip Last Thoughts

I really enjoyed going to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure! It's been a long time since I've really gone to the parks to explore. I grew up in Southern California and used to go to the parks all the time. I think it's been at least 5 years since I've went to the parks for more than just a few hours at a time. It was really fun going and seeing things from my adult eyes and seeing Little Guy experience it for the first time.

I had a good time seeing my God Daughter and being there for her graduation.

Packing: I didn't over pack! I packed just about enough clothes. I did bring a little bit too much snack items though. 

Driving: The drives went well! The TV's worked out perfectly. The kids had enough distractions to keep them occupied. We didn't have to stop more than I wanted to. 

The Parks: I think we got to see and explore the parks enough. Although, another day at Disneyland would have been nice (but may be too tiring). 

The Beach: The beach was nice and relaxing! This was a good thing to do with small kids. 

Character Breakfast: Glad we did the Character breakfast! But won't be doing PCH Grill again.

Hotel: The hotel was in the perfect spot. I loved the location and the walking distance to the parks. The extra $$ was worth it, IMHO. Especially when you have little kids. If I didn't have little kids,  I probably would've opted to take the shuttle at a hotel further away. But with kids, the convenience and the ease of going back to the hotel for nap time - was totally worth it.  

Toddlers: Little Guy is a great traveler! He adjusts really well and didn't have any meltdowns (that weren't age-appropriate). He loves to explore and preferred to walk and go where he wanted to go (which caused some issues when he had to ride in the stroller). 

Little Miss... this trip was too much for her. No matter what precautions were taken, it didn't help subside her complete and utter meltdowns. 

As a foster parent, I can see that she was over stimulated. But also as a foster parent, I travel a lot... and I've always included my foster kids in my travels. I've never had a foster child react like this before. Yes, there were breakdowns by other kids, but not to this extreme. It was overwhelming and frustrating. 

They tell you in MAPP training to not judge the behaviors, to think about what has led to the behaviors. Yes, I know - she was over stimulated. Should I have left her at home in respite? After leaving her in respite for a week while we were in Hawaii (I booked that trip prior to Little Miss moving in with me)? It's a hard thing being a foster parent sometimes and dealing with these extreme behaviors... especially when you're on vacation and spending a lot of money! I wanted to include her, do something nice for her before she left... 

Hindsight is 20/20. I should have just left her in respite. But there's no way for me to have predicted the extremity of her meltdowns. It was so bad, I've never seen her like this for the time that she's lived with me. I'm going to put her in respite this weekend, because I seriously need a break from her right now. It was so exhausting. After she leaves, I'm not going to be taking any more foster kiddos -- I need a break! 

Overall, it was a good and fun trip. Lots going on, but I think the pre-work helped with some of the potential pit-falls of going to a theme park.

Sweet Part of the Trip: Seeing Little Guy enjoy himself and have fun. 

Sour Part of the Trip: Little Miss's Tantrum Parties.

Road Trip, Day #5: Character Breakfast + Travel Day - headed home!

First thing we did on our last day was pack and load the car. Bigger effort than it sounds with two toddlers! 

Character Breakfast 

It's so crowded at the parks and the lines to take pictures with characters are really long. I made a reservation for a Character Breakfast for our last day in California. I've done Goofy's Kitchen and wanted to try something different. We ended up doing Disney's PCH Grill at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel. 

Mini review: not the best character breakfast ever... but it's hard to compare Disneyland stuff to Disney World...! I didn't really like the food options and the layout of the place was a little odd. 

Little Guy was a little cautious of the characters, but he didn't cry. Little Miss had a different experience. She would wave "hi" and "bye" to them with a smile on her face. But if they tried to get close, she would scream her head off! So, I don't have any pictures of her smiling with the characters. 

Drive Home

The drive home went really fast and was relatively smooth. The kids did well for the most part, besides a few tantrum parties with Little Miss. 

Sweet Part of the Day: Pluto hugging Little Guy.

Sour Part of the Day: Having a toddler kick my seat while I was driving. 

Road Trip, Day #4: Beach Day

After all the excitement of the Graduation Ceremony, going to Disney's California Adventure, and Disneyland -- we planned one relaxing day to the BEACH! 

Since we got back to the hotel so late the day before, we got to sleep in this day! We all got up by 10:30am, which is extremely late for me and the kids. 

The day didn't start off great, as Little Miss continued her tantrum party at the hotel before we left... 

We had a beach in mind to visit, but we ended up at Newport Beach instead. Found some street parking and a beach that didn't have many people there! 

We were able to hang out and relax for a few hours. It wasn't too sunny, which was nice! The water was very cold. 

Little Miss had a few outburst at the beach that weren't fun... But I dealt with it. Overall the trip was a success! 

Later that night, we met with my cousin and God Daughter for dinner. 

Nice relaxing day, considering the busy hustle and bustle of Disneyland/DCA. 

Sweet Part of the Day: Hanging out at the beach. 

Sour Part of the Day: Little Miss's morning tantrum. 

