Little Adventures: 2012 Recap

It's the start of a new year and that means it's time to look back on what the last year held.

2012 was quite a busy year for us with so many new things and lots of adventures. Most of those adventures were small ones around the Bay Area and a few saw us heading further afield.

Let's have a look back at the Little Adventures that kept us busy at Little Hiccups over the last 12 months...


January

We started off 2012 with a day trip to nearby Limantour Beach on New Year's Day. A trip to the beach in January for us would usually mean a day of swimming, body boarding and hiding from the sweltering heat under some form of shade. Of course, here in America it's Winter in January so this trip to the beach was very different from what we're accustomed to. No swimming, no body boarding, no sweltering heat. I must say I'm happy about that last bit! I'm not a fan of hot weather.

Cheesy family shot at Limantour Beach

The Happiest Place on Earth - Day 2

Here it is... day two of our Disneyland adventure.

Now if we thought it was hot on day one we were in for a big surprise. It was even hotter on day two and even though us Aussies should be able to cope with the heat not experiencing any for over a year has messed us around. It probably got to about 34c on day two which we would easily have been able to cope with back home but seeing as our San Francisco Summer weather barely gets above 25c we really struggled. Poor Lola in particular looked like she was about to melt half the time.

To escape a little of the heat (and to get into Disneyland a little faster) we decided to catch the Monorail from Downtown Disney to Tomorrowland. After the eventful ride on Big Thunder Railroad the day before Ava was a little wary about catching the monorail. She was pleasantly surprised to discover that it really was just like a small train and that we hadn't tricked her again!

Once we were inside Disneyland the girls were eager to head straight back to It's a Small World for a second go. Given the heat we were happy to go along with this and buckled ourselves into the boat for another 15 minutes of nauseating (but air-conditioned!) cheesiness!

Pretty excited for round two of It's a Small World

The Happiest Place on Earth - Day 1

Ok, so I've been a little slack with posting lately. So, so much going on over the last month. I think it's about time I catch up with a look at one of the reasons I've gotten behind in the first place.

So prepare for a total onslaught of photos...

Here it is...

Our trip to DISNEYLAND!!!

Ava had been looking forward to visiting Disneyland since well before we made our move to the States. In an effort to help her get excited about our move we'd told her than we'd be living in the same state as Disneyland. Ok, so we're at the other end of the state but compared to Australia San Francisco is pretty close to the home of Mickey Mouse. Knowing that Mickey and his friends were only a half day's drive away, Ava would ask almost on a weekly basis when we'd finally make it to Disneyland. Well, that day finally came a few weekends back when we made the trip down to sunny Anaheim to meet up with my sister, Kylie, who was on holiday in America. Disneyland AND seeing Aunty Kylie? I think all of Ava's dreams came true in one go!


Day 1

Where to start about Disneyland? There's just so much to see and do that it's hard to work out what to do first. Ava had made a short list of "must do" rides that was pretty much all located within Fantasyland so that made for a good place to start. Of course, getting to Fantasyland took an awfully long time as we were greeted with friendly Disney characters and photo opportunities at every turn! Lola had been a little (ok, a LOT) grizzly when we first arrived at Disneyland but that all turned around when she spotted Pluto. In the past she's been very apprehensive about meeting life size characters but she took to Pluto (and every other Disney character she met) straight away. It's amazing the transformation that cuddly pup brought about!

Hooray for Pluto!

Disneyland T-Shirts

The big day is here!

We're going to Disneyland!!!

And if that wasn't exciting enough, we're meeting up with my little sister who's visiting from Australia and she's coming with us. Yay! 

You may recall that when my parents visited from Australia back in May Ava and I made special "commemorative" t-shirts for their visit. You can see them here. I promised my sister that there just might be something special in store for her visit too so Ava and I got to work.

Ava drew the most gorgeous picture of herself, Lola and Aunty Kylie wearing Mickey Mouse ears on the tea cup ride. Ok, so it was actually two of Ava's pictures that I morphed together in photoshop. Either way, the end result was perfect for our commemorative t-shirts.

Now, when my parents came to visit it was just Ava and Lola who got to wear a special t-shirt. This time around there's a third t-shirt for Aunty Kylie.

Here's a sneak peek...

Lola and Mickey

T-shirt design

Lola, Ava and Aunty Kylie ride the teacups

Countdown to Disneyland!

In just under two weeks' time we'll be in the happiest place on earth! That's right, we're going to Disneyland!

We'll be meeting up with my little sister in Los Angeles and spending the weekend in Disneyland before road-tripping back to the Bay Area.

To help get into "Disney mode" I've been looking back on photos from our 2005 trip to Disneyland. I thought I'd share some of them with you here on Little Hiccups.

I'm sure this Disney adventure will be much different to our first - no kids first time around.

Expect to see many more Disney photos here come mid September!

Mickey Mouse ears? Check. Mickey Mouse t-shirt? Check.