So. Far. Behind.

Is this California trip ever going to end?! I had a ton of fun, but blogging about it sure takes a lot of work. I know, I know, I will be so grateful I wrote it all down to remember it all.

But in the meantime we have all sorts of great things I need to catch up on. Like:

Allie's first day of preschool! She was so excited for her big day. The excitement hasn't ended- she loves going to preschool.


The ensemble is complete with a Tinkerbell backpack:


While we're on the subject of Allie, how about a big round of applause for Allie's exceptional bike skills! Miss Allie decided to have Dad take off her training wheels. This little lady doesn't waste any time. It took her maybe 15-20 minutes and she was up and running... er- peddling. Way to go Allie Rae! I would have a cute little picture of her first ride to add, but it got erased. Bummer.

Okay, okay, now for our LAST day of vacation.

DISNEY'S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK:

I'm not gonna lie. By the time our last day of vacation rolled around I was pooped. I think all of us were getting vacationed out. We all were feeling the tired. But, we still made our way around the park for one last day and had lots of fun.

We started off the morning with Ariel's Undersea Adventure ride. It was sooooo nice to walk right up and get right on. Even Ty got to come. Here is another AWESOME picture of Jacob (poor guy, since I do the posts he just has to endure me). This picture is perfect for another great thought bubble moment. It's like he's clenching his teeth saying, "Can we please just throw the camera out the window and get on with this?!" Of course he wasn't thinking that, but it seriously goes great with the picture!


A fun ride:




We loved the Soarin' Over California ride. It's as though your actually flying above the different landscapes of California, complete with smells that spray out.


We attempted the Monster's Inc. ride but just as we were walking in they had some "technical issues."


Fortunately later in the day we did make it on the ride:


And just as we came in to finish the ride they once again had to shut it down for "technical issues." So here we sit for about 5-10 minutes until we can get off the ride. At least we managed to get through the whole ride before it quit. I'm afraid some people were stuck in Monstropolis for a while.


The whole Monster Clan:


Next we hit A Bug's Land where we rode Tuck -n- Roll's little bumper car things:


And rode on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train:


Ty and Mommy!


Over at the Paradise Pier we rode on King Triton's Carousel. Fortunately I wasn't sick today so I could try to enjoy it:


Smile Allie! (Kenna was a bit on the grumpy side so didn't make it in this pic)


In our meanderings, we also got to watch a little Monster's, Inc. sidewalk show. The girls didn't necessarily appreciate the large, bright, fuzzy monsters. Allie tried to stay as far away as possible:



The day most definitely would not be complete without the Mickey ice cream bars!


We decided to get in line to watch the Aladdin Musical. I was a bit worried how Ty would do. He was pretty squirmy but did so-so. Fortunately it was only about 45 minutes. We at least made it through the whole show without having to leave, that's a plus! I was excited for the girls to see a little musical on stage. The actors did a pretty good job, it was cute. It was just the condensed version of the movie. They even had a great fly system and the magic carpet flew above us.

Here we are waiting for it to start. Can you tell Kenna is a bit on the tired side? At least Allie is happy to be there!




The afternoon demanded we go back to the hotel for a nap. It's just how it had to be. And really, of all the things to do at Disneyland, all Ty really needs is a balloon. Go figure.


Before we left on our trip, I tried to prepare against the girls wanting absolutely everything they saw and begging to no end for it. So, in the weeks leading up to Disneyland, the girls each worked hard to try and earn some money they could spend at the parks. Kenna was just dying to get a princess dress, but at $65 bucks a shot (yes, ludicrous) that was a pill I just couldn't swallow. So, they finally decided they would each get a new princess doll. They were SO excited to pick out their dolls. Kenna opted for Rapunzel and Allie got Sleeping Beauty. These two were in heaven, it was darling. Here they are showing off the new goods:
We just won't talk about all the long, scraggly Rapunzel hair we keep finding all over the house.

The day ended with an eternal wait for the "World of Color" show they put on above the water at Paradise Pier. It has really cool special effects and got really good reviews, so I figured we didn't want to miss it. Well, to sum it all up- despite going early in the morning to get a pass for a good seating area, and despite going early to find a good place in said seating area, I think we ended up with the worst spot. Ever. Needless to say we didn't get to see a whole lot and no one really enjoyed it. Not to mention it was a hassle trying to keep Ty entertained. I really wish we would have just done more rides. Once again, OH WELL! Lesson learned!

