Let me start with our plane ride out there. We had bought the kids some new movies to watch on the lap top, but my flawless plan went so sour. The ear buds kept falling out, and the flight attendant wouldn't let me play it out loud, so about 30 mins into the flight I had to come up with a new plan. Good thing I brought some coloring books, and lots of snacks, a mom has to always be prepared right?
After we picked up our luggage we were shuttled over to get our rental car, which was a fun and pleasant experience. We then headed from San Diego, which is where we flew into, over to Camp Pendleton to have lunch and pick up our Disney tickets. We ate at Maui Wowi, which is wannabe Hawaiian food. It smelled great but didn't taste that good. After lunch we headed up to Grandpas and Grandmas house in San Clemente. Shortly after we arrived I took the kids for a walk down the street to the pier. Later that evening my in-laws took us to dinner at this place in Dana Point called Olamendi's, it was the best Mexican food ever. After dinner we headed back to the house, and got everything ready to head out to Disneyland for a couple days.
The next morning we met up with Jasmine, for those of you who don't know who she is, she is Brandon's cousin. We met at the The Grand Californian Hotel, which is where we stayed for our duration at Disney. This hotel was a fun and a super convenient place to stay if you plan on visiting. So we were off to our first day at Disneyland. The kids were super excited, I'd have to admit, I was pretty excited too, since its been a while since I've been there and everything has changed so much. I mean for goodness sake they added a new park :) On our way into the park Aubrynn kept tripping over her flip flops that were obviously too big, so our first stop after entering the park was to find a place that sold some shoes. She did end up with the cutest pair of Minnie Mouse sandals. After we headed straight over to get them their Disney hats. Our first ride was the Matterhorn, which Braden thought was scary, not because it was fast but because of the Inevitable Snowman.
Later that evening, Aunt Maria, Aunt Sylvia and Grandpa joined us for dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, which is a character dinning experience. The kids really enjoyed getting their autograph books signed and seeing all the different characters that come to the table while you were eating. Braden's favorite character was Goofy, which he was more excited to see than when we saw Mickey earlier in the day. Aubrynn really enjoyed Minnie Mouse and Snow white.
After dinner we headed back out to Disneyland to watch the fireworks and ride a few more rides before retiring for the day. Boy was it a long day, and we had 2 more days just like this ahead of us. Here are some of the pictures from our first day there.
Since on our first day we visited the Disneyland park we thought we would visit California Adventure the second and see the new Cars Land. We got to enter the back of the park, it's the entrance from the hotel. It lead us right to this explorer thing, which is based all around the movie Up. They got to meet Doug the dog, and got their explorers badges. On our way over to Cars Land, we bumped into Phineas and Ferb. The kids love that cartoon, so to be able to dance with them was a pretty cool experience. When we got to Cars Land, which is AWESOME because it really does look just like Raditor Springs from the movie, we noticed all the lines were 2 hours long. So we didnt get to ride any rides then, but did look around and visited the rest of the park. Aubrynn's favorite ride was the Screamer, and it was quite fun if I'd so say myself. The kids got to meet tons of characters that day like Woody and Buzz. Brycen and Jasmine won the kids Dumbo stuffed animals and some others as well. After lunch we headed back over to Disneyland for the remainder of the day. The kids really enjoyed watching the Disneyland Parade.
On our last day at Disneyland we decided to get up early, being a hotel guess you get to enter the park one hour early, well we didn't quite make it there that early, but we did beat most of the crowd. Upon entering the park we went straight over to Cars Land so we could get a flash pass for later in the day to ride new Speedway ride. We were able to ride the other attractions in the morning and our flash pass was for 2pm. A flash pass, for those of you who don't know, is were you get to go to the front of the line during your designated hour, and believe me it was SO WORTH IT! After Cars Land, we headed back over to Disneyland to ride Space Mountain, which we tried to ride for 2 days but it was always down. Luckily for us it was down but opened right up as we arrived so we got to walk right onto the ride. I forgot how much fun that ride was, as a kid it was my favorite.
For lunch Aunt Maria rented a Cabana at the hotel pool, so we spent a couple of hours there with her and Grandma Patty. It was a nice relaxing time, being on your feet for 3 days walking around for 12+ hours each day can be exhausting, so hanging at the pool was a nice change in pace. After the pool we changed then headed to the Storybook Cafe for dinner where the kids got to make their own pizza. Brycen being the "big kid" he is wanted a light up toy drink, which was so funny watching him drink from it. Following dinner, Brycen, Aubrynn and I headed over to Disneyland because Aubrynn really wanted to go on the Haunted Mansion one last time. Since Braden was scared of it the first time, he opted out and stayed behind with Aunt Maria and Jasmine. For some reason or another we hadn't made it over to Cars Land at night, and I really wanted to see it all light up, so we headed over there after the mansion. I cried, no really I did, because it was just like the movie and it being my favorite movie and all, I got emotional. I really wish I would have brought Braden along because he would have loved it, but I'm glad I didn't. He was completely passed out when we got back to Aunt Maria's room, so we stayed and watched the fireworks from Aunt Maria's balcony. If you live in Southern California and go to Disneyland or if you don't. but get a chance to visit, make sure you see Cars Land at night.
