Vacation Day 7 - Disneyland

We woke up Friday morning and checked out of our condo. We hopped in the van and headed back to Disneyland. While we were putting on sunblock, Pluto walked by so we quickly hopped in line to see him. This was fantastic since Pluto is Brayden's favorite and he had picked out a Pluto stuffed animal the night before. 

Pluto was being funny and turned around for the picture. Brayden thought he was pretty funny.

There were only a few things left that we wanted to make sure we did, one of which was the It's A Small World ride. This was one of the kids' favorites. All 3 kids LOVED this ride.

We then headed to Mickey's Toon Town. The kids loved running around and playing. Don't mind the creepy guy watching Brooklyn go down the slide.

It is SO nice going to Disneyland in the off season. Today was more crowded than Tues and Wed, but the lines were still minimal.  I would hate to have waited in the line for Mickey Mouse. We walked through his house at our leisure which gave the kids plenty of time to play.

Meeting Mickey was fun. I wish I had my nice camera on this trip, but these pictures will have to do.

We decided to do the Matterhorn next. Brooklyn was tall enough to ride this ride, so we took advantage. Brayden, of course, was terrified and wanted to get off the ride the entire time. Brooklyn, however, absolutely loved it. It is the ride that she tells everyone about. She also has to tell everyone about the "scary monsters" that were insinde the "cave." The only part of the ride she didn't like were the abominable snowmen inside the mountain. But besides that, we were very surprised that she like it so much.

One of the things on our "have to" list was to see Tinkerbell. Brooklyn is not at all interested in the Princesses, which was fine with us since that line was @ 2 hrs long. For some reason, however, Brooklyn absolutely LOVES Tink. The wait for Tinkerbell was only 20 minutes so we hopped in line. Of course she took a break when we got near the front of the line, so the "20" minutes ended up being 40. But it was well worth it. Here are the kids eating a snack while we waited.

Brooklyn wouldn't go near the boy fairy, but Brayden wanted to get a picture.

Then it was the moment we had waited all week for. We went around the corner in Pixie Hollow and there she was. Brooklyn was in such awe she just stood there looking at her.

We wanted a quick picture with all the girls. We couldn't get Brooklyn to look at the camera. She just kept staring at Tink. It was such a memorable moment.

We hopped on the Jungle Cruise and ended up at the front of the boat. Of course that was right next to the tour guide that scared Brayden at the beginning, so he wasn't a fan of the rest of the ride. Go figure.

Brynlee was really good all week taking naps along the way. We had to carry her a lot throughout the day so that we had her carseat with us, but it was well worth it. The other kids, however, were a little trickier. Brayden finally fell asleep in the stroller after I laid it back on the bench. We took turns going on Thunder Mountain while someone stayed with the kids. I had to get a picture.

After Thunder Mountain, we had time to do 1 more ride before we had to leave to get Rachael to the airport. We decided it would be worth it to rush over to California Adventure to do the Toy Story ride again. It was a good decision because Brooklyn fell asleep on the walk over there. I hopped in line with Brynlee while Josh and Rachael sat with the kids while they slept. After about 30 minutes in line Josh woke up the kids and hopped in line with me. Once again, we all loved this ride.

We rushed back to Disney's Mainstreet to get our pressed pennies and a few quick souvenirs. We snapped our last picture on our way out as we said goodbye to Disneyland.

Here's Brynlee on the bus back to the car.

We quickly drove to the airport so Rachael could catch her flight. She had tickets to see Wicked the next day so she had to leave early. After dropping her off we headed to our hotel next to the airport and crashed! We ordered dinner from the room service menu, ate, put the kids to bed, and then Josh and I relaxed until we crashed. Another successful and fun day!!!

Vacation Day 6 - The Beach

We knew we needed a rest day before we went back to Disneyland, so we planned a day at the beach. We slept in and relaxed all morning then got ready to go. We grabbed some lunch and headed to the beach. It was the warmest day of the week, but pretty windy. The kids were a little overwhelmed by the vastness of the ocean. Brooklyn was ready to jump right in, until whe got close enough for the cold water to touch her feet. She wasn't a fan.

We stopped at the store on the way and picked up some sand toys for the kids. Thank goodness we did. They loved playing in the sand and did so the entire time we were there.

We finally made Brayden go down to touch the water.

He wasn't a fan either. We had to hold him so he couldn't run back.

Brooklyn didn't mind being by the water as long as Josh was holding her.

Best. Picture. Ever.

Brynlee slept for a lot of the time we were there. The rest of the time she enjoyed watching the water. She also didn't like the cold water on her feet.