Road Trip, Day #3: Disneyland, the Happiest Place On Earth! (for most kids)

Day #3 was Disneyland Day!!! With what happened at DCA yesterday, I tried to take some precautions to hopefully minimize Little Miss's tantrums - no luck. This day was just as bad (if not worse than yesterday) where her extreme tantrums are concerned. 

HOWEVER, even though she had tantrums-galore --> the rest of us had a good time :) Did same packing as DCA day. Disneyland is much more crowded though!!! Was hard to navigate the crowds and we didn't get to go on many of the Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, or Toon Town rides. If I were to do it again, probably would've done 2 days at Disneyland to fit it all in and not feel "rushed".

The castle!

In Tomorrowland, the kids had a lot of fun with this giant water ball. 

Watched Fantasmic, which was GREAT! I haven't watched the show since I was a kid. Little Guy with his glow sticks. 

The day at Disneyland was fun! We got to do everything we wanted to do (for the most part) and see what we wanted to see. We were very strategic with riding rides. They have some rides that have "single riders" and we used Fast Pass for other rides. The teenager and I just took turns watching the kids while the other one was on the rides. We took the kids on the rides with no height requirements (although Little Miss missed out on some of these because of the tantrum situation). Worked out really well overall!

Sweet Part of the Day: Being at Disneyland with my Little Guy! 

Sour Part of the Day: "Advice" from other parents on how to manage Little Miss's tantrums. <sigh> 

Road Trip, Day #2: Disney California Adventure

Today was Disney California Adventure (DCA) Day. I was "prepared" with toys, snacks, diapers, clothes, drinks! You can bring in food and drinks into Disney. Here's what I packed: 

• Soft Structured Cooler: located under the stroller that had water and ice to keep it cold. 
• Food Snack Trays for the kids. 
• Some Toys to help with down time. 
• In the Minnie Bag: A bag of extra clothes, PJ's, sunblock. 
• In the Spider Man Bag: Diapers, Wipes. 
• Blankets for each kid. 
• Baby Carrier for waiting in line. 

The day started out relatively well! It wasn't busy at DCA and it's a smaller park, so I didn't feel rushed. The kids were exploring and having fun. 

THEN, the meltdowns began. Little Miss had her first meltdown during the Frozen sing along. It was really bad. I can't add the details here... but they were so bad that someone at Disney came to talk to us about her keeping her shoes and shirt on, and that if I need assistance -- to just find a Cast Member.  Very embarrassing, needless to say. 

I wish I could say that her meltdowns stopped after that, but they actually escalated. She had meltdown-after meltdown. Screaming at the top of her lungs for up to an hour at a time... She ended up staying in the stroller for the most part because she was highly unpredictable on what she would do when she was out. 

Little Guy also became frustrated with her and would go up to her and say, "Stop it! No" and wag his little finger at her. 

We didn't let that impact our day though!! Little Guy still had fun, I had semi-fun, and the teenager that came with us had fun on the rides. 

The cutest thing was that Little Guy would "dance". He would stand in the middle of traffic and just start bouncing, going in circles, dancing :) 

Here's the kids waiting in line to take a picture with a Car in Cars Land. Little Miss didn't actually make it to the picture, as she had a meltdown right after I took this one. 

It was hard taking pictures of Little Guy with the cars, as he just wanted to look at them. He was fascinated that they made noise and that they had eyes! 

We watched the parade at DCA and it was really good! 

We also watched World of Color. I really enjoyed that one. I didn't know you had to have a fast pass to get seats!! By the time we figured it out, they were already out. So we found this spot, a little off center - but it worked out well! I also brought glow sticks for the kids to use when it got dark. Prior to it getting too cold, I changed both kids into their PJ's and put their jackets on - that way when it was time to leave, they can go straight to sleep when we got back to the hotel.



Overall, it was an OK day. Little Miss's tantrums were so constant and extreme and nothing I would do helped her or minimized her behavior. It was really frustrating.

Sweet Part of the Day: Watching Little Guy dance in the middle of Car's Land. 

Sour Part of the Day: Little Miss's extreme Tantrums. 

Road Trip, Day #1: 6 Hour Car Ride + Graduation Ceremony!

It's time for our Road Trip to California!! 

Agenda: My God Daughter's High School Graduation, Disney California Adventure, Disneyland, the Beach, and Character Breakfast. 

Getting ready for a road trip is a little bit easier than preparing for a plane ride! More space in the car for odds and ends, no worries about having to carry everything. 

Packing & Loading

For this trip, I decided to put each day into a zip lock bag. I've done this before, just skipped it for my Hawaii trip. Bags I packed:

• A bag for each day: 1 outfit for each kid + 1 set of PJ's. 
• A bag of just PJ's for each kid (for non-theme park days). 
• A bag of jackets, hats, sunglasses. 
• A bag of extra clothes: 1 outfit for each kid. 

Packing the car was harder. I don't have a huge car!!! So, trying to squeeze everything in there for 4 humans, a double stroller, and a pack-n-play was tough! I had two pack-n-plays (1 for each kid) but wasn't able to bring the second one because there was absolutely no room. Ended up renting a crib at the hotel.

