California Vacation 2014, part 3

The morning of April 29th we up early to use our early entry to Disneyland. We got ready, ate motel free breakfast, and made sandwiches from leftover chicken from Medieval Times to keep I the fridge for lunch.

Just before leaving our room, we realized that Christian's iPhone was lost!! We spent the next half hour calling the lost and found departments at Medieval Times, Walmart and our motel. No luck :-(

Got to California adventure just before opening time and waited in a big, huge glob of people. Then got in line for the popular, new Radiator Springs Cars ride. We had to wait over an hour for this one. The ride was okay, but not "all that." At one point it was like you were drag raceing another car, and that part was pretty fun.

Next we went on California Screamin' roller coaster, then Toy Story Mania (which is the ride where you play virtual carnival games),

and then rode the Ferris wheel in one of the swinging pods.

We went back to the motel for lunch and almost died of heat stroke on walk back! We were astonished to find these plates with a note in Spanish which said our maid had found Bud's iPod in the trash!!!! We sure lucked out and were so grateful that we had Guadalupe called to our room and had Buddy give her $10.

Faith is such a sweet sister!

Tony stood in a long, hot line for Dole whip floats for all of us since we were hot and we'd heard they were good, and in the meantime, the kids and I shopped :)

We ate them while in line for the Jungle Cruise and they were amazing!

Next we went on Star Tours, and it turns out that Christian was the rebel that we were protecting from the alliance! We saw his photo up on the dash screen, and everything!!

We went in the Innovations building and saw these cool Iron Man Suits.

We even met Thor there and posed like the other Avengers!

We did the Roger Rabbit ride and looked  at chip and dales treehouse and the other stuff in Toon Town. We decided to skip the long wait to get a pic with Mickey.

We had to wait in line 40 minutes to ride The Matterhorn. Most of the lines had been 20 minutes or less, so not bad. It was a much rougher ride than I remembered!

Headed back to the motel where the kids and I changed into our swimsuits and went to the pool while Tony (who doesn't like to swim) did the laundry and picked up dinner (guacamole bacon burgers) from Carl's Jr. What a guy!

The pool was very cold so I sat in the hot tub while the kids swam. For the last little bit, Christian came in the hot tub with me and Faith finally joined us at the end.

On the 30th we started out on Snow White's Scary Ride,

 then the Teacups and Storybook Land boats.

Got wet on Splash Mountain and did thumbs up for the photo! 

Did the Winnie the Pooh ride (which was Faith's favorite the first time she came to Disneyland), then Haunted Mansion because it had only a five minute wait, then Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We ate lunch at Café Orleans where we ordered two regular monte cristo sandwiches and one three-cheese (Swiss, mozzarella & Brie). They were $17.99 each!! But they were delicious!

We had heard great things about Jedi training, but had never been to it before. We staked out a spot early and hyped Christian up so he would scream loud, jump high and have a chance to be picked.

He did it! He trained as a Jedi with a light saber and then got to fight Darth Maul.

Next, we went to the Aladdin live show in California Adventure. Tony even took Christian to go to the restroom before the show so he got to see the whole thing this time! 

Afterwards we browsed some monsters University gear while Tony refilled the water bottles,

then walked back to Disneyland to watch the parade. We put on some miles, baby!

On our way to the candy shop, a little girl stopped Faith to ask her if she wanted to trade pins. Tony had gotten 11 older Disneyland pins from a guy off KSL for just $10 and the kids had brought those along with their original pins to do some trading. They could trade off of the black boards in the shops, as well as some employees' lanyards and had done a bit of that just for fun. Faith was thrilled to be asked and traded her strawberry Mickey head for the girl's Mickey Mouse. It was so adorable! 

We also made a quick stop to go on Mr. toads Wild Ride, then got some cool caramel apples at the candy shop Christian got Olaf, the snowman from Frozen, and Faith got Mini Mouse.

We ate leftovers for dinner that day. That evening when I went to take the kids swimming again, we found that our motel's pool was closed for repairs. We were pretty bummed until we learned that they could swim at the hotel next door's indoor pool!

California Vacation 2014, part 2

We slept in a bit on the 27th and Tony even brought our hotel breakfast back to our room for us :) Got in our suits and drove to Huntington Beach.

It wasn't busy at all, but we did get to see some surfers.

We loved the sun!

