Summer Vacation Part I

This trip couldn't have come at a better time! Shawn and I were both so ready to get away from Boston and have fun for a couple of weeks!

We flew into Vegas where we met my family at the airport. Then we started our road trip to California. On the way we stopped in Primm, NV for lunch at Qdoba's and snapped some pictures with our cute little nephews :) It was fun meeting Camden for the first time and seeing how much Andersen loves him!

After lunch it was on to Anaheim for Disneyland! We got there around dinner time so we headed over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and eat at Rain Forest Cafe. I love the atmosphere at that restaurant. It was so fun watching Anders take it all in and experience it for the first time. They have this huge robotic snake hanging from one of the trees in the lobby. Shawn was holding Anders and the snake came down behind him. Shawn said, "Anders, look!" Anders turned around and the snake was right in his face. It scared him SO BAD but it was hilarious! He was over it in a couple minutes thank goodness. After dinner we all took Anders over to the car store where he bought his very own Lightning McQueen car and got to assemble it with the help of his dad. He loved it!

The next day we got up early, ate breakfast, and headed to California Adventure. We had a pretty good system going for riding rides. One or two people would sit with the little boys while the other adults would use a Fast Pass to ride then the ones sitting out would swap with a Switch Rider Pass good for six more rides. We definitely skipped waiting in long lines all day! It was awesome! The only big rollercoaster in California Adventure was Screamin' and it was pretty sweet. We rode that first!

After "Screamin'" we rode The Little Mermaid ride. Andersen sat in a shell with Shawn and I. He liked it up until Ursula came up. At the end he told us, "I was just a wittle bit scared..." so cute! Then we headed to A Bugs Land. Anders loved riding the "Heimlich Chew Chew Train" with his Mom, Dad, Uncle Shawn and Auntie Lexi. Auntie Leah and Aunt Mac took him on "Flik's Flyers" and he was all smiles. 

After lunch we needed a break from the heat, so we went and saw the Aladdin play. It was a short comedic version and definitely funny! The Genie had some good one-liners and the music was fantastic. I love Aladdin and this play was great. I totally recommend it!

Then it was time for "The Tower of Terror"!!! We were all excited and nervous...especially Shawn...the newbie rider haha! This ride is so great and the theatrics of it is spot on. Just the right amounts of terrifying and fun! I love that in the picture a lot of us are looking over at Shawn to make sure he hadn't passed out. Definitely worth the wait!

Cars Land was Andersen's favorite part of the whole day and he couldn't contain his excitement once we got there! It was the cutest thing! I was really impressed with how well they did this part of the park. It felt like we stepped right into Radiator Springs. We even got to ride "Racers", life size versions of the Cars characters that went 50 mph. It was so cool! The best part was watching Anders and seeing the look of pure joy on his face. He couldn't believe he got to meet Mater and Lightning McQueen!

It was such a fun day spent with great people! I tried to put more pictures than words on this post, because a picture says 1,000 words. I love that we captured all these fun moments from our trip. Stay tuned for Magic Kingdom, Newport Beach, and Utah in Part II.