california dreamin'

so...california.  hot, lovely, fun.  everything I know it to be!  I'll give you the run down in pictures, since that's more fun anyways!  I'm trying not to post instagram pics, but I know some made it in the mix...forgive me for the doubles?  

woohoo!  we have a map.  where do we begin?  tomorrowland, of course.  space mountain, star tours, buzz lightyear.  I think that our 30ish minute wait at space mountain was the longest wait we had all day.  and it was totally everything I remembered it to be!

and we conned the boys into going on it's a small world.  ty was smiling at the beginning and right pissed with my by the end.  but my parents forced us to go on it 24 years ago, so I felt the need to share the love.  only fair, right?

day one at disneyland was super fun.  splash mountain, pirates of the caribbean, indiana jones.  it was all good.  my dad figured out the shuttle busses and that made it easier to come and go, as in we went back to the hotel everyday for a break and a swim in the pool.  then we'd go for dinner and head back to the park.  it was a great way to break up the day.  harbor road has these manhole covers with maps on them...pretty cool, eh?

day two was our day one at california adventures.  california screamin' {the roller coaster in this picture} was the highlight of the trip...for all of us!  we went on it twice each day we were in the park, and we would have gone on it even more, if they didn't shut down the pier rides for the world of color show.  best roller coaster evah!

pretty, right?

and then there was the daily dud ride - the ferris wheel.  okay, so I enjoyed it, but no one else did.  sigh.

but we loved the tower of terror!

and we went to the world of color show.  I was kinda meh on it.  the ferris wheel lights were super pretty though...

the next day we went to lego land.  it was over an hour away...I think my tired kids needed the break!  lego land was pretty cool, but it's really geared towards smaller kids.  nate liked it, but the rides were a bit babyish for him.  the coolest thing was the minilego.  and hey, I like lego.  I like star wars.  this was a match made in heaven!

it's like foreshadowing!!

we spend july 4th in disneyland.  not too sure if that was stupid or smart, but holy crazy busy, batman!  we hadn't really dealt with a ton of line ups or crowds until that day.  and ty was DONE.  he had no desire to see fireworks or to even be close to disneyland.  yeah.  learned my lesson.

then on the last full day in CA, we did some sightseeing.  we drove up into the hollywood hills to find the best view of the hollywood sign.  and we did it!  okay, so the road up there is the smallest road ever.  doing it in a mini van was FUN.  ha!

then we went to hollywood blvd.  we walked around for a bit {after the express warning to my kids to NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!}, went for lunch at hard rock and took some pictures of the stars.

then the boys {nate, ty, john & my dad} went to see the anaheim angels take on the boston red sox.  my mom and I went for dinner, shopping and we packed!  this little one may have had a solid 24 hours of bad attitude, but he pulled it together at the end!

and that was phase one of the trip.  on saturday morning john and I dropped my parents and the boys off at the airport and began phase two...vegas!  I'll leave that for tomorrow!