Disneyland - Day 2

I don't think I mentioned why we went to California. Kaiya's dance team travels each year somewhere to compete in a national dance competition. This year it was Disneyland! We were really excited when we found out it would be California. We thought it would be a great location for a family vacation.
About a week before we left we received the schedule for Kaiya's dance's. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she was only dancing 2 of the 7 days we would be there. Both days she would dance only in the morning so we would have the afternoon to do what we wanted.
The 2nd day in California...our 1st full day...we woke up early to get to Disneyland before the crowd and before it got too hot. It was much hotter weather than we are used to in rainy Washington. The kids (including Cirdan) were excited to go on the rides. I was excited to watch and be in the happiest place on earth. It is pretty hard to have a bad attitude there (although if you asked Cirdan I managed to squeeze in a few moments ;). The music and the environment is wonderful!
As soon as we walked through the gates...
(Cirdan added to the blog...his is in italic)

That's right- we couldn't go play, we couldn't go have fun, we HAD to stop for a picture session or the picture Nazi (HEIDI) would have thrown a fit. Every 14 steps....Stop! We have to take a picture she says. NOT AWESOME! It is great when we look back though, it's fun to see all of the stuff we did. I would not remember half of it without these pictures. So I guess it is worth it..... just doesn't seem like it at the time :)



Our two princesses....one of Ella's favorite things to do was walk through the big castle. She was in Heaven the entire time we were at Disneyland.
The first character that we saw was...Peter Pan! We had to stop to get a picture. He was an...interesting guy....
And by interesting Heidi means a super flamer...and I have gay friends....nothing wrong with gay people...this dude was a super weirdo. Creepy Peter Pan from Never been normal land.

It was fun running into kids and families from the dance studio. Kaiya happened to be on the carousel the same time as Maya in her dance group.

Try Kaiya...try!

Teacups...one of my favorite rides! Hahaha.....she is not kidding, Heidi is 31 and she digs the teacups. She may just pee her pants if she went on the big kid rides.

Kaiya, Ella and I on Dumbo, Ella got a kick out of controlling the up and down motion of Dumbo.

Good thing the girls were still in good spirits right here. It was hot, we had been in the sun starting at around 8am. That was the absolute best thing about staying at the Disneyland Hotel- we could take a couple hours in the afternoon and get out of the heat, take a nap, feed the kids and get ready to back at it.

It's a small world...Jett's first Disneyland ride. It was nice to be in the air conditioning for a little while. Last time we were at Disneyland this ride was shut down while they re-did it.

We went over to Toon town and had some food to eat. Goofy came out for pictures and autographs.

Daddy's girl :)

Look at those guns! LOL

We headed over to California Adventure.While everyone went on the Monsters Inc ride I sat out with Jett while he slept.

Christmas card this year? :)

We decided to go back to the hotel and then go get some food.

We were in Downtown Disney and there was a freeze mob that was put together. A handful of the kids from Auburn Dance Academy were asked to join in. Levi is on the left, Chris Carrington in the middle and Chris Akana on the right. They held their positions for 5 minutes. It went off pretty nicely and was fun to see in person...ever seen a freeze mob? Me neither....There were about 50 people in on it.

There was this little Mexican food place in Downtown Disney. It was nice to find since most of the other restaurants are sit down (which means stand and wait for 30 minutes to sit down and eat). Since we stayed at the hotel that is part of Downtown Disney this place was a perfect place to eat. Yummy also!

We ran into the Carrington's while we were eating so we met up with them later that evening. The guys spent a couple hours at the Ridemakerz. That place was like Build a Bear but for guys. They could pick out all the different parts of a car and put it together. Remote control or model car.

I took Kaiya, Ella and Jett and we met up with the girl Carrington's.

Kamryn...a dancer at ADA

Kaylee, Starley, Kaiya and Kameron being silly.

We all met and got ice cream. I have never eaten so much ice cream as I did that week. It seemed to be a nightly trend to get ice cream and the Haagen Dazs.

Fun times!!

Disneyland!

We were all excited to sunny California! Mickey Mouse! Disneyland! California Adventure! Roller coasters!
In the airport waiting....

One of our favorite families from dance was on the same flight with us. It made it nice so that the girls had other kids to play with while we waited. The parents work at the airport (one is a fire fighter...the other a 911 operator) so they pulled some strings and found out what seat Kaiya was sitting in so that Tatum could sit next to her.

Jett's very first plane ride! He did great!!! Slept most the way.

Kaiya got a Bop magazine for her trip. Her first ever. She was so excited. Reminded me of when I was growing up...

We rode in a smaller airplane since we flew into Long Beach Airport. I was pretty nervous about that but once we were on the plane it wasn't bad at all. Once we got to Long Beach I was shocked...COMPLETELY shocked about how small that airport is!! I had heard people talk about it but I never expected what I saw. It reminded me of a couple portables put together to make an airport. There were only 3 (I think?) doors in this little 'portable' where the planes came up to. There was a teeny tiny store (dont know if I can even call it that) and a little place where you could buy pastries or drinks. There was also a little bar. I wish I would have taken a picture of this place. When we got there we walked off the plane, down the stairs and across the tarmac. The baggage claim area was outside.

We grabbed our bags while Cirdan went and picked up our rental car. Kaylee had flown in a couple hours earlier so she came over to meet up with us. It was so hot there! We loved the nice warm weather.

Cirdan brought the car around and we loaded it up and headed to grab a bite to eat. We ate at a place near the Disneyland Hotel were we were staying. We were all ready for a fun week ahead so we rested for a few minutes, read our Disneyland information from the hotel and headed to Walmart to grab some food for the week.

When we got back we had just enough time to go to the pool. The kids had a lot of fun!! Jett LOVED the water. He loved to splash and kick his feet.

Justin (a kid from dance) tried to photo bomb the picture.

We went to bed excited for the next days adventures!

Kaiya's 1st Limo Ride

Kaiya's elementary school had a fundraiser and who ever raised more than $200 (I think that was the amount) got to go for a limo ride with the principal. With the help of some family and Puget Sound Moving Kaiya was able to go on the limo ride. She had never been in one before so she was really excited. Some of her good school friends also went.
They rode around for about an hour, stopped to eat their lunch at a park and play on the toys. The PTA president surprised the kids and had the driver stop at McDonalds so they could all get an ice cream cone.
Kaiya says - It was super fun. It was my first time in a limo. I wish we had a limo as a car.

Xtreme Party

Before we all went to California for Nationals there was an Xtreme pool party/potluck to celebrate the end of the year and luck at the Spotlight competition. It was held at one of the girls parents house...which was absolutely beautiful. The kids had fun swimming and hanging out together for one last hoorah.