Disneyland!

After the NCS meet on Saturday, we headed home to change some plans around, do some laundry, and pack for Disneyland.  Sunday morning we got up and out the door about 8:00 or so in the morning.

We drove down to Anaheim and stopped right before the grapevine for lunch at a Wendy's.  We went through the drive through and all ordered.  Travis wasn't feeling great (he was getting a cold sore) so he decided to just order a chicken wrap and a frosty for his drink.  As we pulled up to the window to get our food, they started handing over these GIANT drinks for the boys and me.  I mean these things were HUGE!  Then, they started handing over the food.  Last to come was Trav's meal and his frosty.  He ended up with a kids meal and a VERY SMALL frosty.  Somehow they thought he was ordering a kids meal.  We laughed about that the rest of the day.  The picture shows my drink, compared to Trav's drink.  Pretty funny!

After checking into our hotel, we got settled and then headed to California Adventure to go on a few rides.

Toy Story Mania is always a favorite!

We only went on a few things and then walked to Downtown Disney to have dinner at the ESPN zone.   While we waited for a table, we played a few games.

This game of air hockey was a lot of fun.  When you start, you are only playing with one puck, but after someone scores, all those green and pink pucks come out and it's crazy!

Then it was three goal air hockey.

Disneyland was beautiful at night.  Here we are in front of "It's a Small World" all lit up for Christmas.

Here's Sleeping Beauty's castle.  It was so beautiful!

From then on out, we went early to the parks, and then headed back to the hotel for some relaxing and swimming in the late afternoon, and then went out to dinner.  Sometimes, we went back to the park for some more play time.  One of our favorite rides was Radiator Springs Racers.  We went in the single rider line (which cut our wait time from about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, down to about 10-30 minutes).  It was great since our kids were older, we were able to do that. We got to go on it about six times.

Calissa on the Carousel.

Love this picture of my boys as they wait for Calissa to get off the Carousel.  Parker and Conner making faces and poor Trav icing his cold sore.

Conner wanted to get an ice cream cone everyday.  That was his request, that usually started as we got to the park and continued until he had an ice cream cone in his hand.  We found out that the ice cream shop did not open until 11 am each day (but that didn't stop him from requesting one every chance he got)!

Had to go on the Jungle Cruise at least once!

I love the corny jokes!

Smile boys ... pretend you are having fun!

Conner, Calissa and Parker

Haunted Mansion.  Nightmare before Christmas.  Decorated for Halloween and Christmas.

One of Calissa's favorites from last time was Splash Mountain.  We went on it at 9:00 in the morning.  We got wet, but had a great time!

Love everyone's faces in this picture ... especially Travis and Calissa!

Our best family picture from the trip.  We have water spots on us from Splash Mountain! (How did my boys get taller than me?)

Waiting for the Monorail to take us to Downtown Disney (with the Matterhorn in the background).

Calissa at the Lego store with a life-sized Lego Friend girl. She really likes Lego Friends and enjoyed shopping at the Lego store.

This is the water slide back at the hotel.  Calissa went down this water slide probably over 50 times while we were there.  

While she was swimming and going down the water slide, I enjoyed soaking up the sun and reading my book. The weather was in the high 60's and low 70's the whole time we were there. It was beautiful!

We talked everyone into going on Tower of Terror one time.  That was our rule ... you had to go on it once.  After that, you could choose to not go on it again.  Can you tell that Calissa was excited to go on it?  I love Tower of Terror.  (Do you see that the elevator doors are opening when I took this picture?  You can see our bellhop peering out at us ... creepy, huh?)

Family picture time, once again.  Bugs Land.

Toy Story Mania with our 3D glasses.

Calissa and Parker were playing ninja as we were waiting in line.  I was just hoping they wouldn't accidentally hit someone with their "ninja" moves while they were playing.

At Paradise Pier in California Adventure. We love California Screamin' in the background!

On of our favorite things is going on the Boudin's Bakery Tour in California Adventure.  They give you a free sample of sourdough bread.  SO YUMMY!

We bought a sourdough turkey and a Mickey this year and enjoyed it for several days!  They used to have a Mission Tortilla factory that the kids enjoyed.  It's now a Ghirardelli Chocolate Soda Fountain.  They had the yummiest chocolate chip cookies!  Loved them!

We went to a show at the Jingle Jangle Jamboree with Bill Hill and the Hillbillies.  

They were so funny and very talented.

Calissa even got pulled up to dance for the finale of the show.

In Disneyland the kids always enjoy going into Innoventions.  There are always fun electronic games and things.

Here Calissa is attempting to show off her dance moves on the XBOX 360.  She didn't last very long and then got self-conscience.

We drove the cars at Disneyland several times.  Conner and Parker both got to drive their own cars this year.

Calissa drove me each time ... yikes!  Not looking forward to teaching her to drive!

Here is the beautiful Christmas tree in the lobby of the Grand Californian.  We got to walk through this hotel (it's right across the street from Paradise Pier) as we entered California Adventure everyday.  Hopefully one day we'll get to stay there.

One night we went to World of Color, Winter Dreams.  It was a different show from the last time we were there.  It was still beautiful and amazing! Glad we went back one night so we could see it.  A bonus was stopping to watch the fireworks from Disneyland on our way back after World of Color. (Although Conner seemed to think that the tree he was watching was much cooler then the fireworks). 

Our last day at the park was Thanksgiving day.  We saw Turtle Talk with Crush.  Calissa and I both got to talk to Crush.  He asked about how many kids I had.  I was glad I only have three!

The kids posing in front of Monsters University.

Happy Thanksgiving from Sunny Southern California!

Calissa posing with Olaf from Disney's Frozen.  We saw Catching Fire while we were there one afternoon.  Calissa said she never wants to see a PG-13 movie again.  Guess we scarred her for life.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at the ESPN zone.  Trav and I had turkey, Conner and Parker had hamburgers and Calissa had grilled cheese.  We were surrounded by TV's showing sports and even had one on our table.  The boys enjoyed the games!

After dinner, we decided to head back to go to Car's Land one more time since we hadn't been on it at night.  Here is Lightning McQueen and Mater on the ride.  

Here we are waiting in line.  We played "Head's Up" on my phone while we waited in line and pretty soon the people in front of us and behind us were playing too.  Fun memories!

Our very last ride at California Adventure was Luigi's Flying Tires.  It was like bumper cars, but you steered them by leaning forward, backward, and side to side.  

It was a fun last ride that we hadn't been on before.

We woke up Friday morning to drive to Fresno for the State Cross Country Championships.  There was a beautiful sunrise, but started pouring rain before we left.  Glad it chose to wait until Friday to rain.  Goodbye Disneyland ... we made a lot of memories and had a fun time together as a family.  Until next time!