Family vaca 2013

It's been almost four years since we've taken a vacation and we desperately needed one! Travis had to take a training class in Ontario, Ca. for a week so we decided that would be a great excuse to get us all out there and what could possibly be better than Disney with little ones in tow?!? We were all excited! Travis actually flew out on Monday for his class and then the kids and I followed on Friday. We planned to visit one of my BFF's from high school in LA and then pick Travis up after his class ended that afternoon. I knew this vacation would be a lot of work, but we were up for the challenge. We deserved this!!

Day 1~ Friday: My day started out at 3:30am and I managed to wake the kids up at 4:00am with no problems or complaints from their sleepy little heads. I wish it was always this easy!! We were at the airport at 4:55am, ready to make our 6:30am flight. I unloaded all of our stuff at the curbside terminal and then parked the truck. Travis took a lot with him, but I still had 1 suitcase, 1 carry on, my purse, a stroller, a car seat, a booster seat AND two kids. Things were going so great and then we entered the airport and stood in the longest lines ever! It took us over an hour to get one bag checked and get through security at 5:00am! Moving all of our stuff a few inches every couple of minutes was a lot to manage. We missed our group boarding and rushed on the plane with only a few minutes to spare and without getting breakfast. Thankfully, I had a few crappy snacks for the kids in my bag. And then we were off! The kids slept almost the entire three hour flight, despite two kids in front of us screaming the entire time and keeping me awake. I was on one of those flight, BUT my kids were angels so I was happy! Managing our way through LAX and getting our bags couldn't have been easier and we even scored a free luggage cart.





And then the fun with the rental car began. We waited for forever just to get a shuttle to the rental car company. The process of getting the car was long and annoying. Trying to figure out how to install car seats was even more annoying. Trying to figure out how to start the stupid car (push start) and getting stuck on the 405 freeway because I didn't have it in the right gear was the most annoying! (I am not a fan of Altimas!!)

However, we got squared away and were finally en route to Shannon's place! It was so much fun catching up with her and the kids. It was a short visit, but I'm just happy we got to see them! We all had a great time!

Emma & Tyler


Sadie and Kinley






We left Shannon's in LA about 2:45 to drive 58 miles to pick up Travis in Ontario at 4:00pm. After traveling for THREE hours on the 405, I-10, I-5 and the San Bernadino freeway, we FINALLY met Travis (two hours late)! Obviously, I wasn't anticipating that kind of traffic! We still had a 50 mile drive south to our hotel in Dana Point and Travis thought that it would be a good idea to "bypass some of the freeway traffic" and drive over The Foothills Mountain. Although the scenery was awesome, it was NOT a good idea! All the twists and turns and ups and downs left Kinley and I both car sick, but she legit got car sick and threw up a little in the back seat. It was rough and TWO hours later and we finally made it to our hotel! The kids were such troopers for being stuck in a car for five hours without breaks after their already busy travel day. By the time we got settled, ate dinner and crawled into bed, it was 11:00pm (1:00am on our watch). We were exhausted!!! I reflected on all that we had done that day and I have to say that I felt pretty darn accomplished! Traveling with two kids solo and managing our way through LA was huge! Not something that I'm looking forward to doing again...like, EVER, but I did drift off to sleep feeling a little like a super mom and very proud of my kids! ;-)

Day 2~ Saturday: Bring on the lazy fun and relaxing vacation that I signed up for! We stayed in Dana Point because it was right on the beach and close to our family that we planned to see. The kids had a great time at the beach for a whole 10 minutes. Okay, it was longer than that, but the Pacific water isn't like the Gulf of Mexico water. And 80 degrees outside isn't like 100 degrees that we're used to at home. The water was cold and once the kids got wet, our time was pretty limited. They did have fun playing in the sand and Travis managed to get a nice sunburn.




















After the beach, we spent that evening with Travis' 2nd cousins, Clark and Kathy. We love visiting with them every time we make it out to Cali and vice versa. :-)

Day 3~ Sunday: We spent our morning doing some touristy stuff and went to The Ocean Institute.


