California Vibes

We sure love crazy Dale and all his mischief! Each time we visit him, something fun happens :).

 We planned another trip to California right after Evie's birthday because, hello, why not?! The girl loves Disneyland and we ALL could use a large dose of those chill California vibes!! Life gets so chaotic and it feels like the only time we all actually get to be together, showing each other our best selves, is when we are on vacation.

We drove straight to the beach Sunday morning and spent the entire afternoon playing in the surf, soaking up the sun, and breathing in the salty air. The kids chased seagulls, hunted for seashells and other gifts from the sea, and Mom and Dad just took it all in....total bliss :). The kids begged me to blow bubbles so they could run around in the sand popping them. Then when the excitement of that wore off, they built a sand castle and used seagull feathers as the flags at the top :). They were both soaked and cold, but refused to show any sign of wanting to leave. At one point Evie cuddled up to her Daddy on the towels and sunbathed for a little while. And then when they tired of that, we got the football out and Dad played catch with Austin. I could live a million years on the beach with my kids and never get enough of it. It brings out the little child in all of us :).

Oh my heart......

Beach babes :)

"Daddy! Look what I found!"

Searching for treasures.

Throwing around the football :)

Bubbles!!!

Austin tried to take a picture of Mom and Dad together but the freezing cold surf rolled in and this was the best we got :). And since I am all about candid photos, I love it!

Playing in the sand.... Evie girl has no problem getting dirty :).

Playing with Daddy in the surf.

Her face when she realized how cold the water was! haha!

My sweet, sweet boy :)

Topping off their castle with feathers :)

The  next day we spent at the hotel. We started our morning with an early wake up call from Evie, and then we all walked down to the hotel cafe for some donuts and bagels for breakfast. This hotel that we always stay at has an arcade inside and the kids BEG to play there each time. So we spent the money the kids had saved playing arcade games and winning random prizes. And then we walked around the beautiful grounds for a bit until it felt warm enough to get in the pool! From there, we spent the rest of the day swimming. The kids went eight straight hours of swimming, only stopping for a quick bite to eat, or because they were shivering and Mom insisted that they warm up in the sun for a bit before they got back in. They were in heaven and it made me so happy to watch them. We made all sorts of friends to play with that day (since we were out there the entire day) and Austin did a great job showing us how he can swim now! As the sun began to set, Dad left to grab us some McDonalds happy meals for dinner. While he was gone, Austin ran to the bathroom but didn't make it and ended up pooping all over the restroom floor :(. That made me realize how tired he must be (even though he didn't show it) and was our cue to wrap up our amazing pool day before any other unfortunate events occurred. The kids were sad to leave and cried the whole way back to the hotel room, but it was for the best. To say they were exhausted was an understatement. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our hotel room and getting ready for our big day at Disneyland the next day! I have to add how amazing our kids are in hotels now. They go to sleep when we tell them to, they play well together and don't fight much, and they get food out of our snack bag on their own whenever they are hungry. It's so perfect and it makes me so happy because it allows us to do all sorts of fun stuff without getting too overly stressed out! I remember our early years of parenthood and how horrible it was trying to do the hotel thing. There was a time when we decided it just wasn't worth it. But I'm so glad we pushed through it because it taught the kids hotel etiquette and how to travel like champs!

My early riser.... We sat in bed and munched on little oranges while we waited for the boys to get the memo that "The sun is up, so I am up!" -Evie  :)

We stayed in the Anaheim Majestic Castle and there were dragon footprints all around the pool! The kids had a blast finding them and trying to figure out why the dragon was there and what he must have been doing :).

Catching up on those relaxing Cali vibes I was talking about :).

Lifeguard Evie to the rescue :).

She tries so hard to keep up with her brother. It's incredible what she can do! And watching her try to swim like him was one of those moments when I was just in awe.

Oh how I love my handsome boys!!

Eating snacks and working on her tan :).

Austin was a big fan of the cabana life :)

Disneyland, as always, was magical and fun! Sadly, Dumbo was still closed for refurbishment and they had closed Pirates of the Caribbean too! Those are two of our favorite rides so we were super bummed, but nobody was more upset than Evie.... she takes Disneyland VERY seriously! She talks about it to everyone and anyone who will listen to her. She sings "It's a small world after all" all day, every day. And she carries around her Mickey and Minnie Mouse with her EVERYWHERE. Nobody loves Disney more than this girl!!

