We had the best spring break ever. It was the first time I can ever remember being gone for the whole week, which was kind of awesome. Turns out when you're gone the whole week you don't have to kill yourself to try to entertain your kids. This is a good thing for sure.
We headed to St George first so we could split the drive up. Then we were on our way to Long Beach, California. We had great fun. The first day we were there they were having drift car races (I think that's what they're called) right by our hotel. Jake and Zack thought they had died and gone to heaven. Every boy/man who was watching was wishing they could somehow drive a race car. It's definitely a guy thing. And those engines, holy cow were they loud! Apparently in order to go fast your car must also be loud. Again, loudness + speed = every man's dream. The girls and I got separated from the boys, well, we left them because they wouldn't leave. We wandered around and found ourselves right by all the race cars. Super cool. So we told the boys to come join us. They tried and couldn't. Somehow we made our way into a 'tickets only' area without tickets. So, we took pictures by the pink and purple car and then proceeded to exit. The boys were jealous.
Anyway, while in Long Beach we did some exploring, went to the aquarium (super cool one), and went to the beach. The beach right by our hotel was like sitting at a lake. I guess there are breakers at the end of the bay to keep sharks out. These breakers also keep waves out. Happy there weren't any sharks, but beaches are no fun without waves.
So on Monday we headed to a real beach (Huntington Beach) and played all day. It was so great and relaxing. The water was freezing of course, but we still managed to play in it. The kids even had their swim suits on. We got to watch Sage get picked up and tossed onto the beach by a wave. Everyone has to experience this at least once. We bought a super cheap Sponge Bob kite that we got in the air. Sage loved flying Sponge Bob and it stayed up the whole time we were there. We ended the day eating delicious mexican food right off the beach. Such a great day.
Then we headed to our next stop, which was....Disneyland!! Greg and Tracy got everyone a hotel and took us all to Disneyland. And when I say everyone I mean like 60 people, so this was no small feat. We got to spend two days in the park (Jake had to leave a day early because of work). The first day we just had horrible luck with fast passes. I somehow lost some, rides were broken, basically the odds were not in our favor. We still had great fun, we just didn't make it on all of the rides we wanted to. We left at 5:30 to join some of the Higleys at The Cheesecake Factory. A delicious way to end the day. The kids were so tired after dinner that we didn't end up going back to Disney.
The second day I was determined to make up for our failures of the first day. Mission accomplished on that one. We were there before the park even opened. We strategically got our fast passes and went on as many rides as possible before the crowds showed up. The kids were troopers for sure because we walked all over. We left the park for like an hour to get dinner and then we stayed until after 10:00pm. We all barely made it back to the hotel because our feet were so tired. Some of the favorite rides were the big roller coaster, splash mountain, thunder mountain, space mountain, and of course radiator springs. Sage is not a big fan of fast, crazy rides. We had to convince her to go on all of them. During the ride she would scream and put her hands in the air. After she would say, "That was fun!" But when we asked her if she wanted to go on it again we would get a quick "No!"
We headed back to St George on Thursday. The kids got to swim with their cousins until it was dark. The perfect way to end the trip. You know you've had a good time when you've been gone for a week and the kids still complain that its time to go home. Thanks to Greg and Tracy for a most excellent adventure!
Awesome race cars. Turn the sound way up for the full effect!
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| awesome pink and purple race car |
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| at the aquarium |
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| the Queen Mary ship in the background (I think that's what its called) |
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| Sponge Bob flying high! |
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| Kate playing in the bubbles |
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| Out on the pier |
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| Disneyland!! |
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| Waiting in line. This is Sage's I'm scared face |
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| Mickey's house! |
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| This picture says a thousand words Love it! |
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| Waiting in more lines |
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| Lovely Snow White |
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| Sage was the only one who knew who this was |
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| Storm Trooper! |
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| We loved Splash Mountain! |
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| Sage collapsed on the bed the second we got back to the hotel |
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| Ending it all in the pool:) |
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| Long Beach lake |
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| This picture is kind of horrible |
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| Sassy Sage |
