Three months ago we went to Disneyland (Day 9)

Day 9.  That's right.  Longest.  Vacation.  Ever.  And we weren't ready to go home when it ended.  Day 9 wasn't even the end!  Day 9 was Thanksgiving Day.  We started by sleeping in!!  And then we headed to Huntington Beach to visit with a friend of mine!

FYI, part way through our trip I ran out of some of my makeup.  Grrrrr.  I don't even know how that happened.  And it isn't the kind I could just run to the store and pick up.  So I just lived without it for several days.  Don't judge my face.  Thank you very much.

Anyway, it was so much fun to visit with Sharla and her family!  Lucas and Brooklyn made friends.  I would not be opposed to a future arranged marriage.

After visiting for a bit, we headed over to the beach house my family was staying in and my mom and I made our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  We did the best we could with what we had at the tiny beach house to make it all fancy.

Somehow this is the only turkey picture I got and it's still in the bag.

 Yummmmm!!!  Candied yams, green beans sauteed with almonds and butter, mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey, cranberry slush, homemade rolls (if rhodes count as homemade, ha!), homemade cranberry sauce, and the best dressing you've ever had in your life with craisins and cashews and all kinds of good stuff!

Not the best picture of everyone, but here we all are, crammed at the little table and being so grateful!  We missed the brothers, but Brennan was on tour with his band and Devin was in Thailand on vacation so we didn't feel too bad.  

After we stuffed ourselves to the brim and cleaned up, we decided to walk down to the beach.  It was a whole two blocks down the street.

Love beach sunsets!!!

Here is Lucas's first impression of standing in the sand.  :)

It was a little chilly, but beautiful and totally worth the cold!  Lucas eventually warmed up to the sand and LOVED the water! 

While everyone watched the sun set and enjoyed the smell and the view, I climbed out on the jetty and watched the waves splash up on the rocks. 

 Eventually everyone else joined me and I got this fun picture of a wave splashing up around everyone.

On the way back, the kids all climbed up on the lifeguard tower to pose.  Silly.

Then we headed back to the beach house to watch some Christmas movies and dog-pile on Grandpa.  He's under there somewhere.  He's wearing a blue t-shirt.  See if you can spot him.

There's nothing like the magic of Disneyland.  But there's nothing like the magic of the beach and family, either.  We had actually planned on a one week vacation, just our little family.  Then my dad called and asked if we'd want to stay a few extra days and they'd meet us for Thanksgiving and to relax at the beach.  Those relaxing beach days made me want to never, ever come home.  Reliving them now as I post I just want to run back!!!!

Two months ago we went to Disneyland (Day 8)

Day 8 was our last Disney day.  We had 4 days park hoppers, which we realized too late was more than we needed.  It was really fun, but we were all pretty beat and would have been fine with just three days.  But we did squeeze in a few things on this day that we were glad we didn't miss!!

First, we posed for a family photo, and the kids and I posed with Red the Fire Engine.

We started the morning at California Adventure and went straight to the Radiator Springs Racers since we hadn't been yet and this seems to be the most popular ride right now.  The line was already 40 minutes long (and we had arrived way early!!) but we decided to wait anyway.  So I posed with Lucas and Payson for some pictures around Cars Land to keep them busy.

Payson actually had the camera a lot that morning, so we have about a thousand random pictures of who knows what.

The ride broke down while Jack and Jason were waiting, so we ended up actually waiting almost two hours for the ride.  It was frustrating.  This was really the only major waiting we did the whole trip though, so we quickly got over it.  Plus, it was such a cute ride!  The kids loved it.  It was probably worth it.

Next, we hit Hollywood Tower of Terror again.  Jack played with his lightsaber keychain and met some characters while we waited.

He actually didn't love this ride the first time, but surprisingly decided to give it another shot anyway and ended up enjoying it the second time around.  I think knowing what was coming helped him prepare.

We hit the Little Mermaid ride, which I loved!  And the kids skipped along with Goofy on his way to conduct the musical fountains.

We made sure to hit the Phineas and Ferb dance party this day, too.  Jack is obsessed with all things Phineas and Ferb so this was a must!

The Fireside Girls came out and got everyone involved.

Jack and Payson went out and danced along with Phineas and Ferb and had so much fun!!

At one point, I even got pulled out to hula hoop.  It was a major fail.  Jason got hilarious video which I refuse to embarrass myself by posting.

It ended up being a lot of fun for the kids.  Halfway through the day we headed back to Disneyland to meet Mickey at his house.  It was the only Disneyland thing we hadn't done that we wanted to.  On our way over we met several of Mickey's friends!!

Dale

Donald

Chip

Cinderella's Fairy Godmother

Snow White

At this point, we had super full autograph books!!

Then it was off to Mickey's house to explore!! 

And we finally met the main man himself!!  Lucas even gave him a good pound. :)

After meeting Mickey we quickly headed back over to California Adventure for yet another character meal.  We had dinner at Ariel's Grotto.  Payson had been begging, so we decided to indulge her.

We met Ariel, of course.

Aurora

 

Cinderella

Belle

and Snow White all came out while we were eating.

If you have girls who are very, very into princesses, this would be a good character dining experience to do.  I think overall though we enjoyed Goofy's Kitchen more.

We caught Woody on our way to a few last rides.

And did California Screamin', which we all agree was a favorite.  (This is the one ride Jack wasn't tall enough for, which was super disappointing.  Hopefully next time!)

And one last picture on our way out!

We left the park then and headed back to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping.  The kids each had their own spending money and wanted to make their purchases.  And I wanted a Mickey caramel apple.  :)

By then we were exhausted and very Disney'd out!!  But we were so grateful for all the memories we'd made at the happiest place on earth!!!