California Part 3

Our drive to California and back was awesome.  Our travel time was cut by about 90 minutes all because of a newly acquired skill:

Bradley did it too, but I don't have a picture.  I know you wanted one.  When Brynnlee saw the bottles, she kept reaching for them and saying, "I want juice!"

On our way home, we stopped in AZ to let the kids get out and stretch and play in the river.

The only time Charles feels like he can give his razor a break is when he's on vacation.  And I like that dirty rugged look.  I wish he would do it more often. Yep.  My husband is hot.

California Part 2

We also spent a day in Tehachapi visiting cousins.  We love to go there.

Missing Zoe

Another day we had a BBQ over at Melanie and John's.  Aunt Michelle came down for it too.  It was so hot, so Charles went and bought squirt guns so the kids could have a water war. That was pretty fun to watch.  The night before, Melanie and John invited all the cousins to stay over for a sleepover.  They are brave. But Bradley and Brynnlee stayed with us. Too soon for them, I guess.

I'm sure we did more, but I didn't take pictures, so I have already forgotten. Pretty sad how dependent  my memories are on that camera...

California Part 1

After Disneyland, we spent a few days in Lancaster.  We stayed with Chuck and Sherrie.  One morning we went to Apollo Park to feed the ducks and have a picnic.

There were a lot of "Sasha"s there.  Brynnlee is afraid of animals and calls all of them Sasha.  (Sasha is the name of a dog belonging to our friends.)

Bradley on the other hand isn't scared at all. While Kaleb climbs onto the table to escape the ducks, Bradley chases them away.

Yeah... it was hot.

These 2 were a lot more friendly this visit.  They were so cute.

Disneyland Part 4

We swam twice at the hotel.  Once right after check-in and once right before check-out.

We had the pool to ourselves both times.

Disneyland Part 3

Day Two

The new Cars Land is in California Adventures. Charles happened to bump into a coworker on our first day at Disneyland and she told him about getting a Fastpass to the new Cars ride. She said we needed to get there as soon as they open or all the passes will be gone within the first half hour.  She was right.  We went straight to the Fastpass line when the gates opened and waited for 20 minutes.  When our tickets printed they were for 5:45 that night. The rest of the passes were gone 10 minutes later. Since the kids have more fun at Disneyland, we decided to just wait in the line for Cars anyway, so we could finish CA Adventures and get back to Disneyland.

Charles took the big kids to wait in line and bring back a stroller pass while I took the little ones to ride the rides in A Bug's Life.

When Charles and the boys got back, it was mine and Bradley's turn to ride the Cars ride.  It was awesome!  All of Cars Land was really neat.  Bradley kind of chickened out right before we got on the ride and I had to force him on.

He was not happy about that.  But it was worth it... to me. :)

Then we split up again to ride Soarin' Over California.  It will be nice when Brynnlee is big enough to ride so we don't have to spilt up so much.

Probably my favorite thing about taking the kids to Disneyland is that for almost the entire day, the kids do not fight.  Jaden is actually laughing in this picture... I know it might be hard to tell.

Brynnlee had just taken a fall and scraped up her face, but she was just as happy as the rest of them.

Giving Brynnlee lovin'.

"Back off punks!"

We made it back to Disneyland just in time for lunch.

The kids have their favorites so we pretty much just rode those over and over.  We still have not made it to Tom Sawyer's Island.  Maybe next time... again.

On our last day there, we finally talked Kaleb into doing Splash Mountain.  He would ride only if I held on to him really really tight.

But only once.

Hm.  I guess I forgot to hold on to him.  Whoops.  Oh well. He survived. He actually liked the Matterhorn better than Splash Mountain.  I do not.  I won Rock-Paper-Scissors with Charles to sit that one out.

Then back to Tomorrowland...

It was sad that Space Mountain was closed.  Oh well.  The boys LOVE Star Tours.  While we were waiting in line for Star Tours, it broke down and we spent a lot of time on the floor playing "Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish..."

We were the last ones to get to ride before they closed it up for the night for repairs.

For the last hour, we split up again.  This time Charles went with Bradley to Splash Mountain where they got to stay on the ride and ride it 4 times in a row.  That gave Bradley a grand total of TEN times on Splash Mountain this trip.

I went with Kaleb and Brynnlee and Jaden to ride Mr. Toad's Wild Ride over and over. Kaleb wanted a picture with his new buddy.

Brynnlee wanted a turn to drive.

We ended our fun on the caraousel.

After the park closed we ordered pizza on our way out and had it delivered almost as soon as we got back to the hotel.  Now that's the way to go. :)