I don't know where to start with this post....there are soooo many pictures and soooo many memories! What a FUN trip we had. We went with two other friends and their families which added to the fun.
We left Saturday morning and drove to St. George, to break up the drive for the kids we spent the day there and got a hotel for the night. Cameron was so excited that his bed was inside the couch and couldn't wait to get in his bed (not go to sleep, just get in it lol). Kenzie and Cameron both slept really well considering we were all in one room and Kenzie was in a pack and play.
Sunday morning we got up and we all followed each other to Las Vegas for lunch at The Cheese Cake Factory :) Then back on the road to California. Got stuck in some bad traffic but eventually made it to California around 7 pm. The kids did great in the car. Lucky for movies and some travel prize bags Grammy and Grampy gave to the kids. I pulled stuff out of them every so often to keep them entertained. They both slept a lot too. This is Mackenzie so happy to be out of the car at the hotel....waiting while daddy checks us in!
Then up to our room! Cameron was so bummed that he wasn't going to get to see Mickey Mouse that night he thought he was going to be at the hotel or that we were going to go to Disneyland right then. So to get his mind off of that we went swimming. That did the trick, he didn't want to get out of the pool. Swimming lessons were a success because Cameron LOVES to swim and be in the water now!
Yay!! Our first of three days at Disneyland and California Adventure begin :)
It was so fun to see how they decorated it for Halloween.....really cute! I bought Cameron and Mackenzie "Disneyland shirts" Mickey and Minnie that they wore.
Such a cute picture of my cute kiddos
All the cute kids
The girls got their faces painted while we were on a ride. We didn't think Cameron would care, but when we met up with them he said he wanted his face painted too. So he picked this monster "alien" he called it. I tried to get him to use the $16 towards a toy or something since I knew the paint wouldn't last long, but he had his mind set on it....
It looked pretty cool....for about 10 minutes and then he rubbed it off slowly when he would itch his nose, rub his cheek on our shoulder when we held him etc. You can see in lots of the pictures as the day goes on, it just looks like he as a partial green bruise or something :)
At Mickey Mouses' house!
We went inside his house and actually got to meet him which was unexpected. This was the first time Cameron had seen Mickey since we had been there that day. Cameron kept giving five and wouldn't leave, even after everyone else was out of the house, he was still hanging around with his pal.
Look at that smile! He was so excited to eat dinner at Goofy's kitchen that night. When he saw Goofy I thought he was going to explode. Actually, he almost exploded with excitement with every character that came to our table during dinner. With the exception of any of the princesses.
He got an autographed picture of Goofy. Kenzie is snoozing in the stroller in the back ground. Dinner was a buffet which is usually sketchy, but it was great food and with all the characters that came around to the tables it was well worth the money.
I made him go get in the picture with Snow White. He wasn't too excited about it....I think his face is so funny. He wasn't going to even pretend he was excited!
He was laughing his head off with Pluto,
and loved Max. He made sure all the characters gave him five and knuckles (at least 5 times). His little brain was turning though, he was asking me questions like "why don't they talk" and he poked Pluto's eyes and said "they are hard". What 3 year old starts thinking like that?! I might be having a Santa Clause talk sooner than I think!!?? LOL
Minnie Mouse apparently thought Chris and I were a couple. I told Janelle that we could photo shop her head onto me and I could photo shop Jeremy's head onto Chris. That way we could both have a couples picture with Minnie :)
We watched the fireworks show one of the nights and it was awesome! Definitely a must see. Too bad Cameron fell asleep 2 minutes before the first firework and missed the whole thing. Ever since the 4th of July he has been asking me to "watch those lights far up in the sky" again. So I tried to wake him up to see the show, but he was so tired from his first day at Disney that he wasn't waking up.
