Cali-Mery Style

On Saturday the weekend of Thanksgiving we headed to California for a week. We drove to St. George and stayed the night and then headed out of there around 2 on Sunday. That was a little bit of a bad idea. What should have taken maybe 5 hours took us 10. Traffic was seriously insane I could not believe how many Californians were headed back from Vegas. After we arrived in California thanks to our Navigation system we found our place of rest easily. Rick and I a few months ago went to a Worldmark presentation as a favor to our babysitter. And well if you know Rick he buys pretty much anything presented to them and I wanted a place to stay in St. George so we agreed on getting it. Well that's how this whole cali trip started. We made a reservation in a brand new resort in Anaheim. It was a beautiful 2 bedroom condo equiped with everything even a washer and dryer it was very nice. The best part was seeing Disneyland out our windows and balcony.
On monday we got up and were a little slow going but finally made it to Disneyland and had a good time got a few of the bigger rides and things out of the way. It was all decked out for Christmas which was way cool to see. Even the Haunted Manchine was decked out Jack style it was Awesome. Jazmine is big enough to ride pretty much everything and Kyli is big enough for everything but the really big rides i.e. Space Mountain, Indiana Jones. Jaxon is 39 and 1/2 inches so he got screwed out of the good rides and Karsen well he was just there. We took along our wagon to cart the two boys around but due to tripping hazards we couldn't take it in so Ricki had to run it back to the car. Where he was going to move the car and meet me. Well until he got to the car did he notice that I had the keys. So we had to get strollers. Holy $^&t can I say that they make a ton just on their strollers. Lucky for me I have a Mickey Mouse credit card that meant I got them for free. EVERYDAY FREE!! That was a highlight for me. I like Free! So we continued to play we got back to the hotel late and enjoyed the evening exhausted. Tuesday we got up early and hit Disneyland early. We had a good game plan. We played for a while then headed back to the condo for lunch then went back to disneyland for a funfilled evening. Came back to the condo and enjoyed the Fireworks from our balcony.
Wednesday we headed down south to San Diego to go to Sea World. We hit all the shows. The Dolphins were a blast, the Sea Lions were a hoot and the Whales were spectacular. We rode on a couple rides and ended up sopping wet. Nevermind the fact we sat in soak zones at each show we did. It was fun! We made it home in time to watch the fireworks again.
Thursday we got up and went north to L.A. to go to Universal Studios and I was worried it wouldn't be too much fun due to the fact that we have small children but it was a blast. I snuck my 39 & 1/2 inch son onto the Simpsons ride and I am just glad he didn't pee his pants cuz he had to go bad. We say Bart, Lisa & Homer taking pictures. Then we went to the lower level to go on the Jurassic Park ride and the Mummy Ride. Both were way fun. Rick and I took turns on the Mummy Jazzy wussed out. It was way fun.
Then we did the Backdraft show. Kids didn't like that much. Apparently they don't like fire and explosions. Then we did a special effects show and that ended up being the best. I will add the story and video in a seperate blog but seriously it was funny. Well to me anyway!
We went on the Universal Studios tour and saw lots of cool stuff. The only thing I was excited to see was Wisteria Lane. That was cool and they were filming so we were hoping to see someone but had not luck. We then went to a muppets 3-d show and it was the first time that Karsen would were the glasses and he was so dang funny. I had more fun watching him try to grab the characters and flinch at things then watching the actual show. After having dinner we headed home and Rick and I were out.
Friday we got geared up headed out early just to get there in time for Disneyland to open early. Didn't know that but oh well. We went in for breakfast and then headed to California Adventure. I have come to the conclusion that this is a glorified Lagoon. We had fun. The big Mickey Mouse roller coaster was so fun Jaz went twice once with Rick once with me. Then we did the swings (just like Lagoons but inside an orange peel). The best was the new toy story ride. The line was the longest we experienced the whole time we were there but it was fun. Its a 3-D ride where you go through and try to get as many points as you can shooting things with your pop gun. Rick beat me only cuz I was trying to help Jaxon figure it out. I wanted to go again to try and kick his trash. Then soaring over California was way cool I went with Kyli and it was very exhilarating. Rick took Jaz. We did the Big Bear River Rafting ride and got soaked. The good thing about taking smaller kids was that we would just get in line and they had no idea what to expect it was so fun to freak them out a little. We then went to the Bug's life 4-D show and that was way cool. At the end they let the bugs go first and it felt like they were running under our butts it made me scream it was so funny. We then watched the Pixar Parade which was way fun. After that we headed back to Disneyland we went and did a few things and then the tired hit us all. We watched a parade and rode a couple rides and then it was all over. The kids were exhausted Rick and I each had a kid on our shoulders and a kid in the stroller fighting Friday night Disneyland Pedestrian traffic. It was great. We survived and made it back to the condo. We all crashed and slept in. Saturday we literally did nothing. We knew it was the last day of vacation so we layed around and then went swimming for a bit and then showered and watched HSM1 with hillarious captions and then HSM2 with again hillarious captions. Then we went to bed only to get up early and make our trek home. We stopped to visit some friends in California and then stopped to have dinner in St. George with my parents. We made it home in time to put kids to bed just to get up early the next day for reality.
Our vacation was well needed and well worth it. I loved being with just my little family and suprisingly Rick and I really enjoyed being the only adults to talk to...