drove a couple of hours, flew a couple of hours, and ended up in Los Angeles, California--at the home of my sister Anita.
The next morning Ben, Janae, and Alaina played outside in summer clothes and bare feet!
We picked lemons from a tree in the backyard
and made lemonade.
The following day we were off to Disneyland. It's called "the place where dreams come true," and it definitely was for each of my little ones.
Ben wanted to attend Jedi Training and fight Darth Vader . . . and it happened! He was called up from the crowd and had his turn to wear the robe, get up onto the stage, and use a light saber against his favorite Star Wars character. (We got it ALL on video, too!)
Ben also got to build his own light saber later that evening when we went to the Star Wars store to pick out a souvenir. Even though he'd been trained as a Jedi, he still picked a red one. . . .
Janae wanted to get Rapunzel's hair. I wasn't sure if there would be such a thing for sale at Disneyland . . . but I should have known better. We found it as soon as we entered the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, and before long it was on Janae's head. And then she met Rapunzel!
Alaina wanted to meet the princesses, which happened on Monday when we returned for our trip to California Adventure. She had her Cinderella dress on and carried her Cinderella baby into Ariel's Grotto where we had lunch. Pretty soon there was an announcement that Cinderella was coming . . .
and then Belle, too! So fun for the girls.
Ben wasn't too impressed by all the fuss at the princess lunch, but afterwards he got the cotton candy he'd been dreaming of since he'd walked into Disneyland, which seemed to make up for what we'd put him through :)
During our visit we also got to meet lots of fun Disney Characters, including Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Tigger and Piglet,
Sully and Boo from Monster's Inc., and--another highlight for the girls--Tinker Bell.
I loved seeing my children so happy--skipping around, holding hands, and looking at things in amazement.
We also got to go on some rides we hadn't seen before, including some really fun ones like Indiana Jones, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, the Grizzly River Run, Soarin' over California, and Toy Story, which became a few of our favorites.
But--even having said all of that--Disneyland wasn't the highlight of the trip for any of us! My kids had so much fun with their cousins that they actually would have rather stayed at Auntie Nita's house than gone back for the second day.
With Anita, Mike, Jordan, Kya, and Tyson, we also got to have a bonfire at the beach (a cold and windy beach, it turned out!), and--another day--see Santa Monica Pier and play in the water there. We also went to an amazing ice cream cookie place called Diddy Riese, which was just across the street from UCLA.
On Saturday, which was Jason's birthday and St. Patrick's Day, we visited the La Brea Tar Pits--we got to see lots of skeletons from early animals like woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers that had been preserved in the tar,
and had fun outside, even though it was a little wet.
Janae picked flowers from every garden she saw on the trip--before we could stop her, she'd always have a bouquet in her hand :)
Later we had some famous Randy's doughnuts--instead of a birthday cake--to celebrate Jason's 39th.
On Sunday we went to see our church's Los Angeles Temple and visitor's center. We walked through the beautiful gardens and the kids had a great time running on the grassy hill.
It was sunny and windy . . . as you can see from everyone's hair in the picture!
When it was time to leave on Tuesday, we all wished we could stay another week. Alaina, particularly, did not want to say goodbye to Auntie Nita--in fact, when Anita jokingly said, "I don't want you to go," Alaina whispered, "I'm staying with you!"
Pretty soon, though, we were all on the airplane heading back home. Luckily we have lots of pictures to remember the wonderful time we had--so many that I couldn't even put all of my favorites onto this post (I found out I couldn't put more than 20 on at a time . . . I've never reached that limit before!).
And luckily we have the summer to look forward to as well, when ALL of the cousins (and sisters!) will have a chance to be together again. . . .
2 comments:
My goodness so much fun packed into one week. Those lemons look like oranges, they are so huge!! I'll bet they made great lemonade. I'm glad Ben got to fight the evil Darth Vader and build his own light saber. I'm sure that made up for all the princess "stuff" he had to endure.
We are so happy you guys were able to come!! We really do miss you already...well, except Miley--she seems pretty happy:)
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