California Trip: Disneyland and California Adventure

From San Diego, we headed to Anaheim, where we rented a condo close to Disneyland.  We were a little tight in the 3-bedroom, 1.5 bath condo since we had 8 adults, 8 kids, and 2 babies in the group, but the location was fabulous, and we made it work.  We were just a 20 minute walk from the gates.  We didn't have to pay parking, and we were able to prepare all our own food, which saved a ton of money.  Each day, we got up early and got to the parks right when they opened.  We just packed snacks in to keep kids happy.  Then in the afternoon, we walked back to the condo for our big meal of the day and naps.  Once we were rested, we headed back for the rest of the day.  It worked really well.  We got the 3-day Park Hopper passes, so we could go back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure as much as we wanted for the next three days.  On the first day, we all stuck together in a big group, enjoying all the rides we could all do together.  Then on the next two days, we split up into different groupings so the kids were able to do the types of things they loved the best.  Both Tony and I were able to spend time with Connor and our girls, but they didn't have to spend any time waiting around for each other to ride rides they didn't want to do.  Everybody had so much fun, and I loved having fun with them!  I also loved the variety of entertainment with theme rides, thrill rides, shows, and parades.  It was a wonderful three days.

We only got one family pic the entire vacation, and this is it.  Not too bad, but not fabulous either.

The only thing Mariah knew about Disneyland was that there was a teacup ride.  She saw it on an ad or something.  So the first morning, we hit the teacups for some crazy spinning.

Mickey was the only character we met.  The kids just really didn't care about meeting the characters.  Seeing them was good enough, and they sure didn't want to use up any ride time waiting in line to meet them.  (That was totally fine with me.)

This was as close we got to the big celebrity, Lightening McQueen.

The kids did think Cars Land was pretty cool, and we had a blast riding the Radiator Springs Racers.  Thank heavens we got a fast pass for it, because the wait was always over 2 hours, and we would have just skipped it.

 We walked through Downtown Disney many times between the parks and the condo.  The kids' favorite part of the walk was the lego store.  We never went in, but they were just amazed at these huge things built out of legos!! (I have my doubts about them truly being built out of legos, but I couldn't shake the kids' belief.)

It was so fun to do this trip with cousins.  Here are 7 of the 10. Only one kid and the two babies are missing. I never did get a pic with all of them together.

The three toothless cousins hanging out at the condo.  --Mylie, Tyler, Jaxon

Mylie, Mariah, and Addelyn--the only girl cousins in the group--on our fun girls' morning.

Brady and cousin Gavin (only 2 weeks apart in age) getting into trouble at the condo.  These two were amazingly good!

Now for the favorites:

Tony--toss-up between California Screamin' and California Soarin'

Me--California Soarin'  I LOVED this ride!

Connor--No question.  California Screamin'  He's my thrill seeker, and he rode this coaster 11 times!

It's hard to see with the glare and reflection, but here are Tony and Connor with their "cool" pose during the ride.

Mylie--California Soarin' and Gadget's Go Coaster

Here she is with Mariah and Grandpa getting in line for the Go Coaster.

Mariah--She says the same rides as Mylie.  But she also loved the princess shows and the parades.  I love this picture of her getting excited about whatever is coming next in the parade.

 Brady--Well, he didn't answer when I asked.  But he seemed to like everything, except getting buckled back into the stroller after riding a ride.  He didn't get very good naps, but he was a fabulous baby and oh so cute!

He loved the carousel.

Taking a rest with Mylie

 Just being his cute, happy self

Although this vacation took a lot of planning (and a lot of money), I am so glad we did it!  And I hope we can go again someday when our youngest child is old enough to remember it.  So totally worth it. :)