Disneyland!

 

I'm a bit behind on posting these pics from our trip to California, but as usual, we've been pretty busy since we got home.  I finally forced myself to sit down and sort thru the almost 600 photos that we took during our trip and it was so much fun reliving this fabulous vacation we went on!  Honestly, I can't remember ever having a family vacation quite like this one.  It was just about perfect.  Both kids traveled amazingly well, the weather was beyond awesome, we had the perfect mix of fun and relaxation, and we had some good quality family time and also some time with some pretty awesome peeps.  It just couldn't have gone any better!

 

There are a ton of pics in this post!  I tried to consolidate by making a few collages, but be forewarned...it's still a long one!

 

We started out Wednesday morning by leaving our house at 345am and driving down to Portland {about an hour and 45 mins from our house} to catch our 7am flight.  I was a little worried how this would go, being we were leaving so early, but we were all so excited to be on our way that everything went really smoothly.  The kids basically went from their beds to the car and Benjamin didn't waste any time going right back to sleep and didn't wake until we were pulling into the parking lot at PDX.  Seriously...how did we get such good little travelers?!  It was pretty crazy getting all of our stuff on the shuttle from the parking lot to the airport...a booster seat, an infant carseat and base, a stroller, a pack 'n play, my bag, Matt's bag, Taylor's bag, the diaper bag, a snack/lunch bag, my purse, a backpack...I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but you get the point!  Ugh, so much stuff.  We were happy to check half of it, and from there on it was smooth sailing.  Even going thru security with both kiddos, the stroller, carseats and our carry-ons wasn't so bad.  {I'm telling ya, Portland is the way to go!  It's much less crowded, so easy to get in and out of, parking is less than half the price, and it's just a little bit farther than going to Sea-Tac {for us} but it's a much nicer drive without traffic.}

We flew into Orange County {which I also much prefer to LAX} and had our bags and rental car and were on our way to our beach house by 10am.  It was sunny and warm so we rode with our sunglasses on and our windows down...the perfect way to start our week long stay in California!

We got to the beach house, dropped our bags and fell into our beds for a little pick-me-up snooze.  After getting cleaned up and buying our food for the week, we headed for Disney!  It's about a 20 minute drive from the house in Newport Beach, but in rush hour traffic it ended up being more like an hour and a half.  We finally made it to the park, only to find out that it was closing early for Mickey's Halloween Party {which was the case every night we were there}.  We had 4-Day Park Hopper tickets but didn't want to waste a day by only going in for an hour so we decided to do Downtown Disney instead.  It turned out to be a great decision!  We hit up a few shops, let Taylor pick out a thing or two, grabbed some goodies and went home to get a good night's sleep for a long day of Disney fun the next day! :)

 

We started out Thursday at California Adventure.  We rode the rides, took in the sights, enjoyed the sun and loved every minute of it!

 Then, at lunchtime, we had a little surprise for our birthday girl...we had made reservations for a princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto! They sat us right next to the place where the princesses were introduced and made their entrance, and ours was the first table they came to every time...which meant Taylor was the first little princess to be showered with their royal affections.  It brought tears to my eyes every single time one of them came over to her...I will never forget the look in her eyes or her sweet little face.  She was in awe!  And the princesses were as sweet as they could be.  She loved each and every one of them and even got a second visit from Belle, who invited her to watch the fireworks by the castle that evening.♥

If you have a little girl who loves princesses, I highly recommend Ariel's Grotto.  It's a bit on the expensive side, but it was worth every penny.  I don't think Taylor will ever forget it! :)

 Disneyland time!!!

 Pluto was the first character we saw and he was such a goof!  He swallowed Taylor up when he hugged her and turned her around and around!  Her smile was from ear to ear when she skipped away from him! :)

 The castle!

 Our little dare devil on Splash Mountain!  I'm surprised she's holding on in this picture, because every other time we went on any of the rides her hands were in the air the entire time!  Even the big, fast, scary rides!  She gets that from me. :)

 The castle at nighttime.

 The teacups!  This was the one ride Taylor couldn't wait to go on...I think they show it on the Disneyland commercials.

 ♥ Love these happy faces!

 Waiting for Mickey's Color Percussion Parade to start!  This little guy spent half of his vacation in the Ergo and loved every minute of it...he's such a mama's boy! :)

The parade was fantastic!!

Friday, we met up with our friends who's house we were staying at.  They live about an hour North of Disney and came to spend the weekend with us at their family's beach house!  It was great to have their company and Taylor loved having Kelsey {their oldest girl} to hold hands and go on rides with. :)

Kaden, Taylor, Kelsey, Kaleb and Kinley

 See?!  This is Space Mountain...a completely pitch-black ride that's super fast and takes you down a corkscrew track thru the middle of space...complete with ghosts coming at you for Halloween.  Does she look the slightest bit nervous?! :)

 My boys ♥

Saturday we took a day off from the Parks and headed to the beach.

Oh. My. Lanta. I could've stayed there forever!  The sand was soft and warm, the water was beautiful and calm, and the waves were perfect for jumping.  Did I mention it was 85 degrees?! :)

 And look who decided to stroll by as we were enjoying the view...amazing!!!

 This woman was practically on top of this dolphin as he swam and played in the water right next to her!  So cool!!

 The view to the North...Huntington Beach.  We ate at Ruby's the next day, the red-roofed building at the end of the pier. :)

 And my little Benjamin put his feet in the Pacific Ocean for the very first time!

 As you can see, he wasn't too thrilled about it.  It was kinda cold. :)

 Two excited kiddos, ready to head back to Disneyland for one last hoorah on Monday!!

 This time we made it to ToonTown and got to see some of our favorite Clubhouse characters!  Taylor loved Minnie and her house, and Ben was awe-struck by Mickey. :)

 Waiting in line for Finding Nemo!

 She made a friend while we waited. ♥

 We ended our last night in California with Disney's World of Color.  It was awesome!  The perfect way to end our Disney vacation. :)

One last stroll through Cars Land, a family photo op and a "'til next time" to Mickey...

 

And that concludes this trip down Disney Memory Lane.

We had an absolute blast...the best vacation I think we've ever been on! ♥ 

Thank you Keith and Kim for a super fun weekend and for letting us stay at your awesome beach house!!  It wouldn't have been half as much fun without you guys! xoxoxo