We are finally home after a fabulous (and too short) 10 day vacation to Southern California. We had such a good time and made so many good memories. Bear with me, you may have to wade through a bunch of pictures.
Friday after school we took off and ended up in Provo UT where we stayed for the night. We enjoyed Training Table burgers (love the #16 Bleu Bacon Burger) and Krispy Kreme donuts. (didn't count calories this week obviously)We haven't stayed in a hotel for a few years so the kids were excited about our first hotel stay.
Saturday morning we took off for Las Vegas. We stopped at Kolob Canyons in Zions National Park on the way. I had never been to Vegas. and wanted to see it and Mark wanted to take in a seafood buffet. I can say that I wouldn't be sad if I never visited that town again. I have traveled around this country but I was still shocked by the openly pornagraphic nature of the Vegas strip. Call me a prude but I was disgusted and felt bad we had our kids with us. One funny thing is we ran into my cousin Halie as we were walking back to our hotel. I had heard she was in town for a hairstylist show but she didn't know we were there. The look on her face was priceless!
We hurried back to our hotel and Sunday morning we took off for CA. Zachary did surprisingly well for a 3 year old in a car for 13 hours. It helped that we had Nintendo DS's,a mini dvd player, an Ipod, and satellite radio. Sheesh, kids these days. :)What happened to car games? Honestly, Mark and I just didn't want to be whined to the whole trip. We got off on the wrong freeway in LA and ended up on the Malibu beach! We told the kids we weren't lost, we just wanted to show them where Hannah Montana lived. ;)
We finally got to our hotel. We stayed at the Radisson Buena Park. I loved it! We had a 2 room suite. The front room had a big screen tv, a couch bed, a table, and a kitchenette. The other room had another big tv and was a normal hotel room. I loved the ambience of the pool. I wish I had taken more and better pictures. The pool was surrounded by palm trees with white lights wrapped around the trunks. It was very tropical feeling. It's 2 degrees here in Idaho today and the first 3 days we were in CA it was about 75. Boo hoo.
Monday we got up super early. We had free hot breakfast every day in the hotel. That was awesome.(can you tell we don't travel often) We were the second car in line at the parking garage. We had a plan of attack for the day. I can't recommend The Unofficial guide to Disneyland highly enough. It is an independent guide to Disneyland and rates rides, times of year to visit, secret nooks and crannies of the park, and gives wonderful detailed daily plans to maximize your stay. It was right up Mark's alley. The first morning we ran right to Fantasyland and it was empty. The kids hopped on every ride. Zachary was scared of most everything but the teacups but the other kids were gorging themselves on all of the rides. We bought them autograph books and they had all the characters we saw sign them. We were so fortunate that day. We always seemed to keep ahead of the crowds. At 10 we went to California Adventure right when it opened. Ryan especially loved this park. The fast scary rides were just to his liking. While Mark took the kids on the fast rides, I took Zachy to the Playhouse Disney live show. This was the first time he seemed really into the whole vacation idea. He loved it! Ryan talked me into going on the California Screamin' ride and I still shiver with fear when I think about it. That is one fast ride!I think I was too scared to get motion sick. We had such a wonderful day. We maximized every opportunity we could. Mark walked so far he had several quarter sized blisters on his feet. My favorite rides at California Adventure (this park was new to all of us) were Soarin over CA, California Screamin, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the Toy Story interactive game, and Grizzly River Run. Fun, fun, fun!
Now that you are totally asleep I will post pictures(didn't take much time to edit them) and begin again soon with part 2. Bear with me, I really want to write the memories down while they are still fresh.
