Our Own California Adventure

A week is never a long enough vacation for me. I wish I had more time to vacate with my little family, but the time we did have was great.

We hit the beach

Sophie is still terrified of someone being thrown in the ocean.  It still makes me laugh.  Personally, I prefer smaller, more secluded beaches like on this trip.

Disneyland was great.  I didn't know how Sophie would do with the meeting the characters.  She can be a little shy and unsure, but she loved it.  McKay and Lyndsi still loved it as well. 

We spent a lot of time in Fantasy Land.  I didn't mind, though.  The kids all (except Chloe who, obviously, didn't meet height requirements) wend on the bigger rides: Space Mountain, The Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Railroad.  Pirates wasn't as scary.  The Buzz Lightyear ride was just as awesome as remembered.  Pinocchio's Daring Adventure gets the award for Most Times Ridden. (Thanks Soph.)  Our time at the Haunted Man was extended due to the ride breaking down for a minute.  Jeff and I happened to get to do that one with just the two of us.  It really was kind of nice.  We were headed down hill (going backwards) in the graveyard section when the ride came to a halt.  There was a nice starry sky, a cool breeze, a cute boy by my side...Oh and the most annoying bird ever screeching "Caw! Caw!) every thirty seconds or so.  Which is fine for a minute, but 10 minutes later I was ready for a BB gun. ;) 

McKay and Sophie spent most of their time clamoring for their dad's favor.  McKay, ever the gracious one, often ended up with a different riding companion and left Dad to his persistent little sister.  Which left Lyndsi and Chloe completely to myself and we had a grand time together.

We traded lots of pins.  My parents, brother and his girlfriend were having a grand time with this and stopped at every pin trader we saw.

Captain Eo was playing.  We were all so excited to see it, but in the end it was a little lame.  At least the dancing was awesome.  We watched the birds and flowers sing in the Enchanted Tiki Room, toured Sleeping Beauty's castle and stood in line for hours to meet Rapunzel, princesses, and Fairies.  Thankfully McKay spared us by opting out of watching Jedi training. :)  The hours in line were worth it though to see Sophie squeal with excitement when she saw Belle.

Of course you can't see the excitement here, but she was SO excited.

Disneyland was great, but we spent a lot more time in CA Adventure than I would've thought.  Not quite the same feel as DL, but much less crowded and had some perks of it's own.  Like the Monsters Inc ride.  We've done it before, but had a lot of fun on it this time.  We met Sully, too!  There were all kinds of fun street performances (including The Incredibles and The Little Green Men drum corps) and outdoor stage ones (That Mickey can really bust a  groove!)  My mom convinced us that we had to see the Aladdin show, which was awesome.  We did the Tower of Terror (McKay even tried it!  but-couldn't convince the girls),

 Bugs Land (still not my favorite place), and the more carnival-ish pier rides.  Toy Story Mania was SO much fun.  Didn't dig the Jumping Jellyfish.  Something about not being in an enclosed car makes me nervous.  (Loved Tower of Terror, though!)  We had a great time on River Rapids, too.

  At least Mom, Lyndsi and I did.  Thankfully we all had on quick drying clothes, though. ;)  And as predicted, my mom loved Soaring Over California.  I was surprised though that the kids all loved it too.

The World of Color fizzled out on us the first night we tried to watch it.  We caught it Friday night (our last night), but by then I was one.  My feet hurt after 5 days of navigating a stroller through two amusement parks, keeping 5 people fed, hydrated, SPF'd and happy, and standing in line.  It was pretty, but I wasn't super impressed.  But don't take my grumpy, end-of-trip, fatigued opinion.  See it for yourself.

One thing we did that was a fun little surprise was the Talk with Crush (from finding nemo).  The kids had a great time.  In the same building, we got to see a demonstration of how the animation was done for Toy Story and the kids and Jeff attended a class where they learned to draw Goofy.  (The results were surprisingly good!)  While they were in class, I stayed out in the lobby with a sleeping baby and watched clips of all Disney's cartoons in their various stages of animation.

It was such a great trip.  (Cue music- "When you wish upon a star")

Now time to get back to reality.