The Happiest Place!

 We finally did it! We took the kids to Disneyland.  All went well, and we have many memories to keep us smiling a long time.  We were able to find very reasonable flights out of Medford and were fortunate to have use of the Worldmark timeshare in Anaheim. (Thank you fabulous In-laws!)

And some icing on the cake was that a friend of a friend got three of us in for a day with her guest passes.  THANK YOU!  With these savings and the upcoming joy in mind, we decided to take Grandma with us.  She was a great sport, and fabulous trooper!  We walked both California Adventure and Disneyland in two days....I can't even imagine how many miles it was!

This was a first time to California Adventure for all of us.  It was surprisingly enjoyable!  Our favorite ride is the Radiator Springs Racing Cars, and Soarin' Over California is a close second.  Although I'm pretty sure Ady would say that Grizzly Run was her favorite.

Grandma on Luigi's flying tires with the kids. 

 This was at the end of the day waiting for the light/water show, World of Color.  Although it is a standing room only show, which means we were constantly craning our heads to see better, it was still inspiring.  The things that Disney engineers can do with light, water, and media....WOW.

Our second day was spent at Disneyland. It was MUCH less crowded than the day before. We got to ride most of the major rides (TWICE) before lunch!

The Jungle Ride. Our longest wait all day (prob. 45 mins. )

Caiden was waiting for Jedi training ALL DAY!  He FINALLY got to go to the start tours store and build his OWN light saber!!! OH. MY.  He patiently waited about 45 minutes for the training course to begin.  And both the kids got picked!  What fun!  After the training, Ady went to the store and made HER own saber....now they can fight fairly!

First a little costuming and saber training.

Then the dark forces arrive, and a battle must be fought!

Both kids got to fight Darth Maul.  They wanted to fight Darth Vader instead.  Both thought that the fact that they had to "go easy" was funny, they wanted to really fight!  This was definitely a highlight of the day, and I'm glad we made the time to get there!

Our third day we decided to drive down to San Diego and visit Sea World.  The traffic was great, no problems, and the park was completely uncrowded and ever so pleasant to be in.  We wandered from show to show and ride to ride.  I think the kids might have actually had as much if not more fun at Sea World than at the other two parks.  Although we had to "hoof" it across the park a few times to make shows, it was a very relaxing and enjoyable day.  (if you look closely at Caiden below, you'll notice a long "lump" inside the jacket....any guesses as to what "snuck" into the park with him?)

Since the park closed at 5 and we didn't want to get caught in 5 o'clock traffic, we headed to downtown San Diego...just a bit of traffic for a short time.  We had dinner in old town....LOVED it! So many people out and eating and visiting. We ate at the Coyote Cafe,  Where we enjoyed dinner on the patio, with freshly made tortillas (YUM!)  a balloon artist came by and made great balloon animals for the kids.

A parrot for Caiden and a butterfly for Ady.  Then strolling singers came and seranaded us...Kevin thought we should leave at that time, or we might have gone broke giving out tips to the next talented folks!  We enjoyed a nice walk through a few souvenir shops, then drove north, stopping in Laguna Niguel to pick my mom up from Donna's house where she had spent the day visiting.




We travelled home the following day.  A lazy morning, with a visit to Downtown Disney where the kids visited the Lego store and build a bear.

  Lunch at KFC, then on to the airport, where we discovered that there would be a 2 hour delay...bummer! We could have checked!  oh, well. The kids did a fantastic job waiting at the airport. We arrived late into Medford where my dad had the van warmed and ready.  We dropped mom off at their home, then traveled over the mountain through a bit of ice to arrive home at around 1 am.  We all slept in the next day and were fairly lazy for a couple of days....recovering from our "vacation"!  A fun time was had by all, and I wouldn't hesitate to travel with my munchkins again.  They did great!