Coming Home to Snow

After spending a week in the sunshine in California, we decided it was time to head home.  We left Anaheim on Sunday morning around 10 or 11 and made pretty good time travelling.  We made it to St. George at around 5:30 and decided to take a break from driving.  We visited with Grandpa Farnsworth and Tyler and then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Morwood's for dinner.  The kids loved telling everyone about all of the fun they had at Disneyland and Legoland.  They also loved showing off the cool shells they found at the beach.  At 7:00 we decided we better hit the road again if we were going to make it home before too late.  We finally pulled into our driveway at around 12:30 or 1:00 am.  The kids were tired but had been sleeping in the car.  As we arrived, we discovered that while we were enjoying the sun, our house was getting covered in snow.  We came home to about a foot and a half of snow.  Thankfully, our neighbor had plowed our driveway so we were able to get in.

I was sad but the kids were so excited.  Over the next week, Russell and the kids worked hard building a snow fort in the back yard.  They built up snow banks around the trampoline frame to make the fort.

Even the neighbor kids came over to help.  After a few days, the walls of the fort were over the frame and they had dug a door to get in and out of the fort.

Charlotte loved being outside with the rest of the kids in the snow.  The door of the fort was the perfect size for her.  The kids have a great time playing in the snow.  It is definitely January in Cache Valley and the snow keeps falling.

Legoland

We knew that if we came all the way to California and Disneyland and didn't go to Legoland, Colby would hate us forever.  He has been wanting to go there since he found out it existed.  So our final day in California was spent at Colby's happiest place on Earth, Legoland!

We had a blast at Legoland!  To tell you the truth, I actually liked this place a little better than Disneyland.  Our kids were the perfect age for this park as everything was geared toward kids 2-12 years old.  The other great thing about Legoland was that there was not nearly as many people there so we got to do and see pretty much everything.  The kids absolutely had a great time.

The cool thing about Legoland was that everything was made out of Lego's and everything was life-sized!

The kids just ran from thing to thing looking at all of the Lego creations.  This life-sized Lego Lion was pretty cool.  Logan and Colby liked looking through it mouth like they were getting eaten.

Colby was even more excited because he told us he had grown an inch from last night. While he was in Disneyland he had to be 48 inches tall to do some of the rides and they said he was just under the mark.  At Legoland though, they told him he was exactly 48 inches and could go on any ride!  He was happy to have grown an inch overnight.

We had a lot of fun riding the rides at Legoland but mostly we enjoyed walking around and seeing the sites.  The first ride we went on was actually the longest line of the whole day.  It took us about an hour to get on but it was pretty fun once we were on the ride.  It was the Coastersaurus Roller Coaster.

We were able to get on all of the rest of the rides that day without waiting at all.  Our next ride was the Fairy Tale Brooke boat ride.  Charlotte loved this one.  We rode a little boat around a river and we were able to see a lot of different fairy tale scenes on our way.  All of the scenes were made completely out of Lego's.  As soon as we got off, Charlotte said she wanted to go again.

Next we walked over to Duplo land.  This area was a big playground for the kids to play on.  They all had a good time riding the motorcycles, climbing in and exploring the houses, and even pretending they were in jail.

One ride in Duplo Land was the carousel.  This was really fun.  In fact we rode it a few times back to back because there was no line and all the kids wanted to.  The fun thing about it was that the carousel horses were shaped just like the Duplo Lego horses.  Logan was a little too short to climb on the horses without help but he was so excited he wanted to try.  Unfortunately in his haste, he fell right of the horse.  He was sad about that but the worker operating the carousel made him feel better by giving him a cool Lego mini figure.  That made everything better.

The next place we went was Emily's favorite place.  It was the Lego Friends land Heartlake City.  

Emily loves the Lego Friends shows and Lego's.  She and Charlotte were so excited to get a picture with the Lego Friends figures.  Then while we were looking around Heartlake, Emily found out that there was going to be a Lego Friends show in a few minutes.  She wanted to see it so bad so Russell stayed with her and Charlotte while they watched the fun show.

