Disneyland!

No drawn out apologies or excuses this time - I know I suck at blogging. :)

For the first time in a couple years now, finances actually allowed us to go on a vacation! Yay! We had originally planned to go to Disneyland in June with my parents and Lindsay's family, but with Greg switching jobs, he didn't have enough PTO saved up to go then. So we planned our own little trip for the beginning of this month, and my parents were even kind enough to come and go to Disneyland a second time! :) We had a great time, and the kids still tell me on a daily basis how much they miss Disneyland. In fact, Gavin tells me he can't wait to go back when he's "five or eight or six." :)

Here are some highlights from our trip:

The 10-Hour Drive

I stressed about this for at least the entire two weeks before the trip. To make matters worse, I stressed about it so bad the night before we left that I didn't sleep AT ALL. Fortunately, the kids did so much better than I ever expected! I took a whole backpack full of things for them to do, and I wrapped twelve little cheap presents - 3 for each kid for the car ride there, and 3 for each on the ride back. I still can't believe what a life-saver they ended up being. The anticipation of getting a "new toy" every few hours really helped them stay calm and patient through the whole thing.

Disneyland!

Yes, I know I'm 26, but I still absolutely adore Disneyland. I feel like such a little kid when I'm there - the atmosphere just totally takes away all my worries. The kids really loved it too. Anytime we would leave Disneyland (either for naps or just because we were done for the day), they would both be asking when we would be going back. In fact, on the ride home when we were around St. George, Ty started asking if we were going to Disneyland that night! He was pretty disappointed when we told him no. :(

The only real problem we had with Disneyland was the amount of rides that scared Gavin! It really surprised me since he is such a little daredevil at Lagoon. He cried on Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, and Grizzly River Rapids, and got extremely scared on Snow White, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Alice in Wonderland, and Monsters Inc. In fact, I'm sure I even missed a few in there! :) (Even the characters scared him!) He did really like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Matterhorn though - go figure! Ty, on the other hand, loved everything. He never complained about getting scared on a ride, except Peter Pan when we got stopped in the middle of the ride and it took about fifteen minutes to get us off. His favorites were Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and the Tea Cups. Here are some more highlights from the park:

(The electric light parade at California Adventure - LOVE IT!)

(One of the snails came over and bowed to the boys - they loved it!)

Swimming at the Hotel Pool

Gavin took swimming lessons a couple weeks before we left and loved them, so he was really excited to have the chance to get back in the water again! Ty, on the other hand, was really hesitant at first and didn't want to get in past his waist. However, after a little coaxing, he loved it and started jumping in just like Gavin! Seriously, I have two fish on my hands...

The Beach

We decided to take a break from Disneyland one day and head down to the beach in Carlsbad. We had such a great time! Seriously, the weather was PERFECT (low to mid-80's) and the water felt great. Gavin loved swimming in the water with Greg, and though Ty didn't love the water quite as much, he loved searching for seashells and running away when the tide came up.

The L.A. Temple

The last night of our vacation, we were seriously Disneyland-ed out. So we decided to head up to L.A. and check out the temple and some other sights up there. However, after sitting in traffic for 1 hour and 45 minutes, we only had time to see the temple and Rodeo Drive. It was still a fun night though, and the kids really enjoyed walking around the temple grounds.

Well, there you have it - our trip in a nutshell. We seriously had such a good time, and really appreciate my mom and dad tagging along. They were a lot of fun and a great help with the kids! Hopefully we will be able to do it all over again in the not too distant future. -Ash