disney mania

*** WARNING- SUPER long Travel log- if you don't read any of this, no worries.***

so we took off last monday for Disneyland and let me just say what a FUN trip it was! First of all, my mom had 19 billion ( or something like that) airmiles saved up and so as our Christmas gift she was able to fly my whole family (us, my bro and his kids, and her) all to California for free! plus she decided to use even more airmiles to pay for our hotel accommodations too for the whole week! it was amazing! our hotel alone would have been $299 a night, plus it was right across the street from California adventure(the other half of Disneyland) so the location was the best! We could have never afforded to go without that huge help, so thanks again mom a million times over!

We had so much fun, we did 3 days at Disneyland/ California adventure, and one day down at sea world, and a couple days shopping and such!

Our first day i was in heaven, from the warm temperatures, to actually hearing birds chirping outside our window the day started out perfect! I'm positive the kids didn't know what to expect, and as soon as we all saw Mickey it started to come to life!

greta was so happy to see the castle, she wanted to go in the minute we got there

It was so fun how random characters would just stroll down the street totally in character like they had somewhere to go, it was fun for the kids to be surprised of who was gonna show up next. like Cruella Deville for example, or Mr. Incredible.



We started off the rides with a huge hit, the Buzz lightyear ride, where you get to shoot Zurg and all his alien guys. The Buzz was really cool and animated, and actually moved and talked and gave us our mission, Ozzie's eyes were huge, the whole time it was so cute! then he got to shoot buzz guns, so needless to say it was his favorite ride for sure.

i love his little face in this one, he was SO happy!

later that day greta got to fulfill her dream of meeting tinkerbell at pixie hollow. this was so fun for us, Ozzie was asleep in the stroller with grandma and so we just waited in line with greta. she was so excited and believing about all of the fairy stuff she saw, and she was convinced that the closer we got to tinkerbell the smaller we were getting from all the pixie dust. all of the grass and flowers were getting so big! It was cute, such a fun age to take her there when she still believes it!

we spent the rest of that first day at toontown with goofys house and such, and fantasy land. and then by about 6:30 called it a great day, and headed for The Cheescake Factory for dinner. For anyone that hasn't been there, it is a MUST. So good, and so much better than the cheesecake cafe...sorry. We ate so much but had to to get cheesecake of course, so we brought it back to our room and had peanut butter chocolate heaven cheesecake for breakfast the next day. Doesn't get much better than that for a prego i don't think:)

The next day we wanted to take advantage of the decent weather because we were expecting rain so we decided to go to the California Adventure park which is right beside Disneyland. It was fantastic! i may have even liked it better. They had a whole world dedicated to "a Bugs life" and the line ups were way shorter everywhere, and it just seemed easier to get around and not so crowded. Ozzie's highlight was seeing "McQueen and Mater" in the flesh, very cool.

Chip and dale! Greta asked them if they were Alvin's cousins:)

A bugs life- land, so cute and fun!

Ozzie HAD to drive everything he could get his hands on, which made for a bumpy ride, and even a bit of whiplash i think, but he loved it!

This was one of many classic spinny rides, but the kids never got sick of it. love greta's face, she had so much fun with her cousins!
Don't know what we would have done without grandma on this trip! she babysat, took turns on rides, paid for too many things, and made it all possible! It was so fun to see the kids get to spend so much time with her, thanks again momma SO much!!

SULLY!! Greta was sad he was too big to sign her book, but went in for a hug anyways!

The Tower of Terror. I just had to show that the kids and Daddys actually went on this ride. It is super spooky, and drops from very high heights, i couldn't believe greta didn't spaz. Dick said she was laughing the whole time.

We decided to stay late this night until the world of color show was on, and it was totally worth being cold and waiting an hour for it to start. I can't even describe how awesome it was, but if you ever go to Disneyland it is a MUST SEE!!!

The giant Mickey ferris wheel that ozzie affectionately called the "Rainbow Ride" was really awesome at night!

We took a disneyland break the next few days, did some shopping, went to Midevil Times for dinner one night which (again) is hard to explain, but was quite the experience, and then headed to Sea World.

lego-land

We loved midevil times, even though ozzie had to sit on my lap the whole time and peed through his diaper on me. It was awesome. Lots of great food, no cutlery, lots of choreographed violence, horses, cheesy music, and cheering! The kids, and Dick were REALLY into it. my poor mom sitting right beside him. I think Kaiya actually was the loudest one in our whole section! good times.

The kids and the sleeping polar bears

SHAMU?? I actually missed the first part of the show, so i dont know if this is really shamu or not? Whomever it was, it was great! Seaworld was really cool. About an hour and half beautiful drive to Sandiego but totally worth it and a nice break. The highlights were the emperor penguins, ginormous walrus', dolphin show and shamu show. The kids got to feed some bat rays which was awesome, and they loved watching the sea lions eat too.

We had a lot planned for our last day at Disneyland so we started out early. The kids loved the Toy Story mania. they saw Jesse, and Woody, and Mr. Potatoe head and all sorts.

Matching Cheesy Grins

Cousins in a box for sale!

We had planned to take just the girls to "Ariel's Grotto" which is a special lunch where you get to meet at least 4 of the princesses. Greta and Kaiya were really excited, and i was happy to sit and eat, instead of waiting in 2 hour line ups just to meet one or two of them. It was fantastic! But before i show a few pictures from our lunch, i wanted to show what Dick and Ozzie did while we were in there. Daddy bought one of these:
And let Ozzie have free reign.
There is hilarious video of ozzie eating it, but for some reason its not uploading right, but i'll put it on here one of these days. priceless. he is such a savage.

Back to our Princess Lunch... Ariel was waiting at the front to greet everyone, and Greta asked her why she wasn't wearing her tail and sea shells?

It was seriously so awesome to sit and relax and have the princesses go from table to table visiting everyone, instead of the line ups. Not to mention the food was really good! gretas favorite was belle for sure. she loved her dress and hair the most. And the only one we didnt see was jasmine, whom greta said was probably out with Aladdin somewhere:)

the girls were so cute, and had so much fun together!

Before we left we had one more run in with a few Characters like Stitch, whom my kids really love, and of course a picture in front of the Castle! The fireworks that night were by far the best ones i've ever seen live. All done to music and such, it was a great way to leave Disneyland!

We left one last day to pack and shop, and Greta really wanted to go to the beach. We picked Newport because it was the closest to our hotel, and it was gorgeous! Greta could have stayed and picked shells all day. All in all, a great time. And it was SO much fun to go with my Brother and his family and my mom. It wouldn't have been nearly as fun without them! Till next time.