A visit to Downtown Disney

March 10, 2014

We decided to take Coby to Disneyland as a short trip away from home and somewhere that likely would intrigue him. He knows about the Cars characters and Mickey Mouse, though doesn't know most of the other characters. He definitely was very interested in anything train-related that he saw.

Our tickets were 1-day passes (didn't think he could handle more than 1 day), so on the first day, we just explored Downtown Disney. Turns out his favorite thing was a parking shuttle tram! Even though we were not parked in the parking lot, we boarded the tram and rode it back and forth a few times. He thought it was the best train ride! He also was very intrigued by the construction vehicles in downtown Disney working on the different buildings. Lucky for us, we caught a "crane parade" when all the construction vehicles retreated for the evening in a big long line down the road - who needs the official Disney parades when the construction parades are more exciting (that's what Coby thought at least..)

In Downtown Disney, he loved the Lego store and a store where you can make a customized car. He played with his first remote control car there and really loved making it move and watching it go fast and slow. At the Lego store, he built some cars from legos and raced them.

Welcome to Downtown Disney!

Loving the parking lot tram "train" ride

First try at using a remote control car

Building a race car (and an airplane) outside the Lego Store

Testing out Coby's lego car on the race track

Building inside The Lego Store

Fist bump with the Hulk

Beauty and the Beast lego-style

The (un)"official" Disney crane parade!

Tired after a day in Downtown Disney!

One crab, two crab

It is dungeness crab season here. There are lots of crabs being caught by fishermen in Half Moon Bay. Jeff went with some friends and bought a few crabs from the boats at Johnson Pier.

He'll Be Coming Around the Mountain...

We decided while staying near Mt Hood it would be a good opportunity to take Coby skiing for the first time. It is best to learn when you are young though we weren't sure how balanced he would be. He had seen people skiing at Timberline earlier in the week and seemed interested. He was so interested that at the house he wanted to try skiing with remote controls taped to his feet!

We rented skis for him in Welches, OR, near where we were staying. It was only $10 for boots and skis for him and $2.50 for a helmet, so seemed like it was worth trying and see what he would do.
We drove to Mt Hood Meadows which had a really great beginner area with two magic carpets! One was a small magic carpet really geared to small kids and the other one was a long magic carpet, even encapsulated in a tunnel. He called both of them "ski trains" and wanted to keep riding them. He stayed on his skis for 2 hours practicing. By the time we were leaving, Jeff was able to let go of him for short periods for him to balance and glide along on his own. He really liked it, never complained, and kept saying "again?" to go back up to the top and come back down. Looking forward to taking him again sometime, maybe to Tahoe next season!

Ski Bowl - Mt Hood

Today we took Coby to Ski Bowl at Mt Hood to see if he would like tubing. There wasn't much snow and the existing snow was man made but he did seem to like it. He went down in the tube once. He was more interested in riding the moving walk magic carpet up which he called a train. They also had a small indoor play structure which he tried. Jeff was able to tow him in his own sled at the bottom of the hill too.

Coby's Second Birthday

We had a small train-themed birthday party with Coby with a few friends and family.

A boy and his baa sheep

Today we decided to try visiting a park we had not been to before, called Ardenwood Farm in Fremont. It was a nice day and the park has both farm animals and a train so there was a good chance Coby would like it. And he did!
The train is unique because a horse pulls a train car on a track. We went on it twice.
We also saw turkeys, chickens, pigs, cows, and sheep. We spent quite awhile with a sheep that Coby befriended. He wanted to feed the "baa sheep". We found some nuts on the ground that he could drop for the sheep. He kept saying "baa sheep. hungry? nuts. down there. bottom. coby" I think this can be interpreted as "Mr. Sheep, are you hungry? Look down there at the bottom. There are nuts. Coby put them there." He was very determined to get the 'baa sheep' to eat the nuts and kept finding more and giving him more.
The park also has an old Victorian house that has a special tour for kids under 6 on Sundays. We did that tour for about 10 minutes before Coby decided he was done.
They also had a little cooking demonstration in an old wood stove, so we could try pumpkin pie, corn bread, pancakes, and popcorn. 
It was a nice park and we will be back there again!