Vaca Recap and Winner

* This is a long post, sorry :)

Hello all!  We have just returned from a journey.  :)  We went on vacation to California.  We hit Legoland, Sea World, the beach, a wedding, California Adventure, and of course, Disneyland.  And I am tuckered out...just exhausted, but it was so much fun!

Here are some photos and recaps from our journey:

The Beach
My kids had never seen the ocean before so this was a completely new experience.  We walked down our first night in La Jolla and saw the beach covered with seals.  There were also surfers all over which the kids were fascinated with.  Then the next day we were able to go sit on the beach and enjoy the sand, but they were still warning us not to really go out because of high currents...or whatever.  The lifeguards told us it was an angry sea that day. But it didn't stop us from enjoying the sand and sticking our feet in the water.

Yes, those are all seals!

Legoland

Legoland was fun but it was more aimed at the young kids.  There were rides, but they included LONG lines for very short rides (almost all what I would call kiddie rides).  I'm glad we went once, but I don't feel the need to ever go back.  What I did enjoy were all the AMAZING things built with legos. They had all these fabulous cities and structures...I wish I could have spent more time looking at those.  But the kids wanted to find the rides.  Here are a few pics from our day:

Sea World
I have such fond memories going to Sea World as a kid and it didn't disappoint this time either.  It was mainly shows...and timing things right, but they do have several rides there now that I didn't remember as a kid.  One thing I really liked that I didn't see the other parks do: they opened the park with the singing of our National Anthem which I thought was really cool.  The one show I thought I was willing to skip ended up being the one I enjoyed the most...it just totally made me laugh, that was the Sea Lions show.  The kids really enjoyed all the shows too.  They didn't expect to, but they loved it all.

Here are a few pics from Sea World:

In that last photo, Hayden is signaling to the whale to splash.  :)

California Adventure
Even though this park is connected with Disneyland, it is very different.  The rides are more like typical theme parks, like Six Flags and like fairs/carnivals.  There is a lot more I can't do at this park simply because I get motion sickness and can't go round and round or upside down.  I think it really just depends on what kind of rides you enjoy more as to whether you like California Adventure or Disneyland more.  But there were a few rides that were just awesome, like the new Radiator Springs ride in Carsland.  Loved that one!  And there was a lot of hype about World of Color, which was cool, but I still thought Fantasmic (in Disneyland) was better than World of Color.  Fantasmic tells more of a story and includes more in the show than just water and screens.  But World of Color was still enjoyable.

Here are a few pics from California Adventure (I found that I didn't get as many here...don't know why):

Disneyland
They claim to be the happiest place on earth, and it certainly is one of the happiest for us.  But it is PACKED.  The best times to go are in the morning and then late at night.  You can get 5x more done in the morning then in the afternoon.  So we go back to the hotel during the afternoon for "naptime" and then return in the evening.  This works pretty well, then the kids can stay up late and the adults can rest their feet some.  This is the park I enjoyed the most.  In fact, if I was to plan another trip like this, I think I would skip all the rest and get a five day pass to Disneyland or something...so you don't have to rush and try to get it all done but just get to enjoy it all more.  This time around, we had a three day pass and spent one day in California Adventure and two days in Disneyland.  And we still did not get everything done.

Here are some pictures from Disneyland:

(Hayden was picked for Jedi training)

My favorite moment of the whole trip was when Eryn got to meet Cinderella.  She just lit up, face and body and grinned from ear to ear.  It was the sweetest thing.  She's been talking about meeting her.  I'm just glad she was able to.

I actually have a ton more photos that I want to post...but I don't want to make the post any longer than it already is.  :)


And I also owe you a winner!  There were so many fabulous entries to our last sketch...thank you to everyone who participated!

And the winner is...

Congratulations Wendy!!!  Send me your address to pamelacy@msn.com and I will get your goodies mailed out to you!  :)

And thanks again to everyone who played along!  

Have a fabulous day!!!