Zaffiro Images: Ellen’s Gift to Jayden and Kylene

What a busy 3 days we had in Los Angeles!

We arrived on Sunday October 25 to Burbank and picked up our rental car that the Ellen Show provided for us, including a GPS and a car seat for Jayden. Checked into the Sheraton Universal Hotel at Universal City, next to Universal Studios.

We spent Sunday evening visiting friends of Kylene and their family out in Lancaster, CA and Jayden played ‘baby football’ with 2-year-old twins and a 3-year old. What fun that was to watch! He had a blast.

Monday morning we headed to Disneyland and spent the day between Disneyland and California Adventure. I just LOVE Disneyland! I could spend every day there. It’s so magical and seeing all the little kids eyes light up every time they see their favorite character is just wonderful.

We started the day off at California Adventure first. Great fun place for kids, it’s more of a boardwalk type place with most of the Pixar characters and rides there.

Great rides and fairway with games. I think my favorite ride was the Ferris Wheel because there’s a few on there that will swing back and forth. And watching the terror and listening to the screams of my daughter was priceless, and quite hilarious. Jayden and I got a kick out of it.

Later in the afternoon California Adventure had their fantastic Pixar Parade. Jayden loves the Pixar movies, especially Monster’s Inc. and Cars.

After the parade, we're on our way to Disneyland and had a fun time watching Jayden see and experience Disneyland.

Jayden found the Sword in the Stone and wanted to try to pull it out. He really tried!

We went directly to Toon Town to visit Mickey. Jayden, like any other 3-year-old, loves Mickey. We found his house and Jayden fell in love with it.

Then we found Mickey. Mickey was kind enough to hold up one of our Ellen sweatshirts and take his picture with Jayden.

Then over to Minnie’s house and got a quick shot of him with Minnie.

And he loved her kitchen the best, I think.

We went over to Goofy’s house and he loved the piano

While walking around ToonTown, Jayden had a blast doing just about everything.

It was funny watching him trying to pick up the weights sitting on the street.

He really tried to pick them up. He ran around and ran around trying to do everything that was there to do.

He really wanted to ride on the rollercoaster over at Chip n Dale’s place. It was so cute. He really screamed on that ride.

The Celebration parade was about to start, so we walked over to the Nemo ride so we could be near the parade route. Jayden loved the Nemo ride!

And the parade. It's all about celebrating Disneyland.

Jayden was such a big boy at Disneyland. We was able to go on all the rides except for Raiders of the Lost Ark. He went on Space Mountain, Tower of Terror (he loves ‘drop zone’ type rides and enjoyed that one), Matterhorn (he loved that one – went on 3 times back to back) and Splash Mountain. He also enjoyed Haunted House and Pirates of the Caribbean. Pretty impressive for a 3-year-old!

We spent the rest of the night at California Adventure and then back to the Hotel for some rest before we met Ellen Degeneres tomorrow.

And someone was quite tired! Such a cutie!

Wednesday, we met up with an old friend of mine I used to work with in San Francisco. He works at the Warner Brothers studios as an event planner. Great job! He gave us a tour of the studios and we had lunch. He showed us where Ellen DeGeneres’s show was going to be held, and while walking around, we ran into Ellen. She recognized Kylene and Jayden right away. They chatted for a few minutes, then she was off.

We said our goodbyes to my friend and drove over to Ellen’s studio. Once inside, we were given our own dressing room, right next to Tim McGraw’s! We would hear them in the room laughing and telling typical ‘guy’ jokes. And a little rehearsal.

Around 3:00 we were lead to the audience and seated. Ellen DeGeneres’ show is awesome, especially to be in the audience. They really know how to keep you pumped up during commercials! With dance competitions between the audience members and giveaways.

At the end of the show, Ellen called Kylene up to stage.