And then we headed back to visit with the fam that afternoon. Clark and Kathy hosted a nice dinner and had other family members over as well. Kathy is a kindergarten teacher and the kids just adored her. I think the feeling was quite mutual. But, who wouldn't adore my kids?? :-) She bought a box of ladybugs (seriously, you can do that!) and released them in her back yard. Hundreds of them! The kids loved watching these things fly off and letting them crawl all over.


Clark has a pretty cool hobby! This is a race track that he has built/set up in his garage. I'm sure you can just imagine how excited Tyler was to get to race these remote controlled cars!


Ryan and Tyler~


With Clark and Kathy~






It's always so much fun visiting with this side of the family and I wish we got to see them more often. :-(

Tyler was jammin' out while we drove to our hotel near Disney~

Day 4~ Monday: Finally time for our Disney vaca! Everyone was excited!

We decided to spend one day at the new California Adventure Land and two days at Disney (both on the same property) and ended up doing Adventure Land first. I was completely impressed at how much detail they put into this place. If you haven't seen the movie Cars, then you probably live on a different planet and you're definitely missing out on a great movie! Cars Land was like stepping into the movie. It was SO cute and SO much fun! This park had more of the Pixar animations (Cars, Toy Story, Bugs Life, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, etc.) and they had a really great parade with all of these characters that we love. Despite so much fun at our fingertips, it felt like the kids took turns whining about anything and everything all day and that became very exhausting for Travis and I very quickly. However, we stayed the entire day and did and saw most everything and after comparing it to Disney, I think we had a lot more fun here. There was more of a range of stuff for us to all enjoy. Travis rode one of the big roller coasters solo and said it was great! I loved the Cars ride that took you on a mini journey from the movie. Tyler loved the Buzz Lightyear 3D shooting ride. And Kinley discovered a new love for Ariel from The Little Mermaid, which she affectionately called "My mermaid." It was a long and tiring day, but it really was a fun day! :-)









































Passed out in the stroller and she missed the parade!


A couple of very short clips of the parade~

These pictures are from the Cars ride. It looks just like the movie!






















Bugs Land










The Little Mermaid








All the neon came on in Cars Land once it got dark, just like in the movie! There was a small street party and they played the song from Cars that Tyler was looking forward to hearing, "Life is a Highway." Of course, Kinley enjoyed getting her groove on!















They had a gorgeous water/light show set to music in front of the ferris wheel.










Very short clips~

This little guy just couldn't make it back to the hotel~



Day 5~ Tuesday: Our first day on the Disney side and it was tough! I think we were all so worn out and exhausted from the day before and that made it hard to start the day with as much excitement as we initially had. Tyler complained from the start that he was tired and didn't want to walk and Kinley screamed every time we tried to put her in her stroller. They had no patience for standing in lines, but loved riding the rides. Well, most of them. Tyler wasn't a fan of the rides that went through tunnels or that were dark and surprisingly, a lot of them were like that. It felt like a constant emotional roller coaster ride for us: "This is the best day EVER!" "I don't like Disneyland!" "I want to go back to the hotel?" "I love that ride, can we do it again!" "I'm having SO much fun" "I'm just sleepy" "I HATE going through tunnels" "This is the best day EVER!!" And I'm sure you can imagine mine and Travis' patience for all of this. The lines for rides seemed longer than the day before. The crowds were definitely bigger here! People seemed rude and entitled. And we just kinda felt overwhelmed with everything. By mid-day, I think we had all reached our limit and we should have taken a break back at the hotel, but after Kinley fell asleep in her stroller, we decided to continue on and rent a stroller for Tyler so that he could relax. We never got the stroller and instead, we were escorted off of the Disney property by security guards. Not kidding!!! I'll save the long story for another day, but the short of it was that Travis had his pocket knife on him when he went to try and rent the stroller and they noticed it and weren't happy about it, to say the least. Never mind the fact that we had gotten in the park for TWO days with it in his pocket!! Travis got pretty frustrated over the situation and became pretty upset with how they handled it. There were words exchanged and like I said, they made us leave the property to take the knife back to our hotel. After a couple of stiff drinks and a good nap for Kinley, we headed back to Disney sans pocket knife for the evening. I told Travis that they would probably have his face plastered on posters all over the park, but they didn't even check our bags when entering again. Whatever. That incident kinda set the tone for the rest of the evening and Travis just couldn't shake it. He was running people over with our strollers (they deserved it, of course!) and had words with people who stood in our way while watching the firework display that evening. It wasn't "the happiest place on Earth" like I had imagined, but I'm just thankful that we weren't bailing Travis out of jail for something crazy! We definitely had moments of FUN, but geesh, there were a lot of in between moments as well.