The water was very cold. Kids played nonstop in the surf and Tony & I mostly hung out in the sand. It was in the 60's-70's, but I froze! I finally had Tony get my jacket for me out of the car.

 I thought the kids would be done after an hour or so but instead we had to drag them away after 3 1/2 hours!

We sprayed off,

Then walked through the main part of town. The kids got waffle cones from Baskin Robins and Buddy was, again, impressed with the food in California ;)

Back to the room we rested up for a bit. Got ready and then went to Medieval Times for dinner and a show. Many friends had recommended it, and when we saw a buy one-get one free deal, we decided to try it instead of going to a character luncheon at Disney.

We LOVED the show which had fancy trained horses, a falcon, jousting and sword fighting (complete with sparks flying when metal struck metal!). The food was also good which consisted of tomato bisque soup, garlic bread, half a roast chicken, a barbecue rib and half a seasoned baked potato. They had choice of Pepsi or water to drink.

The only bad part was when Christian threw a fit because couldn't have a light up sword as we were leaving :(

We then stopped by Walmart for some after sun lotion because we got so burnt at the beach. Even though we used sunscreen! Tony got it the worst on his legs, arms, face and head, I only got a bit on my lower legs and feet, Faith got it pretty much down on her arms and little on her legs, and Christian only ended up with a little bit on the backs of his legs. We also bought the kids Mickey baseball caps.

Tony dropped us off at the motel room and went to put gas in the car and find himself a baseball cap. I walked the kids to the entrance of Disneyland and we watched the fireworks. 

Tony brought the kids home some Slurpies and we watched the suvivalist show "Naked and Afraid."

On the 28th we started out early, but got stuck in traffic and didn't make it to Universal Studios until 10 a.m. Right off the bat we got our picture with Gru and rode the Despicable Me ride where we were turned into Minions.

We rode four escalators down the side of the mountain and got to meet Bumblebee. To this day Tony argues that it was a real robot and not a guy in a cool costume!

Went on Transformers the Ride-3D and it was our favorite ride in the park! You're in moving cars, but they just take you from room to room. Then they tilt to feel like even more movement, plus 3D all around you, water spray & a blast of heat during the explosions.

We were pretty bummed that Jurrasic Park was closed for renovations, so next we went to a museum where they had the car from Back to the Future.

We then went on the Mummy ride which is an inside roller coaster in the dark. It goes forwards through the course and then backwards!

We had to wait in a bit of a line for the Studio Tour ride, but it was well worth it. We loved seeing all the different movie sets, experiencing some special effects first-hand, and having our tram attacked by Godzilla in the biggest 3D theater there is.

Speaking of special effects, we then went to a show where they showed us lots of the tricks and techniques.

We were short on time, so we ran to the car in the parking structure and wolfed down roast beef sandwiches, chips, & grapes. On the way back in, we had just enough time for a picture with Shrek and Donkey.

We saw the Animal Actor show and were thrilled to see some cute, trained dogs and cats. Next was the Shrek 4D movie, and then the Waterworld show with lots of stunt action and fire.

Before we left, we went on the haunted house walk through and Christian was scared, but he made it.

We then drove to Hollywood. Parked on Hollywood Boulevard, but were in a scary area so we got back in the car and drove down near the Chinese Theater.

Faith got a Hollywood shirt and Christian got some sunglasses at the five dollar store there. We had a blast seeing the stars and the sights.

Here are Doris Day's hand and footprints for Grandma Braegger,

the Harry Potter cast for Christian

and the Twilight cast for Faith.

We even ran into Jack Sparrow!

We just barely had enough daylight to drive up Mulholland Drive to a Hollywood sign overlook. (Note the sign is pretty tiny in the background, and the kids are wearing their new Hollywood gear.)

Picked up a large pepperoni pizza and some cheese sticks from Papa John's (using a ten dollar gift card Tony had gotten as a bonus from work-score!), then went back to the room to eat. Watched Dancing with the Stars and went to bed, pretty well wore out.

California Vacation 2014, part 1

On April 25th we had to wake up at 3:30 am! We drove our car to Tony's work (Con-Way) which is very close to the airport, then took a taxi from there.

We got to Salt Lake Airport, through security, and to our gate by 5:00 for our 6:30 flight. 

With as many employees and few flights out of Salt Lake that JetBlue has, I was worried that we might not make it on our flight. I had upgraded our status with some super passes (we get four each year and put you on the standby list above employees with regular tickets) and it did the trick! 

