The happiest place on earth

I'm going to start off by saying that this post is not for the fainthearted.  I have a million pictures (and this is barely a fraction of what we took) but I didn't have the heart to not document some of it.  So sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy and entire week of Maughan life in the happiest place on earth.  

When we gave a trip to Disneyland to the kids for Christmas it seemed like it was so far away and their countdown chains weren't getting any smaller and now all of the sudden it's over!  What happened?  It was honestly one of the most fun (if not the most fun) vacation we have ever taken.  Yes we left Kate home and yes it was hard, but honestly it was a lot easier without her there.  No diapers for a whole week!!  It was a very long drive though but these two angels were so good despite Rach trying to look mad in this picture, she was just posing.

 

To break the trip up a bit we stopped in Las Vegas and spent a night there.  Even though Vegas is my least favorite place in the whole world we actually had a lot of fun.  We decided to go see the fountains at the Belagio which was awesome.  As we were walking in from the parking lot there were 2 ladies standing by the door and 2 men walking in next to us.  One of the men said to the ladies, "Are you two prostitutes?" and the lady said "You can't afford us."  I about died!  This is my kids first experience with Vegas, we've been there for 2 minutes and this is what they hear!  Come to find out the men were just parking and they were actually together (hopefully happily married) and just joking.  I'm glad my kids don't know what prostitutes are yet.  That could have been really bad.......

 

We made it to California the next day and hit Disneyland hard for 3 whole days from opening until they kicked us out at night, no rests, no naps, hardly even sitting down to eat.  This is one of those rare times where I'm so glad my kids can function (and prefer to function) on little sleep.  I knew there was a reason they never napped.  We met all the characters and got autographs too.  And now I know if I ever want to torture Trav all I have to do is stick him in It's a Small World and he will slowly be driven insane.....

 

One of the favorite rides by far was the teacups.  We went on that one several times.  I have to say that is was the perfect time to go to Disneyland. Lots of rides we could just walk on and most of them we waited for about 5 minutes to get on, so we actually hit pretty much every ride in both parks, (I can count on 1 hand how many rides we missed). We went on our favorites a few times and the weather was PERFECT.

 

Here's Josh relaxing after the first day in Disneyland in the hotel with the coveted twinkie.  Man, life is good.

 

Day 2 we decided to go see the princesses.  This was BY FAR the longest wait we had and it was about 45 minutes but lucky mom got to wait in line while everyone else ate lunch.  Rachel was a little star struck but she loved seeing the real princesses.

 

This is what Josh's face looked like while we were visiting the princesses.

 

Let's get some sugar flowing through those veins so we don't have to stop!

 

This is more what Josh liked.  Lightning McQueen.  They're building a whole section for Cars in California Adventure.  I'm sure it will be so cool when it's all done.Last time I went to Disneyland California Adventure didn't even exist. What!?! It's been a while and long overdue.

 

Here we are getting ready for the Toy Story ride.  SO much fun!

 

Don't you wish you sometimes had one of these in your house?  Anyone...Anyone?  Ummm okay I guess I'm the only one.

 

We went on Mickey's Fun Wheel (the big ferris wheel) about 6 times and of course we had to get on the carts that swing. It was so fun and kind of a rush.

 

On night 2 one of our friends that lives about 5 minutes away from Disneyland came and took the kids around for a while so Trav and I could go on some of the bigger rides.  Thanks Tamera!  It was awesome.  After a couple hours Josh started missing us even though he won that cute Mickey playing a game. 

 

By the time we got back to the hotel he got his 2nd wind again and they played until I wanted to go to bed. 

How do they never get tired?

 

Our third day (okay this is getting long) was spent devoted to hitting all of our favorite rides again.  Yes Rach and I match, no I didn't plan that.

 

We let them each pick out a souvineer to bring home.  Josh chose a supercool light saber.  I thought this picture turned out kind of cool with no flash on. This is what kept us all entertained while we were waiting for the World of Color fountain show.  It was so cool!  (I keep saying that)

 

We were sad to leave Disneyland but vowed to go back again.  I have to admit it was nice to have a day to relax and drive down the coast to San Diego. We stopped at the beach and this was the kids' first time ever seeing the ocean.  The water was colder than Bear Lake (gasp!) so we just stuck our toes in but we literally had the beach to ourselves. Only those crazy Utahn's think that 65 degree weather is warm. No, it's perfect.  They loved playing in the sand and waves and this beach was beautiful with cliffs and caves and some sea lions too!

 

These ones are just soaking up the sun but in the water right next to them there were some mothers teaching their babies how to swim. It was so cute!

 

After spending the night in San Diego and swimming in the hot tub (it was outdoor and kind of stormy so the pool was cold) We went to Sea World!  Even though half of the park was under construction it was still cool.  And for people like us that can do Disneyland in a blink of an eye this was a piece of cake.  We had spare time!

 

Josh wore a very appropriate shirt but I couldn't get a good picture with the real sharks so this was the best I could do.

 

We even ran into some old friends from West Jordan. How random is that? 

Before leaving San Diego we had to hit the beach again.  We tried a different spot this time.  There were more people and lots of surfers which was so cool.

 

Josh's favorite part was burying rocks and building sand castles.  They always have to have a "flag"

 

Rachel loved playing in the freezing water.  We didn't put her swimsuit on because we thought there was no way she'd want to get in.  Well, she was soaked from the bellybutton down and didn't even bat an eye. 

 

This was the best vacation and we couldn't have anything happen any better than it did (okay the whole prostitute thing I wasn't a fan of and we didn't realize that Nascar was going on in Vegas when we were trying to leave so it took us an hour to get out of Vegas.  What is with Vegas?)

While we were gone Kate stayed with grandma and grandpa Schick and not only learned how to crawl up and down the stairs but how to walk too.  Grandpa you're in so much trouble!  She was a little shell shocked when we got home....no more peace and quite.  Only the chaos that we know and love so well.  After about an hour of being home I was holding her and she stuck her head in my shoulder and started breathing so hard, like she was just breathing me in.  She patted my back and after that we're back to normal, as normal as we can be here at the Maughan's.   

So keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times and have a great day!