Fall Break 2016!

This fall break we were kinda all over the place!  Max & Tatum had 2 1/2 weeks of break and Carlie and Ethan had only one.  Max spent his first week in Deming, NM working with my dad in the pumpkin patch.  Tatum and I went and picked him up the next weekend and spent a few days there as well.  We also had lots of friends over, LOTS of Spirit store trips, and LOTS of scary movies during week one.

The second week, we all headed out of town!  Carlie went on the Heritage Independence Tour--one of a two-part tour of American history sites back east.  (She will be making her own blog post on this:)  Ethan headed out with the Heritage Science group and toured all of southern California/Catalina Island (He will also be making his own blog post:)  Chris, Max, Tatum, and I headed out to Disneyland!!!  The last time we were there, Tatum was 3.  Tatum wanted to go to Disneyland for her 9th birthday instead of having a party--that's the way we like to party:)

It was SUPER crowded at Disneyland but thankfully I asked an "expert" friend for all of her tips and they were fantastic!  We pretty much followed every single detail:)  Lines were long but we learned how to make good use of the fast passes so we honestly only waited about 30 minutes for each ride.

So first thing we did on the night we arrived, made good on Tatum's birthday present--a Build-a-Bear from Downtown Disney.  She choose the Picachu and wanted no clothes for him (we got off cheap:)

Day One:  Disneyland

We arrived 30 minutes early and hit the ground running (literally).  We had one day here and we were going to make the most of it!

Once Peter Pan, always Peter Pan:)

We ran into lots of people we knew in the Park.  We stood in line for the Peter Pan ride right behind some good friends of ours:)  Her youngest daughter was super tired and grumpy and was giving her mom a tough time in line--she was in line while her husband was taking their other 3 kids on other rides.  She made the comment that her daughter was really a "daddy's girl" so Chris offered to try and hold the grumpy baby and she settled right down immediately and fell asleep!!!  We think she thought Chris was her actual dad.  The rest of the wait was quite peaceful and when we made it up to our turn, Chris handed the baby off to her real dad and you should have seen the look on her face!!!  Kinda like, "Hey...that was a dirty trick!"  Sure was funny!!!

The Baby Whisperer:)  

I'm terrible at selfies but I tried:)
Here we are on "It's a Small World"

Max ran into his good friend, Scarlett:)

Max is a little creepy looking but the
Mickey-Mouse shaped pretzels were super cute!

We LOVE The Haunted Mansion!!!
Nightmare Before Christmas is pretty
our all-time favorite movie!

About mid-day we took a break from the park to go see a movie in Downtown Disney.  It was nice to get out of the crowds and sit and relax.  We watched "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and LOVED it!  Our kind of movie (and book) for sure:)

Max in the "Troll Movie" sign:)

Funny story...at our hotel we were walking to our car when I saw this skeleton in the car!  Caught me off guard for sure but was hilarious afterwards:)

Day Two:  California Adventure

Arrived early once again to hit the ground running in this park as well.  If it weren't for fast passes, we may not have got to ride anything!  It was kinda insane:)  There was a "0 minute Wait" for the carousel so we did NOT pass that one by:)  Anything with that wait time we hit:)

We rode the Grizzly Rapids two times in a row because the wait was low there too:)  We were soaked but didn't care:)

This was us right before "California Screaming!"  Thank goodness all 4 of us LOVE the crazy rides!!!  Tatum is actually the one who begs for these kind of rides:)

So we left California Adventure totally exhausted and a little wet but boy we had a GREAT time!  We sure missed our other two kiddos but knew they were having a great time where they were:)  Fall Break 2016 pretty much ROCKED:)