California

I am back and I have to say it is good yet sad to be home. Many memories were made this trip. We left 35 degree weather and arrived to 80 degree weather with a slight breeze. It was heaven. The weather was perfect all week long.

We arrived pretty early in the morning and feared we would have to lug our suitcases around until the 3:00 check in time. Much to our amazement we were able to check in early! Hurray!

After relaxing and doing a bit of shopping, we headed to the beach. It was beautiful! I seriously could live there. It was nice to be able to hear the sounds of the waves and rub my feet in the sand. It was so relaxing.

(Just as an FYI, because we heard about it non stop from my dad. This isn't cloud cover, it is smoke from the fires that were happening while we were there).

That night we had yummy Mexican food that we randomly picked off the GPS. Ok this is one thing I would HIGHLY recommend. Get a GPS. This was a life saver for us. Type in an address or the name of a place you are looking for. Bing it gives you a list of suggestions or plans the route for you and when to turn.
The next 3 days were spent at Disneyland. Disneyland was just as I remembered and to sum it all up in one word. Magical. I was so excited to see it decorated for Christmas. There is something about this place that you enter and you immediately smile, despite the fact that you are getting hit in the ankles with strollers.

We were greeted with a line of characters and our first stop was Mickey. Snap a photo is taken and then a red light starts to blink. BAH.. I forgot to charge my camera battery. Bugger. So our first day there I wasn't able to capture much. But I will post what I do have from all 3 days.

After waiting in line for over 2 1/2 hours, my niece was able to meet ALL of the Princesses and get their autographs. I can hear your voices saying 2 1/2 hours are you kidding me?! Well here is the kicker. Each Princess rotates every 15 minutes. So when it is your turn in line again, there is 2 princesses that you have already met along with 1 new one. I am not upset that they rotate. Good word if I had to be in a get up like that I would want to rest every 15 minutes too.

I would highly recommend going to Disneyland OFF season. Grant it they do close earlier and you are taking kids out of school, but it is cheaper hotel wise, and the lines.. seriously the longest we waited in line for a ride was 20 minutes and that was for Toy Story, which was a new ride introduced this year. Most of the rides we were able to get directly onto the ride and sometimes ride it twice. We were able to ride almost every ride in the park our first day there.

During this trip I am not as young as I thought I was. Riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice in a row did a doozy on me. I am still dizzy.

I will always remember the smiles, laughter, and excitement in faces, getting teary eyed while watching Fantasmic and my niece asking me 100 questions about what each ride entails. The churros, the ice cream (mmm get the strawberry from Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor to die for), dole whip float, the apple of the month (chocolate dipped with peanut butter drizzle), and the kettle corn.

We were very tired and our feet were killing us by the end of each day but it was totally worth it.

This trip was a memorable one. I am looking forward to next year.