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.

Vacaton Day 3 - Sea World

 The cheapest Sea World tickets I found were valid for the whole month for just the one price! So we decided to take advantage and go back. It was pretty crowded on Saturday, but today it was perfect! Still a little on the chilly side, but it was nice to not have many people there. One of our biggest mistakes of our vacation came at Sea World. Brayden was just barely tall enough to ride the roller coaster, so we thought it would be a great idea for him to go on it. Well, they have height requirements for a reason. He was just too little. He couldn't even hold his head up the poor guy. He was ok for the first big drop, but then they go on the roller coaster part and he didn't like it. Because of this, the remainder of the week he became scared of EVERY ride. It was quite annoying, actually, since he just whined every time we got in a line for a ride (even Peter Pan and Small World!) N-e way, I guess he had every right to be scared since this really did freak him out: 

We weren't able to do all the shows on Saturday, so here we are at the dolphin show....my favorite!

The kids loved the sea lions:

We went to the Sesame Street 3D movie. Brooklyn loved it, although she wouldn't wear her glasses. Brayden loved it. Brynlee...not so much. She was on my lap falling asleep when we all got sprayed with water. She cried. Then the wind. She cried. Then the water again. She cried. Finally I grabbed a jacket and put it over the little water sprayers so she could finally just relax without any surprises.

I love this picture because of the chipmunk. Talk about great timing!

Kids loved the playland:

Brooklyn LOVES Elmo, so she was pretty excited to see him. She wouldn't touch Grover, but gave Elmo big hugs.

I have pictures of me when I was a little girl touching the dolphins. I'm not sure when they became my favorite animal, but I absolutely LOVE them so we had to be sure to stop by and touch them. I was holding Brayden up trying to let him touch one when it slapped the water and got us all soaked. He cried, so did Brooklyn. So they sat on the bench while Josh and I got to touch them:

And of course we wouldn't miss the Shamu show.

We were on our way out when we happened to run into Shamu. It was a perfect way to end our day.

Back at the condo we took the kids swimming again, this time to the kiddie pool. And of course they loved it. Brayden even had a blast this time.

Tubbie time!