Southern California Trip - Part 3

Days 5 and 6 were spent at Disneyland. 

After getting there early on Thursday, my three oldest and I went to Splash Mountain where we stood in NO lines and enjoyed getting a little wet.

After a few hours and a few more rides, we decided as a group to eat our Thanksgiving Meal at a buffet across the street called Captain Kidds.   It wasn't the best food but they had something for everyone and a few thanksgiving dishes that helped us celebrate the holiday.

After a brief rest, we spent some time over at California Adventure.  Here is where I took a deep breath and rode the ride that I knew would turn my insides out.  Yep, the Tower of Terror.  I don't recommend you holding your breath during the entire ride as it gives you a big headache afterwards!

California Adventure is where the Monsters Inc. ride and all of the Bugs Life rides were a big hit with my two youngest,

 

and where my little ones thoroughly enjoyed the Aladdin Show and especially the Genie and his gangnam style dancing.  They were so entertained they saw the show twice.

California Adventure is also where we got to explore around Cars Land.  Pretty impressive I must say.  We didn't get to ride on the car racing "big deal" ride this night but we did enjoy looking at the scenery and riding a few of the other rides.

 

 

On Friday, it turned out to be another very crowded day but we ventured around and went on the Little Mermaid Ride,

 

waited for our Fast Pass tickets (that I had to stand in line for for 45 minutes) to be valid to ride the Cars racing ride,

 

 

and visited with Santa.

 We took a picture of the Castle,

 and at night saw the Water Show,

which was pretty spectacular.

We stayed as late as we could but the little ones started to struggle so I walked back with them to the shuttle and Phil and the big boys stayed until the park closed.

It was a pretty great adventure for this family and we were lucky to share it with some of our favorite people.  Who knows when we will go again but for now we have some awesome memories and a few souvenirs.

Southern California Trip - Part 2

Day 3 of our trip lead us to the main event Disneyland.

  And boy was it crowded!

We headed straight to Tomorrow Land (which is my boys favorite) and to the Buzz Lightyear ride which is one of the rides that all of them seem to enjoy.

 

 

 Then we did the new Star Tours adventure ride.  One of a few rides that was on the "must do over and over and over" list and where you get to wear these awesome glasses that make the ride so much more real.

 Autotopia was also a big winner with my kids.  Who wouldn't love to drive their own car even if it is limited to where it can go.

 

 This was his first car ride on his own.  More to come this next year, on the real road.

 No, my youngest boy didn't get to be trained as a Jedi Knight at the Star Wars Academy, but it is still an entertaining show to watch.  The red faced Darth Maul is especially intriguing.

 Finally a ride Ms M loved.  The Merry-Go-Round.  Not too fast, not too flashy or noisy.  Just a gentle up and down as we go round and round.

 

Here is a look at Disneyland through the view of my children's camera.

 Nightfall showed Disneyland all lit up.  And we got to see the Disney Christmas Parade.

 

 

Shortly after that we called it a night and headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Universal Studios was our destination on Day 4.

Luckily, the park opens in the late morning so we could sleep in a little.  And, thanks to that lovely So. California traffic, by the time we did get there it was lunch time.

 

 

 The best part of Universal Studios is the Studio Tour.  Here we are (all 21 of us) getting ready to load our tour tram, and of course we can't forget our 3-D glasses.

 It is amazing to think that these sets are what we see in some movies.  And that this is where a lot of movies and tv shows are actually filmed.  It is a fascinating process.  And there are some unbelievable special effects.

 

 Here, you can even pretend that you are part of a baseball stadium.  I think I recognize some of those spectators!

The transformers ride was the one ride that he was most excited about.  He almost backed out of it because he felt it would be a little scary, but holding my hand we got through all the intense action that ride provided.  And in the end he was glad he experienced it.

 

Another theme park, another long day but we got to experience everything we wanted and thankfully this park wasn't as crowded.

Southern California Trip - Part 1

The first stop on our trip to Southern California

was at the Mormon Battalion Center, in San Deigo.

After an informative and fun presentation of what the battalion went through and what they accomplished, the kids (and parents) got to pan for gold.

 

 Then the kids climbed all over this pioneer wagon.  Posing and requesting photos be taken.  I was happy to oblige.

 My oldest two decided to play in what they called the "holy water",

and then we ended up across the street where the kids got to just run and play.  A necessity when traveling in the car for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.

And that was Day 1.

Day 2 was spent at SeaWorld.

 Here dolphins and orcas and all kinds of sea creatures entertained us as we observed and oohhed and aawwed.

 Here a few chosen kids got drenched and enjoyed every minute of it.  Thank goodness for beautiful warm weather.

We witnessed sharks swimming just above our heads, which was a little nerve-racking despite having a thick piece of glass between us and them.

We touched and examined star fish that are really, really hard (seemingly impossible) to actually see moving around in the water.

 And we finished the day off with a family photo to document that yes, we were all here together!