Our 2-Week California Vacation (Week II)

Okay, where was I? Oh yes, Sunday. (You may be bored with these day to day details, but it's really for my own records, so feel free to skim...) Sunday we had planned to go to the beach, but it was cold and rainy, so we decided we would try SeaWorld. It turned out to be the last day of their Halloween Spooktacular which basically meant that they had "trick or treat" stations around the park. The girls were excited because they hadn't been able to do any trick or treating this year. I was excited because the candy was yummy. I even made us go through the Tootsie Roll line a few times. The girls seemed to enjoy all shows, but they especially loved the Halloween show with some of the Sesame Street characters.

It did rain on us and we all got a little wet, but we still had a good time.

Monday we got up bright and early for another day o' fun at Disneyland. Our goal every morning was to leave by 9 am, but I don't think that ever happened. We wanted to get to the park when it opened, but we couldn't seem to get out of the condo that early. We usually got to the park at about 11am and left when it closed at 8pm. We were all still very excited to go back, even though we had already been there for 3 days. The condo we were staying in was a good hour from Disneyland, so this time we couldn't walk and had to pay $12 each day for parking. The parking lot is so far from Disneyland that you have to ride a tram to get there. The girls seemed think it was just the first and last ride we went on each day. Camille was excited to go on the rides with her "favorite cousin, Desiree." Desiree decided most of the rides were scary even though Camille tried to convince her not to be afraid. Camille seemed to really enjoy the LOUD, dark rides and wanted to go again and again. We were so glad that Camille and McKenna were willing to go on every ride they were big enough for.

All of the girls loved seeing the Princesses. We had to wait in a pretty long line, but Camille was especially excited to meet Cinderella. She kept telling her, "You're my favorite Princess." McKenna warmed right up to Snow White and gave her a big hug.

After meeting the Princesses, there is an area where the girls made crowns and participated in an interactive show for children to learn to dance and curtsy like real Princesses.

Kenny and I did get to go on a lot of rides, we just don't have any pictures. We took turns watching the girls while Joel and Tiffany went on rides and then they did the same for us. One night McKenna and Chloe had crashed in their strollers, so Kenny stayed with them while I took the girls through the Tarzan Tree house. We went through it about 5 times.

We had planned to spend Tuesday or Wednesday at the beach, but the weather didn't cooperate. It was always warmer inland than on the coast so we spent those days at Disneyland and California Adventure. I can't say that I ever got tired of it. There was so much to see and do. Six days was just the right amount of time for us. Wednesday afternoon Camille was so tired, her eyes were falling shut. I told to just lay down in the stroller and take a little nap. She had done this just fine on other days, but she knew Wednesday was our last day at Disneyland. She said, "I'm afraid to close my eyes, because Disneyland will close." Finally at about 7pm while we were eating dinner, she fell asleep. I woke her up as we were leaving the park to see if she wanted to go on 1 last ride. She could only open her eyes long enough to say, "Goodbye Disneyland."

Thursday we decided to go to the beach. It was only about 75 degrees and the water was freezing cold. We went to the beach Kenny and I had been to on Friday, but there dozens of dogs running around and shaking sandy, stinky water all over us. We wanted to go find a different beach but we had already paid $8.00 each for parking. I got really angry when some big dog ran right over the top of McKenna getting sand in her eyes and mouth. I walked up to an innocent guy sitting on the beach and quite angrily said, "Is this some kind of dog beach or something?" He looked a little nervous and said, "Um, yeah." I quickly calmed down and asked him where we could find a people beach. He didn't know because he lived about an hour away and had just come there with his dog for the first time because it was one of the few beaches that allowed dogs. Well, even though we didn't want to pay for parking again somewhere else, we decided to drive further down the coast and try to find a different beach. Well, lucky for us, we found a lovely and almost totally empty public beach about 5 miles away. (Oh, and no parking fee!)

We had a great time finding sea shells and building sand castles. Kenny spent a lot of time chasing the extremely agressive seagulls away. It looked liked a scene from The Birds. After a while, we realized there weren't any bathrooms anywhere. So, Joel and I felt a strong drive to get in the water. (At least up to our waists.) It was like ice water, but we did have a good time. Joel even dove all the way into a wave. Camille got in with me and we had fun running away from the waves. Pretty soon, though, she needed to go to the bathroom and she said she couldn't go in the water. So I pulled her swimming suit down and helped to squat at the edge of the water. I was looking around and Joel walked by and said, "What are you doing?" I looked down to see Camille going #2, just as a wave came in and washed it up onto the beach. I asked her why she hadn't told me she needed to poop and she said, "I don't know, it just fell out." Kenny didn't look too pleased as he scooped it up into a Big Mac box. I guess we should have just stayed on the dog beach where someone could have given us a poop bag.

Later that evening, we packed everything up and hit the road. We decided it might be nicer to drive with all the kids sleeping. We got to Mom and Dad's house at about 2am Friday morning. We spent Friday and Saturday playing and resting in New Harmony. We also celebrated Kenny's birthday while we were there. We went out to dinner without the kids and mom made her delicious coconut cake. We reluctantly headed home Sunday. It was so much fun to spend 2 whole weeks with my wonderful husband and daughters. I love my little family SOOO much. I feel so very blessed to have my life. I really do have all I ever dreamed of having and so much more.