We're goin' back to Cali! You can't just can't keep us away! But this time we went in style and flew there in an hour rather than spending 13 hours in the car. I should also mention this was Winnie's 8th birthday party. We kicked things off at Universal Studios - even though we'd been up since 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight.
We talked our friends, the Fenstermakers, into joining us on our trip this time. We learned a hard lesson this trip: September is summer, not fall - and as hot as hell! We were complete sweaty pigs by 9 a.m. And these ladies informed me that Dora wasn't much better. "She smelled like a sweaty toilet," the girls informed me. Bet they were glad to be tucked cozily under her armpits for this pic!
Everyone enjoyed the Minion ride, Jurassic Park ride, Transformers 3D, and the back-lot tour. Well, Addi didn't enjoy it as you can see from the terror on her face. Kolby told her she was going to meet King Kong.
Here's our best "Inglorious Bastards" look. It wasn't a bad first day, but we couldn't help but long for HP world. Come on Cali! Get going on that!
Winnie's day was complete when she got her Unicorn. It was so fluffy, she was gonna die!!! Day two was a trip to San Diego to visit Sea World. It was even hotter and muggier than LA!
These guys didn't mind soaking up some rays - Klive included.
We stuck our hands in a few safe pools and then caught a few shows, including Shamu. We sat directly in the biggest splash zone. Everyone got soaked, especially John, but Kolby stayed bone dry. He miraculously stayed dry the whole day, even on a water ride.
It was a most educational day filled with friendly sea creatures.
My favorite visitor was this big fella. Winnie's best experience was petting a dolphin and tossing him a fish. It was pretty special.
You may think we were excited to look at these little stingrays. Nope - we were excited to find shade!
We survived day two and headed back to Anaheim to get our Disney on!
We met this guy on the way into the park and then ate a lavish breakfast with some other special Characters!
Winnie always has to meet up with Winnie. She also loved having Addi as a buddy to hang out with when the bigger kids wanted to go on scary rides.
Klive enjoyed showing Isaiah the ropes too.
Day 3 was as hot as ever, so we looked for rides and hats to shade us!
Water rides like Splash Mountain and Grizzly River Rapids were the big hit this time!
Did I mention that Yaya, Misty and the boys showed up? Yaya can never say no to Disney! The best part was that we were all so tired at the end of the night, they just crashed in our hotel room. The kids shared 2 bunk beds, Yaya and Misty shared the pull-out couch, and Kolby and I spent the night with Klive between us. We were that dead tired.
Klive was psyched that he was finally tall enough to ride Cars and many other rides for the first time. He spent the whole vacation in shorts and cowboy boots to give him the extra inch he needed. Redneck all the way!
June and I got our fix of Screamin'. June also made these skirts for the trip with Nana. Hers had villains and Winnie's had Tink. People were asking where to buy them!
ON Day 4, Winnie got a few birthday surprises - a new Princess Anna dress and a magical visit to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. She got the princess treatment - hair, nails and make-up. They dumped so much glitter on her, we were brushing it out until February!
She also experienced a princess photo shoot in Snow White's critter-filled forest and Cinderella's pumpkin coach.
She looked so lovely, we had to take her picture in front of the castle. She also got some special swag because it was her birthday. It's not every day you get to wear a pretty pink princess sash. Every worker in the park wished her, "Happy Birthday Princess!"
Rylee and Andew popped in to say Happy Birthday too. Klive might have ridden Pirates one too many times and got stuck with a permanent pirate face.
Kolby also took everyone to Ariel's Grotto to celebrate Winnie and then we had VIP seats for the World Of Color display that night. It was a most magical birthday.
Day 5 of park visits in the heat and we were pretty spent. We just wandered around, ran into a few interesting characters, and rode the rides we'd overlooked the first two days.
We were so tied, a train ride in a cage was considered a good ride.
By day 5, this boy was so delirious from the heat, he thought a bear hat was a good idea!
This is usually how the end of our last day of Disney looks. The walk back to the hotel is always brutal.
One quick stop by the beach . . .
and we headed to the airport with sand in our various cracks and crevasses. But it was totally worth it!
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