Vacation 2012- Day 3

The plan:  sleep in a little, get up and go to the beach.  Rest in the afternoon, and head to the Angels game in the evening. 

We got up, and used the GPS on the iphone, and headed to Crystal Cove beach.  It was beautiful, and different than the beaches I had been to in Southern California before.  It actually reminded me of Northern California's beaches, but warmer.

Quinn was unsure about the whole thing at first.  She has only been to the beach one other time, and has only been in sand a handful of time. She liked the water ok, but didn't like when the waves went back into the ocean.  I am guessing she thought she was going to be sucked away.  She quickly warmed up the sand, and had a blast digging, and making castles. 

Ali and Dalan spent most of their time in the water.  I hung out in the water a bit too.  Ali, Dalan, and I all ended up losing our sunglasses in the ocean.  Yes, I lost the brand new pair my mom had bought for me the day before.  Sad. Sad. Sad. 

Ali, my mom, and I also all ended up getting sunburned, despite sunscreen!  Quinn and Dalan escaped the burn....lucky them. 

Quinn feel asleep on the way home, and took a huge nap.  The rest of showered and napped too.  It was quite relaxing and nice. 

We headed over the Angel's game, and bought our tickets.  While waiting in line, Quinn was holding Ali's other pair of sunglasses, loudly proclaiming, "mine, mine."  And then she broke them.  So Ali "lost" both pairs of sunglasses in one day.  Sad. 

It was Albert Puljos hat night, so the adults all got a free baseball cap, which was nice, because our seats were looking right into the sun for the first inning of the game, and the hats helped. 

Quinn was ok during the game, a little wild, a little sleepy, and a lot cute.  She stayed up for the ride home to the hotel surprisingly. 

Playing with the ice chest, while waiting for the game to start. 

Tears about getting her picture taken, not the game. 

 

 When we got back to our hotel, there was NO parking.  Ali, my mom, and Quinn got out to go up to the room, while Dalan and I went to figure something out.  Luckily, someone pulled out and we got the spot, only to find the rest of the gang locked out of the room.  Apparently, there was a mix up with our check out date, and they had turned off our keys.  We got new ones, and settled in for a good night's rest to prepare for the next day at California Adventure. 

Day 3 by the numbers:

15: sand castles
8: innings of rooting for the home team
4: tickets to the Angel's game
4: pairs of lost sunglasses
3:  sunburned ladies
3: people enjoying their first major league baseball game
1: bagel stolen by a seagull

Vacation 2012- Day 2

The plan:  to get up bright and early, and hit all the kid rides before the lines got to long, take a break in the middle of the day for Quinn's nap, and return to Disneyland in the evening.

Well, I set my alarm for pm, instead of am so we got a later start than planned.  Quinn was not happy about being woken up so early, and Ali, Dalan, and Patti hated the hotel pillows and had slept poorly.  But we made it over to Disneyland not too much later than planned, and headed to Peter Pan.

Quinn was still grumpy, and was not happy about having to wait in line.  She spoke her first three word sentence when she told Dalan she was a, "sad monkey, Dada."  She did fine on the ride, and might have even liked it a little. We then took her over to Dumbo, which she hated.  Dalan was taking pictures, and she just cried for him the entire time.

Sad Monkey

Quinn was not sure about this waiting in line thing we were doing. 

Note our sunglasses. 

All she wanted was her dada.

Dumbo may have made someone else nervous too!

We then got Quinn her first pair of ears from Disneyland, and Patti and Ali rode the Tea Cups.  Quinn was happy to chill in her stroller, and we enjoyed riding some big kid rides, including the Matterhorn.  I left my sunglasses in the pocket of the ride.  (You probably want to remember this.)

Ali trying on ears.

Ears

I took Quinn to Tarzan's Tree House, while the rest of the gang tried to ride Indiana Jones (it broke down while they were in line.) She loved it.  She was having so much fun at the end of the tour playing with the tools, that a tourist (American, even) took her photo, and some Asian tourists could not stop telling me how beautiful she was.  It was cute.  Quinn then ate a churro.

Being adorable at Tarzan's Tree House

Quinn loves Churros!

