California Adventure May 31

Ok so here goes.  We stayed Monday night at my sister-in-laws house so that we could get there that much earlier on Tuesday.  We didn't hit terrible traffic so we got there right as California Adventure was opening.

 We tried to hurry over to Toy Story Midway Mania, but the ride was closed due to technical difficulties.

Ethan is sticking out his tounge :)

So my boys dragged me on Mickey's Fun Wheel instead.  I did put my foot down and insist that we get a fixed gondola instead of the swinging gondola.  

Sorry, no pics from the top, I was too busy holding on for dear life!

After that we headed over to the new Little Mermaid ride.  It was just open to passholders (I think the grand opening was Friday) so the line wasn't terribly long, only 45 mins :) 

Walking to the ride

Next we went on the Golden Zephyr.  I took Ethan and Ben took Brynna.  Little Ben decided he was too scared to go (this was going to be a theme throughout the vacation).  It was fun and the kids loved it.

He got a little nervous once we strapped him in.  Like he realized finally that Ben had been throwing a fit over this.

Ben and Brynna up on the ride.

After that, it was lunch time so we went over to the Aladdin Musical.  We ate our lunch while waiting in line (it wasn't a line that moved to we could stay seated).  That was one of the best shows I've been to!  The genie was so funny.  My kids all loved it too!

Because there were a lot of rides that Brynna couldn't go on, Ben and I did rider swaps which worked nicely.  We took the boys on Tower of Terror (Ben's idea not mine) like that.  I had a fast pass, then Ben got a rider swap so it went really fast.  Nither boy was impressed with it.  Ethan kept calling it the broken elevator.

Waiting for our elevator

Strapped in

LOVE his face!

Then we watched a few mins of the Pixar Parade on our way out.  (we had to go check into our hotel and the kids got a much needed nap)

When we got back, we noticed that Toy Story Mania was open so we stood in line for what felt like forever to go on it.  Mr. Potato kept us entertained.

I don't want to take a picture!

The ride was amazing!  We all loved it tons.  After we got off, we went to pick up our picnic dinners.  

Eating our dinner.  The food was horrible.  Really dont suggest this to anyone!

We decided to buy the World of Color picnics because it said that you got preferred seating.  My grandparents said that they had a hard time seeing the show in March.  So we forked out the extra $14 per person so that we would have better seats.  Biggest waist of money!  Apparently it is no different than just getting a fast pass for it.  There were fast pass people with better seats because they had gotten their fast passes before we picked up our meal (they didn't tell us that the earlier we picked up our meal the better seats we got).  So we were way to one side and the kids could hardly see anything.  Major disappointment! 

After the show, we headed back to the hotel for some sleep.  

Ok, blogster is only letting me add one pic at a time so more tomorrow.  I must go clean!

Yea!

I am excited to blog about disneyland, but i am not doing it yet.  I have been too busy.  We have only been on summer break for a week and already we have canned over 40 quarts of apricots and 17 pints of apricot jam, we have gone to disneyland for 3 days, the boys went of father/son campout, and had a visit from my beautiful sister.  Tomorrow brings picking and canning cherries and the start to swim lessons.  Later in the month is a couple of family reunions and visits with family and Ben's 5th b-day. So life is going to be crazy crazy crazy busy this summer.  But when I blog about disneyland it will be amazing.  And don't think "oh she went before, it will be the same" because it wont.  We didn't hardly repeat any rides.  So it will be all new.  Well, I am done blogging about how I am not going to blog.  Goodnight

Big Head

Little Ben tells me today that he is the best yeller ever.  I turned to my mother in law (who was visiting for the day) and tell her "He thinks he is best at everything.  He has quite the opinion of himself."  Well, he turns to me, and in all seriousness, says "No mom, I AM the best at everything.  I am really pretty sure."
Yup, I dont think they make hats big enough for my son!

Easter

Easter was a blast!  We went up to my grandma's house and I got to see my mom & dad and lots of aunts, uncles & cousins.  It was tons of fun.  Here are some pics of the event :)

On Saturday we played outside for awhile and colored easter eggs.

 Dad playing catch with Ethan and baseball with Ben

 Brynna relaxing and watching the show

hahaha my dad and me playing volleyball.  for the record, though i have horrible aim, he is the one who hit it on the roof and over the fence ;)

I'm not sure which Ben was having more fun :)

Brynna on the other had was not having any fun cuz she had just woken up from a nap.

Easter morning the boys woke up to find their easter buckets that the Easter bunny left.

hahaha Ben's so excited face while i was taking a pic of their buckets!

 mmmmm jelly beans

 Then the kids did a little easter egg hunt with the eggs they had colored the day before.

 Too interested in her bracelet to care about hunting

 Found one

 Check out my egg!

After that we went to church then went back to Grammie's for Easter lunch (at which point we changed them out of their cute Easter clothes so they didn't get food on them).  We got to see lots of family from my side and my kids had lots of fun with cousins.  After dinner we let the boys play with their bubble machines that they got for Easter.  They had so much fun!

He wanted to walk around with it.  Too funny!

We also had another egg hunt.  The little kids were told to watch how the big kids did it in the front and then were sent out back to hunt their eggs.  Well, Ben took that to heart and ran as fast as he could like the big kids.  As a result, he got far more eggs than everyone else.  Oopps!  Guess he has to go out front with the big kids next year :)

 Brynna kept picking up eggs, deciding that she didn't like the color, then would put them back down.  haha too funny!

 My mom asked Ethan if she could take a picture of him and his eggs.  He stuffed his bucket in her camera.  Oh Ethan!

Counting to make sure we found them all.  Guess we didn't though cuz Grammie found a couple more the next day :)