Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Disneyland 2014 with the Rich's

Disneyland or BUST!!
We left Saturday morning after Corb's last basketball game.  (They won...so it was a good sign and started our trip off to a GREAT start!)
After a long drive to Vegas, we stopped at Chili's (only because we had a gift card).  Cole was "diggin'" the guac!  After dinner we headed over to see Coby's friends, Joe and Suzie Wirth.  Such a fun family!

Day 1 - Disneyland 
We finally arrived at Disneyland Sunday Afternoon, unloaded the car and headed over.
While the boys went on Splash Mountain...Cole was loving the huge water ball.
What is it with water??!!!  
Next I took the boys on Star Tours!  
Here we are decked out in our AWESOME 3 D Glasses!

Star Tours With Daddy.
Later we found the Carousel.  Colie was loving it!  Finally a ride more his speed!
While the boys conquered Splash Mountain, Colie and I played in the gift shop where he found something soft and loveable.
Day 2 - California Adventure

I love this family picture...especially Cole's cute head turn!
This was the line to get INTO California Adventure...ummm....What month are we in JULY??!!!  I think Mother Nature was confused because it was actually 99 degrees most days!  :)
We arrived and were OFFICIALLY inside the park at 10:17am....this was the line to get fast passes to Cars Land.  That's right....it wrapped around the corner!  What time did our fast passes say....5:15pm!! CRAZY!
Next the boys and I went on to The Tower of Terror!  This ended up being Jaden's FAVORITE ride!  I thought we got EXCELLENT seats for his first BIG ride! 
Cole was feeling a little left out...so onto a Bugsland ride we went. After a little bit of a wait...we finally took our seats!
While the boys went on Soarin' over California (BEST RIDE EVER in my opinion) I hung out with this tired little monkey!
Later that day Corb and I sent on California Screamin'.  The line wasn't too bad thankfully and we had a blast together.  Jaden was pretty angry that he wasn't tall enough.  Next year buddy!!
 In the meantime, Cobe took Jadesy and Colie to Bear Country.
They both had a ball climbing on everything and just being boys!
The next shortest ride we could all go on was the Golden Zepher....weird because it's silver!  Cole loved it!

Later that night after we came back to our room, got a little dinner and relaxed a little, we headed back for a little more fun!  Cars Land definitely lived up to all the hype.  
The boys and Coby had a blast!  
I walked around with Cole and his squeaky shoes and got LOTS of comments!  They may have been annoying...but we were always able to keep track of him!  Brilliant find on my part if I do say so myself!!

Day 3 - Disneyland with Everyone
Here we are in front of entrance to Disneyland.
Look at our cute little Rich kids!  Loving the Mickey shirts!  Coby is AWESOME for sewing our family's!  
Did I marry well or did I marry WELL??!!
We hurried to Space Mountain where Jaden told Luella "don't be scared...it's so fun...just close your eyes and hold my hand."  SO cute.  Lu was a champ and never screamed once!  She just had a huge smile on her face the whole time.  After we finished the ride and pulled back around to get out, they moved our car forward and so we thought we'd get to go again!  We did...but had to wait for about 10 minutes.  They apparently had to switch out our car...that's not all a little nerve racking! 
Cole was "fun" like this....ALOT!
It was pretty crowded and REALLY hot...but we had fun anyway!  The kids were troopers!
Even this little guy chilled out after we finally made it onto the Jungle Cruise.
Splash Mountain!  Love the looks on everyone's faces!  CLASSIC!
 Like I said...it was HOT!  So, we did what every good parent should (and probably wanted to themselves) we took off this little boy's shirt and let him play in the water until he was ready to leave!
But not before this little guy got a shot at pulling out the sword from the stone...I guess he's no King Arther!

We left the park around 5 and headed back to the room to freshen up for our first ever Angels Game.
Here are all the super heros in front of the field.
We ate lots of cotton candy...and watched our tongues change color.
Cole was entertained by simply putting his head in his shirt...
...and then popping back out!  It NEVER got old!
Corb just wanted peanuts!
Cole enjoyed feeding Coby cotton candy...and sometimes Coby actually got some in his mouth! (check out the sunspot....Jack or Jim...maybe both... after all, they are companions you know!!)
After such a LONG and FUN filled day, we were all so tired...and when you're that tired...you have no choice but to turn into crazy, insane goofballs!  We had a blast!

