A Great Trip to Southern California: February 21-24

So, I didn't have to teach the week after President's Day, so we decided to fly to southern California for a long weekend with the girls. We left Friday from the Provo airport and flew to LAX, arriving around noon. We got our rental car and headed to Los Angeles. We went to The Grove, a really pretty outdoor mall. We also got lunch at Chipotle. Awesome burrito with tons of guacamole! I was in heaven. By the time we got our lunch, it was about 2:00. We were all hungry and devoured our giant burritos. Again...heaven!

Mel had to see some shops in LA, including ZARA and Top Shop. She ended up only buying some cute socks. I did all the driving and Mel did the navigating with her phone. We also went to the American Girl Store. There are only 4 stores in the US and we've now been to 3 of them. I had no idea til the girls told me. We've been to one in Denver, NYC, and LA. We're missing Chicago. I have no plans to go there soon. We also drove by the theater where they have the Academy Awards every year. The bleachers were set up because the awards were coming up. The girls and Keenan got out of the car and saw some of the stars on the walk of fame. They saw Bill Cosby's, Bette Midler's and Hugh Hefner's stars. Wow, with Hugh Hefner having a star, they must have a pretty low bar to earn one. He gets one for being a dirty old man, I guess.

The girls loved the palm trees

THE Hollywood Tower Hotel of Disney's "Tower of Terror" ride fame

We then got in afternoon traffic and headed to Anaheim. We were spending the next two nights there and going to Disneyland all day Saturday. We stopped at Walmart to get groceries. We decided to just get bread, cheese and salami and eat dinner in our room. We were all tired and didn't want to go out again, except to go to Downtown Disney to shop a bit before going to bed. It was nice to relax in the room a bit. We then went to the World of Disney store for a bit.

Saturday, we got up early to get ready and grab our sack breakfast from the hotel. We wanted to get in line early so we could head straight over to Cars Land and ride Radiator Springs Racers. We got Allie her birthday button and waited about 30 minutes for the gates to open. While waiting, we met a nice couple from San Jose. They were also there celebrating a birthday. It was the young lady's birthday. We held their place in line while they got her a button. We all went on the ride together since we knew how to get to the ride.

READY...

SET...

GO!!!!!!!!

This is for Kamiko. He was always our pole jumper.

Have ticket...will enter and have a blast!

Birthday Girl!

With Kobi (on the phone) in line 

with our new friends on the cars ride

Isn't "California Adventure" a pretty park?!

Yup...it's gonna be a great day! The Adcocks take Disneyland! and California Adventure!

In line at Tower of Terror

All you can see of Allie is her two Minnie Mouse ears...top left corner

Why does Allie do this to me? I love Midway Mania

and I beat her!

Woody and Buzz ears. I love my girls!

It was a great day. We rode all of our favorites. Small World and Splash Mountain were closed though. So was Thunder Mountain Railroad. That one has been closed for a long time. A couple of highlights were:

1. Melia only wanted to see Sully, from Monsters Inc movies. We were leaving California Adventure and walked through where the Monsters ride is and...BAM...right there was Sully, walking to a spot to take pictures with visitors. So, we got to see Sully and got a pic. It was great.

At Monsters University...Allie, Me, Sully, Melia and Keenan

Mel got a selfie with Sully

2. When wanting to ride Midway Mania, we noticed that the ride was closed. That is one of our favorites. Well, there was a small line formed. The ride was to reopen, but no one knew when. We walked a bit and looked at stuff in stores. Then we decided to head back. Just as we walked past the line, they were reopening the ride. Not only did it reopen, but they took those of us who were at the end of the line and winded us through to create the line, putting us at the FRONT of the line.

3. I scared Melia on the Indiana Jones ride. Just as a snake comes out, I grabbed her. The look on her face was priceless.

4. Last ride we rode was Buzz Lightyear...for Kamiko. He loves that ride.

Allie's score

The park was quite crowded, so in the middle of the day we went back to the hotel to take a nap. That was perfect. It got us ready to keep going til midnight. We were at the park from 8:00 am til midnight with our small nap break. While it was crowded, we were fastpass masters and got to go on all the rides we wanted. Keenan had his pedometer and we walked 15 miles that day.

There is nothing that brings a smile to my face like Main Street Disneyland!

I love this picture of me and Allie

Soon-to-be graduate

Me and my girls

Me and my Keeno. Keenan loves to wear BYU stuff to let people know who we are!

I couldn't think of anything creative, so I decided to sleep in the picture on Space Mountain

We didn't have to get up really early on Sunday and that was nice. We took our time and got ready for the day, then headed to Burbank to stay with Derek and Rachel and the kids. The family met Charlie for the first time. We really had a nice Sunday with them. We just visited and talked. The girls and Rachel tried to tutor me on how to take a selfie...which is a picture of yourself. Moms are notorious for taking horrible selfies and I'm no exception. We ordered Chinese food for dinner and it was delicious! Absolutely fabulous!

Someday my girls will wish they had made prettier faces. Mel, Rose and Allie

Look what I found when I borrowed Rosie's bed for a Sunday nap. Olaf, the snowman, from Disney's "Frozen."

I could not believe how big Charlie has gotten in the two months since I last saw him

Learning how to take selfies. Me and my baby brother

Rae and me

Cute cute little Charlie

Rosie playing with her iPad

Monday we headed out around 9:00 to go to the airport. Melia and I almost missed the plane. We were sitting by our gate when Allie called us and asked where we were. She and Keenan were on the plane. It had boarded at another gate. We all made it back and sure had a great time.