The Gold's: Riley's Disneyland Birthday!

*WARNING* Long post with LOTS of pictures!!

So for Riley's birthday this year I had to make it good. I put a lot of time and effort into trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and kept coming up with a blank. Finally 3 days before his birthday I had it figured out. I wanted to take him to Disneyland! So with a lot of last minute planning (booking our flights, reserving our hotel and a shuttle to and from the airport) I got it all arranged. (Thanks to my dad for the air miles!!)

Riley had already made some arrangements to hang out with friends and go four-wheeling on his actual day, so I had to make sure they knew that he wasn't going to be around to go.

On Friday night when I got off work I told him I had made some reservations, so he needed to hurry and get showered and ready. I got him in the car and asked where he wanted to grab some food. He was confused because when I told him I had reservations, he had assumed it was for dinner. We made a quick stop and Wendy's and jumped back in the car. I told him, "This may be a little weird, but I'm going to ask you to put this purse over your head." Hahahaha! I couldn't find a blindfold anywhere, so I made him wear one of my purses on his head so he didn't know where we were headed. The little bum is so good with directions though, he knew right where we were when we pulled into the airport parking lot!

When I asked if he knew what we were doing there, he thought it was for a "behind the scenes" airport tour or something? What the heck is that?? Anyways, he was really surprised when I popped my trunk to reveal our bags all packed and ready. I had come home during lunch and got everything all put together.

We got our boarding passes and he was confused when they said 'Orange County, John Wayne airport'. I had to explain that our final destination was Anaheim, thinking that would give it away. But it didn't!! He just said, "What's in Anaheim?!". When I told him we were going to Disneyland his eyes just lit up and he instantly got excited! He hadn't been to Disneyland since he was like 5 or 6.

We landed and took our shuttle to the hotel, got all settled in for the night and went to bed. We woke up first thing and walked to Disneyland!! We did California Adventure first, and then Disneyland. We had SUCH a blast. Riley mentioned to the girl at the ticket counter that it was his birthday, so they gave him a special "It's my Birthday" pin. He proudly wore it all day!! They gave me one that said, "I'm Celebrating!", so I got to sport that, too. We lucked out and jumped in the single riders line for nearly all the rides. But because of his pin, we got to sit next to eachother on almost every ride, minus Indiana Jones (Which is still my all-time favorite ride, by the way). EVERY single park employee that either let us on the rides, or simply passed us in the park would tell him "Happy Birthday, Riley". He just loved that, it was such a nice gesture from everyone.

We had a great time spending time together and being in the warm weather. The humidity was killer, and it made us so grateful we just have "dry" heat here. But all in all it was a blast!!!

Now for the fun part!! Pictures!!

On the plane headed to Cali.