On our last morning at Disneyland we got up, had breakfast then checked out of the hotel and headed out to meet up with everyone for a 4th of July party and Grandpa and Grandma's house. Of course on our way up there we had to stop by and eat at In-N-Out. I swear they make the best hamburgers on the planet. After our bellies were nice a full we made it back to San Clemente. It was nice to see Great Grandpa Ochoa, and Uncle Jerry and hang out with Aunt Sylvia and Maria. My father in-law order some yummy middle eastern food, so we chowed down on some grub then hung out all afternoon. Aunt Sylvia decided to teach the kids what the different values coins had, for example pennies, quarters, dimes and nickels. The rest of us just lounged around watching tv and were chit chatting. When it got dark we walked down to the San Clemente Pier to watch the 4th of July fireworks. They had a wonderful display of fireworks, and after we headed back up the hill to put the little ones to bed.
The day after the 4th, we thought it would be fun to take the kids to go see the new Disney movie Brave. The kids really liked it, I on the other hand, been going and going and fell asleep for a good portion of it. So the ending didn't make much sense to me at all, which means when the movie comes out on DVD I will have to watch it in it's entirety. After the movie we went around the corner and had Dinner at Ruby's Cafe, where we saw Daryl from Storage Wars eating with his wife. When finishing dinner we took a walk around old San Juan Capistrano and visited the petting zoo before heading home. The petting zoo pictures are taken from my phone so its not the greatest quality.
On this day Brycen and I headed up to Six Flags Magic Mountain, and the kids went with Grandpa and Grandma down to the San Diego Zoo. Brycen and I really like not having to tag along the kids so we could bounce around from one ride to the next. It was also really fun getting to hang out with him and enjoy his company. From what I heard the kids absolutely loved the zoo. They did some interactive activities and got to ride the double decker bus and loved getting their faces painted. After leaving Magic Mountain Brycen and I headed over to Boy's Big Boy to have some famous chili spaghetti. Brycen loved it so much that he made me order just the chili so we could bring it back home. I forgot to bring the camera along so all the pictures from the day were taking on my iphone, sorry.
Though its not really that hot in San Clemente we did get in some beach time. The kids love the beach. They had fun trying to build sand castles and burying one another in the sand. The water was absolutely to cold for me to enjoy, but Brycen did a lot of boogie boarding and the little ones got tossed around in the waves. I guess when your young, playing in freezing cold water is cool.
The kids and I got the pleasure of seeing their great grandma Nadine. She use to live in San Antonio a couple of years back, and boy was she a spit fire. But due to her Alzheimer she has since gone way done hill. It's so crazy, because though she looks the same she is so different. She use to be this lively lady, and now she can barely hold a conversation. She really did enjoy visiting with the kids. She kept kissing and hugging on them. We took her for a walk to this look out point over looking Dana Point, which she really enjoyed.
It's been many many years since I have got to visit with almost all my Aunts, Uncles and cousins from the Walter's side of the family. It was a great day filled with fun, food and laughter. I got to introduce my two youngest children to everyone, and they got to see Brycen again after 13 years. Brycen hit it off great with my cousins Cody and Adam, matter of fact him and Adam took over the spare room and played with this pretty cool race car track, and played a trivia game pretty much all day. Aubrynn got along great with the little girls and her and Braden loved this dancing video game my grandma had. Braden became best buds with my cousin Corinna's little boy Dominic and ended up spending the night with him.
Growing up every holiday was spend with the Walter's clan, and being around everyone made me miss the old days. I especially loved picking on my Uncle Anthony, which is always fun, mooooooo! Some of my Aunts and Uncle stayed late and the kids ended up passing out all around the house which was cute.. Until next time, Love Y'all!
Of all the years I lived in California, I never been to Medieval Times, so I for sure was going to go this time around. The kids absolutely loved it. We got the Royal VIP package upgrade, which gave us amazing seats. We sat in the red knights section, and though he didn't win in the end, it was super exciting and fun to watch. Braden wasn't to sure about the "dragons blood" which was really tomato bistro soup, but after his first sip he was sold. The food was amazing, but ended up taking most of it home. We will definitely have to visit the one in Dallas TX, because we all had such a good time.
Here are some things we also did, like how I found a street named Ochoa. Drove down Route 66, found my favorite Hawaiian fast food place called L&L drive in and had some
yummy chicken catsu. On our way back from Applevalley we took a detour through my old neighborhood, so here are some of our
houses, I cried when I found my favorite house on San Antonio Ave. So as you can see we had a great vacation, and lastley here are our pictures from our flight home
where Braden so wonderfully feel asleep for the entire flight. Hope you guys enjoyed all the pictures..
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