We so rarely "plan" vacations in the Meeker home because they just seem to pop up a couple times a year. About 3 weeks ago my husband says, "Hey...I have a group going to L.A. the last weekend of May. I have to go, should we load up the kids and go?" I respond, "Well....I'm not sure yet. Let me see where I'm at in my piano/baseball/basketball/Annie rehearsals, etc..." I can be such a humbug sometimes:) Well, the next thing I know, a UPS envelope shows up at my home with Disneyland and Universal Studio tickets in it straight from Chris' AMAZING boss! That did it! We were going!!! And it actually worked out perfectly with all the schedules we have going on right now. So a HUGE "thank you" to Joel Biggs--this family really needed a break after another exhausting travel season for Chris (and the kids who endured a single/somewhat stressed out mom)!
So we left on Thursday morning (May 26th) at 5 a.m. and headed straight to L.A. We met up with Chris' group at Santa Monica Pier. We enjoyed beach time the rest of the day. The REAL fun began Friday morning. I loaded up the kids and we drove into Anaheim and arrived at Disneyland the moment it opened!!! Chris had to be with his group as they were touring other parts of the city so it was just me and the kids and we had A BLAST! Chris met up with us in the afternoon on Thursday and then late morning Friday. I was really nervous about driving all over California freeways but amazingly I never got lost--Carlie was my mapquest guide/reader.
The weather was PERFECT! It was 76 degrees both days at Disneyland and the longest we ever waited in a line was 25 minutes. It really our best Disney trip to date! We spent 10 hours at Disneyland on Friday and 12 hours on Saturday and not a single complaint about walking or waiting! I now know that Tatum is exactly 40 inches which pretty much got her on every ride possible. She is a ride/roller coaster MANIAC!!! She LOVED every single ride we took her on--Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Soaring over California, and yes.....she even LOVED Tower of Terror!!! I didn't want to take her on this ride but Tatum WOULD NOT miss it. I asked my husband, "What kind of parents take their 3 year old on Tower of Terror?!?!" Well, we did:) And she would have gone a second time too:) Here are some pics of our amazing time:
Ethan (our one child that does NOT share our enthusiasm for fast and furious rides) LOVED the Great Grizzly Rapids ride in California adventure. It was his favorite--they rode it 5 times total:)
Universal Studios!!!
So Universal Studios was our final destination of this trip. I hadn't been here in a LONG time and boy has it changed. We headed right for the new Simpson Ride which was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! And then we hit all the shows--Shrek, Special Effects, House of Horrors--funny side note: Max kept saying, "I can't wait to tell Mrs. Lombardi that I went to a 'Hore House!'" We made sure to work on that second syllable Horr--OR:) And of course the tour. As we were pretty darn exhausted at this point of our trip, we headed over to the theater there in Universal City and watched Kung Fu Panda 2. Fantastic movie!!! We finished up with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then over to the Simpson ride one more time--again, another 12 hour day and the kids were troopers!!!
Tatum was having NOTHING to do with this shark:)
The kids LOVED this movie when it came out!
The Tour:
Just having fun:
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