Ryan is a babyGap FINALIST!!!

If you talk to me between now and December 20th, I am most likely going to start and end our conversation with, “VOTE FOR RYAN!” 

Back on November 1st, we found out that our son, Ryan, had been chosen by a panel of judges, out of over a MILLION entries as a Top 5 Finalist in the Baby Boy category of the 2010 Gap Casting Call. 

On November 13th the Gap flew myself, Ryan and our friend Wendi to San Francisco, California for a 5 day stay.

3:30 AM! Time to wake up! Our car service arrived at 4:00!

Wendi & Ryan at the Norfolk Airport at roughly 5 AM.

Ryan was an awesome traveler. We flew from Norfolk to Minneapolis, where we got stuck in a snow storm and sat on the runway for 2 hours BEFORE taking off on a 4 hour flight!  We finally landed in San Francisco about 14 hours after we left out house in VA.  (I read online that a smart tip for traveling with toddlers is to bring their car seat and strap them in it on the airplane. They are used to being in their car seat and are more prone to stay put than if they were loosely restrained with a lap belt in the huge seat. Worked like a charm! Best tip ever!)

When we landed in SanFran, we were met at the airport by the car service.

They carried us to the amazing Hotel Monaco, our home for the next 5 days!

 

We were greeted at the doors by the awesome folks at the Gap and they handed us this gift basket for Ryan!

After we unloaded our things we threw Ryan in the stroller and headed out in search of food!  We ate at Chipotle down the street and came back and crashed for the night (I believe it was about 6:30 PM CA time, 9:30PM VA time. We were pooped!)

Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. (The only time we ate there being as the bill was $37 and Wendi and I SPLIT a meal!  Even though we were spending the $500 American Express gift card the Gap gave us, I can’t justify alloting $40 for breakfast!)

After eating, I signed the official model release paperwork!

Once breakfast was over we met the Escalades outside and were whisked off to the studio for Ryan’s fitting.

Ryan was a trooper and stood very still while they pinned all of the many layers for hemming. 

This was the room where they housed all of the clothes and accessories for the kids!

 

The Gap staff was awesome with Ryan. Very patient and kind. That patience came in handy when Ryan pitched a royal FIT when it was time for the video interview. He absolutely shut down. It was naptime east coast time and he was just plain exhausted.  The only thing that kept me from sobbing was a fear of having a red face for the camera!  Finally, after a half hour break, he calmed down enough to at least sit in my lap while I talked. He also made faces at the camera and picked his nose and showed me the results while they were filming. Bummer they didn’t include that footage in his finalist clip.

Here we are pre-meltdown.

That evening (AFTER a nap for us all!) we headed out for a bit of sightseeing.

Waiting in line for the cable car at Union Square.

Riding on the cable car.

We took the cable car down to Pier 39 where we ate dinner at Bubba Gumps. YUM!

 

Monday was our free day and we spent the day doing more sightseeing.

Another cable car ride down to the docks.

 

We checked out the Sea Lions.

 

Then we took a Bay cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

 

After the cruise, we ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

Ryan LOVED checking out all the animals!

 

That evening, the Gap hosted a reception for all the babyGap and Gap Kids finalists. We had a great time getting to know the other families and the kids had a blast running around together!

 

Ryan playing with two of the baby Girl finalists, Malia and London.

Hanging with two other baby Boy finalists, Dylan and Jake.

Later that evening, having a snack in our room. Ryan was being silly!

On Tuesday, we headed to the studio for the photo shoot!

Here’s Ryan hanging out with fellow baby Boy finalists, William and Jake, in the hotel lobby.

At the studio, waiting for our turn…

Last minute touches

The he was off to the shoot! Ryan did GREAT for his shoot! Thanks to Wendi, we have the whole thing on video. I’ll try to add that in this post at some point…

After the photo shoot we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (which was on an 8th floor terrace)

Then we rode the cable cars down to Lombard Street. Wendi made me walk down this entire street with Ryan in the stroller! Talk about a calf workout!

We headed back down to Pier 39 to check out the aquarium. It was a little small but Ryan enjoyed checking out the fishies.

And the stingrays.

We headed back to Union Square, did a little shopping and picked up Burger King (which we ate back in our room).  The next morning we left the hotel at 4:30 AM to head back to the East Coast. I don’t have any pictures from that day because quite frankly I was exhausted!

So there’s our trip to San Francisco in a nutshell. A HUGE thanks to Wendi for traveling cross country with a 2 year old and being so much help to me while we were there! Don’t know what I would’ve done without her!

Also, as a sidenote, all of these pictures were taken with my new point and shoot camera. I didn’t even take my “big camera.” Gasp! 

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