The show was all about how important friends are.  The girls sang and danced about having a good time with friends at Christmas time and how important it was to make everyone feel included and loved.  Emily absolutely loved it and Charlotte loved the music too.  Afterward, they were able to meet all of the Friends from the show.  Emily was giddy with excitement.  This was definitely her favorite part of the day.

While the girls watched the show, Logan and Colby wanted to see more things.  So I took them to the next area of the park, Funtown.  This was one of their favorite parts as well.  The boys favorite part of this area was the Lego Driving School.  Here they got to learn how to drive these cool go carts.  There was no waiting on this ride so they got to go on it probably 3 or 4 times in a row.  Logan was having a hard day today because he was too excited.  While waiting to get on this ride, he knocked his knuckle on a screw or something on the metal fence and totally scraped the skin off his finger.  He ran to me crying and bleeding.  I had some tissues to clean up the blood but no band aid.  The workers said they had to call the park paramedics to come and check him out.  I said okay but really all he needed was a band aid.  Then this lady behind me said she had a band aid and was nice enough to give it to us.  The cool thing was that it was a Spider-Man band aid!  Once the band aid was on, Logan was fine and ran and got on the ride.  When the paramedic finally came, he told me he had to check Logan out.  I said okay but he was on the ride and was just fine.  He just said all right and gave me another band aid and was on his way.  Meanwhile the boys were having a great time driving the go carts around the track.

Another fun ride at Funtown was this Sky Patrol ride.  We got to pretend that we were riding in helicopters and fighting fires or other rescue missions.  By this time, Emily, Russell and Charlotte met us here after their show.  After riding the helicopters, Colby and Logan took Emily on the Driving School ride so that she could learn to drive too.  She also had a great time and they went a another time.

We continued to walk around and we found Santa!  This first one was made out of Lego's.

This one was the real guy!  This was a fun Lego mini figure guy that we were able to meet and be in a picture with.

Also while we were in Funtown, we went on a really fun ride called the Funtown Police and Fire Academy.  This ride was a competition to see who could get their firetruck down the road to the burning building, put out the fire with the water hose, and then race back to the station first.  We did boys against girls on this race and we worked our hardest.  I think the girls got the fire out first but the boys barely beat us to back to the station for the win.  It was really fun.

Next we walked to the Lego Star Wars area of the park.

Along the walkway we got to see all of the Star Wars Character Lego figures.  The boys loved it and then Emily was excited to see Princess Leia.  Then we made it to the Lego Star Wars land.

Here we got to see a bunch of different scenes from the Star Wars movies all made out to Lego's.  They were pretty awesome.  The life-sized Darth Vader was Colby's favorite part of this area.

Then we made it to one of my favorite areas of the park.  Miniland USA.

This whole area was different major cities in the US built completely out of Lego's.  It was so impressive.  We spent a good part of the day just wandering around this area looking at all of the cool Lego city scenes.  

Some of the cities displayed in Miniland USA were Washington DC, New York City, Las Vegas, San Francisco, New Orleans, and parts of Southern California.  The scenes were amazing and very accurate and detailed.  We loved seeing everything there.

Near Miniland, we found an area where we could build our own boat and sail it.

The kids had a blast building and seeing their boats sail down the river.  They didn't want to leave.  That was one cool thing about Legoland, there were a lot of spots throughout the park that we were set up just for building and playing with Lego's.  

Next we went on the Coast Cruise. 

On this boat ride, we were able to cruise around the park on the water.  The guide told us all about the places and scenes in Legoland and also took us to the backside of Miniland USA to see a few more mini scenes.  We were able to see the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.   This was definitely a fun relaxing tour of the park.

Next we went to the area the boys wanted to go to all day, Ninjago!

There we met Jay the Blue Ninjago Warrior.  The kids loved seeing him and showing off their Ninja moves!  We also found other statues of the other Ninjas, Lloyd, Zane, and Nia.

