Family Vacation - Day 4 - Huntington Beach

After spending all day Monday at Disneyland & California Adventure, we slept in Tues (a little) and then headed out for the beach.  Jared's phone (HTC EVO) was a major tool for us on this trip.  I was able to find one of Jared's favorite restaurants (Boston Market) right by the beach, and then it navigated us there from our hotel.  It got us to all of our destinations.  So we had lunch there and then went to Huntington Beach.  We usually go to Newport Beach, so this was our first time there.  It was a great beach!  We'll go there from now on.

 

It was breezy that day, but sunny and warm enough we didn't need jackets.  We loved it!

Disneyland & California Adventure

Mal & Conner fell asleep waiting for World of Color to start.
Sophie decided to use Conner's head as a footrest.

Mal watching the parade

Poor Sophie was strapped to the stroller a lot!

Mal was so excited to go on the Peter Pan ride!

Sleeping Beauty's castle

Normally, I would never allow my baby to crawl around on the street,
but we just had to set her free sometimes!

Poor Sophie was sick the whole trip - runny nose, infected eyes and a cough.
She was even running a fever Saturday night.  Poor thing!

Eating dinner at 'Naples', in Downtown Disney

 The LEGO store!

YAY!  Tyler & Liz were able to join us for our 2nd & 3rd day - Wednesday and Thursday  (Thanksgiving).  

Waiting for pretzels!  Pretzels & churros were a staple for us....no one
does churros better than Disneyland!

Again - I had to let her crawl around & get out of the stroller!  She and I
were waiting for everyone to get off of Tower of Terror.

Mickey's Fun Wheel - Uncle Tyler took the kids on this later that night. 

Ashton & Conner with the soldiers from Toy Story

 Dinner on Wednesday at Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure.  It was very fancy, and the service was great.  Kelsey & Emma tried clams!  I have some brave girls! I wouldn't touch it.  We ate until we were stuffed, because it cost a ton & I wasn't going to let my kids waste a thing!

This was on Wednesday night, we had reservations to eat at "Ariel's Grotto" for dinner.  It cost more than I am willing

to say - $$ ouch.  But with the reservations we also got tickets to sit in the best spot for World of Color, and that made

it totally worth it!  World of Color was awesome - and so was this dessert spread!  We loved it!

 Eating desserts at dinner in "Ariel's Grotto".

This film strip was made out of white chocolate!

Mickey's fun wheel at night - it constantly changes color.
I could sit and watch it forever, I loved it.

Conner & Chip - having breakfast in the park (yum!) with
Minnie & Friends!

Family Vacation - The Reagan Presidential Library

We left for CA at 4:30 AM Saturday morning.  It was nice to get there while it was still daylight.  The kids did pretty good on the ride there.  Sunday we decided to head to Simi Valley, just over an hour away, to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.  We have taken the kids to the Nixon library before, but the Reagan Library is SO much more interesting.  It also has a cafeteria/grill, so we had lunch there and then went back to the hotel.  We stayed at the Residence Inn, so we had a full kitchen, 2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms.  They also had a sport court, so the kids played basketball that night.  Too cold to swim!

It was on a "mountain" top over looking the Simi Valley.  It was a VERY nice area, huge homes around it and awesome views.  

You could walk inside this Air Force One, which was just recently "retired".  I guess George W got the new one sometime during his presidency.  No photos were allowed inside, but it was very cool!

A piece of the Berlin wall 

Most of the library was closed, because next year is the centennial of Reagan's birth, so they are getting ready for that.  So they had this, a massive replica of the White House at Christmas.  It was incredible to see, all the detail, and it was huge!  Even the tv's inside were on!  It was awesome.

This was on the opposite wall, not part of the White House replica, behind glass.  This showed what Pres. Lincoln's office looked like when he was president.