Last Saturday we drove in a caravan to Las Vegas and spent the night. We decided to go check out the M&M store on the strip in Vegas. I've been to Vegas before and I've been to the strip before, but not since Carson has become...uhmmm, AWARE of women and the whole 'birds and the bees' talk. Imagine my horror as we're driving around and all the billboards and advertisements of scantily clad women were shoved in our faces. Carson was mortified and I was completely embarrassed! Note to self, don't go to the Vegas strip anymore, at least not with kids! Carson was a good boy and covered his eyes!
The next morning we drove to Hoover Dam. That place is coolio.
Then we hit the road towards Anaheim! Oh yeah!!! We put all three boys in the very back of the van. That way it was harder for the sounds to travel to the front of the van where we were! Don't be jealous of our smarty-smarts. :)
Typical road trip activities: watching a DVD, sleeping, and playing with my i-touch. They are pretty good travelers.
Lots of swimming at the hotels, it's a must because it wears kids out and makes them sleep!
This same night my cousin Cody was holding his daughter in the hot tub. Suddenly Cody felt something warm....and it wasn't the water! He looked over his shoulder and his daughter had horked all down his shoulder and into the hot tub. Soon, chunks floated and everybody scattered! ha ha ha, good memories!
My first time EVER at Disneyland! I loved it! Cameron was a little stressful, but not too bad. Oh yeah, my naturally curly hair wants to apologize right now. The humidity made the curls quite unruly. Not my best hair days, but if anybody asks, it looked bad because of all the gnarly rides I went on!
Besides Cameron locking himself in the hotel bathroom (we had to have a maintenance guy come and unlock it), the trip was pretty flawless. OH yeah, our bank also shut down our credit/debit cards because they thought there was fraudulent activity going on. A quick phone call remedied the problem. :) The weather was PERFECT! High 60's and low 70's. I was in heaven! At one point Carson said "Mom, is Disneyland open in the winter??" Uh, what do you think January 10th is? I guess he forgot it was winter since the weather was so gorgeous!
We kept my cousin's daughter Hailey with us while riding rides because she is super brave and she forced Carson to be brave as well. Carson didn't want to look whimpy after all! She even got him on the "Tower of Terror". Carson's reaction to the ride: "IT WAS TERRIFYING! I HATED IT!!!". I just looked at him and said "well, it's not called the "Tower of Joy" now is it?" ha ha! The Tower of Terror is the only ride I wouldn't participate in. Free falling is not something I handle very well.
The kids had autograph books and got lots of signatures from the Disney characters. It was super fun! Their books have signatures from Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, The Madhatter, Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, Green Army Man, and Mr Incredible. We never found Donald or Daisy Duck. We didn't go to the Princess area either, my boys were not about to entertain that idea!
Picture time:
This is the crew that we traveled with on this vacation. I love my family!!
More good times:
We rode the huge Mickey Ferris Wheel. We chose a swinging basket instead of a stationary one. It was all fun and games until Parker flew off his seat and slammed his face into the bench in front of him. Oh man, I felt so bad. I had no idea it would swing that much! After we made sure his face wasn't broken, we really enjoyed it!
Sick of pictures yet?
We seriously exhausted ourselves after 3 days in Disneyland. No rest for the weary though....we headed straight to San Diego for some more fun! One day spent at Sea World:
As we were leaving Sea World, we saw a hawk pinning a pigeon down on the pavement. We thought the pigeon was dead. The hawk was frozen in place. Hailey walked towards it and all of a sudden the hawk started to fly away with the pigeon! Then, the pigeon started fighting and got loose. The hawk started chasing the pigeon and they raced right into a gift shop. All of a sudden people started screaming and ran out of the gift shop. It was AWESOME! The hawk flew away but the pigeon landed in some stuffed animals and it was hurt so it stayed put. We left as the shop employees were wondering what to do. super cool!
Our San Diego hotel was right by the temple. BEAUTIFUL!
At this point of the trip we were going to spend one day at the San Diego Zoo. However, our kids were sooooo tired of being yanked from one exhibit to another. We decided to bag the zoo and head to the beach! It was the best decision ever. The kids could be crazy and nobody cared and the weather was sooooo nice! 75-ish and sunny. It was the perfect wind down activity of our vacation.
Just before we left the beach, we saw a bunch of dolphins, well I hope it was dolphins and not sharks. Seriously, picture perfect!
After San Diego we headed back to Vegas, collapsed in our beds out of pure and utter exhaustion, and went home on Saturday! At one point in San Diego, Nalani, Meridith, and I tried planning the next family trip, but Jed shushed us up pretty quick. What's the matter Jed, too much family time?? Not possible!!!
14 comments:
Looks AMAZING! I'm glad that you guys had so much fun but I'm still in shock that you had never been to Disney Land before! THanks for all the pics, I miss S. Cali!!!
LOVE hearing all the details! I am glad the trip was pretty uneventful...except for Ellie's puking that apparently became a crime scene?? LOL.
I am so jealous...of the beach and Sea World! I love your family, too!
I am coming with you next time !!! So glad you got sunshine. Miffed that we got none !!! ;-). Cam looks like he is in heaven by 'cars'
What a great trip. Next time Uncle Phil and Aunt Karen are coming as official chaperones....
I have to say I am uber jeaous of your smarty smarts and your gnarly curly hair! Oh yea (voice of vector from despicable me, curse you tiny toilet!) Anyhow, I am so jealous. I too have never been to disneyland. Maybe this summer or spring. It looks like u had an amazing trip and seriously, the hawk in the gift shop... carrie, start your life book now! It will be a page turner! Glad u had fun.
It looks like so much fun! I loved looking at all of the pictures because if just reminds me of how much I want to go! Only a year and nine months away for us! I'll just look at your fun pictures in the meantime.
Okay, so we are planning the exact same trip the end of Feb. 3 days disneyland, 1 day sea world and 1 day beach and driving there too. We have our disneyland stuff worked out but still not sure where to stay near sea world and in Vegas. Like you I'm not too keen on going to the strip with our kiddos. Where did you guys stay? Your trip looks so fun and is getting me excited to go too! I hadn't thought about stopping at the hoover dam....was it worth it? I've never been there before.
Your hair looks good that dark... me likey. It's probably been that dark for a while, I am horrible at noticing changes on people.
What a fun trip. Did you buy a southern California city pass? You get passes to everything and save a ton of money, even if you don't go to all of the places. I want to go now. We haven't been since Gin was 2. Glad you had fun. That hawk was awesome. Tell Sam he can add those hawk pictures to his wall mural of birds.
Looks like fun!!!! Did you say that was your 1st time going?
I am jealous! I hope you went on the Peter Pan ride. That one is my favorite. One year we spent a whole week in San Diego for vacation. With the zoo, beach, Wild Animal Park, and Legoland there was plenty to do. Your boys are the perfect age for Legoland.
Looks like so much fun!
What a fun trip - especially the hawk! Although, it sounds exhausting! Phew!
Your pictures look awesome! I need to get a copy of all your pictures because you have a lot of them that I don't especially since our camera quit working! What a fun trip...I can't wait for the next one!
donald duck was in court fighting a molesting charge. remember he's the one that never wears pants.daisy just doesn't want to run into donald any more so she stays away.(take a kid fishing)
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