We decided to leave one day earlier than planned, because the weather was going to be 97 at the beach Wednesday before turning cold the rest of the week, so we took advantage of the heat and busted out the boogie boards!
The kids were so excited to have a warm day at the beach. Sarah had hurt her back so she couldn't boogie board, but could walk and gather shells, too many shells! Adam dug a fort and Rachel boogied with me.
The Palmers playing hookie at Huntington Beach. What Lucky Bums!
Riding in the waves.
As the sun began to set we dried off and drove straight to Disneyland where we purchased our year passes. We have been saving our free Disney Dollars for years!
The following day we'd be meeting up with the Bednars, Coles, and Grandma and Grandpa Cole. We knew getting the tickets squared away would take quite some time and it would save a lot of headache to have it already done. It did take about an hour.
With the tickets ready we figured we may as well enjoy the park. We went on Soarin' over the World. Sarah especially loved it. Many of her favorite landmarks were featured that she had seen documentaries about. Neuschwanstein Castle, the Taj Mahal, polar bears on glaciers in the Arctic, Fijian Islands, Iguazu Falls in Argentina, and Elephants in the Tanzania. Rachel loved flying over the Eiffel Tower. Adam loved it all.
We had just enough time to ride Bear River 2 times and get soaked before California Adventure closed...but that didn't stop us.
We just went over to Disneyland and rode Splash Mountain twice. May as well while we were in our swim suit and wet. Then we stopped by and rode Indiana Jones on the way out of the park.
I love Adam's face of terror, next to Tyler's calm smile.
The next morning we went to Disneyland to find the Bednars and Coles. While we were waiting for them to return our calls we rode Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters.
Then we found everyone and headed to Fantasyland. While the others rode the Matterhorn, Rachel, Grandma and I rode the teacups with Jamis.
He gave us quite a ride!
Alice was next, these 3 decided they were Neapolitan cousins. Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate. But Geiuseppe decided he is more of a Mango. He is right, his hair is more orange than pink.
Cousins!
Fran and Eric with Grandma and Grandpa enjoying Alice!
Jamis, Jenny, Ross, and Tyler
Carousel next,
with live Disneyland band riding with us playing their instruments as they rode.
Thunder Mountain Fast Pass time!
Party of 20 in red shirts, almost filled the whole train.
Sweet Katherine riding with Grandpa.
That's a lot of red.
My cute buddy Caroline.
Jungle Cruise, I think Ross can smell the elephants.
Buddies.
Such funny jokes!
Cheese
Grandparents treat everyone to a frozen treat!
Of course Fran got her Frozen Banana!
Matterhorn again, this time with everyone. I don't like the new monster, he's creepy. I think I am just too old to enjoy the jostling of this ride, so I got my headache medicine ready and rode it one time, hopefully my last. It was fun to see the changes, just once.
Teacups with the group.
Seppe trying to grow a mustache.
Neapolitan cup of cousins.
Fran and Whitney, could be twins!
Our two most beloved droids.
Time to drive off into the sunset in the Autopia cars.
They took out all the cute Chevron stuff and put in a lame Honda sponsored astronaut and bird. It used to be so cute!
I got to ride with Katherine as my chauffer. I was grateful for a little tender mercy that happened during an emergency that happened while we were waiting to load here. Sarah's contact suddenly fell out and as we had to search the cobblestones for it in the dark, they needed to move a broken car off the tracks. It gave us the perfect amount of time to find the contact, put it in a case, and get Sarah's glasses out of Tyler's bag and on her face before she had to get in her car. I was so thankful we found that contact. She doesn't have the disposables, they are the hard contacts! It was quite a miracle in the dark.
Then Buzz Lightyear needed help vanquishing Zurg.
I loved all these braids...all day it was fun to look at.
A romantic Casey Jr. ride for Fran and Eric. Sarah had a bit more bad luck. We sat right behind the engine and a giant tar-like blob of hot grease flew onto her sleeve and burned her arm. We got the stain out pretty well, but it wasn't pleasant.
Can you find the Hidden Mickey? Check out the speakers. We cracked up at Adam and Andrew in the picture. I can't blame them though, this ride's music is quite loud.
Splash Mountain again, me Tyler and these strangers planned to be receiving Psych visions, the two in front were too busy on their phones to join in.
Thumbs up for the Aunt Fran Face! Classic.
Caroline doing the Home Alone, (I don't know if that was planned or not). Eric is Number One, his Arms are Number One, His Poncho is Number One...
I know no one is looking at me in this picture, but I liked it anyway. Suz and Ross and Adam with Andrew in the back double seat. It's all so fun.
I wanted a quick selfie of me and my big sis in front of the castle. Rachel photo-bombed.
Everyone walked home to their hotels, but we stood in line for a tram to the parking garage. Most of us stood, Adam was dead tired.
BEACH DAY
Unlike our sunny Wednesday, this was foggy Friday! You can't even tell that the Ruby's is there at the end of the pier, you barely even see the pier.
Fog couldn't stop our fun. Salt water runs in these veins. It was a little chilly. Tyler decided he wants a wet suit for next Christmas. We were so happy to have Fran and Eric gave us last Christmas. It made it so fun to have enough to go 'round.
Adam and Andrew riding a wave.
Ashley, me, Katherine, Caroline, and Rachel catching a wave.
Whitney and Sarah. The fog lifted enough to see the Ruby's!
Corinne and Jamis testing the waters.
Ashley and Rachel.
The Neapolitan crew back together again.
3 exhausted beach bums.
Party at Aunt Luise's...isn't it always?!
The kid blanket.
Sick bay. Sweet Katherine weathering the migraine, entertaining well wishers.
This pizza and salad were great, and so were the relatives. What a happy family.
Watching Song of the South.
Cuz buddies.
Sarah and Whitney hug goodbye. Sarah left the party early to sleep before her ACT test in the morning. Doesn't everyone take the ACT at their family reunions after a day of Disneyland and the Beach?
Saturday after packing up and saying goodbye to Aunt Luise and Uncle Van, we decided to just stop by at California Adventure for a little bit.
We rode Screamin'
These 3 rode it twice.
The second time Sarah and I rode King Triton's Carousel.
Then we went to the Frozen show it was fantastic. Anna stole the show, and it really surprised us that the actress was black. A black Anna, but we soon saw why she got the part, she was hilarious and stole the show!
Adam was privileged to snuggle Baymax, before he gets hidden away for Christmas.
One last family selfie in the parking garage. Of course the time flies when you are at the park and we left later than we planned Saturday night, but it was so fun to just be spontaneous!
It was a great vacation, one we've looked forward to for a long time! Thanks for planning it Fran!
Tuesday was Halloween. I threw together these cupcakes when Tyler remembered all of a sudden he'd signed up to bring some to his work party.
That night we also had our ward trunk-or-treat and chili cook-off. Our family went as soccer people. Sarah and Rachel wore Tyler's soccer jerseys, Tyler was a coach (a whistle was an easy costume he was willing to wear), I was a soccer mom, and Adam as you can see, was the ball. Here are the happy "before the gluttony of consuming Halloween candy" picture.
This is the "after the gluttony of consuming Halloween candy" picture.
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