Disneyland Birthday

Luke and Ellee were so excited to celebrate their birthday at Disneyland. We found out that you could reserve a spot to go to a birthday party with Mickey and Minnie Mouse-we decided that since we weren't at home and it was their birthday it would be a really fun way to celebrate their birthdays. It was so cute. Patrick A. Cake (Pat-A-Cake) was the host of the party. He sang some songs to everyone that was having a birthday and played games with the kids.
We each got our own small Mickey Mouse cake to decorate and eat. They had a cake decorating contest and guess what? We all won-because all the cakes were perfect-isn't that amazing? :-)
After we finished decorating cakes we found out that a surprise visitor was coming to see all the birthday kids. The twins were so excited when Mickey and Minnie walked into the party-Damon and I were excited because that meant we wouldn't have to wait in the 45 minute line to get a picture with Mickey and the 30 minute line to get a picture with Minnie! Mickey and Minnie danced and sang songs with the kids and then we all got to get pictures with them.

Disneyland Street Party

We were able to go to a huge street party and parade that went down main street in Disneyland. It was so fun! We saw all the characters and the kids loved it. It was on Ellee and Luke's birthday so everyone there was making them feel like they were the coolest kids around and Cole had on his "First Time at Disneyland" Badge so he felt equally special. They even pulled all three kids out in the street to dance with them and the characters. It was so fun to watch. Ellee and Cole danced but Luke just played Mr. Cool Guy and walked around with a little smirk on his face. We really had a blast!

I couldn't resist putting Ellee's dancing video in here-she was so funny-every single time she heard music she would start wiggling her hips. She did not want the street party to end.

Swimming and California Adventure

Hanging out at the pool :)

It really wasn't all that warm while we were in San Diego-I think it got up in the mid 60's while we were there. But that couldn't stop us. The sun came out in full force and after a day of walking around Sea World we couldn't resist the pool. The kids had a blast and it was nice to relax a little bit.
The kids all slept in the same bed for the trip. The first couple nights were hard because they wanted to play together-but they finally got used to it and loved sleeping sideways on the bed.

California Adventure

So everybody told us that the kids would absolutely LOVE the Bugs' Life area at California adventure. I guess we shouldn't have started with the 3-D movie they have "It's Tough Being a Bug". This is a picture of the kids before the movie-do you see how happy they are?
Here is the picture after we had to leave the movie after about 6 minutes . I guess they were not ready for the 3-D effects. They did not like the bugs flying toward them or the spiders coming down from the ceiling or the getting splattered with "acid" as the bugs fought each other. Cole thought it was pretty funny until the spiders looked like they were going to land on his head and then he completely freaked out just like Luke and Ellee. I know Damon and I shouldn't have thought it was funny-our kids being tormented-but we laughed so hard we were crying. I still have a grin on my face thinking about their reactions. It was so funny-Damon and I really enjoyed the first 6 minutes of the movie.

Needless to say, the kids were a little hesitant to try anything after that. We went on some rides in the Bugs' Life area and they finally relaxed and started enjoying themselves.Another big highlight at California Adventure was finding Lightning McQueen and Mater--the kids were so excited they wouldn't hold still for a picture.
I love this picture-look what a good big brother he is. Luke was in Damon's arms, still a little freaked out by the Bug's Life movie :-)
We were a little hesitant to try the Toy Story ride because it was also 3-D but we decided to brave it and see how the kids would like it. It was a long line but such a fun ride! The kids all loved it and wouldn't stop talking about Mr. Potato Head, Woody, Buzz, and Jesse. Fun, fun, fun!
OK-Cole, Damon, and I all agree that our favorite ride from the vacation was definitely Screamin. It's the big roller coaster. It was awesome! We also loved the one where you fly over all of California-even if it did test my fear of heights a little bit :-)

Sea World

We went to Sea World on Sunday. We were thinking it would be another overcast cold day like Saturday but it ended up being really warm and sunny! It was awesome! We did all the usual things-Shamu, the dolphin show, and sea lion show. Plus, there is a Sesame Street playground with rides and shows that the kids loved.Cole was definitely the bravest of the kids. He loved the sting ray and even picked up the star fish. Luke would reach in the water and the squeal before he even got close to the sting ray or star fish. Ellee wouldn't even put her hand near the water.

We loved the shark aquarium. The kids were all a little bit nervous when the sharks would swim over our heads or towards us. It was so funny.Cole was so bummed that we were not sitting in the splash zone for the Shamu show so when we went to the dolphin show he went down closer than we were and he got soaked-and loved every second of it!

San Diego Zoo and the beach

I decided that I couldn't do one blog entry to cover the entire vacation so I will do an entry for each of the major things we did. Sorry for the play by play entry-but then I will remember everything better :) We left here on Thursday of last week right after I got off work and headed down to Cedar City to stay with Teresa and Chase and to help cut down on the drive time the next day. They had dinner all ready for us when we got there and it was fun having Teresa teach me how to make strawberry jam :) But the best was Teresa's home made wheat bread-yummy!
We got an early start on Friday morning for San Diego. The kids were awesome in the car-we got through a lot of movies and a nice long nap from them. It was actually a pretty pleasant drive-except the chaos of Las Vegas traffic. We went to the beach once we got to San Diego. It wasn't very warm so we just walked along the beach, found sea shells, watched the sea lions and ate sandwiches. Cole had fun letting the waves come over his feet and Luke wanted to be just like big brother but was not quite as fast and ended up falling in the water-oops! He and Ellee also had a hard time getting used to the sand going between their toes-they were not happy with it.
Saturday was spent at San Diego Zoo. I love the zoo and it was lots of fun-and lots of walking! That zoo is huge!!! It was kinda cold so there were a lot of animals not coming out-so we were a little bummed that we didn't see all the animals. The kids loved the sky ride and the bus tour around the zoo. It was fun looking for "Alex, Gloria, Moto-Moto, Melman, and Marty" and we were successful finding each one of them. It was lots of fun! We especially loved the baby gorilla-I think Ellee would have stayed there watching it all day if we would have let her. We were completely spent when finished up at the zoo.