Day 6 - Sea World!

Are you getting annoyed with these posts yet? Sorry for the abundance of photos and details but this is mainly for me and a future blog book.

Our first day in San Diego we headed to Sea World! It was a lot of fun. My kids were too chicken to take a picture with this guy but I wasn't!I thought it would be fun to include this one as well. This was when we went on our honeymoon 8 years ago! I haven't changed at all right?!The first thing we did was go to the Sesame Street 4D show. It was a pretty good one and we had fun getting wet.

Then we headed to Shamu's show. Here's the girls outside of Shamu's tank.
Waiting for the show to start. Can I tell you how nice it was to get a sunburn in January?! That never happens here!
During the show.We also went to the sea lion show which was pretty funny. Here's one of the sharks in the shark exhibit. This was probably one of my favorite parts.And we also went to the dolphin and bird show. It was definitely a lot better than I thought it'd be and my girls loved it! They had these awesome acrobats dressed like birds and high divers and everything. I wasn't expecting much so I was impressed.Here's Lilly at one of the tanks. This picture was crazy because even though you can't see Lilly's face very well her reflection makes it look like she's in the tank. Kind of crazy.Two cute girls with the fish.We also took a ride on the sky coaster thing. Doesn't Doug look so excited?! It was nice that it wasn't very crowded but it also meant that a lot of the rides were closed so this was about the only thing that was open. It was pretty cool though to see a 360 view of the city.They also had a super fun Sesame Street play area. Here we are on Elmo's Flying Fish. And Lilly got to meet these two! She was super excited!We also got to ride on the sea stars. It was pretty much like the tea cups at Disneyland but I thought they went a ton faster. Here's cute Carson and Lilly. I just love these kids! And Sophia and Bridger. All she wanted to do at Disneyland was ride the teacups with him. It didn't happen and she was a little bummed so we were so excited when we saw these and they got to ride together. They had a blast.Overall it was a successful fun day at Sea World!

Day 5 - Universal

The City Passes we got for the trip included a day at Universal Studios so we decided to take advantage of it. We debated if we should or not but are glad we did. It's pretty much for older kids so there wasn't much for my kids to do but they still had fun.

Funny story. On the way up we were having some snacks. It's kind of hard to see but Sophia pulled this cookie out of the Nutter Butters. She couldn't believe how much peanut butter it had in it! It totally cracked all of us up. Here we are outside.

When we got into the park we had fun meeting characters like Curious Georgeand the Lorax! Sophia was especially excited about this one because they had just read this book in school.


I then took the girls on the Studio Tour because there was no way Mabel was going to wait in that 45 min line. The tour was pretty fun. After Disney everything was a little underwhelming but it was still fun. Along the way we got to see Whoville

The Bates Motel and the house from Psycho in the background.
and a set from War of the Worlds
The best discovery we made though was Curious Georges jungle! It was this huge room full of foam balls and all sorts of machines and devices that you could play with. I think we honestly spent 2 hours in there. My kids loved it!

There were so many balls!Here's Mabes at a little splash pad outside the jungle.


Before we left we stopped to see the animal show where they show you how they train animals for the movies. My cute niece Cassandra was chosen to come and do something with some birds. She's so cute! Sophia really like this guy.
After that we headed to San Diego for a few days. This sign was waiting for us at the hotel. It cracked us up. There were 32 of us staying there so it was fun to be welcomed. We even got a little swag bag and everything. It was a fun surprise!
We got there kind of late and the girls immediately fell asleep. Once again, I just loved seeing them all tucked in with their dolls.

Here's a little clip with my niece at the animal show.

Day 4 - More Disney/CA Adventure

For our final day in Disney we decided to hit up rides we missed or ones we wanted to do again in both parks. Here we are on Main Street getting ready to start the day.And again folks, this is the magic of Disney. This is the exact spot where the Christmas tree was the night before. Seriously, not more that 10 hours before this picture was taken there was a 60 foot tree in it's spot. Crazy!

They even planted new sod and flowers and everything! There are definitely secret fairies behind the scenes.

Since the park was totally dead that morning we headed straight for my favorite ride Big

Thunder Mountain (side note - bummer of the trip was that Matterhorn and the Haunted Mansion were closed. At lease Space Mountain was open though!) While Doug and I took turns with Sophia on Big Thunder Mountain the other girls got to meet these two.

They both were not so much impressed with Jesse. And this is Mabel's way of saying "No thanks Woody. Why don't you keep your distance."

Here's Doug and Sophia on the ride. They're kind of in the middle.

After that we headed back to Fantasyland to meet Tangled! It was so fun to meet her and she was so cute. She asked Sophia what she liked to do for fun and Sophia told her ride bikes. Rapunzel asked if it was fun and if it was something she could do with 70 feet of hair. Pretty cute.Then we headed up to Toon Town. Here's Lilly playing Mickey's piano

And the girls at Toon Town.

Then we headed up to the Fantasy Faire to meet the Princesses. So I guess the way that they do it is that they have 3 princesses there a the same time and they switch every 45 min. The thing is they don't tell you who's there or who will be up next. Lilly was really dying to meet Cinderella but when we go there we found out it was Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine. We were ok with that but sad Cinderella wasn't there. Lilly suddenly had to use the bathroom so we left for a minute and got back in the 30 min line again. It worked out perfectly because they stopped the group right before us so that they could switch out the princesses. When we finally got in we got to meet Belle,

Mulan

And Cinderella! We were so excited! Lilly was seriously speechless. It was so cute. She was super sweet to her too. Right after I took this picture Cinderella gave her the biggest hug! I was so sad that I missed snapping a photo of it. It was a sweet moment that I guess will have to live in my head.

