After swimming and relaxing, we took a leisurely 15-minute walk to Downtown Disney. The feeling I had as I walked through the Disney gates was one of pure excitement! The sights, sounds, and even the smells brought back memories of my childhood, and I could hardly contain myself as I anticipated with excitement the joy we would experience together at Disneyland!
The Disney Store in Downtown Disney was HUGE! We were in there for the longest time, just looking at all the things there are to see (and buy). We didn't buy anything this time. Each of us had an alloted amount that we had agreed upon in advance for purchasing a special souvenire, so we each wanted to be careful about how we spent that amount.
The "C" outside California Adventure was decked out for the holiday season, so we took advantage of this photo opportunity with Mickey! The funny thing about this picture is that Tyler had just bumped his head on Mickey's ear when he was climbing up. After we took the picture, he climbed up for a second one, and bumped his head in exactly the same way again. So, Mickey's ear is not one of Tyler's favorite things, to say the least!
We had an early bedtime the first night in California. The next morning we were up early, ate breakfast, then walked to Disneyland at 8:30 for "Magic Morning" -- an opportunity to enter the park an hour before it opened. We saw Chip and Dale first thing. We were so excited to be in the Disneyland Park -- it was magical!!! Part of the amazement was being the first ones in the park. It felt like we had it all to ourselves. We could hardly contain our excitement!
The first ride we went on was the new "Finding Nemo" submarine ride. We got right on without a wait. Trent was a little afraid of the shark that "ate" us. He talked about that for a long time. He loved seeing Nemo under the water. This ride was so cute!I love this picture of David and Trent. Their profiles are so much alike! I took this picture while we were getting ready to go on "Finding Nemo." You can see the Matterhorn in the background.
We rode the tram, then went on several rides in Fantasyland, including the Teacups, Peter Pan Takes Flight, Alice in Wonderland's ride, Dumbo, Storybook Land, Autoban, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the Matterhorn, and the carousel. We split up for part of the morning, and David took Tyler and Todd on some of the scarier rides, while I took Tiffani and Trent on the little kid ones.
Tiffani and Trent wanted their souvenirs to be from the Build-A-Bear Workshop. This turned out to be a highlight for them to choose their bears, then stuff, fluff and dress them. They even got to name their bears. Tiffani's bear's name is Kylie and Trent's is Lucky. They packed their bears around the rest of the day. It was so cute.
While Tiffani and Trent were at the Build-A-Bear Workshop, Tyler and Todd were checking out the Lego store in Downtown Disney. Tyler bought a Lego set, and put it together while we ate lunch.
We chose pizza at Naples in Downtown Disney for lunch. We ate outdoors, and it was so peaceful and quiet. The weather was perfect! The food was good too, especially the bread with olive oil garlic dip.
I love this picture of David -- it depicts how he feels about being at Disneyland! 
Soarin' Over California was one of our favorite rides to go on as a family. We went on it about 5 times!
Trent fell asleep on the bus on our way back to the hotel. What a big day!
The breakfast at the hotel was pretty yummy!
Tyler and Trent on the "orange bee".
Saturday, my sister Darci joined us at Disneyland! It was wonderful to have her with us for the day. She was so awesome to get up early, drive from her home in Colton, and meet us for breakfast. We hit the park right after it opened and made the best of our last full day at Disneyland. We split up so that the girls (and Trent) could go see the princesses in Fantasyland. We waited in line for a long time, and just before it was our turn, the princesses changed posts: we were hoping to see Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, but we saw Jasmine and Ariel instead. Later in the day, we went back to wait in line for Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and the SAME thing happened. We just had to laugh about it! We did get to see a couple of really good story tellings on stage: Snow White and also Cinderella. It was just fun to be together while we waited. To help pass the time, we played a game of hide-n-seek with Trent's little Piglet toy. The people behind us and in front of us in line were even entertained and a couple of them joined in the game. We figured out after the first time we met with the princesses that people spend 5 to 15 minutes with the princesses. We just rushed through, not knowing about this. No wonder the line moved so slowly! Oh well, we learned something. One of the highlights for me on Saturday was seeing the Seven Dwarfs. They really interacted with Tiffani and Trent. It was hilarious when Trent made his notorious "grumpy" face at Grumpy! Darci got a great picture of that. 
Tiffani wasn't too happy about Goofy pulling on her pony tail for this picture! The rest of us thought it was pretty funny:) Notice, also, the lanyard Tiffani is wearing. She got that from a Disney employee who was standing in an obscure corner handing them out to passersby as part of the "Year of a Million Dreams" promotional. It has two really cool pins on it. I was with Tiffani at the time, and I got one too! It feels great to be a winner!
We went on tons of rides on Saturday at California Adventure. I think we tried out almost everything in the park by the time we were done! Saturday morning, the air quality was really poor because of the wildfires going on in Orange County. The air was thick with smoke and ash was actually falling from the sky. It made Trent cough and cough; it burned my eyes. In the afternoon, the wind shifted and blew the smoke away, so luckily we had a beautiful Saturday afternoon and evening.
Everyone except Trent and me went on Brother Bear's river raft ride in California Adventure. They got soaking wet!
The tortilla factory was something we went through many times over the three days because they were handing out freshly made tortillas that were so yummy!
Trent fell asleep in his stroller (which, by the way, was the best $17 I think I've ever spent at Wal-Mart!) He was such a trooper throughout the whole trip. Trent's a happy-go-lucky little boy. It was very fun to have a 3-year-old at Disneyland! 
On Sunday, we rented a mini-van and drove to Colton, where we spent the day with my sister Darci and her husband Niel. We went to church together and then they fixed us a fabulous dinner at their apartment. We also went for a drive and saw the Redlands Temple and the Loma Linda medical center where Niel is going to school. Then we played Hotels at Darci and Niel's apartment (an old family favorite board game).
Monday was our last day in California. We walked to Downtown Disney one last time and just looked around in the shops and relished the feeling of being there in such a magical place with the ones we love!
It was another beautiful day, and we took advantage of the hotel pool once again. We spent a little too long playing -- we were procrastinating going home -- and we really had to rush to make it to the airport on time. Our shuttle driver arrived at the hotel to pick us up, and we were still packing. We literally threw everything into our bags and got ready in a matter of minutes. It was stressful, but funny!
We returned safely to the Pasco airport, where David's sister, Barb, and her family greeted us. It was fun to see them! It was also nice to be back home, although I didn't like the cold weather. I was especially grateful to be able to sleep in my wonderful BED! I love my bed and my house! THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME -- THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!
