So for our first family vacation in 7 years we decided to take the kids to Disneyland and Sea World. All-in-all it was a great time and something that I'm sure we will all remember whether it be the good moments, the bad moments, or both. Here are some of the pics.
Beach
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| Our kids' first time at the beach. Teigan absolutely HATED it. He was screaming the whole time and trying to climb up Cody and I anytime we got even remotely close to the water. |
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| Cody found a crab crawling on the pier and Braxton wanted to hold it. The first time Cody gave it to him it started crawling and Braxton thought it was going to pinch him so he dropped it. Cody gave it back to him and he held it for a few minutes. Thanks to my mom for getting this pic for us while I was preoccupied with the other kids. |
Universal City Walk
We met up with my brother one day and he took is to Universal City Walk, which is where Universal Studios is but it's basically just a bunch of shops and places to eat before you actually go into Universal Studios (which we didn't do because it was way too much for our kids to not be able to do anything because they're too little).
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The guitar in this picture is a giant replica of somebody famous' actual guitar (I can't actually remember who, I think it was Van Halen but I might be wrong). I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture because it was really huge, taller than the building behind it. |
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| This is a rotating globe right outside the entrance to Universal studios. |
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| Tyson and Kaitlyn thought this was so fun to hang on to Benny's arms and have him lift them up. |
Hollywood
My brother also took us to Hollywood. Strange people there. They also have people dressed up that will let you take pictures with them but they expect a tip in return. Anyway, side story here, there was an "Ariel" there that looked like she was on crack and Kaitlyn was extremely upset that I wouldn't let her get her picture taken with her. I told her that when we went to Disneyland Ariel would be there and she could get her picture then. When we saw Ariel at Disneyland she was in her human form and Kaitlyn said "that's not Ariel, Ariel is a mermaid." I hadn't realized that she hadn't actually seen the movie and so I had to explain to her what happens. Made me laugh for sure.
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| The boys had their picture taken with this guy from "Halo" I guess. Tyson was super excited to be able to hold his gun. |
We also did one of those tours that show you where some of the stars live and the restaurants/bars they have built. The tour guide was super funny, some parts of the tour were interesting and some were boring. Sorry, they drive by these places so fast it's almost impossible to take pictures. Some things I found interesting:
The older stars had/have fairly modest homes with beautiful lawns and gardens in the front yard. (Betty White, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland)
Jay Leno has a THREE STORY GARAGE built into the side of a hill for all of his vehicles.
Frank Sinatra's home has been demolished. (Sad Day)
The Beverly Hillbilly's was actually filmed in Bel Air, not Beverly Hills. And along with that The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was not actually filmed in Bel Air but I can't remember where he said it was filmed, I'm sure you could Google it if you really want to know.
And for anyone who cares (or would have cared back in early 2000 or so) Justin Timberlake's fence is so high you can't even see the roof of his house and his house is the only one we saw that has a guard shack with a guard in it 24/7. Also, they playboy mansion is not visible at all either.
Disneyland
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I love this picture. The two boys weren't scared of anything at all. I love how Braxton has his hands in the air and a huge smile on his face but his eyes are closed.
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| Inside Mickey's house. Teigan pretty much wanted nothing to do with any of the characters and would try to get as far away as possible. |
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| Right inside the entrance of the park. There are always people taking pictures here so it can be hard to get a good one. |
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| While I was waiting in line to see Tinkerbell with Tyson, Kaitlyn and Braxton, Cody and my mom decided to get Teigan's face painted. So of course the others had to have theirs done too when we got back. Obviously Kaitlyn wasn't happy about something here but I don't remember what it was, she spent a lot of time pouting about something. |
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| Katie loved seeing the princesses. She spent a lot of time here with Cinderella talking about Rapunzel (who is her favorite, and she didn't get to see). |
Disneyland California Adventure
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| FYI: I hate rollercoasters and Cody forced me to go on this. I know, I know, I'm a baby. I tried everything I could think of to get out of this stupid thing. |
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These army men from Toy Story were super cool. They came out in this army truck and started drumming on metal cans and then called a bunch of kids from the audience to come and play with them. They acted like different toys and as soon as someone said freeze they had to hold their position like the toys do on the movie. Tyson was able to do it (in the red shirt) and absolutely loved it.
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These next pictures are in Cars Land which is pretty neat and was Braxton's favorite part of the whole trip. Anyway they have Red, Mater, and McQueen that drive around following an employee that wears a headset and they have different sayings as they go by.
Sea World
Sea World was not what we were expecting. We were thinking it would still be like it was 10 years ago when we went but it was very different. The shows were not as entertaining as they used to be but our kids enjoyed them and that's all that really mattered. Not too many pictures to post but outside the penguin encounter they had these and the kids had to have their picture taken. Teigan was not a fan of this either.
Last But Not Least
The San Diego Temple. In my opinion it is the most beautiful temple. Absolutely loved being able to go and see it. Next time we hope to go in.