One of the highlights on this day was going to Tomorrowland. They had a pretty fun Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride/game that we all loved and then we hit the action figure lottery as far as the kids (and Travis) were concerned when we went to the Innovations Center (despite it being sponsored by Monsanto... ugg!). They had a display of all the Iron Man suits and that's right up Tyler and Kinley's alley. Tyler even got to do an interactive game as Iron Man, although, he got a little shy when actually doing it. :-) The boys also did a Star Wars tour/ride (I don't know), but they both love anything Star Wars.



















The famous tea cups and Dumbo ride~


















Short clip of Kinley seeing Minnie during the parade. She was excited and as I focused on Minnie for 1/2 second, Kinley split city when she saw Pluto walking down the street. She just wasn't a huge fan of any other character besides Minnie. First you see Kinley, then you don't. ;-)

Our attempt at Toon Town to see Mickey or Minnie Mouse, but we came too late in the evening.
Minnie's house~




Inside Mickey's house~






Day 6~ Wednesday: Our last day at Disney and we/I finally felt prepared! We had a better idea of what to expect. I mapped out our route and the rides we wanted to do the night before. We came equipped with Leap Pads and snacks for the kids to help pass the time while we stood in lines. Both kids were comfy in strollers. We were ready to conquer our last day and actually had a great time! We got to the park shortly after they opened and headed to Toon Town, which is in the very back of the park. I don't think anyone else shared this idea with us and we practically had this section to ourselves!! It was awe.some!! We hopped on a couple of rides that usually have long lines without any wait and then split up for a bit. Travis and Tyler ended up riding the kiddie rollercoaster three times while Kinley and I visited Minnie Mouse's house. For whatever reason, Kinley scored getting Minnie's house all to herself for about 10 minutes while everyone else had to wait outside. It was VIP treatment and we were sooo happy! (It's the little things!) Kinley is so young and wasn't aware of everything Disney like Tyler was. The only thing she had really been excited about throughout our whole vacation planning was seeing Minnie Mouse and she finally got that opportunity! She wanted nothing to do with any other character we saw from afar, but she was more than happy to run up to Minnie and give her a hug! It was super sweet! Afterwards, we checked out Mickey's house, Goofy's house, Donald's boat, Chip-n-Dale's treehouse and went back to ride that rollercoaster a couple more times! It was so much fun!!































It was Disney's 58th birthday (July 10th).
































We did a few other rides and went back to the hotel before the crowds got too big. We came back after naptime only to do some souvenir shopping and to check out the fireworks. Tyler was so excited because he got to build his own light saber and droids (Star Wars) and Kinley was pretty happy about her stuffed Minnie Mouse and Little Mermaid doll. We left the park pretty late and everyone had a smile on their face! :-)













This has to be one of the most incredible firework shows around. Here's a short clip of just the ending (it was a long show!) The finale is worth checking out!

And that's all folks...




Day 7~ Thursday: I think we were all ready to head back home! This was definitely a hard-working vacation, but I expected that much going into it. I think it was easy to focus on the meltdowns over not getting a misting fan or not wanting to ride in the stroller or (fill in the blank... there were a lot of meltdowns over seven days), however, seeing all of our pictures is a great reminder that we DID have a lot of fun as well! There were ups and downs, just like there are when we're at home, but there were also a lot of smiles and laughing. I'm glad that we got to see friends and family and I'm glad that we got to experience Disney and created these fun memories together. And now we need a vacation from this vacation... or something like that. ;-)