California Trip 2011

We told Carter a couple of years ago that we would take him to Disneyland for his 8th Birthday and he's been reminding us regularly ever since.  We had to move it up a month so that I would be a little less ginormous, but it turned out to be the perfect week.  It went like this:
Friday - Head out after Randall got off work and arrived at my Mom and Dad's (Henderson, NV) really late.
Saturday - Had a fun, relaxing day.  Did a little shopping for the trip and went to dinner with all the ladies from High School.  I wish I would have taken a picture!  We had lots to talk about as usual. 
Sunday - Went to church and headed to our hotel in Anaheim.
Monday - First Day at Disneyland!  We spent the entire day at "old" Disneyland and rode pretty much everything.  The weather was AMAZING, and the lines were minimal.

I started off slow with the girls (who are afraid of  EVERYTHING) and we rode the Merry-Go-Round a few times.  At first they would only sit on the seat next to me, but they eventually wanted to ride the horses.  Cameron rode the horses the whole time. 

We then moved up to the circus train and the Dumbo ride while Carter and Randall were riding Space Mountain and Indiana Jones.  Meleah would only ride the Dumbos if I kept it LOW. 

 Carter wasn't too thrilled about our teacup color choice.   :)

By the end of the night we were dragging them all on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion.  The girls didn't love it, but they stayed relatively calm.  We rewarded them for being so brave by ending the night where we started...at the Merry-Go-Round.

Tuesday - Day 2 of Disneyland.  We spent the whole day at California Adventure.  I LOVED it!   I haven't been to Disneyland since they opened California Adventure so it was really fun to explore.  First we tried out Soarin' and the Rapids.  Meleah wasn't tall enough to ride soarin' (I don't think she would have liked it anyway) but Lydia really liked it.  I did have to remind her a couple of times that we weren't really flying.

 After that we tried out Toy Story Mania and everyone LOVED it.   

When we first walked into Bug Land Carter said "It's my dream come true!  I'm shrunk!"  He's been asking Grandpa Bob for years to build him a shrinking machine so that he could fly in a paper airplane.  I spent a lot of time there while Carter and Randall rode Screamin' and the Ferris Wheel. The kids loved the caterpillar ride, so we rode it over and over and over...

They were also extremely excited to see that California Adventure had dun...duh...duh...duuuh...

A MERRY-GO-ROUND!

We went to an amazing Aladdin show, chatted with Crush, and ended out the night watching the World of Color.  Everyone LOVED it, and I was happy to have spent a little less time on my feet that day.
Wednesday - Day 3/Final day at Disneyland.  We split the day up between the two parks, starting out at old Disneyland.  First we rode a couple of classics - Peter Pan and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  Then we chatted with Rapunzel,

and completed Jedi training!  I'm SO GLAD they chose Carter to go up, because he would have been TOTALLY DEVASTATED if they hadn't.

Lydia wasn't too thrilled when "the bad guys" came out, but was relieved when Carter and the other Jedi's defeated them. 

Carter and Randall rode Space Mountain a few times, along with The Matterhorn, Big Thunder Mountain,  and of course we had another ride on...

The MERRY-GO-ROUND!

We headed over to California Adventure and rode Monsters Inc.  While Randall was dragging Carter onto the Tower of Terror, we ran into this guy -

Then we headed over to the pier so that Randall and Carter could ride Screamin' and we all could end out the night riding Toy Story a few more times.

We picked up a couple of souveniers for the kids on our way home that night, and Cameron made sure that Meleah had hers, even though she'd fallen asleep by the time we got back to our hotel. 

Thursday - We slept in a little then headed to our hotel in San Diego.  The kids loved to see the ocean on our way down the coast.  We also stopped to see the beautiful San Diego temple. 

After we checked in, we went to the USS Midway.  We all loved it (especially Daddy). 

Top Gun, anyone?

Friday - Sea World Day!  We especially loved all the shows.  We went to the Story of Shamu, the sea lions (hilarious!), the dolphin show, and the Shamu Believe show.  Carter wanted to sit on the front row all day, but we didn't want to get soaked.  Finally at the end of the day, Randall sat down there with him for the Believe show.  One of the trainers called Carter up to stand next to the wall. Needless to say, he finally got what he wanted - to get totally soaked. Afterwards he said "I could feel the whole wall shaking!"

We spent the last couple hours of the day at the beach and I watched the sun set for the first time in my life.  It was so beautiful!  I totally hate sand, but it's so worth it to just sit and watch the waves come in.  The kids LOVED the beach and keep asking me when we're going to go again.  Next time we'll have to schedule a little more time there. 

Saturday - Slept in and headed back to Vegas to be surprised by Jana, Rachel, and Laura who had decided to spontaneously take a Vegas trip.  We spent the night relaxing and telling everyone all about our perfect vacation.
Sunday - went to church with Mom again.  The kids loved going to class with Shelby, Stryder, and Soren for two weeks in a row, and it was SO cute to see Shelby take charge of Lydia and her wheelchair.  We came home from church and had lunch and a little more relax time before heading out to the blizzard that we call home.  I mean, really!  It's hard enough to come home from an amazing vacation with 75 degree weather the entire week.  Did it really have to snow on our drive home, then turn into the coldest week of the year?   Sheesh!

What was your Favorite ride at Disneyland?

Cameron - the Merry-Go-Round
Meleah - "Toy Story Mania"
Lydia - "I liked all of them!"  I'm going to go ahead and add that her favorite was probably Toy Story Mania, and that she's definitely not including Pirates, The Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, the Buzz ride, or Mr. Toad's Wild Ride when she said "all of them."
Carter - "Screamin'!"

What did you love most about our trip?

Carter - "California Screamin' and Toy Story Midway Mania, the beach, jedi training, when I got called up at Sea World, everything at Sea World, our hotel, getting a new Buzz toy, when we met Mr. Potato Head and Woody..."
Lydia - "I liked Sea World, the whole thing...even Disneyland.  I liked the sea lions too, and I liked Dumbo, and the Elmo Dumbo too." 
Meleah - "Ummm, I loved the potato head, and the toy story ride, and buzz."
I spent so much time planning out our trip, and I couldn't have asked for anything better.  We loved every minute of it, and can't wait til we can go again.