How do you post about a spring break without going into a super boring travel log or picture overload? You don’t. I loved my vacation, but don’t want to overwhelm you with gazillions of pictures of my kids in all the places most of you have already seen or been to. So, I decided I would post one picture per day. Putting that limitation on myself made it so much easier to choose. Even though I carried around a 15 pound camera bag all week, I didn’t get as many pictures as I wanted, mostly because of the daily rain. But here is a recap in just one picture per day:
Day 1: Disneyland. By total chance, my parents and my aunt and uncle were there too. Just after we rode our first ride, the clouds came in and poured. I mean it poured! Thankfully it didn’t last longer than an hour or so, and we spent most of the time it was raining in Pirates of the Caribbean, so we didn’t get too drenched. It was still fun to hang out with the family and they were very cool about doing whatever we wanted to do. Thanks, guys!
Day 2: California Adventure. The second ride of the day was Grizzly River Run. I opted out this time around as I just didn’t feel like getting wet early on in the day. I’m glad I stayed behind so I could get these pics of the rest of the family going through the water spouts. Classic moment. I also want to document for the record that Megan and Ian did go on California Screamin’. They weren’t thrilled about it, but they got a milkshake at Red Robin that night for their bravery. Another funny thing about this day was what became known as the “cougar count”. With Taylor and Eric both wearing their BYU gear that day and BYU gearing up to play in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tourney, Taylor got shout outs all day long from complete strangers. There were A LOT of BYU fans at CA Adventure that day. A lot. It was funny… we’d be walking along and all of a sudden hear someone yell “Jimmer!” or “Go Cougs!” or “BYU!” Taylor LOVED it. Cougar Count for the day in the upper 20’s.
Day 3: Universal Studios. This was probably Eric’s favorite park. While I was off buying meal passes, SpongeBob came around so Eric took Ian and Brayden over to get a photo. Both boys LOVE SpongeBob, but when Brayden got a chance to meet him in person, he go scared. So they ended up playing cat and mouse with SpongeBob for a few minutes while Eric snapped away. One good thing I have say about Universal… they’re characters are super accommodating and take extra time with people. One bad thing I have to say about Universal… they’re employees are programmed to try to upsell everything in the park and they pushed the annual membership upgrade every chance they could get. It got annoying after a while. The morning weather was wonderful, but the rain came in the afternoon and lasted the rest of the day. Lucky for us, most of the shows and rides are inside. While the rain was bad, the worst part of the day was driving from Anaheim to Universal and back during rush hour. Of course, when is it NOT rush hour in LA? Cougar count in Hollywood: zero.
Day 4: Disneyland/California Adventure. We split the day between Disney and CA Adventure. In each park, we let each person pick their favorite ride and that’s basically all we did. Of course, the favorite rides have the longer lines, but everyone was happy and had a good time. At CA Adventure, Taylor got to ride CA Screamin’ 3 times all on Fast Passes because the younger three didn’t want to do it at all. (Well, Brayden wanted to ride it, but came in one inch too short.) At Disneyland, we made it a priority to go to the Jedi Training Academy, in hopes that Brayden would get picked. Alas, the Jedi Master favored the other side of the audience much more heavily, and overlooked Brayden when picking time came. It was still a great show though, and they all LOVED it. Darth Maul was amazing!
Day 5: SeaWorld. This was our first trip to SeaWorld. It was cool. I could have gotten some amazing pictures from the shows, but I opted to leave the big camera behind. I was underwhelmed by the Shamu show, as it was completely overrated. The dolphin show, however, was really cool. And the sea lion show was hilarious. Of all the exhibits, I was most impressed with the penguins and the sharks. I’m glad we went once, but once was enough.
Day 6: San Diego Zoo. This is Gau Gau. We waited in a line for 20-30 minutes to see this guy. He was facing the world and chomping away on some bamboo. Super cute! I hadn’t been to this zoo in 25 years or so, and I’d forgotten how massive it is. (And hilly.) We enjoyed walking around and seeing the animals. The lions were disappointing (aka napping) but the polar bears were awesome. One of them was dancing and giving us a good show. Some of the exhibits were old and outdated, but many were new and well suited to mimicking the wild. I really had fun with my camera at the zoo, and got many cool shots. The photos I got at the zoo made up for the lack at SeaWorld.
All in all it was a great vacation. Pros: It was our first theme park run with no stroller, diapers or naps. Hallelujah! Cons: I had a sinus infection that made me miserable off and on for the entire week. The rain was also definitely a con, although it might have been a blessing in disguise if it kept heavier crowds at bay. I’m always a little sad to leave Disneyland, but never fear, I will be back!