And nothing says princess like eating a giant turkey leg! I can totally pull off the whole graceful thing right? After that we headed back to CA Adventure so that Lilly could finally ride Soaring over CA. I'm so glad I took her back because she loved it! After we got off she said "That was incredible! Sophia said that it would be fun and it was!" Doug and I also took advantage of our fast passes and did CA Screaming one more time (we thought about doing the Tower of Terror again but once was enough. It was pretty fun though). We seriously have to thank Doug's sister Leda for sitting with our kids so much! She's pregnant (hooray!) and so she really couldn't go on anything. It worked out though because her husband really wanted to ride everything so we were able to go with him. Here's our "screaming" picture. When we were looking at this there was another one up of a guy reading the comic book on a ride. It was hilarious. I wish I would have thought to take a picture.

After that ride we rode the carousel a few more times and then Lilly and Mabel were ready to go home. Sophia and I stayed a little longer to enjoy the park a little more. We did Goofy's Pilot School (kind of like the Wild Mouse at Lagoon) and the swings a few times. Here we are on the swings. This was probably one of Sophia's favorite rides. She would have done it again and again.We also rode the jellyfish a few more times and at one point we were the only people on the ride. It was awesome. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. It was so fun to just be alone with Sophia and watch the joy and magic in her eyes.

Before we left we told the girls that they could earn some money if they were good in the car and that they could buy something before we left Disneyland. My awesome brother also secretly slipped us some cash before we left so we told them they could get something from Uncle Jason too. Here they are with what they picked. Sophia got the Tangled doll and Lilly picked Tinkerbell. Doug said when Sophia went to take her doll out of the box she said "Is this a dream?" Doug assured her that it wasn't and she said "oh good. Because I really want this moment to be real." I thought that was pretty sweet.I love that they tucked their dolls in with them at night. Those eyes are a little creepy at night though.

Day 3 - Disneyland!

On Tuesday we got up bright and early to take advantage of the "magic morning" where they open the park an hour early. One funny thing from the first day at the parks that I forgot to mention. Sophia was a little nervous about the rides and wasn't sure what to expect. We kept assuring her that they weren't going to be too scary and that she was going to be just fine. She thought about it for a little longer and then said, "I'll just be like Esther. She had to do something scary but God helped her to not be scared. I'll she be like she was so that God will help me to not be scared." Thank you Veggie Tales!

Once we entered the park we hit the Dumbo ride first. It was such a fun ride and the kids loved it! Well at least some of them did. Some others were still a little sleepy.
We then hit up all the other rides in Fantasyland including Grandpa's favorite Mr. Toad's Wild Ride or as my nephew put it "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to Hell". Pretty much summed it up. Here's a fuzzy picture of Sophia and I on Peter Pan. I didn't remember this one from previous visits. It was super fun!The teacups.And here we are in line for Pixie Hollow. Once again, one of us was not as excited to be there as the rest. The girls with Tinkerbell. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip for Lilly. She was in heaven! I was kicking myself though that we had forgotten her Tinkerbell costume at home. Oh well. The family with Tink. We also got to meet her fairy friend Iridessa. That was pretty great as well.After all that fun we headed over to ride the submarines. Definitely not as fun as I remembered as a kid. I think I got claustrophobic so that didn't help. That and the stink coming from the guy sitting next to Doug. That didn't so much help in closed quarters. Here's the girls with Uncle David.And Doug and I on the ride.I didn't take too many more pictures of us on rides but we definitely rode some! This was definitely the year to go. My brothers and their families went the week between Christmas and New Years and Disneyland reached capacity. They were turning people away. We had seriously no crowds. We pretty much walked onto every ride. It was awesome! Sophia's favorite ride of the day was Pirates of the Caribbean. She loved the dogs. She seriously rode it about 4 times. We also took everyone (except Mabel) on Splash Mountain. I couldn't believe my girls went on it! I went to Disneyland for the first time when I was about 9 and there was no way I was going near that ride. They both totally had no hesitations and went right for it. They loved it too. Right up until the last drop. They did great going down it but then the "splash" totally drenched Lilly and she burst into tears. We were sad that that ruined it for her but it was still pretty fun. Here's some other shots from the day. Sophia in front of the castle.Lilly in front of the island.And Mabel on the Winnie the Pooh ride. Not sure she's a fan. It was kind of weird though so I think I'd have to agree. Those hefalumps and woozles are spooky!Here we are on the Jungle Cruise. This one was ok. I had about enough of the "guide's" jokes after a few minutes but Doug thought it was great. Here's the Tiki room. I really liked this one but no one else did. The Dole pineapple whip we had after wasn't too bad either. Quick not about the food at Disneyland. Yes it was ridiculously expensive but I was surprised at the quality. It wasn't nasty carnival food and was actually pretty good. I had a fried green tomato sandwich one night. Who knew that had those at Disneyland?After all the fun of the day we headed to Small World to see their "The Magic, The Memories and You" show. Here's the cute wreaths they had hanging on the way to Small World. I though they were cute. I loved the mini sombreros. Here's the ride all lit up for Christmas.Here's part of the show they do The project different things onto the ride that make it look really cool. They also flash up tons of pictures they took in the park that day. It was pretty fun.After that we headed back to the hotel for some much needed R&R! Here's the Disneyland Christmas tree we saw on the way out. It was huge! It was seriously probably 60 ft tall. Sophia on Main Street in the dark.Doug and Sophia at the famous Mickey face.
And a very tired Lilly at the end of a fun day.