While in Ninjago, we went on the Ninjago ride.  Here we went though different Ninja training scenarios and then were able to fight some bad guys.  This ride was cool because with our 3D glasses, it felt like we were in the scenes.  We used our arms making karate moves to chop and slice the bad guys and even shoot blasters out of our hands.  It was really fun.  Emily had the highest score at the end of the ride so she was the Ninja Warrior.  

Next we watched the 4D Lego Movie in the Lego theater.  There we watched a fun movie of the Ninjago ninjas teaching us some moves.  Because it was 4D, it felt like we were in the movie when we had our special glasses on.  Then, when the ninjas went in water, we got sprayed in the face and really got wet.  It was pretty cool.  

We continued having fun by going on rides.  This is the Aquazone Wave Racer.  Russell took the kids on this one while Charlotte and I waited.  The kids had a lot of fun on this one because they got sprayed with water.

Next I took the kids on the Bionicle Blaster.  This one was similar to the Tea Cups and we got really dizzy!

Then we got to meet Emmett from the Lego Movie!

He was so cool and the kids were excited to see him.  They love the Lego Movie.  

By this time, it started raining a bit so most of the crowds left.  We were not going to let a little rain stop us from having fun so we continued riding rides.  Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of pictures because we didn't want the camera to get wet.  

Another cool thing about Legoland was that everywhere there were long lines for rides, there were area to play with Lego's.  It was nice to let the kids play while we waited in line.  By the time we got closer to the ride, they could come and get back in line.  This helped a lot.  Disneyland should do this.

Some of our favorite rides were the Knight's Tournament (where we were whipped around and upside down like a scorpion tail), and the Lost Kingdom Adventure (where we got to blast Lego skeletons with our laser guns).  

Another fun ride was the Dragon Roller Coaster.  Because we could do the Parent Swap thing here as well, the kids got to ride most of the roller coasters and fast rides twice.  Outside of the Dragon Ride we found these cool Knights:

We loved pretending to be knights in shining armor.  

Everyone we talked to about Legoland told us we had to try out the apple fries made there.  So before we left, we grabbed a container.   They were fried Granny Smith apple slices covered in cinnamon sugar and then we dipped them in whipped cream.  Yes they were so good! 

Finally the last ride we went on was the Deep Sea Adventure submarine ride.  This ride was so cool!  We rode in this submarine and were able to see a bunch of real live underwater creatures.  We saw fish, starfish, stingrays, and even sharks!  The kids loved it and so did Russell and I.  

By this time, it was around 5:00 pm and we were wondering where everyone had gone.  We thought that maybe everyone had left because of the rain but we were really confused.  Then we found out that the park actually closed at 5!  We had know idea!  So we decided we had better make our way to the entrance and head out.  On the way though we found some more penny smashers to add to our collection and then rode the carousel one more time.  As we got to the entrance, we let the kids make their own mini figure to take home as a souvenir.  They had a good time building their own personalized Lego person.   

Before leaving, we signed the kids up for an annual pass to Legoland.  They were doing a special that day so the annual pass for kids was free.  We decided that even if we don't come back, we would not be out anything but if we do decide to come back, it would save us over $300.  So we did it.  

We had an great time at Legoland and we were able to see pretty much everything.  The kid loved it and I think this was more enjoyable than fighting the crowds at Disneyland.

The boys had so much fun at Legoland that on the way back to the hotel, they just crashed in the van!

It was a great day.  

Jessica told us that if we were going to Anaheim, we had to stop at the Creme & Sugar Cafe for a shake.  We decided since this was our final night there, we needed to go.  We were not disappointed.

The shakes were enormous and so delicious.  We decided to get the Animal Cookie shake and their famous Unicorn shake.  The shakes were giant and decorated with whipped cream and candy to the hilt.  If we every go back to Anaheim, we will definitely go back to this shop to try their other flavors.  This was the prefect ending to our vacation.  We have had a great time and are so happy that Santa gave us a trip this year rather than presents.  We have definitely made a lot of fun memories that are priceless.

