We have been counting down for our family vacation to California since I think October. We planned a family trip with nana, grandpa, taylor, amber, mike & jess because taylor is being deployed to afghanistan in march because he is in the national guard. It was kind of our spend some quality time together trip.
We decided to fly into San Diego on Wednesday and see Herb's sister Elizabeth who is serving a mission there. She is a single woman and has decided she just wants to spend the next while serving missions. She is on her 4th mission in San Diego because she loves it so much there. We decided to take the early morning flight in and go to Sea World. Nana and grandpa landed later that day. We haven't been on a plane with the kids in a couple years. They were so excited to fly.
Ty and I haven't been to Sea World since we were both really young. So it was a new experience for all of us. When we first entered they have all these petting pools. Addi LOVED them! They had these little fish that would come up and eat the dead skin off your hands. She thought that was the neatest thing. She wanted to keep coming back to it. She also touched a crab shark and a sting ray.
We bought some fish to feed the seals.
We saw some sharks.
We watched all the shows. There were ones about seals, dolphins, and orca's.
This walrus was HUGE!!!
It was a day well spent. I don't think we could spend longer than a day there. We did everything we could there. There were a few rides the kids even did. As we were driving back to the house we were staying at all of the kids fell right to sleep because we had to wake them up at 5:30 am to head to the airport.
At the house we stayed at I found a lime and lemon tree out back. Ty cut them up for us and ohh they smelled heavenly. Every time we are in California ty and I both say, why don't we live here? If the housing market wasn't so insanely expensive we probably would move there, just saying.
Before we met up with Elizabeth for lunch we took the kids to the beach. I told them to not get too wet. Well two our out of the four listened to me on that one. Emmy and Parker got soaked by a wave that crashed onto them. Addi was too busy looking for sea shells, and lyndin didn't like how cold the water was. She was content playing in the sand.
We then went to meet up with Ty's aunt Elizabeth for lunch. After lunch she took us up to the Mormon Battalion memorial. We did the little presentation they had and then panned for gold. It was a cute place and the kids all had fun.
After the battalion place we headed up to Anaheim. Once we got there the kids wanted to go swimming. I didn't bring the little girls floaties, but that didn't deter them. Addi helped Lyn swim around. She is a great big sister to help out all the time.
The next morning we knew we needed to get to the park early because we wanted to try and get onto the new star wars ride. You have to get tickets to the ride by 8:00 am. There were SO many people trying to get into the park. We fought the crowds the whole time. But luckily where it wasn't our first time there we were able to kind of move around them and go where most people weren't. We were still able to do all the rides we wanted and didn't have to wait too long.
We found Cinderella walking back to take a little lunch break and we asked if emmy could walk with her. Emmy walked with her and waved at everyone for quite a while. Em was in heaven. We then headed to toon town and let them play around. The older kids went with nana and grandpa to ride the bigger kid rides. Lyn found Goofy and was so happy to see him. I was so surprised because she is usually shy.
Parker had been waiting ALL DAY to get into star wars land. He kept asking me to check my phone to see when we would be able to ride the new ride. When it was time he was all business on getting there. He had a wide smile the whole time. The new ride was pretty amazing and it is worth the hype. That is probably why there were so many people.
We snagged this picture late in the afternoon. Em was super tired because she had been awake since 5:30 am. Which is 6:30 utah time which is when she usually wakes up. Hence the not looking at the camera.
The second day we stayed at Disneyland again and finished up riding all the rides we missed the first day. We only had one park a day tickets (bought on accident, we usually do park hoppers, but it worked out in the end and saved us money) We rode Autotopia and there was an adult for every kid so each kid could drive.
Tea cups line was short so we jumped in. There are always lots of giggles and sequels on this ride.
On the first day the line to Splash was super short in the morning so Ty, Emmy, and Parker went. Emmy's look is priceless!!!
It's a small world was one of the little girls favorite rides. Lyn got off it the first time and said that was so fun!! Emmy loved seeing all the "american girl" dolls. Lyn is not a big fan of when her stomach drops. Her first ride was pirates and there is a drop that makes your stomach drop. She cried and when we got off she said NO MORE pirates! We made her go on it again and she seemed to handle it ok. The second ride we took her on was Winnie the Pooh which is super super mild. She cried and so NOO!! I'm not going on it, I'm scared! We made her go on it and she realized not all rides are built the same.
One the second day the girls had appointments to get dressed up. They were looking forward to it all morning. Lyn was getting tired and hungry and didn't really want anything to do with it. Addi was a big help in trying to cheer her up. After she was done though she loved it! Emmy was all smiles the whole time. They each picked out which hair style they wanted. Emmy surprisingly picked out pink hair instead of the tiara one.
They loved walking out of the castle and lifted up their dresses like a princess would.
We went over to meet some of the Star Wars characters. We met Rey, Chewie, and Darth Vader. They were all super interactive and the kids loved talking to them.
I had to get my favorite treat! A raspberry macaroon. SOO delicious. I had to snap this picture of Addi with her hood on. So cute!
On the 3rd day we went to California Adventure. Monsters had a super short line and so we jumped on. Lyn LOVED this one too and wanted to keep riding it. The line for incredible coaster was short so all the adults and big kids went to ride it while I took the little girls on Ariel and the new inside out ride. Worked out perfectly.
Em loved trying on Jess's ears and we all loved our sour dough mickey snack.
We took advantage of the pro pictures they take there. We got them with our Max Pass.
Before we left disneyland on the second day, parker wanted to go over and build a droid like bb8. Dad went with them because the little ones were getting super tired.
It was fun to get all these pictures from rides too.
At California Adventure they have lots of shows. Nana and I took the little girls to the Disney Junior show. The girls loved dancing and see the different characters come out.
Lyn wanted to meet Mator.
The cars ride is one of our family favorites. While we were on it it shut down. We have never been on a ride when it shuts down. We had to wait till some one came and rescued us. Then we got new fast passes so that we could ride it later when it opened again. So we all rode it again later that night.
We went and watched the new frozen play. It mimicked the movie so close. Emmy loved singing along.
We went and watched a 3d movie. It was a really cold day and we were trying to take a break from the cold.
Toy Story Mania is always a fun one to do as well.
Emmy was tall enough to do the Guardians ride. The older kids have only rode this ride once and did not like it. We made them all do it this time. It is pretty scary because you drop in the dark, but surprisingly they all did it a second time after this one.
Emmy was so so tired when we got these pictures done.
We woke up the last day and walked over to downtown disney to do some shopping before we caught our flight home. We had to snagged one more picture.
And this is everyone playing with their new toys.
We are so grateful for all the piggy back rides and help with the kids that nana and grandpa gave us.
My kids fell in love with the churros. We spent quite a bit of money on just churros for us.
And grandpa was a sport and took the kids on splash again. He got soaked. They didn't!
We have never seen the foxes from Pinocchio. Addi had to snagged a photo as they were walking away.
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