We're Home!

There's no place like home! We had a wonderful vacation, but we missed home. There is nothing like your own bed, shower, house etc.

Sunday we checked into the Californian hotel at Disneyland. We relaxed and went to Downtown Disney. It's different than our Downtown Disney. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Then we headed back and relaxed.

Monday we were debating on going to Disneyland. We almost did it. But decided not to. Abby was really sick and I was not feeling well. So we walked around and then had lunch. Then Tiff & Bill went to see a movie while the girls & I rested. Monday night, we packed and got ready to come home.

Tuesday we left the hotel around 7 AM and drove to the airport. Check in was very easy. The flights were okay. I don't like flying. Thankfully they were not too rough.

We landed in Orlando around 7 PM. We were exhausted and hungry. We finally got our bags and then our van. We missed our van. :-) We drove through McDonalds and then finally made it home around 10 PM.

The girls were happy to go back to preschool. Tiff was not thrilled that I made her go to school yesterday. But she survived. We are all very tired but happy to be home.

Here are the last of the photos from our trip. We did not take many photos the last day.

Until next time......

SNOW

We survived the freezing cold of the mountains. But barely. We met up with the gang with Bring Me Hope and followed to the mountains. 2 homes were rented for all of us. We were fortunate enough to have our own room with our own bathroom. Unfortunately, Tiff, Abby & myself got sick. Really sick. Abby has had the same cough since Wed. But then she threw up and has had a fever off & on. Tiff was in bed most of the weekend. My head felt like it was going to explode. I have come to realize, you can't take a true FL girl out of FL and into 6000 ft elevation.

Even though we were sick, we did have a good time. I met some wonderful people. I'm so thankful that we went. I just wish we did not get sick. As soon as we were down off the mountain, Tiff & I started to feel better. Ab is still coughing. I think she will be seeing the doctor when we get home.

Sorry this post is short. We are now at Disneyland. the girls should be going to sleep. I'm about to take some Nyquil and go to sleep too. We're not sure what we'll be doing tomorrow. We would like to go to the park, but if we are not 100%, then we might skip. We fly home on Tuesday.

Here are some photos of our time in the snow. It was so cold for my FL bones. Today when we left, it was 27 degrees. BRRR.....

Until next time....

Legoland

Today we woke up around 6 AM again. We tried to take it slow. But that is impossible with Abby & Jadyn. We ate breakfast and left the hotel by 9 AM. We needed to find Wal-Mart because our memory disk for the camcorder was full. We finally found Wal-Mart and then headed off to Legoland. Legoland is about 5 min from our hotel. We arrived to a parking lot that was basically empty. One thing we noticed that is different here & at the Zoo, is it's self parking. It's not like Disney at all.

We were so confused to what tickets to buy. We were approached by a scalper and we walked by. He said he won the tickets on the radio and he'll sell them to us $10 less than Legoland. We said "no thank you". then we were handed coupons by another family for "free child's ticket" with paid adult. We took those. We ended up using them and just doing the 1 day pass.

The day was beautiful. Everything was made out of Legos. It was really neat. We did a lot of rides. There was a Storybook boat ride, very neat. Then the girls got to drive. Even Tiff was able to drive. She did not want to, but I think she had fun anyways. They each got a "drivers license". So funny.

there was so much to do at this park. Too much to mention. We thought we would be done earlier, but we weren't. And we did not do everything. Lines got very long. Crowds started coming in in the afternoon. It was packed. Around 3 PM the temp dropped fast. We were cold. Our FL clothes were not cutting it. They have a Kid New Years Party we planned on staying for. But Abby started coughing bad, and sneezing and J was cranky. So we decided it would be best that we leave.

We are now in the hotel, trying to thaw out. The girls are getting some hot chocolate. They have medicine in them. I pray they feel better tomorrow. Thankfully tomorrow is a "slow" day. Nothing is planned.

Happy New Year! I pray that your 2009 will be a good one.

Enjoy the photos. There are a lot. These (and the others on the blog) are just from my camera. Bill took a ton too. And Daniel, Bill would like to know how long you think it would take to make the capitol building (look at slideshow).

I would also like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite brother! I hope you had an awesome day. Congrats on the Condo!

The San Diego Zoo

As I said in the other post, the girls woke up at 4 AM today. We told them they had to sleep more if they wanted to go to the zoo. Well they actually listened today. :-) We all got up at 6 AM and got ready for the day. We took advantage of the breakfast here at the hotel. We left our hotel around 8 PM and headed to San Diego. We got to the zoo around 8:45. We bought our tickets. We got the "special" tickets that included the bus rides & sky ride. We also printed out coupons at home and saved $40. Woo Hoo!

The girls were so excited. We saw so many animals today. The weather was beautiful. Jadyn was THRILLED to see her favorite cat animals. Abby was able to see 2 Panda's. Tiff said her favorite was wolf.

We went on the double decker bus tour. We sat on the top and in the front. It was great. We walked a lot. Us FL folk are not used to hills. :-) Abby said her legs hurt bad today.

We made it at the zoo until around 3 PM. Jadyn kept asking "when are we going home?" We thought about trying to make it to close (5 PM) but we did not want to push Jadyn.

The girls did great. They had a lot of fun. Tomorrow our plan is Legoland.

BTW, Just for the record, Disney is NOT expensive when it comes to eating at the park. Coke from the restaurants was $4.19. A 20 oz from a vender, $3.50. We pay $2.25 for a coke at lunch at Disney and $2.00 for a 20 oz at a vender. And, the kids meals were close to $3.00 MORE than Disney.

(We still had a great day!). :-)

enjoy the photos.

The Beach

Yesterday, before we went out to find dinner, we went to the local beach. It was beautiful. So different than ours. I was in heaven. The waves got bigger while we were there. The girls had a blast. They were splashing each other & Having fun. It was cool out too, which was nice. Here is a slideshow for you to see photos from our time at the beach.

On our way to California!

Why, oh why, did we chose a 7:30 AM flight to California, out of Orlando? We woke up at 3 AM Monday morning. We left our house at 4:30 and we drove to Orlando. We made it there on time. The flight was over booked. So crowded. The long flight to Phoenix was uneventful. Just the way I like it. :-) Then the flight from Phoenix to Orange County was quick. Like an hour.

California is beautiful. I'm amazed that I can see mountains on one side and ocean on the other. Just beautiful. (Don't worry mom, dad & Nanny. We're not moving to California).

We arrived in CA around noon, which is 3 PM EST. We got some sandwiches and checked into the hotel. We watched Wall-E and fell asleep. I think we were all in bed by 7 PM PST. The girls woke up at 4 AM ready to go. We made them to back to sleep for a couple of hours. Thankfully they did.

Here are a few photos from the flight here. Daniel, the one of Tiff reading is for you. And the ones of the mountains from the plane were taken by us, FL natives who are in awe of mountains. :-)