Long Beach California, 2014
COUSINS!!!
In early May, a few days after Easter, we packed up and drove West to Cali for a much-needed and awaited vacay. An extra perk about visiting CA these days is that we get to see Steven, Kylie and Jack!
So sad I somehow missed getting a picture of all three, but here are the boys. Steven landed his dream job there in Cali working for the USC Athletic department in sports licensing. I'm sure there' s a better description of his job, but it's something like that. :) They moved into a darling house in a nice area of Long Beach last January after graduating from San Diego State's MBA program and are official Cali residents!
I think we stayed four total nights at their place (I forget!). The kids LOVED seeing their cute cousin Jack and spending some time with them. Jack and Lexi are 9 months apart and are the cutest together, and Emmie loved "mothering" Jack the whole time, leading him around. She's pretty cute with little kids (most of the time).
On Sunday we went to church with them, then headed to Long Beach where we rented this awesome beach bike. It was sooooo fun - I think I laughed the whole time we rode it. Chris got quite the work out towing all 8 of us on that thing.
Jack and Lexi were so dang cute in the little basket up front. Everyone kept pointing and laughing at them as we drove by. I just wish I had gotten a better pic! It was so windy!
We took a break halfway through our bike ride and the kids loved running on the beach! It was pretty chilly out there!
The next day we entered the Happiest Place on Earth. Call us Disney nerds, but we totally love this place.
Of course, it was the hottest day of the year and hit 95 degrees! & we thought we were being smart to avoid the hot weather by going in early May. We spent 5 days there (& CA Adventure) and of course it was blazing hot every day and our beach days were freezing! But we didn't want to go to Disney on the weekend because of crowds when it was cooler, so we just had to deal with it.
Kylie and Jack left halfway through the day for Jack's nap, but returned that evening with Steven after he got back from work. This Pixar Parade in CA Adventure is my favorite!!!
Emmie was super excited to drive! This was our first time finally making it on the new Cars ride - we LOVED it!!
Our second day at Disney we checked into a hotel - the Anaheim Fairfield Marriott. It's right across the street and down maybe a quarter of a block. It was SO close (took 7 minutes to walk to Disney's front gate) and at the same time NICE- not easy to find those two things in a hotel that close to D-Land! We usually love the Anaheim Marriott Suites which are further up the road, but that requires us to take a shuttle which is soooo not convenient with a big stroller packed full of stuff that has to be folded up. We always just ended up driving when we stayed there in the past. This one isn't quite as nice or spacious but because of location we will definitely stay there again! It was great to be able to take Lexi back for a few naps without it being an ordeal!
I was 11 weeks pregnant and so nauseaus, but thanks to Zofran I did pretty good on this trip. I remember feeling like such a chunk - I always gain around 10 lbs in my first trimester (but hardly any in the second so it evens out)...it's like my body goes into starvation mode and stores away fat or something! I never stress too much about it because it all comes off post pregnancy (knock on wood) but I hate that stage of pregnancy. Sitting here now however with a big prego belly as I write this I'm thinking I don't look as chunky as I felt, lol! Perspective! :)
CA ADVENTURE PARK! Chris and Parker went on Tower of Tower a zillion times and also CA Screamin (upside down roller coaster). Emmie wasn't interested in either (especially after Chris dragged her on Tower of Terror last year and she was traumatized!). She later declared her favorite ride of the trip to be Big Thunder in D-Land. Being pregnant, I had to sit most things out this trip. The saddest part was that some of the better low key rides that I could have ridden, like Pirates, Finding Nemo, Small World and the Ariel ride were all closed! Oh well-still fun though! I did cheat a little and went on the new Cars Ride. It was too tempting! My Doctor said however that it was fine!
Meeting the characters!!! We didn't stop for too many this trip but were able to get our fill on Wednesday at Goofy's Kitchen...
We love this character dining restaurant in the Disney Hotel! Totally a splurge but always a highlight and the food is good. Chris is a huge fan of buffets and this one has just about everything you could dream of! Lexi was soooooooooooooo excited to meet Minnie Mouse. I couldn't decide what pic to use so why not all of them? Their interaction together was so so cute!!!
So cute to see the kids faces meeting all these guys. My favorite line of Lexi's was after Pluto walked away. He didn't see that Lexi had put out her knuckles for him to punch and she sadly turned to me all dramatically and said in her adorable little voice, "Mom, Pluto didn't even give me bones!". Needless to say, she was pretty into meeting her new friends.
All three of the kids climb onto our double stroller to be taxied around the parks. We couldn't survive there without that thing! Five days straight at Disney is so exhausting!! We feel like we totally get our money's worth this way however since upgrading from a 3 day to a 5 day pass is such a small amount more and this way we feel like we can really take our time in the parks. We love it!
We ended our trip with a day at Seal Beach. It was cute little beach town and the kids loved playing in the sand and the surf. Chris and I don't love CA beaches... not gonna lie. But we stand a few days because hey it's free family fun for our kiddos! :)
We had such a great vacation and really cherish that sacred family time with our kids! We've never been on a vacation that we regretted. So many good memories made and so much quality time spent. We can't wait to go back!!