Jacob trying to keep Ty entertained:


The girls trying to keep each other entertained:


And of course one last shot before we call it a night and head back to the hotel for our last night of vacation:


THE END.

All in all it was SUCH a wonderful trip. Another great set of memories. Now on to real life again!

The Magical World of Disney

*WARNING!* This post is overly full of pictures and, for those of you who weren't there, probably absolutely boring detail. It's for memories sake, what can I say?

The beginning of my Disney experience started at 12:00 a.m. when I awoke to some serious intestinal discomfort which decided to wreak havoc for the next few hours. Bleh. Needless to say, I started the day on the tired-and-yucka side. Fortunately, we still had some Pepto from Jacob's little run-in with this despicable little bug so I made sure to pack it up in the stroller. I was going to bank on the fact that Jacob's little incident was less than 24 hours so hoped I would have the same luck.

I knew Disneyland would be big. I knew Disneyland would have lots of people. I knew there would be pretty much lots of everything. So, I spent quite a few hours at the computer before we left trying to prepare for our trip. I looked at maps, different rides, different height requirements, different pass things they offer, etc. Obviously I didn't prepare well enough because it didn't take much more than 10 steps into Disneyland to realize I was completely and totally overwhelmed! I didn't even know where to begin! It's like my mind went blank. Of all the million things we wanted to do for the next 2 days, where should we possibly start?

Hmm. How about the Nemo submarine ride? A great one to get out of the way before the crowds really started. Here we are waiting in line for our first ride at Disneyland. And of course the girls are wearing their cute little Disneyland pins that say, "1st visit." I happened to leave mine and Jacob's at the hotel. Darn.


Waiting to hop on board one of these yellow subs and dive down into Nemo territory:


One thing that I LOVED about Disneyland was that there was a fair amount of rides that Ty could go on us with. It was fun to see a little parking lot of strollers outside of the rides. I was a little unsure how Ty would do with the rides. By the time we got onto this ride, Ty was tired of being held and confined in line. But, he got his own little seat and did fairly well on our little sub voyage.


In the weeks leading up to our trip, the girls obsessed over seeing the princesses for REAL. They were so excited about it. Their little eyes would light up whenever we talked about it. So it's no surprise our next stop was at the princess castle. Aaah, it's nothing like a trip to Disney to bring the best out of these two little ladies. They really were little champs the whole trip.


The princess castle is the entrance into Fantasyland. What does one do in Fantasyland, you ask?

Well, since it's Disneyland, there's a million things to do! So we started off with a leisurely ride on King Arthur's carousel. And go round and around. And mom sits there and wonders if she can go around one more time and still keep her breakfast in her stomach. Remember the part of me not feeling well?


Next we meandered over to the teacups. Where, once again, mom gets to ride with the girls and go round and round because Jacob is even less able to do the spinning rides. But I really wanted to go, after all, it's the teacups! One of Disneyland's most famous rides!


Allie's big dream at Disneyland was to meet Tinkerbell. She even insisted on wearing her pajama shirt because it had Tinkerbell and some other fairies on it. So it was only appropriate that our next stop was Pixie Hollow to meet Tink. Waiting so patiently in line:



Allie had been waiting to ask her big question to Tinkerbell: she wanted to know if Tinkerbell could fly at Disneyland. I told her I didn't know and she would just have to wait and ask Tinkerbell herself. I was actually really interested what Tinkerbell would say. I tried to imagine what cute little excuse she would make as to why she couldn't fly. So you can imagine I was completely caught off guard when Tink said that of course she could fly! BUT, she had to save her pixie dust during the day so she can have enough to fly at night during the fireworks. I admit, even I was intrigued. Looks like we'll have to make it to the fireworks!

Thanks, Tink! (Allie looks a bit star struck)


We went up to stand in line to meet the princesses, but were confronted with an hour wait to which we decided we'd try again later. All in all, we actually picked a really good time to be at Disneyland. The majority of rides didn't have too long of a wait as compared to what they see during other times in the summer. I even heard a few staff members comment that it was much slower than usual.

Next stop: the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Here is Jacob and the girls in line. I love the look on his face. I could think of a million little thought bubbles to put above his head right now. One could be, "I drove 7 hours to ride the Storybook Land Canal Boats? Really?" What a trooper.


Moving right along into Mickey's Toontown:


Where we got to have a little intro to Miss Minnie herself!


