Family Vacation, Part 1

We just got back from our 9-day trip to Southern California.  We have been planning this trip for a while and we were so excited that it was finally here!  I took about 300 pictures, but here are a few highlights from our trip.  The first half of our trip was spent in Anaheim, and the second half in San Diego, so here's what we did in the first half.  We spent all day Saturday driving to California, so we decided to have Sunday be a relaxing day.  We went to Newport Beach, and the weather was gorgeous!  The kids were mad at us for not bringing their swimsuits that day.

And then we drove into Los Angeles and saw the L.A. Temple.  We also went to Little Tokyo and had some good Japanese food for lunch.  We drove all along the Pacific Coast Highway and then called it an early night for our upcoming busy days.

We spent the next two days at Disneyland.  The last time we went Siena was just a baby, so we were excited for her to experience the magic of the "happiest place on earth".

with Goofy and Pluto

the Nemo ride

with Woody and Jesse

One of the highlights of the first day was watching Brighton participate in the Jedi Training Academy.  They pick just a few of the kids in the audience to participate, and it was so cute to see him sitting there so intently, hoping he will be chosen.  He was thrilled (and so were we!) when he was the first one picked.  He had a fantastic time learning all of the Jedi moves and fighting Darth Vader and Darth Maul at the end.  We got it all on video :)

Afterwards we took him to the Tomorrowland store and he spent his Disney Dollars on a custom-made light saber

A highlight for Siena-- seeing Mickey "Pouse" (that's what she calls him)

We started day two at Magic Kingdom for a few more rides,

And then we headed over to California Adventure for lunch at:

As a special treat, I had made reservations for us to have lunch here

with Ariel

Here are just a few of the pictures we took with all the of the princesses who were there

The food was actually really good.  They brought out a fancy tower of appetizers as you sat down, with everything from fresh mozarella and tomatoes to jello jigglers, and then after we finished our entrees, they brought out this fun dessert plate to share

But nothing beats meeting and talking to all of the princesses!  The girls were in princess heaven.

It was fun for Brighton to be able to ride several rides with Dad that were for "big kids only"

sporting the Bug's Life 3-D glasses (they're pretending to be bugs)

And one last picture in front of the giant Christmas tree

It was a great time to be at Disneyland.  The weather was absolutely perfect, and we were able to basically just walk on to any ride we wanted!  We had debated on getting the three-day or the two-day pass, but with it being the off-peak season, we did everything we wanted (and then some!) in just the two days we were there.  As fun as all of the rides were, I think kids' favorite was meeting all of the characters.  I couldn't post all of the pictures because there were so many, but Brighton had so much fun getting his autograph book signed and Chelsea and Siena couldn't get over meeting and talking to all of them.  And the best part was, no lines to meet them!  We had a fabulous time.