Disneyland, the Beach, and a Wedding: Days 1 and 2

We just got back a week ago from a great vacation down to Southern California.  My cousin Kelcy got married in Redondo Beach, so we decided to make a week out of it and take the girls to Disneyland for the first time.  My parents decided to join us for the week and we had a blast!

After spending the first night in a crappy hotel in Mesquite, we pulled into town Tuesday afternoon and headed right over to Disneyland for a few hours, sans my parents.  We got the Military hopper 3-day passes for half price, so we wanted to take advantage of having the three-day passes. We got a few rides in, and watched the parade, then came back to our hotel to rest up for the next day.  The parade was great and Josie was THRILLED when Princess Aurora blew her a kiss.

The next day, we had a crowd with us.  My parents came over, plus Uncle Jeff, Aunt Leslie, my cousin Kelcy and her daughter Addison.  Almost every trip I have ever taken to Disneyland as a kid included these family members, so being there with them made me feel a bit like a little kid again.

The girls (especially Josie, the little mother), had a great time with Addison.

Unfortunately, the girls were about 1/2 inch too short to ride the big roller coasters, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, etc, but we had lots of fun riding the other rides.

 For lunch, Josh and I took the girls over to California Adventure for lunch with the Disney princesses at Ariel's Grotto.  This was all new to me as the princess obsession was not around when I was a kid.  But Josie and Piper know all the princesses and each have their favorite (Josie - Aurora, and Piper - Belle).  They just watched the Little Mermaid for the first time a few weeks ago and have watched it 3 or so times since then.  Ariel was the first princess they met.  Piper wasn't sure what to think so she fell back to her happy place with baby.

Eventually, she warmed up and all the other princesses came by our table.  We had brought along their little notebooks so they got autographs from each of them.

After lunch, we headed back over to the old Disneyland to meet the rest of our group.  We rode some more rides, including Pirates and the Haunted Mansion.  And then for our finale, Josh took all three little girls and the rest of us rode Splash Mountain.  It was CLASSIC riding that ride in front and listening to the comments from the old folks behind us.  Kelcy and I laughed until our stomachs hurt. We snapped this off the screen displaying all the pictures, so it isn't the best quality.

 After a group dinner in downtown Disney, it was back to our hotel.  We were all exhausted.  Disney is no joke!

Disneyland: Part 2

 Our last day of Disneyland, we were all getting a wee bit tired, but still having fun. The highlight of this day was a reservation we made for the girls to turn into princesses at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  After riding a few rides, we headed there.

 Here is Josie in her chair getting all dolled up.  She loved it immediately.  As part of the package, we brought their princess dresses and the fairy godmothers do their hair, a little makeup and nail polish.  This was RIGHT up Josie's alley.  My little Aurora.

 This was Piper's reaction at first.  She is like Josh and just does not enjoy people looking at her and paying attention to her.  At one point, her fairy godmother pulled me aside and said they could not continue if she was going to cry.  I asked Piper if she wanted to do it and she said YES.  She really wants to do things like this, but she has trouble feeling comfortable.  After she was all done, she LOVED that she looked like Belle, but not until the people were not looking at her anymore.

 They taught the girls how to do princess poses and as you can see, Josie took to it a little more than Piper. :)

 Then after we left, they were both as happy as can be.  They each got to pick out a doll.

 The rest of the day, we rode rides at California Adventure looking like this.

We watched the parade over there too, which was great, and wrapped up our Disneyland time!

Part 3: The beach and a wedding

The last couple of days of our trip were spent in Redondo Beach, where my cousin Kelcy got married.  We drove down from Anaheim and walked down to the beach.  We were killing time, so Josh bought a couple of kites and we flew kites on the beach.

Later that day, Brynn and Emery flew in and we had a late lunch/early dinner together.

The next day, I had a nice run along the beach in Redondo.  We talked about how we probably won't be that warm again until June. :(  The whole group headed to Hermosa Beach for the afternoon.  It was overcast and actually a little chilly, but the kids didn't care.

 Piper ran into the waves over and over again.  She could not believe how much fun it was.  I felt a little bit bad for moving her so far away from the beach!

 I have a thing with her butt, so I had to take this picture.  Could it be any cuter?

 Of course, we had to bury them.  And we hunted around for seashells, which were pretty WEAK.

That afternoon, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the wedding.  My camera took this one weird, but how handsome did little EJ look?

Two of the bridesmaids gave the girls their flowers, which they brought home and are still playing with.  They were quite fascinated with the wedding and loved seeing Kelcy all dressed up.  We did manage to get one family shot together.

Piper loved "toasting" with her Martinellis and Josie was obsessed with the candy bar.  We filled up bags of candy and unfortunately, it helped fuel our LONG drive home the next day.  Eleven hours straight and we were back home with some great memories.  Can't wait to do it all over again.