California Dreaming

 Our time in beautiful California indeed feels like a dream.  One month down and sadly I am already forgetting the feel of the ocean breeze, the warm sand between my toes, and the complete exhaustion that always seems to accompany a fun-filled, non-stop vacation with two littles in tow.

Lucky for us we have a rock star family that helped wrangle our crazies from literally the moment we stepped on the airplane.  Imagine our surprise (and utter joy) when we realized we were not only on the same flight, but sitting in the row directly behind my Uncle Paul, Aunt Jodi, and cousin Hayden on our way from Salt Lake to California.  Somehow amid all of the planning and comparing flights and aligning schedules we missed the fact that we were actually on the same flight.  It was a delightful surprise.

After finding our rental cars we made our way to Balboa Island where we spent three hours searching for a parking spot on Memorial Day weekend. We weren't succesfull in our efforts. We did somehow manage to make it into the inescapable line for the auto ferry, so that was a nice little adventure for the afternoon. By this time we were all starving and finally turned to our good friend SIRI who helped us find food at a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop connected to a 7-11. After our surprisingly good lunch it was off to our condos in Oceanside and the delightful view of the ocean and our family waiting with open arms.  

It didn't take long for the exploring to to begin and for our girls to start falling in love with the great blue ocean that brings such peace to my soul.  It was also Ryan's first visit to the land of California.  No surprise here that he isn't ready to pack up and move to the ocean (I'm not sure I'll ever get him out of Montana), but I think he's at least been converted to the ways of beach house vacations.

Our somewhat large (but still missing way too many people) group took up residence in 3 adjacent condos one street up from the shores of the great blue ocean.  We spent hours walking along the pier, playing in the sand, cruising the streets on our beach cruisers, eating fresh fish and chips in the harbor, and taking a little sailing lesson from our 80 year-old skipper, Monte.

We also cleaned up little girl puke from car seats and rental cars, slept 7 to a room (including two babies and a toddler), spent a long night snuggling one of those said babies on a makeshift bed made from two Love Sacs, and took a 45 minute, midnight drive in a desperate, yet failed, attempt at get that same child to finally give in to slumber.  So basically it was a whole lot of awesome, with a little bit of reality thrown in just as a friendly reminder.  That's not to say I wouldn't pack my bags and head back tomorrow, though.

The beach wasn't the only happy place we managed to visit in California.  We also made the expensive, exhausting, magical trip to the "happiest place on earth".   There is so much I could say about this part of the trip.  It really was so exhausting, but at the same time I loved every minute.  I didn't think I would want to go back for a long time after we said good-bye that second day, but I am already itching to go explore the miles of the park we didn't even touch.  That's right, we didn't even step foot into multiple areas of that magical place.  In my amateur Disney opinion I think more than two days would be the way to go next time.  That being said I feel like our girls still had an amazing time and we were able to do so much of the stuff that meant the most to the girls, which was the whole point of the trip.

Day one was our big group day.  I think there were 24 of us who made the one hour trek north to the home of Mickey Mouse and friends.  The fact that there were so many of us was good in some ways, but I feel like it also made the day a lot more crazy.  It did give Ryan and I the opportunity to ride a few of big rides together, which was so much fun.  We took advantage of the fast pass program which allowed us to wait only 15 minutes in line for the new Cars ride rather than the 80 minutes some of the other poor folks had to endure.  The girls were able to meet Minnie Mouse, Stella got to ride her beloved carousel 5 times, and I finally tried one of those famous Disneyland churros.  Twelve hours later we left the park with two exhausted, joyful little girls who were ready to wake up and do it all again the next day.

We made it to the park a little later on day two, but the girls were just as excited to walk through those shiny gates.  The night before I was looking through one of the Disneyland maps and laughing at the picture perfect cover photo of two little children, happily skipping hand in hand with Mickey Mouse, himself.  After one day of waiting in lines to have characters sign Stella's "photograph" (autograph) book and snap a quick picture I was beyond doubtful that such a scene would ever really take place anytime other than for a scheduled photo shoot.  Imagine my utter joy, excitement, and awe when Minnie Mouse entered Main Street,  grabbed Stella's hand, and they skipped joyfully together towards Minnie's assigned greeting spot.  I am pretty sure a few tears came to my eyes as I tried my hardest to get some sort of visual evidence of this glorious event.  Unfortunately the best I could manage was the photo in the left corner of the picture collage below.  It was one of many moments I will always remember about this special trip.

Because it was only our little family conquering Disney on day two, we were able to go at our own pace and see the things we really wanted to see.  Our focus on day two was meeting some of our favorite characters and enjoying some fun shows.  Stella's reactions to meeting her beloved princesses were priceless. When she saw Cinderella she exclaimed, "I have the movie of you!" and when she finally met up with her newest obsession, Sleeping Beauty, she declared that she had been waiting her whole life to meet her.  My mom and Paul bought all of the grand kids a little Disneyland souvenir of their choosing.  It took Stella some time to narrow down her choices, but she finally settled on a one-size-too-big. bright pink Sleeping Beauty nightgown.  In the month that it has been in her possession I think there have only been a handful of nights she has not worn it to bed.  After a long second day of sweaty hair and dreams coming true, we scored an optimal location to watch the parade and finally spotted Stella's beloved Tiana.  It was the perfect way to end our visit.

Overall I would say Disney did it's job.  Happy kids, exhausted parents, and the overwhelming desire to do it all again soon must mean it was a successful trip.

California treated us right with it's sandy beaches, palm trees, and Disney magic.  We loved every minute of the time we got to spend with our awesome family, and I sort of felt like I deserved some sort of medal for surviving our first theme park vacation with kids.  We did a few other things worth mentioning, like groom's dinners on the beach and the real reason this trip even happened, Jace and Ashley's perfect wedding.  Stay tuned for the wedding recap including the perfect dress, magazine worthy bridal party photos on the beach, and tee pees.  Oh yeah, it was a party.