Southern CA Adventure!

We were able to enjoy a wonderful vacation with the Andersons and Binghams before school starts up again this week. Many thanks to Mom & Dad for the lodging and food, to the Binghams for flying all the way from Seattle, to the guys who took off work, and to the kids for being pretty stinkin’ adorable!

I was a little shutter happy, but I will try not to post all 700+ pictures...

We were so happy just to have the family together! We saw the LA temple, attended church in Burbank, and saw various sights of LA.

We went to Universal Studios and particularly enjoyed THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. It is much like the one in Orlando, but it wasn’t as crowded or humid, so it was a win to California for me.

Landon liked Curious George a lot more than the raptor…

Aiden used a wand to try magic around Hogsmeade, and after reading the first Harry Potter book together this summer, he was very excited about being a wizard.

After a few days in Burbank, we headed down to Anaheim and spent time at Disneyland. Mom found a house for all of us with a putting green, games in the garage, a pool, and (most importantly) beds for us to fall into after long days on our feet. We logged at least 28 miles walking to/from/at Disney.

The kids were (mostly) such troopers! They went on rides, napped in strollers, snacked a lot, and stayed out ten to twelve hours a day with few troubles. We were able to do everything we’d hoped at least once!

In Minnie’s house, Aiden said “Ow! This couch is HARD!” and Charlotte agreed.

Landon was tall enough to go on his first roller coaster, Gadget’s Go Coaster, and he was brave and had lots of fun.

Who can resist this baby and her Minnie Mouse ears?

The boys were good about doing a few character visits. Charlotte wasn’t too sure about anyone and batted at them with her tiny hands when they were close and petted them when they looked away. The meeting with KyloRen had Landon pretty sheepish though…

Mom & I collaborated to get Mandy to the Blue Bayou for a special birthday dinner. She was completely surprised, and the food was DELICIOUS.

The first time we went to see the Frozen show, it was cancelled about ten minutes in, as was the next showing (we were not at the second one)… which was a disappointing and strange experience, but when we finally got to see the whole show, we were not disappointed in the least! It was awesome; go see it!

The boys got badges, and they were pretty excited about them.

Mandy got a birthday hat at Rainforest Café on her birthday. I think she loved it. Maybe not as much as the Disney birthday button that Mom procured for her, but it was a close second. The boys loved seeing the Lego creations at Downtown Disney.

Now that I have sufficiently bogged everyone down with pictures, I will go to sleep because I have to go back to work this week, and Disney got me on a pretty good sleep schedule… so I should not default back to my happy summer sleeping in schedule, right? I guess.