This is going to be a really long blog entry....

There is just too much to mention that I can't figure out how to leave anything out...so here goes! For Christmas my parents got all of us kids and our families a trip to Disneyland, and we cashed in on it February 5th-14th. We got to extend the stay by two days, thanks to some car trouble and bad weather...the only time those two things work to your advantage. We did so many fun things while we were there and I'm just so grateful to my parents for making this happen.

Tori did amazingly well driving for so long. She got to sample way too much fast food, dairy, and sweet stuff, but hey, we're on vacation right?! Along with that fun, we had saved up all our extra coins for the trip and managed to earn $45 for Tori's spending money down there so she walked away with some fun loot including, a new Shamu puzzle, a Tinkerbell wand that lights up, a new star floaty for swimming, and a bucket and shovel for the beach (if we ever get to go again).

Sea World:

My nephews Andrew and Nicolas LOVE Shamu, so our first day in California we went to Sea World. Tori was completely uninterested in the Shamu show, but she liked the baluga whales, the polar bears, and the killer whale-esque dolphins at the Atlantis ride. We also got to feed the sea lions and Brandon got to pet the dolphins with Tori (which I have some fun video of, but still haven't figured out how to upload it on this computer).

Heading to Sea World...check out her new kicks we got from the Converse outlet!

With the dolphins of Atlantis!

One highlight moment of the trip for me was this arcade at Sea World. Everyone was getting so into it. We got the kids lined up to play a game, and Brandon spent a pretty penny or two or three trying to win an IPod touch from one of their grab-it machines.

DisneyLand:

We got a 3 day pass to DisneyLand and California Adventure. We went there Monday, Tuesday, and then Thursday. Monday was a full busy day. We stayed there from open to close. We spent the morning in Fantasy Land, which Tori was kind of grumpy through most of it. We then took her on the scariest rides possible for a 10 month old...The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribbean. Needless to say, she was somewhat apprehensive of the rides at first.

The whole family!

With our favorite Mickey Mouse! He actually played with her for a little bit, and I missed out on a pic of it!!

Riding the carousell! She was ready for a nap at this point, so toward the end of the ride she was ready to be done. Brandon took her on another ride in California adventure and she waved to everyone and genuinely enjoyed it quite a bit!

We decided to dress Tori up one day as Tinkerbell...my favorite character.

We were lucky enough to actually see Tinkerbell and after waiting in line for 30 minutes to get a picture with her, my little Tori cried in Tinkerbell's face. Disappointed as I was, Tinkerbell helped things out by playing peek-a-boo with Tori. So, that was tons of fun!

We got to spend a little time in California Adventure, but there's not a ton of kid rides there, so we tried to hussle through all the fun rides like Tower of Terror, California Screamer, and Soaring. I was sad because I decided to skip out on a show they had at the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (which is Tori's favorite show) and they had Handy Manny there and Little Einsteins, which my mom said Tori just loved. But it was the one time we got to go ona ride with our friends the Bodily's so I wasn't too disappointed!

Our final day moments at DisneyLand were actually my favorite. Tori was wide awake and happy, so we decided to go try out the Small World ride before we left with out cousins Nicolas and Mylie and our Aunt Amber. The line had a huge wait time, but thanks to the parade we followed through Fantasy Land, we actually got to walk right on, and Tori loved it!

Midieval Times and Pirate Adventure:

Two nights we got to go out to dinner at some themed restaurants...not gonna lie, I don't normally get into this kind of thing, but I loved both shows. I liked the food better at Midieval times, but the Pirate show was fun because it was more interactive. I think we all had a part in it. I was one of the treasure hunters and I might add, because we won our challenge our pirate was named first mate. My nephew Nicolas and niece Aimee got to go on the ship and Nicolas made friends with the BAD captain. I have video of Nicolas telling the captain that he was the "skeleton ghost pirate." So funny! Then all our men folk got recruited to load the ship. Also another must see video.

Go Jack...the red pirate!

All the boys suited up for a life of servitude!

At Midieval times our Knight pretty much rocked at every challenge until the hand-to-hand combat...he lost in the second round. I had to wonder if they were all just acting...whaaa?

The Beaches:

Our first night in California we stayed in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego. We got ourselves all suited up for the beach only to find this:

Rocks as far as the eye could see....no sand castles today, and it was freezing cold.

So, we didn't stick around too long. Instead, we filled our time with outlet stores and the hotel pool.

Our second venture to the beach was still a bit chilly. While waiting for one of the van's to get fixed on Friday, we decided to try out a sandy beach in Huntington. It's a lot windier in California than I remember, but we got some more beautiful pictures, built some sand castles, even dipped our toes in. Brandon, Jacob, and Jonathan were brave enough to actually go for a swim.

Grandpa and Tori...love this picture!

Tori all bundled up playing with her sea shell! My friend Becca made those booties for her while we were down there and they're amazing!!

Brandon in the middle there, getting clobbered by a wave!

Oh California!!! McCall may have fallen to second best place in the world.