California Birthday Present

It was probably back in November that I decided the only thing I wanted for my birthday this year was a little bit of sunshine and a few warm days at Disneyland. Thanks to our ever accumulating air miles and a very gracious husband, we were able to spend three days at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. With weather in the 70's, and lots of time to explore Disneyland with the girls, this was a gift I will not forget. I do feel I should add...since we were really needing some family vacation time we were not able to visit all our friends in California who mean so much to us. Please forgive us...we miss you and will be back.

Since the park was fairly empty we were able to take the girls on a lot of rides this visit. Kenzie had amazingly grown two inches since our last visit and has now reached the 40 inches required to go on most rides. We convinced her to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad and we're pretty sure she liked it. She wasn't eager to ride it again.

To avoid the crowds, we spent most of Friday at California Adventure. Both the girls loved Soaring Over California and the water park area. We attracted a small crowd when Kenzie's shoe fell into the water after the above picture. Since we were on vacation and she was close to getting upset about her shoe, my first reaction was "Kenzie, don't worry we'll buy you a fun new pair of shoes." Rich's reaction was, "I'm going to find someone to get your shoe." The store closest to this water area immediately knew the number to call and within five minutes a very kind woman arrived with a very long net to fish Kenzie's shoe out of the lake. However, the net was not quite long enough when she reached over the railing to get the floating shoe. Of course, Rich was determined at this point and asked to use the net, hung over the railing (with the Disney employee holding on to him), and rescued Makenzie's shoe. This was immediately met with clapping and cheering by the crowd that had gathered across the lake. Kenzie's was slightly in awe of the whole event and both girls seemed very glad once the shoe was retrieved. Oh, the things we will do to avoid buying a new pair of shoes.

Friday night we were able to meet the Bridgefords, Humes, and de Leests for dinner at California Adventure and the infamous Electrical Parade. (We wish we could spend more Friday nights with you guys!) The girls loved having some time with their EV Free friends and really liked the lights and characters in the parade. What kid wouldn't like a good half hour of sparkling lights and popular Disney characters to a "catchy" repetitive sound track.

On Saturday we were able to spend a little more time at Califoria Adventure before we headed up to Fullerton so we could visit EV Free on Sunday. Kayla impressed us all by riding the Tower of Terror, and really liking it, and Kenzie enjoyed a little more time in the water.

We were so thankful to have this time as a family and will think fondly of our days at Disneyland and afternoons at the pool as we make it through the last few months of Washington winter!