California!

We just returned from one of the best family vacations ever! We spent the last 10 days in California! One of the things we miss most about living in Vegas is the super closer drive there! We've been at least once a year for the last several years and just because we moved to Utah, we didn't want to miss the chance to head to sunny California in 2011!
We spent 2 days at Disneyland and 1 day at California Adventure! The kids couldn't wait to go!

Keith wanted them all to have mouse ears this year so Hannah got some sparkly pink number while Nick chose Pirates of the Caribbean and Jack picked Woody ears! Say cheese!

The day we went to California adventure was so NOT busy! We walked onto every ride. Sometimes we rode rides time after time because there was no lines! It was fabulous! Jack's favorite was the new Little Mermaid ride which we did a total of 5 times, Hannah liked the Tower of Terror the best and went 4 times and Nick's favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland.

We told them on our last day they could pick a toy to buy! I think it's always interesting to see what they will choose. Nick built his own light saber, Hannah wanted a Minnie Mouse art set and Jack chose a Buzz Lightyear toy that spun around with lights on it! So fun!

Hannah was very excited to visit Pixie Hollow and meet a fairy. She was so happy that Rosetta was there because apparently that's her favorite fairy followed very closely by Tinkerbelle! I was afraid she would be to grown up to do the Princess Fair again (I think she went just for me!) But she met Jasmine, Cinderella and Aurora there! Nick and Jack were too cool to have their pics taken with either fairy or princess! What silly boys!

Nick did however really want to see the Star Wars show! Both he & Hannah were invited to participate and went through an official training to become certified Jedi Knights! Nick fought Darth Maul and Hannah fought Darth Vader. She even Jedi pushed back 2 Storm troopers! What a studette!

We of course had to visit both Mickey & Minnie in Toon Town. Jack was so sweet and ran right up to Mickey for a high 5! It was a milestone because the first 2 days he was terrified of anything that moved! I was convinced he had PTSD. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the Jungle Cruise! We are glad he eventually decided Disneyland wasn't all that bad!

As you can tell our kids were exhausted at the end of each night and fell asleep on the car ride home! It was a lot of walking but so incredibly fun! I think we'll wait until we don't need a diaper bag or stroller until we go back! But super, super great times!

I will never understand how he can sleep with his neck bent like that! On a day we didn't go to Disneyland Jack took a nap at the condo and slept through the rest of us watching TV and playing right next to his bed! We could not get him to wake up! He was spent!

We drove to Oceanside 2 days to play at the beach! My kids LOVE the beach! The love playing in the waves and the sand! Keith helped them build this cute little sandcastle, I got a pic just before Jack demolished the whole thing! :)

We walked out on Oceanside pier (one of the longest in the country!) to get milkshakes from Ruby's! Yummy!

Jack chillaxin' in the chair!

The waves got pretty big and the water was pretty chilly but Keith was a good sport about taking the kids out!

Hannah talked us into renting a Boogie Board one day and she was a natural!

She could do it all be herself and was super brave!

What's better than burring your busy boys?!?

Jack couldn't even move, it was a little sweet justice!

With the help of Grandma Dottie we stayed in a beautiful condo in Escondido. It had a beautiful new pool with a water slide and was so much fun!

We could have spent the whole trip at the pool! We couldn't get them out of the water or off the slide!

We had a beautiful view of the resort off our balcony and some cute little ducks lived down by the pond. We fed them our leftover toast every morning after breakfast!

On the long drive home we pit stopped in Vegas and visited some dear friends, the Pryors! Avery, Ashy and Anistyn are very close in age to our 3!

I promised my friend Lori I wouldn't post this pic, but she put it on her blog, so there!

It was the night of the BYU/Utah game and their cute family was all decked out in Cougar blue. It was a good thing we left before the game was over because the Utes slaughtered BYU 54 to 10 and Jared probably would have kicked us out! Sorry guys!

An attempt at a family picture, it never goes well!

So there you have it! 10 fabulous days spent with family, friends & fun! It doesn't get better than that!