One really fun experience that I will always remember was on our first day at Disney, just as we were walking into the park. There were characters everywhere and our kids were ecstatic! However, as I pushed our double stroller to each line in hopes of meeting one, someone would tell me the line is closed! I seriously ran from line to line, and then feeling totally defeated, headed over to the fire station where we saw Dale, our last hope. That line was closed too but the lady took pity on me and made us the very last people to be allowed to get in line. We got our picture with Dale and the kids got their hugs in, and then without warning, Dale suddenly walked off with our kids! Austin got scared and released his hand, but Evie was totally prepared to walk away with that crazy chipmunk and spend the rest of her life living in Disneyland! Once Austin saw Evie being brave and not getting kidnapped, he ran back over and resumed his place holding Dale's left hand :). The lady in charge acted like it was no big deal and simply said, "He'll be back in 30 minutes folks, he'll be back in 30 minutes!" Josh and I were both like, "Uhhhh, what?!" Hahaha! So we followed our kids and the crazy chipmonk across the park, in total awe of what was going on! As they walked along, kids were screaming Dale's name and our kiddos were feeling like rock stars because THEY were the ones Dale chose to take a random stroll with :). At the end of their walk, Dale picked a flower and kissed Evie on the head, and then gave Austin a flower and knuckles. And then without a word, he waved goodbye to us and was gone! The kids were in heaven and I was in awe. I seriously couldn't believe what had just happened! It was a great way to start off our magical day!! Everything after us was just icing on the cake! :) I'll let the pictures do the talking.....

Eating churros and hanging out in line for Small World :).

Tea Cups!!! This trip Austin actually got really into spinning the cup himself! It was a blast!

And as always, Evie wants to ride the "horsey ride" over and over and over :).

Waiting in line for Austin's favorite, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!!

The lines are always long, so you have to just get silly and go with it or you're going to be totally miserable. I think we've got that part down ;).

Austin's great attempt at taking some pictures while we waited in line! As always, I love the candidness!

Taking a break at the castle to fix Minnie's ears :).

James Dean, Mickey version (haha!)

I'm sooooo dizzy!!!!

Our kids beg for bubble wands EVERY. SINGLE. TIME we visit Disneyland but they are just too dang expensive! So we got smart this time and had the kids save up their Christmas and Birthday money to buy one themselves! Genius!! And since they had been drooling over these bubble wands for years now, they were more than happy to make the sacrifice to save! :)

Now if that isn't a VERY happy boy, then I don't know what is!

Disneyland just rolled out the new Pixar Parade because they are opening up a new Pixar Land so we got to watch the fun parade! We wanted good seats so about an hour before the parade, we found a spot to sit down. Then we got out the bubble wands and Mickey Mouse suckers we had bought and let the kids have fun! It was a great way to kill time while waiting for the parade to start and the kids were in heaven :). Other little kids were drawn to their bubble fun and came to play! It was so fun watching them have such a great time :). Honestly, it was probably more exciting for them than the actual parade!

Parade waiting, while Evie looks at the map and tells us what we are going to do next ;). Is it weird that both of our kids love the park maps?! Seriously though, they both ask for one at the entrance and use it all day long to direct us to our next adventure, protesting loudly if the map is accidentally folded wrong.....

Yummy suckers and my sweet babies! My heart is so full!

The wonderment of bubbles....

Those bubble wands might have been overpriced, but they were totally worth it to watch our little ones experience pure joy in the happiest place on Earth!

When it comes to Disneyland parades, location is a priority! And thanks to Mom's OCD'ness, we got us a pretty good spot :).

Cheers to a really great day!!

The sun setting into the lens adds an almost angelic feeling to this photo, closely mirroring our feelings in that moment. Why is it always too good?!!

We played just as hard on Disneyland day two as we did on day one! Just look at this picture of Evie to prove it! haha!

Mouth wide open and everything hahaha!

Hanging out while Evie took her little siesta :).

We laughed, we ate, and we had one heck of a day! As always, it was too good and the thought of leaving made me tear up (which happens every single time). 

Ready for day two!!

Big smiles and happy hearts :)

Evie got some money from my parents for her Birthday to buy a baby so of course she wanted a baby Minnie Mouse that we found at one of the stores there in the park and she was nice enough to use her left over money to buy Austin a giant lolipop that he was ecstatic to have! :). Evie took that little mouse on every ride, telling her baby to not be scared and pretending to feed her when she was hungry. She now eats, sleeps, and breathes with that baby mouse and throws a major fit if we forget her when we go somewhere. Like I said, she's obsessed!

Just look at those big smiles!!

As I held two little hands and slowly walked with them out of the park, my heart felt so full, but so sad. I knew it would be a while before we came back to our special happy place among the churros and happy characters and it was so hard to perk back up from that. But, unless you are a millionaire you can't afford to live at Disneyland, so I tucked the sweet memories we had made into the recesses of my mind and heart to hold safe until our next California adventure :). 

Farewell Disneyland! Until we meet again!