The Happiest Place on Earth!

Well, we braved it once again and took another trip to Disneyland! I thought it'd be a few years after last time but Ryan and I felt like our girls were at a fun stage and would love to go. So we planned a last minute trip and loaded up and headed out! We first stopped in Vegas on our way down because we thought the girls would think it's cool to stay in a "real" castle! So after spending the night at Excalibur, we got up to get breakfast and went to see the Belagio Gardens before continuing our road trip! We invited Ryan's little brother TJ because he's never been to Disneyland before and we thought he'd not only have fun, but also be a big help.. which he was!!

Well what seemed like forever, we finally made it to California! After checking in to our hotel, we got our suits on and headed to Newport Beach!

The girls LOVED it! Who am I kidding, they always love the beach! Della was just running around, chasing the water then running away from it as it came back. Sara couldn't get enough of finding shells, even though half of her collection consisted of dead sea creatures (this is not a joke) I wanted to get a picture but forgot! And Lia was Daddy's shadow of course!

Is there really anything better than getting away from the freezing cold and being able to walk barefoot on a sandy beach? We were in heaven. After lots of fun playing on the beach we got some dinner and some tasty donuts to finish off our night at the beach!

Next day.... Disneyland!! Don't get me wrong, I was a little nervous, just 'cause last year we had some disaster moments- especially with rides that went inside, for some reason they made Sara nervous ?? So, we got in and waited in line for our first ride, Peter Pan. We got on and... made it through the whole thing with no tears!! The girls actually loved it! I was thrilled. So we hit up Dumbo, Casey Jr. and the Storybook Boat Ride after that.

Then it was time for lunch. After that we hit up a few more rides like It's a Small World and the Tea Cups of course!

The girls were pooped after that and we all headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap! After we woke up everyone headed down to the pool/hot tub and had fun swimming while Landon and I sat out and watched.

After hot tubbing it was dinner time and after dinner Ryan and TJ headed back out to go on some big rides together, while I stayed back and put the kids to bed.

Day 2 of Disneyland we went in with a plan of attack and actually accomplished everything we wanted to! First the girls wanted to see TinkerBell, so we went on a ride or two while we waited for her to get there and went and saw her once she came!

We were pleasantly surprised to see and meet Periwinkle too! (since "Secret Wings" is Sara's favorite Tinkerbell movie) both fairies couldn't believe we drove from Salt Lake and said we could borrow some pixie dust next time so we could fly instead.

After Pixie Hollow we headed up to Toon Town to see Mickey and Minnie's house. Probably one of Lia's favorite things, she did NOT want to leave Minnie's house..

After visiting a few more houses we headed over to Critter Country to go on Winnie the Pooh which was another favorite ride. But their all time favorite is (and probably always will be) The Little Mermaid, which was next on the agenda.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics while we were over at California Adventure, but after Little Mermaid we went on a couple rides in "A Bug's Land" that the girls loved, then finished the day off with Monster's Inc. before we headed back and did another night of hot tubbing. That night Ry stayed back with the kids and TJ and I got to go out to ride Splash Mountain, Soarin' over California, and of course my all time favorite... Tower of Terror!!

 Tried to take a picture of the picture so sorry about the poor quality. But it was T's first time and I loved his face in this! Seriously hilarious!

The next day it was time to make the long drive home. We were originally thinking of stopping in Vegas to stay at Dustin and Stacie's but they had sick kids. So we toyed with the thought of getting a hotel and staying in St. George but when we got there a couple kids were asleep so we just kept driving all. the way. home. It was a fun fun trip and Ryan's now thinking of making it a yearly tradition! So, 'til next year I guess!