California Vacation (Days 3)

(June 23, 2014)

Disneyland Day 1:

We got up early to make the 25 minute drive from Newport Beach to Disneyland. We made it in great time but ended up driving around forever to find the parking lot. But we made it and the fun began!

We all agreed that we would stick to Disneyland and not park hop the first day so that Beverley only needed to buy a single day pass to the one park. We knew with her new hip that park hopping would be too much.

All the girl cousins together. They couldn’t hold in their excitement!

Within minutes of getting to the park Piper found her favorite hand to hold (at least for the first little while). My kids love their cousins and Josh is no exception!

One of the first rides was Pirates of the Caribbean, of course! We actually filled up an entire boat with just our family. The worker there was kind enough to take the picture.

Family photo with Jack Skelington photo bombing. Notice Piper is picking Maleficent’s nose? Nice. I wonder who taught her that? Mark!

We were able to experience the changes on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was closed for just over a year, I think to make some changes. Really, there wasn’t anything too different. Just the big tunnel you go up and the better graphics with the explosion in the tunnel.

Ah, Splash Mountain! One of our favorites. We got Beverley on this one. She had a blast.

Mark, Calista, Mom and Piper on Winnie the Pooh ride. I’m proud to say I have yet to go on this one. I think Mark went every time with Piper over the years.

Josh and Peter just about to go on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Doesn’t Peter looked thrilled? It’s probably because I told him to smile.

Cute Téa waiting in line for Peter Pan.

Didn’t take long for Piper to need a little help getting around the park.

Jungle Cruise! We never went on this ride with the kids. Jared Leslie couldn’t believe we denied our kids the experience. So we gave in…

Piper and Me waiting in line for Star Tours. I love the changes they made to the ride. The new videos are so much better since they’ve added all the Star Wars characters. 

It was a long day but totally worth it. The kiddos handled the early morning and late night wonderfully. We knew when to take a long lunch break and just hang out with our little family plus my mom. Having the youngest kids in the group we had to break off from the older cousins and take it easy for an hour two to let the kids rest. The best part at the end of the day was knowing we were headed back for more the next day!