Trip to California

We drove to California. To break it up we stayed in Las Vegas for a night and swam in the pool before we left the next day. The kids slept for a few hours as soon as we left Las Vegas. It was nice to chat with Greg and have an intermission of my "one-woman entertainment show". The kids were so excited to see Mimi and Grandpa with a mustache. First off Hayley usually asks Mimi "So what's the plan!" She knows when she sees Mimi there is fun to be had! We went to Disneyland on my birthday so I could get in free. (I always have to have a deal!) It was wonderful to run around with just Hayley and Brooke, Mimi was wonderful and stayed home with Lincoln (she took him to work b/c she brought cake to a friend and Lincoln apparently put on quite a show). THANKS MOM! We hit so many rides right when it opened and did the fast passes for the rest. Brooke REALLY wanted to see the princesses so we waited in line for almost 3 hours! Cinderella was awesome(she asked Hayley about her fairy godmother and if she gave her her necklace, she told them not to be shy like gug-gus, and she showed them all these different poses), Snow White was ok, Jasmine needs to be fired (she didn't say a word). The fav ride was autotopia. I remember loving that ride when I was young. They loved driving their own car. We didn't have to wait in line the first time and they wanted to go again so we had to fastpass it and that was still a very long wait. Greg was yelling at the adults passing underneath, "Don't ride this ride, go drive your own car!" He couldn't understand why adults would "clog" up the line to drive a car. Yeah he wasn't feeling the "magic" at that point. One of the coolest things there was the Jedi training. Kids were able to fight Darth Vader! Greg was so excited for that one but he wasn't chosen. The fireworks were spectacular and we were all pooped (especially Brooke). It was a great day.
The next day we went to Santa Monica pier with Charles and cousins. We had a fun day at the beach. These kids could stay at the beach all year. It was very enjoyable hanging out with Charles and family. The rest of the week we stayed at Matt and Amanda's. The kids had a blast together. We rode our bikes to the beach a few times, went shopping, played at the beach and watched fireworks at a monestary. It was a wonderful week with family!