We're Going to Disneyland!

The last week in January we headed west to visit Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo in California!  We spent five days between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.  It was a blast, and the days just flew by.  The crowds were pretty low, so we got to do just about everything we wanted (some of them more than once).

Just the best pictures

--------------------------------------------------

For our more serious blog readers, here's a more detailed summary of our Disneyland trip!

Since we've done Disney World in Florida a couple of times with the girls, we decided to check out Disneyland in California. Mom found inexpensive plane tickets this fall and started planning our awesome vacation. We surprised the girls just after Christmas with the news that we were headed to Disneyland at the end of January!  The first part of January flew by and we were headed to Disneyland before we knew it!

We flew from Denver to LAX on Sunday, January 28th.  The girls are getting old enough that they can pretty much entertain themselves on these flights, so that was pretty easy.  Once we landed, we grabbed our rental car and headed down to Carlsbad (stopping at In-N-Out for dinner, of course).

Monday morning we drove down to San Diego to visit with Aunt Maxine (aka Old Auntie Max).  We had planned on going with her to the San Diego Zoo, but her knee was bothering her.  So, we spent some time hanging out at her house and then headed to the zoo.  The San Diego Zoo was very impressive.  We walked around until about 2 in the afternoon and then Emily decided she was done.  We were able to see the cheetahs and a sleeping arctic fox, which were both on Kara's "must see" list, along with many other animals including the famous pandas, koalas, polar bears, and an interactive show with a Komodo dragon.

We stopped to get snacks (and a replacement stroller) on the way back to the hotel.  It was late afternoon by then, but we were close to the beach, so we changed into swim suits and went to check out the Carlsbad beach scene.  It was beautiful and not too crowded, but boy was the water cold!  The girls didn't seem to mind, but Mom stayed out of the water.  It got especially cold when the sun went down, so we piled all the wet bodies into the car and headed back for hot baths and some delivery pizza at the hotel for dinner.  Whew, and that was just the first full day in California!

The next morning, we woke up and headed up to Disneyland in Anaheim.
We stayed at the Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance, which was a super nice, relatively new hotel.  It was an easy walk to the parks.  Great stay overall - the girls loved the bunk beds and the water park (went one day).  Mom loved the split bathroom and Starbucks in the lobby!  Kara also enjoyed Pepper, a robot they had in the lobby on certain days.

Here's a breakdown of the major rides and shows we did, for posterity:

Day 1 - Disney California Adventure
- Soarin'
- Goofy's Flight School
Lunar new year celebrations (year of the dog), including Mulan's processional, drummers from China, and face painting
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT
- Panera Bread for dinner
- Toy Story Mania - this whole area of DCA was under construction and not too fun to navigate through.
- Radiator Springs Racers again
- World of Color (after nap at the hotel) - great show and a great first day in the parks!

Day 2 - Disneyland
- Main Street under construction - this definitely had a negative impact on the overall feel of the park.  We quickly went off to the different lands, avoiding the massive construction walls when possible.
- Indiana Jones
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Space Mountain
- Tiki Room (Dad and Emily)
- Dole Whips!
- Haunted Mansion
- Hotel pool for the afternoon

Day 3 - Disneyland
- Rode Mr. Toad's Wild ride, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White's scary adventure, etc. in Fantasyland
- Rode the Matterhorn
- Finding Nemo's voyage
- Tried "the Grey stuff"
- Blue Bayou for dinner (which is inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride)
- Fantasmic:  This was a wonderful show!  We all loved it, and had front and center seats.  It was awesome!
- Haunted Mansion afterward

Day 4 - Disneyland first, Disney California Adventure afternoon
- Breakfast with Minnie at the Plaza Inn - got to meet lots of characters
- Kara got to meet Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in DCA
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Hung out in Cars Land and got soft serve at the Cozy Cones
- Met Star Lord, Gamora and Groot!
- Guardians of the Galaxy: BREAKOUT

Day 5 - Disneyland (morning before our flight back home)
- Space Mountain
- Matterhorn
- Toon Town
- Monorail from Tomorrowland to Downtown Disney
- Silly Symphony swings

Dad's favorite part of the vacation was the Guardians of the Galaxy ride (might have been Kara's favorite too) and meeting Groot! :-)

The girls enjoyed pin trading for the first time.  Mom loved Space Mountain (and everyone managed to ride it many times).  Emily really enjoyed Haunted Mansion, and we all loved the longer Pirates of the Caribbean.

Here's an album that has all the fun.  Enjoy!

All the pictures (includes a couple videos)

Cousin Travis' Wedding

The first weekend in October, we headed out to California for Cousin Travis' wedding to Dani. It was the girls' first trip to the west coast, and they were very excited to check out the beach.

The wedding was on the beach near Watsonville.  We were able to rent a place right on the beach not far away.

We flew into San Jose with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy.  While Grandma and Grandpa went with Uncle Arch, Aunt Amy came with us to check out Henry Cowell Redwoods California State Park, which was awesome.  The redwoods really are amazing.  It was the first time any of us had seen them, and the girls had a blast walking the trail and checking out the trees.  While at the visitor's center, Kara learned about the animals that live there and about seed size of different California conifers.  Afterwards, we drove to our condo, unloaded, and met up with everyone for dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant.  There was a group of sea loins loittering around the fishing boats.  That would be our closest look at them this trip, so thanks for pointing them out Uncle Arch!

Sleeping has always been an issue on these trips, and we were pretty concerned since the girls were going to share a room at the condo.  The first night Emily popped out about 10 times to talk with Mom and Dad, but eventually calmed down and went to sleep (Kara was very quick to settle down), though the girls did wake Dad up at 5 am because, as they said, they just couldn't sleep any more!  The second night was better, and the third night was no problem at all.  Hopefully, sleeping on vacation will get progressively better...

On Sunday we drove to Monterrey for the morning.  We walked along the oceanfront and through downtown.  We didn't go inside the Aquarium, but we did check out the observation deck.  For lunch, we ate at a place that hung over the bay with great views.  A big sea otter was kind enough to entertain us too!  He was very close and fun to watch.  We also saw seals a bit further out.  Emily was pretty worn out after lunch, so we headed back to Watsonville.

That evening, there was a wedding rehearsal at the campsite followed by a cookout.  Travis and Arch grilled out and had a great spread.  The girls had a blast playing with Langdon, Dani's nephew.  They also had games set up, which were a hit.  The bonfire was also fascinating to the girls, along with being able to stay up a bit after the sun went down!

For Monday morning, we took it pretty easy and just headed down to the beach.  The water was quite cold, but that didn't stop the girls from running right in (though Dad wasn't too happy about hanging out in the water).  Kara spent most of the beach time just running around in the waves.  Emily ran in the waves but also played in the sand for awhile.  We were able to see a few dolphins in the distance from the condo too!

The wedding was beautiful.  The ceremony was on the beach with the reception up the hill at the campsite.  Travis had asked if the girls could be a part of the wedding.  The girls were supposed to walk down the aisle in front of the bride with a sign that said "Here Comes the Bride".  Emily was pretty excited about it up until the time it came to actually walk down the aisle with the sign.  She ended up just walking behind Kara while Kara held the sign.

The reception was awesome.  It was catered from a a food truck.  They had also set up games for the guests and had a S'mores cookout for dessert.  The girls had a good time playing with their new friend Landon.  And wouldn't you know it, Kara caught the bouquet.  Oh, boy!

Welcome to the family, Dani!

Link to pictures