For Christmas last year my parents got everyone tickets to Disneyland/California Adventure and Knott's Berry Farm. Ben, Brandon, Parker and I left for our vacation on April 30 and were gone until May 10. It was an awesome vacation, even with all the vacation frustrations that there can be.
We started out our vacation Thursday (Apr. 3oth) by stopping in Ephraim to visit my cousin Tyra and her family. Her oldest boy, Bryan, was getting baptized on Sat (May 2nd). When we were both in college at Utah State University I would schedule my classes around hers and her mine so that I could help watch Bryan. I can't believe that he is 8 already!
Friday morning we got up and started our journey down to Las Vegas to my sister Emily's in-laws. Ben and I love to stay there, we've tried it out before! Brandon loves to go there to swim; and while we were there this time he learned how to swim on his own (with arm floaties). Derek's family is super fun and easy going. Saturday we had a nice relaxing day in Vegas and had a bbq for my nephew Jessen's 5th birthday.
Sunday after sacrament meeting we had a "quick" lunch and birthday cake for Jessen then we were off to California. Our family and Emily's family stayed with Derek's Grandpa and Grandma Denney. And Mom, Dad, Crystal, Eric, and Aaron's family stayed at a hotel across the street from Disneyland. It took us forever to get from Vegas to Anaheim due to the awful traffic coming home to California from Vegas.
DAY 1: Disneyland
We all met at Disneyland Monday morning Ben and I took our car in to park and had the wonderful time at loading the double stroller up and then breaking it down to get on the tram, and the setting it back up again, needless to say we didn't do that again the next day. We rode the tram over with Derek. Brandon got to sit by Derek in front of us and there was an older man in a Goofy hat sitting next to him. He was like...."Goofy" and he couldn't stop looking at him. He even reached over with his hand and touched his elbow really lightly. So funny!
Brandon loved all the rides. We rode It's a Small World first and he really enjoyed it. Except if anyone started singing he would tell them to ..."stop singing." We had lots of fun.
DAY 2: Laguna Beach
I actually only have a couple of pictures because my siblings were the ones taking pictures. We are going to put all our pictures on a cd and share, but haven't done it yet! The beach was a lot of fun. Brandon loved playing in the water and building sand castles with Grandpa. Well mostly he liked to break the sand castles as soon as they were finished. He also liked to play with the tractors in the sand. I thought Ben wouldn't be able to play very long in the water because he has motion sickness, but he did a good job getting out just before he got sick and then he would get in again. Ben, Derek, Eric, and I (well for a little while), ventured out into the very cold water and did some body surfing. It was good fun.
After the beach we went to a Resteraunt called Los Sanchez, one of my Dad's favorite places to go while in Orange County. Very yummy Mexican food. Ben got a food that he has missed from his mission called Empanadas, and I got a big ole Chimichanga, so good!
DAY 3: Knott's Berry Farm!
This was probably Brandon's favorite day of all! Knott's Berry Farm has a kid area called Camp Snoopy and Brandon loved it. He was able to ride kid rides just about all day. Most of the rides he was able to ride alone or just with an adult which he really loved! It was awesome to watch him have so much fun. Brandon would ride any ride they would let him on. I talked Ben into riding 2 rides with me that I don't think he was super excited about. 1st was a ride called Xcelerator. I couldn't believe how fast it was. 2nd was called the Silver Bullet and it was a ride that let your legs hang down from, it was awesome, but it made Ben and Derek sick so Emily, Eric, and I rode it again while Ben and Derek went back to help relieve Mom and Dad from watching kids. Brandon and Jessen got some special treatment from Grandpa because he took them to Camp Snoopy and rode rides while everyone else rode rides and watched the babies.
For lunch we went to a place at the park called Mrs. Knott's Chicken (or something like that). It was really good chicken and mashed potatoes. By the end of the day Brandon was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately after we put him in the car, we hadn't even made it out of the parking lot!
DAY 4: California Adventure / Disneyland 2
We made it to the last day of our Disneyland vacation which was very sad. We had so much fun. We started out the day by going to California Adventure. The first ride we rode was Soarin' over California which was a lot of fun it felt just like we were flying/gliding over California. I wish Brandon would have been able to ride it because I think he would have loved it, I have no idea why you had to be so tall to ride it, but he will be able to ride it some day! We made our way around the loop and there were so many rides that Brandon couldn't ride, and after a day of being able to ride without waiting around he was super sad about having to wait. Looking back we should have gone to the kids side of the park first before the kids got tired. We were able to ride a fun Ferris wheel which Brandon really liked and then a Toy Story ride which was a game that you got to shoot things and get a score at the end. Lots of fun for Brandon. Later in the trip he watched Toy Story in the car and the first thing he said was "I shoot em'?" During lunch Parker had a big poopy accident and it was the ONLY day that I didn't have extra clothes for him so he got to hang around in only his diaper until Mom got him a Disneyland onesie later on in the day! Finally we made it around to the kid section and Brandon was able to ride some rides, but then fell asleep for quite awhile.
Ben and I finally met back up with everyone else at the Tower of Terror which Ben didn't want to ride, but I rode it with Eric, Derek, Emily, Crystal, and Caitlin. It was really fun. After that Emily, Derek, Eric, Ben and I went back to ride the River ride (well Emily and I just stayed with Parker and Taylor). Ben and Derek had wanted to ride that ride all day. We had back luck though, it broke down while they were on the ride, the good luck is that they were right at the end of the ride; but we had to wait forever for them to be able to get off the ride.
After that drama we made it over to Disneyland and went to Mickey's Toon Town! We were able to meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy while we were there and Brandon loved going through each of the houses there.
After Toon town Ben, Brandon, Parker and I headed over to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean then Eric joined us because he didn't want to ride It's a Small World again. The park was getting ready to close so we rode Pirates, the Jungle Cruise and Thunder mountain before it ended. Ben watched Parker and Brandon while Eric and I rode thunder mountain and then I watched Parker and Brandon while Eric and Ben rode. While we were waiting Brandon made friends with a little girl that was also waiting. Super cute.
Day 5: Wild Animal Park!
On the last day of our California trip Ben, Brandon, Parker and I went down to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. Ben and I went there on our Honeymoon and it was fun to go back. Brandon enjoyed all the animals. We got to see a kangaroo up close and see baby giraffes and a baby elephant. After the day ended we made our way back up to Las Vegas. We had so much fun! Brandon actually learned how to swim with arm floaties while we were in Vegas which was awesome!
THE END!!
Sunday Funday
12 years ago
