California Here We Come-

We figured since we were in St George for the baby blessing and half way to California we'd keep going and get our family vacation in first thing this summer.  It was totally awesome.  

The drive went well and the our kids did great!  We made it to the our friends, the Budge's, where we stayed by early evening.

Monday morning we made our first beach stop at Huntington Beach.  We kept up our tradition of eating at Ruby's.  

 Ava loved digging in the sand to find a lots of little crabs and collected in her bucket.

 Owen loved the waves.

And Isaac found the sand very interesting.  

Tuesday we headed to Disneyland.  The kids were pretty excited.  

Ava has a fear of people in costumes. So when we saw Goofy from a distance she started freaking out.  She said it was only because she wanted to see Mickey first but I have a very similar picture of her like this when we came 2 years before.  

The most important thing for Ava was to see the princesses so Ava, Isaac & I went there first.  While Matt, Owen & Lily went to the Jedi Training.

Ava loved meeting the princesses

and Isaac was a little flirt and the princesses ate it up. 

The cool castle.  

 Lily, Isaac & I waiting while Matt, Owen & Ava went on the Pirates ride.  Ava was not a fan.  

Coming out from Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain & Star Tours were Owen's favorites.

Isaac was so excited about meeting Winnie the Pooh, Tiger & Eeyore.  

 

 When Matt was a boy he got to go to Disneyland every year with his friend Mike who was raised practically like an only child because his next oldest sibling is15 years older or something so Matt understands better than I how everyone often gets tired at amusement parks at some point in the afternoon and you start grumbling a little more and wondering why you paid so much money to walk around with so many strangers that don't know how to stay to the right when walking.... you get the picture. Owen & Ava & I got tired and grumpy.  Matt was able to talk Owen & Ava out of there grump pretty quickly but I had a hard time shaking out of it for a little while.  Luckily Matt is a rockstar and we got some food, watched the parade and stayed until 11:00 having so much fun. 

After a day at Disneyland we took it easy and got to go swimming in this amazing backyard pool. 

 And Lily started scooting!

On Thursday we initially thought we'd do another amusement park but with Isaac & Lily being so little I was amusement parked out so we went to the American Girl Doll store and a lego store instead.  

TheAmerican Girl Doll store was something else and Owen was happy about being able to get some legos to bring home with him.  It worked out awesome for everyone.

 Then we went to the coolest beach for tide pools called Little Corona Del Mar.  It was beautiful and we found lots of little critters.

 Isaac was copying Owen digging his feet in the sand and then all of the sudden a big wave came 

 and totally knocked him over.  

 The family that we stayed with have kids similar ages and they loved playing together.

On Friday we checked out another beach for tide pools that was a bit of a hike to get down to but was cool.  Isaac was a little afraid of waves after being taken out by one the day before and got nervous each time a wave came in.   

 Then we had a bonfire on the beach.  It was so fun!  

I love this family of mine!