Saturday, October 27, 2012

Adventure to California with Leslie & Millie

Nate and I were lucky enough to go on an adventure with our good friends, Leslie & Millie Andrus!  They flew in to Vegas from SLC and we drove down to Southern California for a few days.  Leslie came prepared for the drive with Disneyland maps & surprised them with their very own new Mickey & Minnie!

in.n.out with maps (1 of 1)

M&M in car (1 of 1)

I was thrilled to be able to be there when Millie saw the ocean for the first time ever!  It was a classic moment, actually.  We get to the beach and the kids are walking up closer to the water and Millie turns around to run away from a big wave and stumbles and falls and the wave washes up right over her!  [We weren’t planning on full on water fun so they weren’t in swimsuits.  It was pretty chilly!]   The beach was great . . . it’s amazing how much fun the kids have every time.  They were so wet and sandy so we headed straight to the hotel to get them cleaned up before dinner.

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We went to Downtown Disney for dinner - it was packed so we sat down at the pizza place because they called us first and after reviewing the menu & ordering waters we decided we didn’t want to eat there so we left & headed to Tortilla Joe’s.  Good choice!

Then began our Disney adventure – it was also Millie’s first trip to Disneyland so we were up early & ready to go.  After all of our Disneyland trips I feel like I know a few good strategies to the park but they didn’t work at all this trip!  The first morning the area between the parks was packed with hundreds and hundreds of people who were doing a walk for charity through Disneyland an hour before it opened.  So we showed up 1.5 hours early, hoping for fewer crowds like normal, and it was nuts.  Leslie is our brave soul and had us all try to sneak in with the walking crowd to try to get in early but it didn’t work so we headed to CA Adventure and got in line behind the ropes to run to Cars Land and to get World of Color fast passes.

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ferris wheel (1 of 1)

L&M on toy story (1 of 1)

L&N on Toy Story (1 of 1)

suckers (1 of 1)

All of Day One was at CA Adventure.  It was pretty busy but for the most part, we were able to do everything we wanted to do!

Day Two was at Disneyland.  These kids of ours were rather interesting together – they are completely opposite children and so we split up a little on Day 2 so we could have some time with each of our kiddos but met up quite often throughout the day.  Millie was a total trooper on the rides.  Leslie took her on the Ghost Galaxy Space Mountain and while she said she never wanted to go again – she didn’t dwell on that scary ride at all.  She was ready to ride anything!  Nate on the other hand is much more timid but we made a few breakthroughs this trip.  He decided he LOVES the Toon Town rollercoaster and even rode it the entire time with his hands in the air.  And he also now loves Thunder Mountain.  Hallelujah – we can actually ride a roller coaster!

mickey pumpkin (1 of 1)

frozen banana (1 of 1)

jasmine and aladdin (1 of 1)

Merida (1 of 1)

bow and arrow (1 of 1)

on a ride (1 of 1)

We drove back to Vegas after Day 2 and then we got to spend a day with Leslie & Millie and Kiley in Vegas.  After a leisurely morning we went to lunch at Metro Pizza and the park before they had to catch a flight back to Utah.  It was great to be able to spend some time with a few of our favorite people!  Thanks for coming, Leslie & Millie.  And a big thanks to the husbands and siblings who watched our little guys while we went and had some fun.

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