California Adventure

Back to our vacation update. I know this is mostly just for me to remember because I've already started to forget stuff.  On Monday, we went to California Adventure. This is where some of my favorite rides are including the Tower of Terror. 

We got there first thing in the morning so the lines would be short.  As I was waiting outside the ride with Addy, Goofy just happened to be coming out. For those of you who haven't heard, Goofy is her absolute favorite.  Anyone who asked about Disneyland hears about seeing Goofy.  The funniest part to me was she was so excited to see him but didn't want to get out of the stroller or really even touch him.  So I have a picture of them holding hands!!

They also have this really fun bugs land area which was so cute for the kids.

Here are our own little bugs!

Jamie and Ben were kind enough to take Addy with them on the ladybug twirl ride.  I can't take those spinning rides..blah.  They said she was laughing the whole time which was good because it was really whipping them around.

On the caterpillar ride.

Pretending its "too scary"!!

While waiting in line for the Disney Junior show, the girls were having sword fights with their suckers!  This was the cutest little show for toddler age kids.  Addy absolutely loved it because they had all the shows from the Disney channel like; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and one other show I can't remember.  She loved calling for "toodals" (sp?) and dancing around.  I wish  I could've recorded it but it was too dark in the theater. 

Waiting in more lines!

Mitch and I took off to go ride a couple big kid rides while Ben played with the kids in the water area.

Another favorite ride was the new "Toy Story Mania". It is a 3D interactive game ride.  Lots of fun but also a sorta long line! 

Next year is when they are opening the new 'Cars' land.  I think we might just have to come back!!
We spent a little while playing in the Brother Bear area. 

It was a great place for us to relax while the kids ran around.

The new attraction this year is the World of Color.  We got our fast pass tickets first thing in the morning so we could get a good spot and I am so glad we did because it was the neatest thing ever.  One of the best parts of the trip I'd have to say. Both kids fell asleep in their strollers about 5 minutes after it started. So the 'big' kids enjoyed the show! 

We had such a fun day and just knew that three days just wasn't going to be enough!  So we ended up upgrading our tickets to a four day pass!

Singing

For a quick look into a normal Sunday afternoon at our house go here. 

This video was taken a few weeks ago so she now actually says a few more words as she sings so I can usually pick up on what song she is trying to sing.  The dance routine is pretty much the same sort of thing each time!  

All I can say is this kid loves to sing (which she didn't get from me). I've been trying to teach her a few primary songs like; 'I am a Child of God', 'Follow the Prophet', and 'I love to see the Temple'. Usually she ends up only singing a couple of the correct words here and there and then making up the rest with la's and da's. It is still cute because her voice changes and gets really high and sweet when she is trying to sing the 'church' songs :) 

San Diego

The Sunday we were in California, we drove down to San Diego so we could go to church with some of Ben's family.  Mitch, Addy and I took off after sacrament meeting to do some sight-seeing.  

Our first stop was the Mormon Battalion Museum/Tour.

It took about an hour to go through the tour but it was such a neat place. They told us they went through and redid everything about a year ago so it was very updated and well put together.  After the tour, we got to go out on the patio and experience some of the things the soldiers did.  

Such as brick laying,

laundry washing (scrubbing),

and panning for gold!

After the Mormon Battalion Tour, we headed over to this little Mexican restaurant called Fidel's for lunch. When Mitch was in his younger years, their family would get a condo in San Diego and Fidel's was one of their favorite places to eat so I was excited to try it out. 

It was very delicious and since it was also Mother's Day, I got a free dessert. Which we quickly devoured. 

Our next stop was the temple grounds.  Just as we were getting there, it started to rain on us. Luckily we'd brought the umbrella with us but most of our pictures turned out pretty blurry :( Highlights of this stop were; Addy trying to sing, I love to see the temple to which she just said over and over "luv de tempa" but she said it with the right tune and she kept pointing at the temple and saying "Jesus house".  I was one proud mama!

