3 Days of Disneyland? Oh my!

Once upon a time, I bribed my sister and her husband that if they would come visit, we'd take them to Disneyland. I wasn't sure they'd take me up on it, but luckily for us, they did! And because of the great military deal going on, we got three days of Disney for the price of one!

We had a blast. The only way to do Disney is during the off-season. And while it's not technically the off-season right now, we knew that the first week of May would be pretty great timing (spring breaks are over, but end-of-year-school-groups haven't hit it yet).


The other secret to a great Disney trip is ensuring that the number of adults exceeds (or at least ties) the number of children. Kristen & Bryce were such awesome help, and totally great sports.

Kyle turned out to be a pretty big chicken on this trip, which was completely frustrating, but we tried to get over it. I'm pretty sure that he's cheering for some super awesome ride in this picture. Probably "It's a Small World." Just kidding...kind of.
(By the way, Tower of Terror...best ride EVER! Just sayin'...)

It was pretty hot that week, with temperatures in the 90's. I'm pretty sure we polished off at least 3 or 4 cases of water between the 6 of us. And plenty of frozen lemonades and pineapple floats.

Marie had a ball. She was such a trooper about missing naps, having dinner at 9 p.m., and surviving mostly on licorice and starbursts.

We didn't wait in line to see most of the characters - we were fine to admire them from afar. Why waste time when you could be on a ride??? For some reason, this fella wasn't very popular, so we snapped our paparazzi shot. :)

This little girl is full of sass. I can't count the number of times she'd shrug her shoulders and stomp off with a little huff. It would always last about 2 seconds before we had her giggling at herself.

The surprising hit of the entire trip, though, was the pool (did I mention the high temps?). Every afternoon at about 3:00, the heat and sweat and stickiness would start to get the best of us, and patience would start to wear thin. But instead of "sticking it out to get our money's worth," we'd high-tail it across the street to the hotel, change into our swimming suits, and cool off for awhile.

It was so nice to relax and not feel as though we had to "go, go, go" every second of the day. One day we ordered pizza and had a poolside dinner.

Marie and Bryce had a super fun activity at the pool everyday. She would fill that bucket, never letting Bryce leave her side. And when it was full, she'd dump it over his head. Like I said, they were SUCH good sports.

Yup, that pooltime was our saving grace. After swimming, there would be showers, a little Disney Channel on TV, and by 6:00 we'd be on our way back to the park to finish off the night with a bang. We're missing it already...

Huntington Beach at Sunset

With my mom and sister's visits overlapping by only one day, the decision to head to the beach was a pretty easy one. The problem? Kyle couldn't afford to miss another day of school. The solution? We hopped in the car the moment he walked in the door after school, and booked it down to the coast. After all, a few hours at the beach is better than none at all.

It's only the first of May, so the water was FREEZING! Then again, it's always freezing, even in August. So the kids did what they do best - dodge the waves and dig giant ditches. Luckily, they had some big boys (ie: Bryce & daddy) to help them.

Meanwhile, the ladies did what we do best: lounged on the sand in the breeze (and avoided being thrown in the water).

After a quick change of clothes (maybe the kids aren't so good at dodging waves???), we strolled down the pier to the awesome "Ruby's Diner."

Holy cow, yummy food! The burgers, the shakes...it's all delicious. And the fact that it's at the end of the pier and you can watch a gorgeous sunset is just icing on the cake.

Afterwards, we took our time strolling down the pier, watching the surfers, listening to the boardwalk musicians, and enjoying the sunset.

Love these ladies. A lot.

We stayed until dark, and I think we could've stayed all night. We love the beach!