California Adventure

Our next adventure awaited us in Disney's California Adventure Land. We were told that we needed to get there really fast and go get Fast Passes to the Cars ride and Guardian of the Galaxy ride. So I ran to the Fast Pass area for Cars and Tiff made a mad dash to Guardians. Thank goodness I went when I did. There was already a huge line in the Fast Pass ticket area. I got the tickets and I could not believe that the time said 3:30 pm. Needless to say, this is a popular ride. Tiffany got the other pass and it was for around 10:30. This gave us time to look around and play in Cars Land. This area of the park is the newest addition to the Park. We heard some really cool things about how awesome it was and the rumors were right; it was amazing.  

Cars Land was designed to look just like Radiator Springs from the movie Cars.  It was really cool seeing all of the parts of the town including the Cozy Cone, Flo's V8 Cafe, Sarge's Surplus, and even Luigi's Tire Store.  We loved walking up and down the streets just looking at everything. 

We went on the Mater's Tractor Ride first and it was just like the Tea Cup ride in Disneyland except we were being pulled by tractors. 

The tractor ride had trailers in back that swung us around as it went in circles. The girls went on one and the boys went on another. It also had some cool decorations on the wall as we went in. It had all of the things Mater did in the movie Mater's Tall Tales. I thought it was cool to see the Maltese Cross on the wall.  

After doing some tractor tipping, we had to get a picture next to our friendly tractor.  The kids really loved this first ride of the day and we all loved listening to Mater sing his redneck Christmas Carols while we rode.

Then we drove our own cars around for the next ride.  This ride was at Luigi's Tire Store.  It was patterned after the Cars 2 movie where you meet Luigi's family and all of the cars dance.  We each rode in our car as the cars danced in a formation to different songs.  It was really fun too.

After the rides, we cruised down the main drag where the rest of the town was. As we were walking around, we saw Mater come out of the garage to meet the people and take pictures. Once again we were in the right place at the right time. It was cool to see how he drove in. We were told he drives himself in and has a computer system that helps him know when to turn.

During the pictures we were putting our hands on Mater's fenders and he told us to not rub so hard it would take off his rust. The kids would also say something and he would answer back. It was really fun to actually get to talk to and meet Mater! For some reason Logan had his foot in Mater's mouth. I am surprised Mater didn't tell him to get his foot out of my mouth.  We love Mater!

We decided to head out of Cars Land for a minute and make our way to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.  As were were leaving, we got to meet Clarabelle Cow!

She was so funny and girlish. She loved signing the kids' books and blew each of them a kiss.  As I was leaving, she stuck her hand out like she wanted a kiss on the hand. So I took her hand and kiss it and she got all twitterpated and acted like she was blushing.

We made our way over to Hollywood Land in time for the big ride we all had been waiting for, Guardians of the Galaxy. The kids were excited to find out they were all tall enough to go on the ride.  

Mom and the kids went first and once again Charlotte and I got to hang out. I was glad we waited because they were doing a dance off with Quill and Gamora from the movie. It was way fun to see them and dance around with Charlotte. Of course Charlotte had a great time she love music and dancing.  At the end we were lucky to see Groot and Gamora up close. 

I am jealous of Charlotte because she got a photo with Gamora. If you look closely at Charlotte's face she has the same facial expression as Gamora does. I almost missed the photo shoot with her, but she heard me and turned around and said "Let's take a picture with this cute girl." Way cool! 

The kids came running out telling me to hurry so they could go again. Colby was way excited to tell me a story. He told me that while he was on the ride, he had a penny in his hand and when they fell downward the penny floated in mid air. He said that was the coolest thing ever. So off we went on it for the second time. This time instead of being in the front, we were lucky to be in the back. It had been a long time since I had been on this ride and it was just as fun as the last time I rode on it. We screamed and laughed the whole time.