Day 4 - Taking in the Scenery
Tuesday we decided to take a little break and play around town.  Lance and Marse and their family and Joanne joined us.  We headed to Huntington Beach and walked...well, got blown down the pier!  It was WINDY....SO windy I thought we were going to blow away!  Thank goodness I have a bunch of SUPER heros by my side!  We decided to have a little treat at Ruby's, an old fashioned diner.  
We also stopped at a place called the Reptile Zoo.  The pictures online looked AWESOME...but when we got there...we were a little surprised...
And while it didn't look like much....I LOVED it!!  It may have been small...but they were able to fit in a TON of really cool snakes, alligators, lizards and turtles.  Growing up in New Orleans...I felt like I was getting back to my roots!
Coleson and Tyson were even interested to see things eye level!
A two headed snake....wow!!
And that's Twinkie, the largest snake on record at almost 350 lbs and more than 20 feet long!  He's been on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien...so you may have seen him...so he's pretty much famous!  MOVE over Nagini! (Harry Potter)
The kids even got to feed some lizards...yuck!  I would NOT touch those nasty worms!
It was really interesting...stinky...but interesting!  I wished that we could have stayed longer.  Growing up in LA, my dad was always bringing home snakes and alligators and turtles.  What can I say...it's in my blood!

After all that wind and scaley reptiles, we needed a little nap.  So, we came back put Cole down and headed down for a little swim.
Googles on...CHECK!
Let the FUN BEGIN.....
"BOMBS AWAY....!"
This little boy heard that we were thinking of swimming and decided that a nap didn't sound that great after all!  No BEUNO for Mommy!
Corbin gave everyone in the parking lot a little "show"!  Coby did dare him...so it's not entirely his fault!  That's good parenting for ya!  :)

Day 5- California Adventure
 This little guy got sick.  And I mean fever, aches and chills.  So, Coby took him back to our room and put him to bed after he shivered the entire time (in 90 degree heat) we rode the Tower of Terror...which he happily did.  He must have really felt bad to want to go to bed instead of playing in California Adventure.  Poor little guy!
Later that night, Coby headed back with Corb and they had their own little adventure.  I stayed behind with a sick little Jadesy babe and Colie.  Cole and I had fun dancing on the balcony waiting for everyone to come back.  I was the videographer...and Cole the dancer!  It was a hoot!  And I may be a little partial...but, the boy's got some MOVES!

Day 6- The Beach / Disneyland
Jadesy babe still wasn't feel great...but he put on a brave face and we all headed to Huntington Beach.  It was the PERFECT Day for the beach...not a drop of wind and the sun felt GREAT on our OH SO WHITE bodies!
 This was Cole's first time at an actual beach.  He was a little hesitant at first, once he felt how cold the water was.
 But, it didn't take him long to realize that HE LOVED it!  Cold temps and all!
 Despite feeling yucky...this little boy made the most of playing on the beach with Corb and his cousins.
Meanwhile, the 3 amigos (Sammi, Corb and Mason) tried to beat the water back to the beach. 
These three built sand castles.
While these hot mommas soaked up the sun...in between running after babies trying to run into the ocean!
Cole took a little breather to share a treat with his Honey.
Here's our Honey in Pooh Corner with most of her grandkids.

Later that night, Honey treated us all to a little dinner at Disneyland.  We had dinner family style in Frontier Land.  
 Yummy BBQ!  It was delish!
 This isn't a great shot of our waiter...but he was AMAZING!  He even gave us a few "extras"!  ;)
Jennille and her little Abella were able to join us for dinner.
We had lots of good food and great company.  Jennille is classic for her "scandalous" stories!  :) LOVE it!  Thanks Honey!
 And our last stop at Good Ole' Disneyland, was a quick visit to see Jack's paving stone.  Kisses to our baby!  We missed you as always!
On the way home despite HUGE nosebleeds, a hacking cough (both Jaden) and a whiney wife and kids...Coby took a detour and we went on a little hike in a slot canyon.
Corb and Coby found a rope and climbed over the rock past all the water.
He MADE it!  I wonder if he's thinking..."I could probably jump...I'm sure it's not too deep!"

Cole got a glimpse of the water and decided to not waste a second staying dry!
Cole wanted to get back in the water SOOOO bad!  I finally stripped him down and let him play in it.  (holding my hand of course...which he DID NOT like!!)
One last family shot before we say goodbye to our family vacation.  I sure love my sweet Coby for always taking the time to plan the most fun vacations!  We love spending time as a family (even though, if you ask him right now I'm sure he's wondering if we even deserve to EVER go on another trip again)!!  I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful and amazing guy who loves this family and always puts us first!  :)  Thanks Honey for hooking us up with such a fabulous room, yummy dinner and AMAZING Rich company!  I guess I know where Coby gets his itch to travel!  :)  We certainly missed our sweet Poppy!  I know that he was there and would often feel his presence throughout the days.  I'm sure Joanne missed her sweetheart.  He was close...but unless he's physically here...it'll never be close enough!  We miss you Jim and Jack too for that matter!  At least they have each other up there! Well, there you have it...another Rich family vacation with TONS of memories!  :)