We spent Wednesday (May 16) of our trip just relaxing - we didn't go to the parks that day, but did some shopping at Downtown Disney in the morning then just hung out at the resort pool in the afternoon.
Dean was very specific with his shopping requests - he had already scoped out Downtown Disney when we walked through to go to and from Disneyland the previous day and he wanted to go to the big 2-story Lego store, to the Build-a-Bear store, and to the candy store! We don't have any toy stores on Maui, so honestly it was kind of exciting to be able to take him into some stores that were just for kids! We hit up the Build-a-Bear store first and Dean took things VERY seriously in there. He has been in one Build-a-Bear before on the mainland when he was 3 years old and picked out a very loud peace-sign covered bear, but did not want any clothing or accessories for his bear (because, as Dean said back then, "Bears don't wear clothes"). He also received a rainbow bear from Build-a-Bear online for his preschool graduation, that he had been eying in the catalog. Again, no clothes. This time, I expected him to once again head for the ugliest bear in the store and I must admit he was torn, but finally with a little bit of shameless arm-twisting by yours truly, he decided on a cat that looks just like our kitty Nani. However, he named his Build-a-Cat "Meowy". He filled Meowy with stuffing and a cat-sound-maker and then took the job of giving it an "air bath" VERY VERY seriously. For real. He spent like 10 minutes giving that thing an air bath and scrubbing it down. He couldn't be talked into buying it any clothes, not any kind of Disney Princess costume or Yoda Costume or even a Hula Cat costume complete with coconut bra. He was having no part of that. Because "Cats don't wear clothes". Duh. However, he DID insist on buying it a water dish and food dish and collar and brush and a mat to put it's food dish on and he really REALLY wanted to buy some shampoo for it (we were able to talk him out of the shampoo by telling him the airlines didn't allow it on the plane). After what seemed like 12 hours in the Build-a-Bear store, we finally headed to the Lego store!
Dean was in Dean Heaven at the Lego store. Dean is a kid who prefers to play with Legos in his own way and just "build whatever I want to build". He has to be coerced into following the instructions and actually building the thing that is shown on the box. He would much rather just come up with his own thing and build "freestyle". I think he just stood and stared at the Lego Brick Wall for about 10 minutes. He couldn't believe you could just fill a big cup full of individual bricks and buy them that way! We let him fill up 2 large cups of bricks to buy, but he took FOREVER agonizing over every little brick and thinking about what he might use it for before adding it to his cup. All in all, he bought 2 cups of mixed individual bricks from the brick wall, 2 new large building plates, a set of wheels, axles and accessories for building cars, and a few of the new Minifigure sets. Then we let him play for awhile outside in the Lego play area.
One of my favorite things of the day was letting my Mom talk us into doing one of those silly Movie poster photo things. We decided on a Star Wars: Return of the Jedi poster and I have to say, we TOTALLY NAILED IT!! (and the funniest comment I got about this when I posted it on Facebook was Jeremy saying "I don't get it, is Mom supposed to be the Ewok?").
After a little more shopping, we headed back to our hotel and relaxed poolside for a few hours. We had a few drinks while Dean wore himself out swimming and going down the slide. He had to try out each of the 4 pools and all of the hot tubs. He had so much fun! He also perfected his cannonball technique on this trip - that kid really can do a perfect cannonball!
After some pool time and then resting in the room for a bit, we headed back to Downtown Disney - we walked down to the Disneyland Hotel and had a drink at a Tiki Bar that seemed to only employ women over the age of 70 (for real) and had terrible service. That was the ONLY experience with bad service on the entire trip, so I guess that's pretty good. It was disappointing because it was a cute little bar. After drinks, we had dinner at Rainforest Cafe, which Dean LOVED. I'm sure most people have experienced a Rainforest Cafe at some point before, but it was such a cool experience to that little Maui boy! And the food was excellent. A perfect end to another super fun day!
(Disclaimer: That is a non-alcoholic drink Dean is consuming above. Just FYI).
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