Disneyland and the beach

Payton applying sun screen to grandma's nose

The next day we used our pass to go to Disneyland. I should say here that it helps that Cindy has a cousin in Southern California because she was able to get the tickets for almost $200 less that what we would have paid at the gate for them. Anyway we started off with the Jungle Cruise to break Payton in. She liked it but after Pirates of the Caribbean she did not like any boat ride. We were able to use the stroller passes and the Fast Passes to get to do most of the things we wanted to do. Some lines were long.Star Tours was 90 minutes. Others worked out fine. They brought back Captain E/o which was a Michael Jackson 3-d show. They should have left it in the vault. It is amazing how things have changed in the 15 or so years since that came out. As the kids said, "that was cheesy." It now places right next to them watching Bullet with me one night because I said it had a great chase scene that I remembered as a kid. Same thing, times have changed.

It seems that some of us could ride Thunder Mountain and get most of the ride done and then have it break down near the end but then when it was Shannon and Nic's turn it was not operating. Of course what is Disneyland without seeing Micky Mouse so day one we saw him at a parade.
 

The next day was a rest from the parks and we spent the day at the beach. We went to Crystal Cove which was just south of Newport Beach. We set up our base station which was a canopy to be out of the sun. After applying the sunscreen the men headed out to the water to body surf. It was pretty good and then as the tide started to come in the waves got bigger and they gave us some good somersaults.

After getting beat up we decided to head for the tide pools before the tide got too high. Grandma showed Payton the in's and out's of tidepooling. Payton was happy just to sit in them though. Maddie caught a tiny crab and Shannon upgraded to a small crab that pinched her. After tide pooling it was playing in the sand and building creatures and castles and burying bodies. We had Payton covered and then a large wave came and we pulled her out the sand before it covered her head. That was the end of covering her up. Some decided then to relax by sleeping. It turned out to be a great day and as always the case the simplest things are often the most fun.

Thursday was back to Disneyland again. The adults took advantage of the unused stroller passes while Maddie and Greg took Payton to the storybook land and first to ride horses on the Carousal  and then ... oh no.. a boat ride.

She even had a hard time when we got onto A Small World but gradually she enjoyed it.

We had our picnic in the park and we had the routine down pretty good of the security check for the food cooler. At the end of the day we watched fireworks and of course Payton left with Mickey and Minnie. The next day would be the 13 hour drive home.