On our walking adventures around the Hollywood Land, we found Mary Poppins's kite and Emily was the first to grad it and hold on tight. 

She was taller and bigger than boys because as you can tell the boys were struggling to hold themselves to the ground.

 I found a bunch of balloons from the movie UP. As I grabbed a hold of them I must have started floating away because all of the kids grabbed me and held me down. Thank goodness I have strong kids or I would have been floating around above the park.

Of course every boy needs to see how long their arms are in Buzz Lightyear's space gear.  It looks like they have a little more growing to do before they are big enough to wear it.

We made our way to Pixar Pier after this and saw some cool characters. We saw Mr. Incredible for just a brief minute for a picture, but missed the book signing part. The kids were bummed but then a worker noticed and came up to us and asked us, "What if I could get you his signature?" The kids were excited. He took our books and went backstage to find Mr. Incredible. He came back out and the kids were excited to see Mr. Incredible's signature and, as a bonus, there was Elastic Girl's signature as well. We thought that was a pretty awesome thing he did for us.

We were just in time to see another character from the Incredible movie as well.  Edna Moe came out right after Mr. Incredible and she was more than happy to sign our books and get a picture with us.  We just keep getting luck every time.

What is Pixar Pier without our friend Buzz Lightyear. "TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!" 

He was amazing with the kids. We were just getting off the ride and saw him. We ran to the line and luckily we made it. There were times when we got in characters' lines and the staff would tell us they were just leaving and they would be back soon. This time was different though. The staff lady said, "You guys are luck. You will be the last ones to see him before he leaves." Yes! we thought. Since we were the last he spent a little more time with the kids. He gave each of the kids a hug and turned to both Tiff and me and put his hand on our shoulders. He was way cool.

Of course if there was Buzz Lightyear, there had to be Woody right behind. As were were standing in line for Buzz the staff let us in on a secret. She told us to stay put for a few minutes and Woody would be right out. So we did just that. We were first in line and the kids were anxiously waiting for Woody to come out. 

He signed all of their books and we took some cool pictures. Woody was super friendly as well and we loved shaking his hand and saying howdy.  After Woody we turned and saw Mr. Potato Head. As we walked into that area, Tiffany and I both thought he was a live character. As we got closer, though, we realized he was a robot. Good job Pixar for making him look so lifelike.  We listened to him dance and talk for a minute.

There were a few fun little things we stopped and saw as we were walking around. The kids were bound and determined to get the Toy Story ball spinning fast in one direction, but it was so heavy and they were fighting against other kids who were trying to do the same thing. 

On the back side of the park we noticed that they were blocking off the road. We knew what that meant: parade time. It was the California Adventure Land's Christmas Parade. The theme was Spanish Christmas. There were singers, dancers and a lot of cool characters on the floats.  We got to see Donald Duck and the Three Amigos, Princess Elena, and more.  Charlotte loved the Spanish music and was just shaking her little bum to the beat.

After the cool parade, we went on more rides. This one was called the Jelly Fish. It was like the ride where you go up and drop really fast. This was like it but the downward part was not fast at all, but the view was amazing. The kids loved it!

We went on some other cool rides as we wandered around the park. We went to Little Mermaid, Soaring Around the World, and a rocket spinning ride. Time was flying and we found out it was getting close to our Cars ride time so we headed that way.

We made it over there pretty quickly and had time to look around Radiator Springs some more.  We found the Stanley statue and had to get a picture with the founder of Radiator Springs.

As we were walking to get in line for the Cars ride, we were stopped by a race car from Cars. He was playing loud music and driving around. It was fun to see him.  It was a little dance party in the streets and all the kids were invited to join in.  Our kids, though, were too shy and didn't want to dance.  It was fun seeing everyone else though. We also saw Mater driving down the road again.  

The Cars ride was amazing. They did a great job making it look like the road around Radiator Springs. Just before the ride got over, it stopped us in the road and revved up the engine and then it took off really fast to race the car next to us. We won of course. It was a fun ride and worth the wait.  This was definitely another of our favorite rides.