All day the only thing that really got Mackenzie's attention was balloons (of course!). She had fun on the rides and enjoyed looking all around, but every time she saw a balloon she would squeel with excitement and point like crazy. Finally we gave in and bought her the $8 balloon that night (when she was too tired to really care). We tied to the stroller and had it with us all the other days too, she LOVED it. We made sure to be really careful the whole time and not pop it etc. We packed it with us in the car to take home and apparently it flew out of our car the first pit stop we made because about 30 minutes after getting on the road again I said, "where did you put the balloon?" and Jeremy said, "I didn't put it anywhere" So the only thing I could figure out is it escaped out when we opened the doors. That's okay, it's up with Grandma Murdoch, Mackenzie's namesake who gave Kenzie her obsession of balloons!
During the fireworks!! The kids are out cold. This stroller was the best thing we could have brought with us. Neither of our friends brought strollers, so their kids were always piling on for a ride. And there were several times Cameron, Kenzie and other kids fell asleep in it. Yay for the double BOB stroller!!
Mackenzie watching fireworks. She was such a trooper the whole time. Way better than we imagined she would be. The funny thing is she held strong all day and night, fighting the sleeping. She would take a little nap during the day, but then was up until we went back to the hotel. She enjoyed the fireworks.
Such a cute picture. They were always holding hands and sticking together.
Mckaylee was such an awesome helper. She was always playing with Mackenzie and holding her. Mackenzie didn't let anyone hold her besides Jeremy and I. All the other kids were so cute with her too, they all loved on her and spoiled her with attention.....sometimes a little too much :)
Breakfast at Surf's up. Another fun character dining experience. The best part about this was we were pretty much the only people there since we went at 10:30!! So basically the kids had all the attention of the characters and lots of one on one time. The kids all sat at one table and the adults sat at another table. I think Cameron took only had one bite of his breakfast...he was too excited and distracted.
Cameron loved Daisy. I took some videos of him dancing with her. He was laughing sooooo hard it was hillarious.
Mickey was rubbing Jeremy's head for good luck I think :)
AWWWW!!
Mackenzie didn't like when the characters came right up close to her. She would reach for me or lean back as far as she could. But when they were far away she would get excited and point.
We bought separate tickets to Mickey's Trick or Treat Party. So Tuesday morning we went swimming and hung out until it was time for the party that night. The kids had fun going around the park in their costumes getting candy.
Cameron laughed when I put on my headband with a tiny witches hat on it and said, "silly mommy that is for Kenzie" I told him it was actually for me, but it was so small it looked like it could be for her.
Half way through trick or treating he was out and so was she. He woke up about an hour later while we were watching the parade.
The fam in front of the hotel....
Day two we spent over at California Adventure.
Cameron loved seeing Lightening Macqueen and Mater.
He has been watching Bugs Life movie lately so the Bugs Life area and rides were fun for him.
We were a little surprised that one of his favorite rides was the Tower of Terror. He rode it twice and wasn't scared. I freaked me out a little and made Jeremy scream like a little girl. Cameron would have gone on all of the rides if he could. He was so sad when he couldn't go on several rides like the big roller coaster or the Matterhorn because of his height.
The first two days in the park were somewhat disappointing for him because he was 39.5 inches not 40 inches which most of those rides required. It was so sad when after waiting in lines and being told "you aren't tall enough" 3 times in a row he finally said, "let's just go home there isn't anything I can do here." I had Jeremy go to the store that night and buy some thick soled shoes and some inserts that would make him the 1/2 inch he needed! There was no way I was going to let him miss out on the new Cars ride and some of the other ones he wanted to do. So, we did just that and the next day he was magically taller and so excited that he could ride the rides.
It's so hard to get a good family picture....either some random people and kids were in it, or the kids weren't looking.
I love how Cameron would always hold the character's hands. He just was so cute with them. It is such a magical place and so fun, but you realize it way more when you take kids there!! (notice Cameron's shoes....those were the magic shoes).
The last night at Disney. We hated to leave. It really is the happiest place on earth and I can't wait to go back!!! We ate enough corn dogs and churros to hold us over until next time.
I wish I would have taken more videos because I could watch this all day long. However, I am glad I got the pictures and videos I did get. I was in heaven watching Cameron be on cloud 9 and would forget I needed to be taking pictures. Hopefully he will remember some of this trip because he sure had a blast!!