I so wish she was actually looking at the camera in this picture because it would've been such a nice shot.

My favorite!

Our final destination was the Point Loma Lighthouse. 

One of the best parts was just the view of San Diego.  It was gorgeous.

Being the little two year old that she is, Addy wanted to do everything herself. It was so scary because the climb up to the top was on these very steep winding stairs with other people trying to go up and down as well. Once you climbed the stairs, there was then a ladder which pretty much went up to nothing because it was all blocked off but of course Addy wanted to climb it! 

It was a very busy afternoon but it was fun to spend time just with our little family.  We were going to go down and wander through Seaport Village but we were pretty tired so we headed back to Ben's aunt and uncles for a delicious mother's day feast.  Then back to the hotel where we all fell asleep by about 9 o'clock!

Day One of Disneyland!!!

Beware this is a really long post full of LOTS of pictures (and this is only day one!)

I have been so excited to take Addy to see Mickey for awhile.  This trip was actually scheduled for a month or so ago but because of Mitch's dad passing away, we postponed it.  Which just gave us another month to get even more excited. 

We chose a hotel with a free breakfast which was so nice. This was the bright and early on the first morning because the park opened at 7! Luckily with the time change it didn't feel that early.  All of us couldn't wait to get started! 

Waiting to get our tickets from the will call. I just love this picture of us :)

This was also the same day as the Pirates movie world premiere. So they had stadium seating all along main street and people were waiting all day to see the stars. It was kinda crazy but it made the ride lines not so long!

Our first ride for the day was Buzz Lightyear.  I thought Addy would like it because she loves Toy Story.  I was wrong, it was dark and loud and a little scary for her. I asked her if she wanted to do it again and she told me no. Opps.

Then we ran into Pluto which made things better. 

I love the Peter Pan ride. Since we've been home, Addy has watched the movie a couple of times and it is now her new favorite! She runs around the house 'flying'.

"The horsies" is what Addy called the carousel. And it was one of her favorites.

Think she was strong enough?

All of them together weren't strong enough!

Snow White's Scary Adventures. Yeah I totally get why Addy thought this was "too scary" and clung to my neck the whole time.  At least she wasn't bawling like the girl in the cart behind us!

This was some wild animal train ride, so we were being the animals. I do love Addy's face, "what are you doing mom?"

Mitch, being the good dad that he is, waited in line for the girls to see Rapunzel for over an hour. I wasn't sure how Addy would react to her because this was one of the first 'characters' we met.  It was so cute because she ran in and gave her the biggest hug and then ran straight back through the door.

She did come back and talk with her for a minute. Here she is telling her that she is three. I wonder if when she really is three, if she'll tell everyone she's four. 

Another favorite ride was small world. One day I'll get her to open her eyes when she smiles!

This was after the ball with all the princesses. I seriously had no idea that they had all these different princess activities at Disneyland. I know it's crazy, but this was the first time we'd been with a kid so we spent lots of time in fantasyland and got to experience it all!

Right before the storytelling with Snow White. I wish I could've heard what they were talking about.

Toontown!! 

 And yes, these kids had lots of sugar on this trip!

Let us out! Let us out!

Exploring in Mickey's house.

And then we finally got to see Mr. Mickey himself! I wish we would've gotten a family picture with him, but those workers are good at getting people in and out fast. So we missed the opportunity.

Addy couldn't decide if this was going to be a "too scary" ride and close her eyes, or a "not too scary" ride and keep her eyes open!

She spent a lot of time on Dad's shoulders (gotta love dad's, I was mean and made her walk) and thought it was hilarious that she could cover his eyes so he couldn't see anything.  

Good ol' Dumbo, this turned out to be Addy's favorite ride. I think it was because she could make it go up or down.  But no joke, it was also usually the longest line in all of Disneyland and we ended up waiting in it multiple times just for her!

By the end of the day, we had wiped her out!

And this was only the beginning of our three day pass that we ended upgrading to a four day pass because we just couldn't get enough!