Wow - what a great spring break we just had! We created a lot of memories and had a lot of fun!
First up though - an early Easter. Since we weren't going to be home on Easter, dad contacted the Easter bunny and arranged an early visit for us. Our Easter baskets were full with candy and books and fossils and rocks on Thursday morning.
Then on Friday right after school, we headed out to California (with a night in St. George each way). We got to Anaheim on Saturday afternoon and headed straight over to Downtown Disney.
We had a super yummy dinner with great atmosphere at the Rainforest Cafe. Elephents and gorillas "talked" to us and we ate dinner under the milky way.
The next morning we went over to California Adventure.
We headed straight to Cars Land and it was so cool! Here we are riding Mater's Tractor Pull.
Here's Sam with Lightening McQueen.
And here's the whole family with Mater.
We also got to see Red.
Here we are on Luigi's Flying Tires.
From there we headed over to Bug Land.
There are lots of fun rides there and I think we rode everyone of them.
And we played in the water.
We love Chinese food and we specifically selected the Chinese take-out box for a ride.
Aunt Jen Jen met up with us here and rode a few rides.
We got really lucky and got to see lots and lots of characters. Here is the whole family with Sully.
And Frozone was wandering nearby so I visited with him.
Then mom took us on the Tower of Terror. She loved it - - - the rest of us . . . well, hum, just a little more than we were expecting. See us over there on the left middle row.
Sam hadn't felt well all morning and really started to crash by early afternoon. Here he is with Aunt J as we ate some lunch. Mom ran over to First Aide and got him some medicine.
So we kept going - here we are in front of the Pier.
And here we are on our most favorite ride - Grizzly River Rapids. We actually ended up going on this ride three times. And we got wet every time!
Here we are visiting with Woody.
And here we are with a Disney plane. Their new movie comes out this summer and we can't wait!
Another picture at the Grizzly Rapids. So. Much. Fun!
We ran (ok walked slowly!) back over to Cars Land to see if we could find a short line at the Radiator Springs Racers - no luck. But we did stop at Mater's petting zoo.
And we took a quick picture with Stanley.
We ran in to Pluto on our way to dinner.
And after dinner we stopped back at First Aide and had Sam's temperature check - nearly 103 degrees. He was a trooper and after a long night and late morning, we all headed over to Disneyland.
We took the Disneyland train around the park and then rode the Monorail.
We then hoped on the Autopia cars - this is also one of our favorite rides. Sam and I both got to drive. Here's Sam driving with dad.
Look ma, no hands!
At that point, dad and Sam left and went back to the hotel so Sam could sleep. So mom and I spent the rest of the day and night playing. We went on lots of rides. I loved Pirates of the Caribean, and here we are on the Jungle Cruise.
We got to ride Splash Mountain - which was another one of my most favorite rides.
We rode Pooh's Hundred Acre Woods a couple of times. Here I am in front of the Storybook Land whale.
By the time we made it to It's a Small World, we basically walked right on. It was incredible!
We also got to ride the Nemo submarines. We were headed to Space Mountain when dad called asking us to bring him and Sam some food. So we took a few last pictures, watched the fireworks, and headed back to the hotel.
Sam was feeling a little better the next morning, so we headed over to Goofy's Kitchen for a great breakfast.
Here we are with Goofy.
We met so many characters at breakfast. Lots of princesses came by for a visit. Here we are with Chip . . . .
. . . . and Dale. Did you know they're brothers? Hum. We had a great debate on whether Chip or Dale was most like Sam and me. No final answer.
We got to see Pluto again.
And here we are with Baloo from the Jungle Book.
And here we are with Rafiki from the Lion King.
After breakfast, we wandered through Downtown Disney again and picked up some things with the Disney gift cards that Santa left for us at Christmas (along with this trip).
After that we headed over to Aunt Jen Jen and Uncle Michael's house. We had a yummy dinner with them and Grandpa and Grandma G. Both of their houses have cable tv and boy, we were glued to those tvs - Disney Junior has such great shows!
Here I am playing on Aunt Jen Jen's cat tree.
Sam ended up having a really rough night on Tuesday night so dad and mom took him to the Emergency Room for a breathing treatment and steroid for his croup. They say he tried to sleep through the whole thing.
By the next afternoon he was doing a lot better and so we headed down to Laguna Beach and Crystal Cove State Park. There were some great tide pools.
We played with sea anemones, sea slugs, and lots of hermit crabs.
And, of course, we got wet!
Here I am working on a jumping picture. I've got the jumping part down - now I need to work on arm placement and facial expressions.
Sam was happy just playing in the sand.
Oh - and we ran in to this snake on our way back to the car.
Ah - the ocean. It's a beautiful thing!
From the beach, we drove back up to met the family including Uncle Carl and Aunt Francine. Uncle Carl had arranged to have a helicopter for us and he took us flying.
Sam and mom took the back seat.
And Unckey and I had the front seat. It's so cool that he gets to fly helicopters every single day!
We flew all over Long Beach and the LA harbor area. Here we are over the USS Iowa battleship that is docked in the harbor.
It was really, really, really fun to go on that helicopter ride. In fact, it might have beaten Disneyland for fun - although we did love Disneyland too. Then we all went out for the yummiest of fresh seafood dinners.
And a picture of the whole family (with Sam coughing in the cold ocean air).
I take a picture with these sea creatures everytime we go to Captain Kidd's for seafood. Someday I'll post the other pictures so you can see how I've grown.
Finally on Friday morning we had to say our goodbyes.
Grandpa had to have a little surgery on Thursday but by Friday morning he was feeling a lot better - stay well Grandpa.
So wow - you made it through all the pictures. There were so many more we could have added. This was really a super great trip. Sam ended up giving me his cold so now I have the horrible cough but my fever hasn't spiked like his did. And now it's back to the real world. We're looking forward to our next adventure!
Sam Alert: Hey everyone - despite getting really sick, I loved our trip and had soooo much fun!
I loved the Grizzly River Rapids - and since I wasn't feeling well, dad gave up his raincoat to keep me dry and warm.
Here I am with Pluto - he's giving me a kiss.
And have we mentioned before that I LOVE seafood? Yes, I do! Here I am slurping up an oyster on the half shell. Yum!
And here I am on the beach. Ah - California how I love you!
We're already dreaming up our next adventure. See you next week.