After the beach we headed back to the pool at the condo. We quickly bathed the kids and put them down for naps. For dinner we headed down to random pizza place I had a gift certificate for. It was really good. We then found the mall and headed to the Disney Store. The kids each got a gift card from grandma and grandpa for Christmas to use at Disneyland or the Disney Store. Since everything is twice the price at Disneyland, we let the kids pick out some fun stuff at the Disney Store. They each got a bag, flip flops, a towel, and a stuffed animal. Brooklyn, of course, picked out everything in Tinkerbell. Her stuffed animal was Minnie. Brayden picked out everything in Toy Story. His stuffed animal was Pluto. When I held up a little Minnie Mouse stuffed animal to Brynlee, she started giggling so I had to buy it for her. The kids were SO adorable carrying their bags and stuffed animals. Another fantastic day!!!

Vacation Day 5 - Disneyland

We all slept great after such a long first day of Disneyland. We were hoping to get an early start, but decided it would be better to sleep as long as we could. Here are the kids playing on the bunk beds.

We walked back to Disneyland just after it opened and headed into California Adventure. We quickly got our fast passes to the World of Color and went straight to the new Toy Story ride. Unfortunately it was closed for the morning, so we started doing the other rides. Here we are with Mickey:

The kids LOVED all the different characters and exhibits.

Ever since Brayden got splashed by the dolphins, he did not want to get wet whatsoever. Luckily Brooklyn didn't mind and was enjoying this little splash pad.

One of the kids' favorite rides was this Bug's Life ride. Brooklyn kept asking to go on the green train the rest of the week. We would've, except that the ride only lasted about 2 minutes. Brayden, of course, was terrified until we got on the ride. Then he loved it.

Brayden didn't want to play at the splash pad because of the chance of getting wet. When we got to this water area, however, he went nuts. I guess he enjoys it more when the water isn't spraying out of the ground unexpectedly. Both kids ran circles around the area and didn't want to leave.

Brynlee was pretty much attached to my hip. She didn't want to be held by anyone else. Once in a while, however, she didn't have an option since I needed a break and I also wanted to ride some rides with the other kids. Here we are on the Monsters Inc. ride.

There was a fun Lego store we stopped by after lunch. Brayden LOVED it. It was really cool to see the different characters made out of Legos.

I love this picture of Brayden playing with the Legos. It's hard to see, but his tongue is out while he is concentrating so hard.

We weren't sure if we wanted to wait in line for Winnie the Pooh, but I'm SO glad we did. Brayden was on cloud 9.

Brooklyn was a little more nervous to see Pooh than the other characters.

We got to see Tigger next. He was SO playful and had a lot of fun with the kids.

We were going to go to Mickey's Toon Town, but the kids were extremely tired and we knew they needed a nap. We had to check out of the hotel in the morning so we weren't sure what to do. Luckily, Brayden fell asleep in the stroller on the way back to the van. We laid Brooklyn down in the van and turned her show on. Within 10 minutes she was asleep. The kids got about an hour nap, which was perfect. We quickly stopped for some pizza for dinner on our walk back to Disneyland. We decided to try the Toy Story ride before we did the World of Color. Luckily it was open, but the line was pretty long. We're SO glad we stuck it out in the line because it was one our favorite rides.

We quickly headed to our spot for the World of Color show. By that time Brynlee was asleep and the kids were pretty tired again. We really enjoyed the show. We had to hold the kids up the entire time so they could see which was pretty tiring, but worth it.

We walked back to the van and headed back to our condo. What a fun 2 days!!!

Vacation Day 4 - Disneyland

 At the beginning of our trip Brayden was pretty disappointed. We kept calling it our "Disneyland trip" so when we landed at the airport he thought we'd be in Disneyland. Finally, after 3 days we made it! We woke up early and hopped in the van for the hour drive. We were able to park at the hotel we booked for that night and headed over to Disneyland. The kids were mesmorized! We really thought Brayden would be the one to have a magical experience, but he was getting over a cold so he just wanted to stay in the stroller. Brooklyn, however, was in heaven! She LOVED going into the castle and loved all the rides. Here we are at the Buzz ride:

Brayden loved watching the Star Wars guys:

We waited in line quite a while for the Finding Nemo Submarine. It was pretty cool and the kids really like it (and no, Brooklyn is not sucking her thumb.)

Autopia! The kids loved this one as well.

We didn't spend much time waiting in lines for the characters. We were lucky, however, to run into a few of them here and there. While we were taking pictures with Chip and Dale, Goofy walked by and gave Brayden a handshake, which he thought was so cool:

This was the Peter Pan ride. It's hard to tell, but you can see the concern on Brayden's face as they were about to go on the ride:

I didn't take many pictures the rest of the day. Because our hotel was so close, we went back there so the kids could take a nap. I LOVED this hotel. There were two rooms, one of which had bunk beds for the kids. After the nap we headed back to Disneyland. After a few more rides, Disneyland closed and we all went and crashed at the hotel.