Summer Vacation Fun

We had a fun time on our California vacation this year with two of my sisters and their families. We left Sunday morning, July 5th and arrived in Santa Ana in the afternoon.

Our hotel had a beautiful atrium where we ate breakfast each morning. This is the night time view from our room. You can see the lighted elevators, too.

There was a fun pond in the atrium that had lots of fish and turtles. We especially loved the baby turtles that were born three weeks ago.The kids watching the fish and turtles, wishing they could jump right in and play.

The hotel employees told us how they would find the occasional turtle wandering around. They just pick them up and plunk them back into the pond. Little Mister found one that had gotten out and he was so excited to pick it up and return it to the water.

Little Miss in front of a water fall in the Hotel atrium

MONDAY we spent several hours at the beach. We took shade, sunscreen, snacks, water, boogie boards, etc. But, most of us still got sunburned!

Daddy was a big help in the sand castle department. They made some really cool ones with bridges and moats. The biggest sand castle came at the end of the day when the cameras were put away. Shoot!
TUESDAY we got up bright and early to make the most of our day in Disneyland. Here's all of us together at Disneyland:
We arrived around 9:00 a.m. and made it all the way until 11:30 p.m. It was a long and exciting day. We were dead tired by the end!

My sister, Terri, with Little Miss and Little Mister

Little Mister got to ride in the Autopia car with Aunt Terri. This used to be his favorite ride, that is, before he was old enough for the roller coasters. I think Aunt Terri might have had more fun than Little Mister!

Little Miss with Dad on the Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster. The kids favorite ride. They rode it FOUR times.

Little Mister with Aunt Terri. I was in the back snapping pictures!

Trying on hats: WEDNESDAY we spent the morning swimming, relaxing and visiting at the hotel. We then had a quick lunch and headed to Knott's Berry Farm. The bigger kids in the family wanted to go there for the roller coasters. I was all for it because I LOVE roller coasters, too.

The kids visited "Camp Snoopy" for a little while and even got to ride some of the roller coasters there.

Riding with cousin Annie

See this ride? It's called the Perilous Plunge and you get really wet. Litttle Mister is on the ride just ready to come down the waterfall.Little Mister rode it all by himself!

Yeah! I did it. I did it!

The reason he rode it by himself is because they wouldn't let Little Miss on (after waiting in line forever). Even though she's tall enough, she was too petite. Therefore, Big Mister didn't ride it either. He just couldn't, not if Little Miss couldn't go. She was so disappointed. I'll never forget the look on her face when he brought her back to me. So sad:(

Little Mister said he was going anyway. The lady next to him told Big Mister that he'd be fine. He was sure proud.

We were pretty upset that Little Miss wasn't told she couldn't ride the ride until they were just ready to get on. They really should have someone at the beginning of the ride checking passengers out so she didn't have to wait so long only to be told no. We complained! They let us get on two other rides of her choice without a wait. That was nice. But still, we were frustrated. We wouldn't want to jeopordize her safety. The issue is waiting for an hour only to be told no. It's also interesting that this is the only ride in the whole park that has a wait. Every other ride was walk on or at the most 10 - 15 minute wait. Oh well.

It was still a really enjoyable day to spend together.

We headed back to the hotel around 8:00 p.m. and ordered pizza and a movie for the kids. The adults got to go out to dinner by ourselves. Hooray!

Thursday morning we packed the car and left California for much hotter weather in Arizona.

We are glad to be HOME SWEET HOME.