I don't normally let the kids watch TV. I made a huge exception for this road trip. I bought TV's for the car with dual screens (can be played individually or as one). Since I have one kid rear-facing and one forward-facing, this worked out really well.

The Drive 

The drive went relatively smoothly! We stopped twice. Once for snacks + potty/diaper changes. Then once for lunch. Both kids did extremely well.

This is what the snack tray looked like:

Graduation Ceremony 

When we finally arrived in California, we were able to change and head over to my God Daughter's High School graduation. There were a lot of kids graduating, but it was still over in about 1.5 hours.



Afterwards, we went to dinner with the family and did gifts for my God Daughter. I made her two candy leis, a money lei, and gave her a "College Survival Kit". She loved it! I found all of these things on Pinterest and YouTube.

Arriving at the Hotel 

We arrived at the hotel relatively late, about 9:30pm. We got settled and went straight to sleep. We stayed at the Carousel Inn and Suites. The good: Perfect location, as it's only a 5 minute walk to both parks (it's right across the street) - very convenient, the price was pretty good considering the location. Downers: no free wifi, no free parking (only valet services that costs each day), a "resort fee" (although not very resort-y), crib rental fee.

All in all, the road trip to California was a success and everything went as planned.

Sweet Part of the Day: Seeing my God Daughter graduate!

Sour Part of the Day: It was humid! Not used to the humidity anymore! 

Hawaii 2015 Last Thoughts

This Hawaii trip was our "big trip" for the year. I like to try and go on one big trip every year, if possible. 

First, the planning. I went through a travel agency that was recommended by my boss. He uses them every year to go to Cancun with his family. He stays at all-inclusive places. I wish they had all-inclusive places in Hawaii!! Going through the travel agency made things a little less stressful with planning the hotel, booking the airfare, etc. The only thing is -- I'm a bit of a control freak, so I was double checking everything. So not sure I actually saved "time" in going through a travel agency! But I did like that she was able to show me different packages depending on the airline/hotel combination. Overall, I enjoyed going through the travel agent and will probably use her again for my next trip. 

I get good rental car prices through work corporate perks. This I will continue to use on trips going forward. So, I'll book this separately from the travel agent. Next time, I will look more into HOW to get to the rental place (need to take a shuttle or if it's part of the airport, etc). 

Second, the packing. I always over pack. It's just my thing. I'm a "just in case" type person. Overall, I over packed for Little Guy - had a lot of options. He still had half his clothes left that were clean! BUT his clothes don't take up a lot of room. My clothes - I packed JUST right. I used almost everything I brought. There were some hair accessary items I didn't need for Hawaii, like my curling iron. What I know I over planned for was the "in flight toddler entertainment." Almost none of it worked! I still need to do a "review" of the things I brought. Knowing what I know now - I will not bring as much stuff for Little Guy. The things that entertained him the most were a cup from the plane and a straw. Really! 

Third, attending events where I'm not really "welcomed". OK. So, not that I wasn't welcomed. But it wasn't a "we're happy to see you" type feeling that I got. Next time, I will not plan a trip around something like that where I will feel uncomfortable. I do have a wedding to attend next month with the same group... but that's ONE event and there will be more people I know to keep me company. 

Forth, the trip was a day too long for a toddler. You can only ask so much from a toddler! You can't expect them to just adjust and be ok with it. Considering we were in a hotel, I think I would prefer to stay in condo/apartment-type hotels when having little ones. Better to have a fridge and food at the ready. Plus, a bigger place to explore. I enjoyed our Florida trip where we rented a condo on the beach. Big enough to explore so it didn't feel like we were on top of each other. 

Fifth, traveling solo with a toddler is TOUGH. It's not like this is my first trip with Little Guy... but it is my first trip with him being a full fledged toddler! It was exhausting trying to get things done, carry everything, stay on schedule, keep a nap schedule, not to let him get over tired, not to let him get too far away, make sure he was eating, make sure he was drinking enough water, expose him to new things, etc. It's tiring. I'm tired! One day too long for both of us! 

Overall, I had a great time on this trip! I got to see most of the island, I got to experience things I haven't done before with the Luau, Botanical Gardens, North Shore, and just exploring Waikiki. There was equal chances to relax and explore. 

I love Little Guy and enjoy his company so much. Seeing things through his eyes is nice. But all he really wanted was to point at airplanes and play with his cars! Oh, and run around exploring without me saying "no-no"! I did a lot of research on "toddler friendly" places on the island. I'm sure he enjoyed himself, as much as a toddler can. 

Though it was fun and we got to do a lot -- it was also exhausting! Hoping for a nice relaxing weekend... then onto our next adventures: 

1. Next Week: Road trip to Southern California + Disneyland! I'm finalizing the plans for that one. This is to attend my God Daughter's High School Graduation! I'll have both toddlers for this trip and my friends' teenage daughter will be coming along. 
2. Next Month: Road trip to Southern California for the wedding. Will just have Little Guy for this one. 
3. December: Trip TBD. This will be dependent on TTC and adoption finalization.