Our California Adventure!

We enjoyed a very fun family vacation to California this last week for Spring Break. We left very early on Sunday morning and made the trek to Anaheim. It took us about nine and a half hours to get there. We arrived a little early so we went to Newport Beach and walked on the pier. It was extremely windy and had been raining earlier in the day so it was cold too. While we walked on the pier I happened to notice the dorsal fins of a couple of dolphins out in the choppy water. I pointed them out to the kids and we were able to enjoy a dolphin show for the entire time we were out on the pier. Unfortunately, James didn't quite push the record button down all the way on the camera so we didn't get any of the video we thought we were getting. We also saw several star fish (6) stuck to one of the pier poles which was also covered in barnacles. I was able to get a good picture of that.

After we walked on the pier we went back and ate lunch in the car. We had brought all of our food with us so we wouldn't have to shop on Sunday. We had planned to eat on the beach but it was just too cold and windy. Finally we were able to check into our hotel. We just spent the rest of the day napping and snacking before heading off to bed early so we could get up and play the next morning.
The next morning dawned warm and beautiful. We spent the first entire day at Disneyland. There were a lot of people at the park, but we didn't have to wait too long in lines. I think our longest wait was for Space Mountain. We waited for about 40 minutes to get into that ride. Anything else that had a longer wait than that we just got fastpasses for. So everything worked out pretty good time wise.
Callista and I rode Splash Mountain for the first time ever. I was a little nervous when we dropped through the first drop and it seemed big to me. I admit I closed my eyes the first time I went over the big drop. I hardly even got wet. The second time through though I looked like I had taken a shower! It was fun.
Tye was afraid of everything. He screamed like a girl at the Haunted Mansion and gave everyone there a good laugh. He loved the train and only the train (aside from Buzz Lightyear). If we could get him on the other rides he would say "I scared." and close his eyes for the entire ride. Callista was a trooper. She rode all of the rides except Indiana Jones and California Screamin' because she wasn't tall enough. I don't think I ever heard her scream once!
On day two we went to California Adventure. It was the first time we had ever been there. We rode the Hollywood Tower of Terror. It was terrorific! I closed my eyes the whole ride again! We wandered around there through the day until it was time for the Pixar Playtime Parade. Tye loved that! It was lots of fun. I felt sick after going on the rollercoaster, so we ended up leaving that park and going back to Disneyland to the mexican restaurant for dinner. The food was DELICIOUS! Afterward we watched the evening fireworks which were amazing.
Wednesday moring we got up and went into Mickey's Toon Town with early access passes. The kids got to meet Minnie Mouse. That was fun. Afterward we took Callista and Tye to meet the Disney Princesses while the big kids went on the rides they wanted to take. By the time we hit noon we were all worn out with feet so sore we could hardly walk. We decided to call it a day and get on the road to head back to Arizona. We drove to Needles where we stopped and visited Uncle Jimmie and Aunt Nancy before heading back on the road again. We got home at 3 o'clock in the morning on Thursday. We all fell into bed and slept a lot on Thursday, then Kamery and I got up early on Friday morning and drove to Thatcher for EAC's preview day and her music scholarship audition. We had a good time there checking things out and visiting with Aunt Kay and Natalie. We got home at 5:30 pm on Saturday. We are sick of traveling! We went to church this morning and slept all afternoon and then had home teachers, so this is the first chance I have had to update the blog. I know some of you have been asking about pictures. I have about 300 from our trip, so I will pick some of our most favorites to go in the slide show or I will be downloading forever!