Beach Day Adventure...

Saturday was Ashley's birthday!  Since Ashley, Clif and Lindsay couldn't get back into the parks (their passes were used up) we decided to go to Newport Beach.  It was a beautiful day!  Not crowded at all.  Huntington beach was super crowded, so we passed it up and went on to Newport.  We borrowed a pop up tent shade from Bruce and Kellie.  It was perfect!  Dave and I sat under that, and Ashley for most of the time due to her sunburn!  The other kids loved being on the beach and had a ton of fun!  Dave is my poster child for skin cancer.  Fully clothed and sat under the shade the whole time.  Love that man.  We saw the Newport Beach Police come by on their four wheelers!  If I was ever going to be a cop, that's how I would want to do it!!  They circled around and came right back to the people in front of us.  They had GLASS bottles.  A big no-no.  They got a ticket.  And though they were laughing about it while the police were there, they were not so happy after they left!  They grumbled a lot and then they left.  Such excitement on the beach!  ha. The boys loved having the attention of two aunties and an uncle, as well as their mom.  They loved being buried in the sand and making sandcastles.  We ate lunch under our canopy and just enjoyed the smells, sights and sounds of the beach!  After spending most of the midday at the beach, we went back to the hotel and cleaned up.  We had a date for dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe!  Birthday dinner for Ashley and Jacob!  The most expensive meal we have ever purchased!  You really pay for the ambiance, but the food was good too.  We had to wait quite awhile to get in, but that is a given as well as the price.  We walked around their store and took a few pictures.  After our most expensive dinner ever, we walked through downtown Disney to get a few souvenirs and then we of course had to check out the Lego Store!  Wow is all I can say!  The boys loved it.  Another very fun day!  We spent the rest of the night at the hotel packing up to head home.  Our fun adventure had to come to an end I guess.  It was sad to say goodbye to Ashley, Clif and Lindsay.  They drove back to Clovis together. We were so glad they were with us and just wish Clark could have been too.  Maybe NEXT time!  Our drive home was uneventful, just like we like it!  We stopped for dinner in St. George.  I LOVED to see the mall parking lot empty!  That's one thing I love about Utah, all the businesses that actually close on Sunday!  Happy Birthday Ashley and Jacob!  Goodbye Disneyland until next time! (Rain forest and Lego pictures in the next post).  We will start these pictures with a cute collage Lindsay made.

  

 

Our Disneyland Adventure part three...

This day was as much fun as the last two!  Clif and Lindsay were with us today.  It was fun having them with us!  We wore our Mickey Mouse shirts.  Ashley has on her Minnie tank top, but was sooooo sunburnt she had to wear a different shirt over it.  Oh my goodness, was she red!  It still shows some but we were trying to protect it.  And of course Dave always wears collars and long sleeves.  We need to find a button down Mickey shirt!  We went first thing to the Matterhorn...though Grandma didn't ride it!  We hit the teacups and Alice in Wonderland while we were over in that part of the park.  It wasn't crowded at all yet and easy to get on rides. Grandma does the teacups with Jacob because he doesn't like to spin too much.  Everyone but Grandma and Jacob went to ride Space Mountain.  We went clear across the park to get fast passes for Splash Mountain.  After we got them, there wasn't a line for Winnie the Pooh so we got on a honey pot and rode it!  Haunted Mansion wasn't busy either so we rode that too!  We accidentally told the other the wrong time for Splash Mountain so they made a mad dash to get over there and couldn't find us.  They really had another hour.  Oops!  It's okay.  We went ahead and rode it.  Yes, even Grandma did!  I really didn't like it!!  As you can plainly see by the picture!  I was okay before and after...it was just the "during."  Jacob looks like he didn't like it either, but he loved it!  We rode Pirates (I think that was our third time!) and Haunted Mansion again with everyone.  That was mine and Jacob's 4th time on Haunted.  I think we rode it that many times last time we came, sounds like a tradition to me!  I don't know why I had never seen the little mausoleum behind it. It is funny. I guess I have never had to wind around in a line so far back before, that's probably why we haven't seen them. Grandma also went to get fast passes for Indiana Jones and another time for Space Mountain and another time for Big Thunder Mountain so they could all go again!   I was happy to go get fast passes while they rode rides I didn't want to do. We rode Finding Nemo (not that exciting, but we had to see it because it was closed last time we were here before.  We did the Buzz Lightyear ride again and Star Tours (David even high fived some Storm Troopers!)  It was just a very fun day, even though it was hot and lines were long.  Just being all together was special!  We got a space THREE hours early to see the nighttime parade and the fireworks.  I saved our places while everyone went and did rides.  It was a long 3 hours but I had fun visiting with the couple next to us who were also taking turns saving their spot.  The parade was the same one we had seen with Jacob that first night.  Very cool!  Hard to get good pictures of it.  The slinky dog was my favorite, but I don't seem to have a picture of it.  Dave went and got us food from the Jolly Holiday restaurant.  I really wanted a Monte Cristo sandwich from Cafe Orleans, but when he went over there, they only take reservations for sit down eating and they were booked for the night.  Boo.  My turkey sandwich just didn't taste quite the same as what I had my taste buds set for!  ha.  Everyone came back in time for the parade, and people still tried to squeeze their way in to our space.  Um no, I have been saving these spots for THREE hours, you go to the back!  ha.  People are very interesting to say the least.  The parade was awesome...the 60th anniversary fireworks show was amazing...they showed clips from movies onto the castle and just so much to see and hear.  Very fun! Jacob fell asleep right before the fireworks!!  It was another long but very fun day!  Then it was a madhouse as everyone made their way out of the park.  Yikes.  Some of us headed back to the hotel and a few stayed to catch a couple of more rides before the park closed.  I tried to keep the pictures to a minimum, but it's just not possible!  It was a fun and eventful day!  So glad we could all be there together. Tomorrow...beach day!