We then went to lunch at the Blue Bayou in the Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a lot of fun, but pricey.  I am glad we did it, and the Monte Cristo was so good.  During lunch, Quinn took a snooze. So after lunch, Ali and Patti went on Indiana Jones with the Fast Passes we got after the ride broke down.  Then Dalan and I went on the ride, and Quinn woke up.  She, my mom, and Ali went on the Pirate Ship, and Quinn learned that boat starts with B, and can now say Native American.  We also took Quinn on Pirates- she was a wild little monkey in line, and hated the ride.  It was too dark and scary. 

Ali and Dalan at lunch

My fam at lunch. 

Patti at lunch. 

Waiting in line for Pirates

Quinn is really into holding things- she held that sunscreen all afternoon.

We headed back to the room.  Quinn watched some Cars, and then our family went swimming while Patti and Ali ran to the store for new pillows, and to get me new sunglasses.

Watching Cars with her Minnie ears. 

In the evening, we headed back to Disney, and took Quinn on Small World, and to Toon Town.  She loved both of them.  She was running around Toon Town like a crazy woman.  We had delicious corn dogs for dinner.  Yum!  During the fireworks, Ali, Dalan, and I rode Big Thunder Mountain, while Patti stayed with Quinn.  Quinn ended up falling asleep in the middle of the fireworks.

Small World

Small World

Minnie's house

Mickey's house

We headed over to Tomorrowland, and did the Autotopia, and Buzz Light Year, which we loved.  It was so much fun.  After all that fun, we called it a night, and passed out in our beds- some with their new pillows.

Buzz

Blurry snoozing

Day 2 by the numbers:

3: uncomfortable pillows
3: corn dogs shared
1: trip to Target
1: pair of sunglasses lost
1: pair of sunglasses purchased
1: alarm clock set for the wrong time
1: sad monkey in the Happiest Place on Earth
1: wild toddler running through Toon Town
0: characters met

Vacation 2012- Day 1

The plan: Dalan, Quinn, Patti, and I will leave bright and early Sunday morning so we can have plenty of time in Southern California for our first night of vacation. Also so we can pick Ali up from the airport in the afternoon.

We packed the car the night before and left right at 6 am as planned. The drive to St. George and then onto las Vegas was seamless. Quinn was content, and we were making great time.

Then, we hit traffic jam after traffic jam, including a road closure. We ended up turning around on the freeway and having to take a frontage road at one point. Our ten hour drive quickly became a 12 hour drive.

Quinn was a trooper the entire time. She even started drawing "things" on her magnadoodle. She drew herself, Ali and Scout, and Ali and a kitty. Too cute.

We made a stop at a random gas station that had a urinal waterfall in the men's room, and paid $10 for a juice and a pack of gum.
 

When we finally arrived at our hotel, it was time to pick up Ali from the airport. Quinn and I stayed at the hotel while my mom and Dalan went to get her. The Tom Tom lead them astray, but eventually they made it the Long Beach Airport.

While they were gone, Quinn had a lot of energy. She managed to hurt herself three times in a row right away, so I decided to take her for a walk around our hotel, even though she was dressed in the style of "porky pig" (shirt, no pants). I quickly realized we were super close to Disney! We walked to the gate, so I could time the walk (eight minutes). I had to get a picture of her by something that said Disney, so I took her picture by the garbage can, dressed like Porky Pig and all.

After, Ali was picked up we headed to dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather. When we got back to the hotel, Quinn discovered the movie, Cars for the first time, and was instantly in love.

We called it an early night, and went to bed right after the fireworks from Disneyland.

Day 1 by the numbers:

70-85: degrees in Southern California
12: hours in the car
10: dollars for juice and gum
10: PM bedtime.
8: minutes to Disney from our hotel
2: movies watched by Quinn
1: detour
1: crazy lady walking around Disney with a kid with no pants

Scout

Ali and McKay adopted a beautiful little (well, 12 lbs) Rottweiler/German Shepard puppy the other night. She was born at the end of May and is so sweet! They named her Scout.

We are all excited to see how much she grows and changes over the next couple of months. The big question is what Rottweiler features will she have and what German Shepard features?

Quinn thinks "Cout" is so cute. They had a blast running around chasing each other. Quinn even wore her collar and played with her toys. The other big question is how long will it take for Scout to be bigger than Quinn?