While we were at Pixar Pier, Emily saw the Incredible roller coaster and asked a ton if we could go on it. I told her that she was the only one tall enough to go. That did not stop her from pleading her case.  I wanted to go as well, so we got a Fast Pass and waited for our turn. While we were on the ride, the rest of the kids and mom took off back to Cars Land to meet the one and only Lightening McQueen. The boys were anxious all day to meet him and they finally got their chance. 

Lightning McQueen was so cool.  Like Mater he was able to talk to us and joke with us.  He told the kids to be careful with him new paint job.  Then when Logan and Colby were looking in his mouth to see if they could see how he was being controlled, he revved his engine really loud.  They all laugh and had a good time talking to Lightning.  

After meeting Lightning McQueen, they headed down to Hollywood Land to see if they could find Spider-Man and Captain America.  Unfortunately, they missed Captain America but they did get to meet Spider-Man.

I think out of all of the characters we saw the last three days, this one was the best for the boys. They are huge Spider-Man fans. Even Charlotte had a great time with him. Big hugs and a signature later it was off to see more things. 

The boys were bummed they missed Captain America, but they did some cool poses in front of his shield.  We should have come down earlier so that they could have seen Captain America and the Black Panther.

When Emily and I were done with the ride, we tried to meet everyone at the Spider-Man line. We missed them and got in line for the Monsters Inc. ride instead.  Finally they found us and got in line with us. This was a fun ride. This ride was similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride in that as we rode we had a laser gun to shoot the bad monsters. Of course I won this time though.

When we first got in the park we saw Grizzly Rapids and decided to not worry about this ride because of getting wet and cold. But at the end of the day, we went back and the boys begged to go on it. Tiff was also excited to go on it. So they put on their ponchos and off they went. There was no line so they got right on. 

When they got off the boys came running back with huge smiles saying that it was so fun! Tiff tried to convince Emily and me to go and we said nope we are good. They even got cool pins saying they rode the Grizzly Rapids in the winter at California Adventure Land.

Emily had such a thrill riding the Incredible coaster that she wanted to go again. I was surprised at this comment. When we were in line the first time, you could tell she was a little scared. It was her first official really fast roller coaster. She asked me if there were any loops and twists and I said no there were not. Boy I was wrong! There was a big loop and some awesome twists. It had been a while since I had been on this ride. By the time we got to the front of the line she was all excited. While we were on the ride, we screamed and laughed and held our breath at the first before we blasted off. 

Emily convinced Mom to go on it with her again. We thought the wait was not that long, but we were wrong it was about an hour. It was worth the wait though because Emily was so excited.  She could not wait to go on the roller coaster again.  I think this turned out to be her favorite ride of the whole trip.  Colby was bummed that he could not go on this ride but he had to be 48 inches and he was only 47. Oh well the boys, Charlotte, and I had fun walking around the park, looking in all of the shops, watching an artist draw, and finding penny smashers to add to our collection.

To end the night Tiffany wanted a picture of all of us on the bridge looking over California Adventure Land. It was a fun time and I think we hit almost every ride in the park. 

It was a great day and the kids were tuckered out by the end of the night. At least this is what the picture is telling us, but it was staged. (Well except for Charlotte, she really was asleep.)  But... I am sure if I hadn't told them to open their eyes, they would have been passed out for real.  

Before the park closed officially we went to Clarabelle's Ice Cream Parlor and bought the sink. After we got a sink full of ice cream we said our goodbyes to Disneyland and headed back to the hotel. As you can tell from the picture we were not happy to leave. It was a lot of fun and many great memories were made. Once we were at the hotel, the kids were excited to clean the sink full of ice cream. They cleaned it well with the help of Mom and Dad. We got them in the bath and once their heads hit their pillows, they were out cold.

Goodbye Disneyland.  It has been so much fun!