We've been home from California for a week now and I finally have the time to document it. I took a million Disneyland pictures, but I just love all of them!
So my Aunt and Uncle left on a mission to the Canary Islands in Spain 18 months ago. Their farewell was 2 days before Will was born, so we obviously were unable to attend. I was so sad that I missed out on all of the fun and cousin time and so I was super excited to get to attend the homecoming!
We left Thursday after Paige got out of school and tried to hurry and beat a huge storm that was coming. (It ended up PUMMELING Davis County and giving us 2 feet of snow and negative temps that we were lucky enough to miss!) Anyways, we drove through snow for about 30 minutes and then we thought we were ahead of it and it would be smooth sailing. It was for about an hour....then it was a complete nightmare. I don't like driving in general, let alone in the snow, but this was a BLIZZARD! It was the scariest night of my life. I won't drag on about it, but let's just say it took us 7 hours to get to St. George (which normally takes 4.5 hours or so). I have never been so happy to see St. George in my life. This was the result the next morning- the license plate, and a lot more of the car, was completely covered in a few inches of ice!! I can't believe we made it out alive...(it was all thanks to my dad's amazing driving, seriously)
Then we made it to our villa by the beach and it was all worth it! But I was pretty nervous about the drive home...
We spent our first day in Disneyland. The weather was so much better than back home, but pretty cold by California standards!
Caydence was absolutely crushed last time we were in Disneyland that she didn't have a princess dress to wear (who knew all the little girls dress up?!) So this year we came prepared and brought a couple. My mom made these amazing dresses for Paige! She was a big hit. Unfortunately it was way colder than we anticipated so she had to wear a sweatshirt under this Belle dress.
She of course wanted to sit by Paige on EVERY ride. (If we could even get her on the ride. Let's just say she was afraid of EVERYTHING!!!)
Any time I forced her to ride something (which I had to do on every ride) she looked like this: (this is a ride wimpy enough that Will could even ride it!)
Went on a few "adult" rides
The next day we went to the homecoming. Marc and Pam did such a great job! I didn't even get out my camera, so I hope they don't mind that I stole this from their facebook page. Don't they look great?! Love them!!
Unfortunately Danny and Nicki had to fly out right after Sacrament meeting to get back to work and school the next day. We sure missed them for the rest of our trip.
On Monday we headed to California Adventure. We got there before it opened and ran straight for cars land. Let's just say that there was already a long line just for fast passes for the new cars ride! It was pretty crazy, but we got some passes and ended up riding it 3 times! It was SOOO fun! Totally unexpected!
Here we are waiting in line. Caydence was excited because she didn't know what was coming. Neither did we....
How cute are these cars you ride in?!
Caydence looking very apprehensive before we take off.
The picture from the ride: I love this picture for so many reasons- Caydence is 1/2 covered by the windshield but you can see the terror on her face (she refused to ride it again). And could you die at my mom's hair, ha ha. We had no idea that the cars RACE at the end! It was so fun!
One ride that Caydence would actually ride was the Merry-go-round so we would ride it, run around to the entrance, and ride it again. In the 3 days we literally rode the merry-go-round at least 10 times.
Will spent most of the time in the stroller and he was so good!
The new cars land is absolutely adorable! If you are into the movie (and Caydence is obsessed with it) you would LOVE it. It is EXACTLY like the movie! I just loved it!
We caught Minnie that night and snapped a quick picture.
That night we grabbed some dinner and headed back to Marc and Pam's so that we could have some more time with them. It was great to visit with just them and our cousins.
The next day we took our time and swam in the pool before heading back to Disneyland. I have never been to Disneyland more than one day per trip but this time we bought the 3 day park hopper passes and I highly recommend it! We loved it because you didn't feel like you were missing out if you left early or showed up late. I would also highly recommend going in January. The crowds were GREAT! No long lines for anything! (except the new cars ride)
So there is a place that you can wait in line to see the princesses and we had been keeping our eyes peeled every day to find the princess Caydence was dressed as. On the 3rd day we finally saw Snow White and hopped in line. The workers informed us that the princesses rotate every 45 minutes so they may not be the same princesses by the time you get up to them. We were pretty bummed but waited just in case (we didn't know how long they had been there yet). So we were about 1/2 way through the line when they warned that they were changing in 10 minutes. So I propped Caydence up on the wall and tried to at least get a picture of Snow White in the background.
So then there was a little bit of a back up in the line and Snow White wasn't with anyone so I told Caydence to just wave to her really quick, and Snow White came over and started talking to her!!! It was so cute! I think this was my favorite picture of all! We told her that we were worried we weren't going to make it to her in time, but she was hopeful that we would.
A few minutes later they started leaving and we were bummed, but she came over to the rope line and opened it just to let Caydence in, and take a picture really quick. It was the sweetest thing ever! My mom even started tearing up a little. I would have cried too if I ever cry. Sometimes I don't think I have a heart...
So the pictures are pretty dark from the shadows, but the story is just too sweet! I love it!
She then saw the new rotation of Jazmine, Belle, and Tianna. She is now obsessed with Tianna and colored all of her Cinderella coloring book with brown skin and a green dress, ha ha, she is so funny!
My parents took the kids on a couple small rides while Paige and I took one last spin on Space mountain. We had extra fast passes and there was no line, so we went a second time really quick and we got stuck!! I have never been stuck on a ride EVER, but we were joking earlier in the week that it was our dream to get stuck on Space Mountain because we wanted them to turn on the lights so we could see the ride. Well guess what people...dreams come true at Disneyland!! Ha ha.
There were 3 cars at 3 levels when it stopped. This was the level right below us. They had to come and push start us, and then we got to ride it a third time just for getting stuck!
And while we were stuck my parents just happened upon (a different) Snow white wandering by the castle and got some great pictures!
Isn't Disneyland just magical?!
My dad's sister and her daughter drove out and met us for dinner that night and 3 long days of Disneyland definitely caught up with Will:
We had to leave early the next morning. It was sad and went way too fast! It ended up being a pretty smooth ride home but this is what our family room looked like when we dumped everything of ours from their car. I did 7 loads of laundry in the next 24 hours! But it was all worth it!!!
