California - Disneyland!!

The highlight of our California trip was Disneyland (of course!)! We spent three days there and had a blast. The weather was far from perfect, but the vacation must go on!

Our first day there we got poured on (which we knew would happen and we were prepared for) and it was really cold (we were totally prepared for that one). We were only there for a few hours that first day, but it was too cold for the kids - even though they were troopers.

Emma's favorite ride was It's a Small World (of course!) and Payton loved the Buzz Lightyear one (and many many more).

Payton got to go on his first rollercoaster ride (which he says he did it once and doesn't want to anymore!) and liked it. He met the minimum requirement of 40" for a lot of the rides and we convinced him to try them at least once. Marcus was able to get a video of Payton on Thunder Mountain. It is funny to watch his expression go from fun to fear and back.

We got to see a lot of the characters, which was really cool for Payton - he loved i t!

Emma wasn't so sure about some of them, but as long as mom was holding her she was fine.

Payton was so excited when he saw Mater! Apparently he is one of his favorites. It was really cool when he drove by us in one of the parades.

It was fun to see some of the main characters in their holiday outfits. The parades were awesome, the decorations were amazing, and Sleeping Beauty's castle was absolutely stunning!

It was pretty neat having it "snow" on us one night after Fantasmic and the fireworks! Payton thought that was super cool (and so did the adults - Emma was sleeping).

While we were there we also got to go to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast, which was so much fun! Although it was quite distracting for the kids, having all the different characters walking around and coming to our table, it was really cool.

Alice and the Mad Hatter were entertaining us with a bunch of pirate jokes.

Goofy was good at making sure Payton was eating his food and he also had fun harassing Emma. She had a funny little fake cry/whine whenever he got too close.

Overall, we had an awesome trip and it was fun to get to share it with Megan's parents!

California - San Diego Zoo & Sea World

This was a first for us to go the the San Diego Zoo.  That place is huge!!  We were there for 8 hours and we didn't even see everything. We saw a lot, but not all of it.  Crazy!  It was really cool and the kids loved it.

You can go inside the aviaries with the birds.  While in there Payton decided to chase one of them (because it is so much fun!), but we quickly put an end to that.  Notice the size and beak on that bird?!?  Hello, not a good idea to chase him!!

One of the main attractions for the kids was the cute chimps!  There was a cute baby chimp and some other young ones in the mix.  They were so much fun to watch and see how they interact with each other, especially their mom.

The elephants were really cool to see too.  One of them even posed with Payton with under its foot!  He and Emma both thought it was really cool!  

Another day, off to Sea World we got to see Shamu (of course!) and many other attractions.  Emma & Payton really like watching the whales jumping and splashing around.

Sesame Street's Bay of Play was a lot of fun (for Megan & Marcus too)!  They had some fun rides that Payton loved and a really cool rope course that all three of us could go on.

The penguins were a hit attraction for all of us.  They are so cute and so much fun to watch.  Emma loved the cute stuffed penguins at the gift shop that Grandma couldn't resist buying one for her. Lucky!

The Christmas decorations were fun to see while there.  It helped remind us that Christmas was coming even though there wasn't any snow (but it was still pretty dang cold!). 

Also, while we were in San Diego we ate at one of the best BBQ places ever.  We would highly recommend it!  It is called Phil's BBQ, if you are ever around there, you should stop and eat! 

California - Universal Studios

In December we got to make a trip out to California with Megan's parents. We bought a City Pass (which is a really great deal) and were able to go to 4 different parks! The first place we went to was Universal Studios. This is mostly a place for older kids, but Payton and Emma still enjoyed going to the shows.

Payton liked seeing the some of the characters they have there. He learned that the hulk is really big and tough.

We also stopped to say hi to Jason Bourne. He was nice enough to let the boys take a picture with him and his car! :)

While we were waiting in line for one of the Special Effects shows, Marcus was approached by one of the workers and they asked him if he would like to be a stunt man! Of course he agreed to do it and had a lot of fun with it. He got to be chained to a wall, tortured, and then turned into a crispy skeleton (Payton was a little worried as to where his daddy went). Later he reappeared in the show to get his arm sliced into...kinda gross.