California Dreamin!

Last week was a fun filled California adventure, my parents took the girls and I to Disneyland! After church on Sunday we packed up and headed out on the road. We drove about half way to Indio, CA and spent the night at my parents timeshare. We woke up in the morning and had a great morning in the pools. They have all sorts of pools, hot tubs, a lazy river and kids play area. Raquel made friends with a couple of kids and had fun playing until it was time to check-out of our room and head to Anaheim.

Natalya soaking up some rays in Indio.

Playing in the pool

Floating down the lazy river with Gram.

My little monkey's climbing on the luggage cart at the hotel in Anaheim.

Tuesday was our first day at Disney! We arrived at Disneyland at 10am and didn't leave that night until 7pm. Both Raquel and Natalya were real troopers and had lots of fun. Disneyland was all decorated for Christmas and the rides were transformed with holiday decorations. Its a small World sang Jingle Bells and The haunted house was A nightmare before Christmas Characters. Raquel's favorite things to do were riding on the carousel, seeing the Disney princesses and getting a new Little Mermaid Polly Pocket. I was amazed at how brave she was on some of the rides and how tall she has gotten to be able to ride on most of the rides (she is up to 40 inches). We went on Thunder Mountain railroad and she didn't like it but didn't cry or whine the whole time we were on the ride, she just calmly said when we were done that she didn't want to go on that ride again. Raquel loved seeing the Disney princesses! We had to stand in line for quite a while but it was worth it to see the look on her face. We were able to see Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother and Belle. We first came to Aurora and Raquel took a picture with her and then Cinderella and took a picture with her, but when we got to Belle she just hugged and hugged her for a couple of minutes. It was so cute to see her with her favorite princess. The girls were able to see Santa and get their picture taken with him. As we were leaving Raquel asked Santa to remember to bring home her daddy for Christmas. It was so cute but sad, we had to Raquel that Santa would bring Mike home for Christmas since he left to give her a timeline that she would understand for how long he would be gone. We ended the day watching the Christmas Parade and heading back to our hotel to watch the fireworks from the park. It was so decadent to be able to lay in bed at our hotel and watch the fireworks over Disneyland every night we were there.

A picture of Thunder Mountain after Raquel braved the ride.

Well, at least Raquel is smiling! Doesn't look like Santa is having much fun either.

Eating some lunch at Disneyland with Papa & Gram

Teacups with Gram

Cinderella, Fairy Godmother and Raquel

Belle with Raquel

Raquel & Aurora

Watching the Christmas Parade at Disneyland

Wed. we headed to Laguna Beach and met up with my sister-in-law Natalie. We all had lots of fun playing in the sand and running from the waves. Raquel loved playing with Natalie and I loved being able to catch-up on whats new with her. My mom thought it would be fun to feed the seagulls and so she gave them some of the kids snacks from my purse. That was fun to see all the birds come flocking around but then we left our bags on our towel and went to play in the water and I turned around to see all the seagulls pulling everything out of my purse trying to find more food. I ended up having to hide my purse rolled up in our towels where they couldn't get it. When we were sufficiently cold from playing in the ocean in November we packed up and headed back to our hotel where we met up with Gavin (Natalie's husband) and went out to dinner at Bubba Gumps. We had fun talking and eating good food, poor Raquel was so worn out from the day that she fell asleep at the restaurant before she had anything to eat. After dinner we went back to our hotel and had a fun chat with Gavin and Natalie, it was fun seeing them again and I wished they lived closer so that we could hang out more often.

Raquel testing out her Baywatch run.

Gram, Natalie and Natalya

Natalya feeling the ocean, she didn't like it much, a little too cold.

Gram & Raquel right after Raquel fell in the water.

Raquel and Natalie running from the waves.

Margaret, Steve, Natalie, Natalya, Me and Gavin (Raquel is asleep in the stroller) eating at Bubba Gumps.

Natalya crashing after a long day on her favorite Aunt Natalie.

Thurs. day was our second day at Disney and we headed to the California Adventure park. I us as adults (my mom, dad and I) enjoyed California Adventure more than Disneyland. We started off the day on a ride where you soar over California and see all the beautiful landscape and they mist you with pine tree smell when you fly over pine trees and orange smell when you fly over groves of oranges. Raquel also love this ride because they had Tinker bell right at the end flying or Disneyland. We then watched a live performance of Aladdin which we all loved, fun costumes, singing and dancing. I think my favorite over all ride was Toy Story where you are in an arcade shooting everything that pops up on the screen. Raquel met a little boy who was standing in front of us in line at the Toy Story ride and they were fascinated with one another from the start and about half way thru the line the little boy grab Raquel's hand and they held hands the rest of the time standing in line. Did I mention that the little boy was dressed in a complete Pirates of the Caribbean outfit, wig and all and every so often he would yell out Yo Ho, Yo Ho a Pirates life for me! It was quite cute to watch the two of them interact with one another. After more rides, a 3D show, a tortilla demo with fresh hot tortillas to sample and a bit of shopping we called it a night. Poor Raquel fell asleep again before the fireworks, so I made sure that I filmed some of them to be able to watch. They had some cool ones shaped like faces and hearts.

Raquel wearing her 3D bug glasses. She was a little afraid of the movie, I think I would be too at the age of 3 if giant bugs were flying at me and poking me in the back.

Natalya looking oh so happy on a ride. After she spilled a whole cup full of water down her front.

Papa, Gram & Raquel going for a ride.

Cody and Raquel holding hands while waiting in line.

Sitting waiting to go on the Toy Story ride.

Friday morning we packed up and headed back to Phoenix. We had such a great week with Gram and Papa and the weather was perfect! Thanks again mom and dad for taking us to Disneyland!