And of course poke around her house a bit:



Then straight over to see M-i-c-k-e-y M-O-U-S-E! (you really need to sing it to get the full effect):


The girls had their eye on this coaster and loved it! Of course I was too slow at getting a picture of them actually riding it.


This was also the magical point of the day where Ty actually fell asleep in the stroller. He was SO grumpy and tired, and was making the day a bit difficult. He's not a baby who just falls asleep in the stroller or on your arm when he's tired. He put up a bit of a fight before giving in. I didn't even dare take a picture for fear it just might ruin the good sleep vibe.

So whilst the baby slept, the girls and I headed over to the Roger Rabbit ride. Which I could have gotten onto much faster had I used the pass I had but didn't realize how to use it. Oh well, you live and you learn, huh? Waiting for the ride is kind of dark and spooky inside, so while waiting I said, "everyone pull a spooky face!" We probably could have skipped this ride and the girls would have been perfectly okay. Eh, once again, you live and learn.


After this we meandered back over to the area where the princesses stay and discovered we were just barely in time for a little princess show they were putting on. Hooray! The girls got right down in to watch the show. They are on the left in the front huddled together gazing up at Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty who are sweeping their way onto the stage.


They even got to do a little twirly rope thing (for lack of a technical term) with Sleeping Beauty. Allie is in this one on the left side wearing a white shirt. It looks like she's not quite sure what to do!


Right after this ended the girls and I made a quick exit from the stage area to hurry and grab a place in line to meet the princesses. It proved to be successful- we only had to wait about 15 minutes and then we got to meet:

The Lovely Belle:



The Enchanting Ariel:



And last but not least, the Beautiful Tiana:



I have to hand it to these dear princesses- they were so darling with the girls. They each took a quick minute to talk with the girls a bit and then pose for a picture. It was so fun.

After this, we decided to camp out for a bit on the street and wait a half hour for "Mickey's Soundsational Parade". We found a nice shady spot where Ty could stretch a bit, the girls could work on some cotton candy, and where Jacob and I discovered the Mickey-shaped chocolate-dipped ice cream bars. Oh my. I'm afraid to say I easily spent $4.25 a shot for one of those bad boys. ADDICTING! Ridiculous. Something else that's addicting? Just look at that smile!



Here comes the parade!


It was chuck full of music, dancing, and all sorts of Disney characters. I loved it! It was so fun. Of course, Allie couldn't get far enough away from the Genie when he danced by. She dove behind me so fast, it was hilarious!





It was this point in the day that the batteries in my camera died. Which is a really good thing. This post is getting so long. Oi!

At this point, we headed over to hit a few more rides. We went on Thunder Mountain (the railroad rollercoaster), Splash Mountain (the log ride), and while taking turns on Splash Mountain we took Ty on the Winnie the Pooh ride. Once again, all things considered, the wait times were not bad at all.

There were a few more things we wanted to hit, but the kids were wearing down and we were all getting hungry, so we decided to head out of the park and go find somewhere to eat dinner. We headed over to to the Anaheim Garden Walk which is a big area full of restaurants and a big movie theater. It was a very nice area, and we picked the perfect time- there was hardly anyone there. So we decided to grab a hamburger at "Johnny Rockets." Thanks to Jacob's phone, we got a few more pictures.


We had put in a ton of walking during the day, so it was no surprise to us that the girls had been complaining that their legs were so tired and achy. We couldn't blame them, ours were too. Despite her legs aching, Kenna just couldn't help but keep herself moving at all times. It's like she is caffeine on legs. If it's not her legs that are moving, it's her mouth. We consider it a triumph each night when she falls asleep. This here is CLASSIC Kenna. I love this picture! Too bad it's a bit small.

We made it back to our hotel just in time for Jacob to put Ty down for bed, and the girls and I quickly headed out to catch the fireworks. It was jam-packed with people but I am so glad the girls and I went back despite being exhausted. Sure enough, Tinkerbell flew in the sky! Yes, a very brave live person attached to some type of line waaaay up high. I hope she gets paid well. An added treat was that we also got to see Dumbo fly. It was the perfect ending to our day. I LOVED the fireworks. I was so sad Jacob had to miss it. Thanks for staying back with Ty so we could go, Dad!

Whew. Finally. After days of working on this I am finally finished with Disneyland day 1. I'm sure I've forgotten something, but you get the gist of it!