We were so excited because we even got assigned seats an hour before the flight.

I had prepared the kids for the possibility that we may not get to sit together, but we all got to sit in the same row (3BC,EF) with just one person in between Tony & I and the kids!

It was the kids' first airplane flight, and Tony's and my first time on JetBlue. We loved our flight and it was one of the highlights of the trip!

Part of my responsibility for flying free is to help clean the airplane after the flight. I had to take a picture of my blue gloves because they reminded me of "Two by two, hands of blue" from Firefly ;)

"Woo hoo, we love mom's job!"

We picked up our rental car--a white Kia, then checked into our hotel. We called that morning because we didn't have hotel reservations since we didn't know if we would get to California Friday or Saturday. They not only gave us an amazing deal for the night, they let is check in super early!

Next we ate breakfast at Denny's.  Tony had the Philly cheesesteak omelet; I had eggs over easy, sausage and tons of bacon which I shared with the kids; and Faith & Christian shared sticky bun pancakes and a blueberry muffin popper sundae. 

Christian asked why California had better everything than Utah, especially the food. Do we deprive our kids of going out to eat so badly that they're in awe of Denny's food? It was really good, though :)

We walked the very short distance from our motel (which is basically right across the street), then waited in a long line and finally got into Disneyland!!

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, a The Haunted Mansion and our family favorite, Splash Mountain.

We then did Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. We were hungry by then and bought a turkey leg and giant chimichanga to share for lunch.

That afternoon we went to California Adventure and went on Soaring Over California, saw a trailer for Maleficant in the Bug's Life theater (not cool that the 4D movie was on hiatus) and saw the Muppets.

That evening we went shopping at WalMart and picked up sandwich fixings, snacks, and a cooler for lunch the rest of the week. We grabbed nuggets from Chic-fil-A for dinner.

We loved that there were fans and this elephant folded out of washcloths in our room :)

The next morning, April 26th, we loaded up on boiled eggs, fruit and mini muffins from the hotel's continental breakfast and drove to San Diego to visit Sea World.

It was cool weather and sprinkled for a tiny bit, but mostly the day was beautiful.

These cleaner fish eat tiny bits of dead skin off your hands and tickled so bad! We loved them so much that we had to make many visits back to them throughout the day.

We went to the Blue Horizons show which featured dolphins and other animals, high divers and aerialists. We snacked on Easter colored pull & peel licorice which Tony had gotten a few days before on 50% off clearance :)

We then went to the Pets Rule show which was a hoot. We loved watching all the talented dogs and cats, and I felt less guilty enjoying this show since it doesn't have wild animals forced to live as prisoners in captivity. Sorry, my conscience as an animal activist and non-practicing vegetarian sometimes comes out.

We ate lunch in our car, in the parking lot. The kids decided to eat laying in trunk with seats down so it was open to the front. We had sandwiches that I had made and packed that morning, baby carrots and little bags of chips.

We went around and looked at the exhibits,

and saw some orca's at play.

At the Shamu show, the kids wanted to sit just four rows up from the front, well within the "soak zone." And oh boy, did they get soaked! Tony and I managed to shield ourselves from the worst of it and only got a bit wet.

Faith and Buddy fed the sea lions,

petted the sting rays,

got squished penny souvenirs,

and held starfish.

We saw the Madagascar show which had character costumes & singing and dancing with a band, but it wasn't our favorite. 

We also went to the Sea Lions Live show. It was so funny! We also loved the guy who opened for the show who danced to (and like) dirty dancing and flashdance.

We enjoyed the different aquariums,

and bought some stuff at the gift shop. The kids got some money from Tammy and my mom, and were good budgeters this trip.

We thought salad sounded good for dinner, so we drove to Encinadas and went to a Souplantation. It was delicious and Christian managed to plow through 8, yes eight, ice cream cones for dessert! They were mini cones, but still! Here he is making a straw wrapper snake grow.

We stopped for cream sunscreen at CVS because our trial size spray sunscreen "for men" didn't do the job and we were all a bit burnt.

Called mom on the way home & heard that Skittles had been whining and barking. She wouldn't sleep with them because she wanted to watch for us from the front room window :(

We wore my little Buddy out so thoroughly that we had to wake him to get him out of the car. We watched the last part of Little Mermaid on t.v. and turned in for the night.