Last Day of Trip: Church and Temples

Thankfully, we had a day to rest a bit before heading back home. It was Sunday and so we started the morning with finding a Sacrament meeting to attend at 10:30 in the morning. The funny thing is, we were all so tired that we all slept through the meeting. But hey, we made the effort, and we were there. We took off after the meeting and went back to the hotel to rest some more. By the afternoon, Jack mentioned wanting to go visit some nearby temples. We looked it up on our phones and decided to visit first, the Yorba Linda and then the Newport Beach temples. Yorba Linda was still under construction, but it was still cool to see.

These were taken on June 22nd.

 

It's amazing how different the landscaping is from where we live. These temples are surrounded with desert plants and very beautiful. We drove down to the Newport Beach temple and were able to walk around on the grounds and take pictures. The church building right next to it looked unique so I got a picture of it as well. (Garrett decided to stay at the hotel while the rest of us went to the temples)

The church building next door.

It happened to also be our anniversary that day, and since we all needed to eat, we walked down the street to Denny's. Not the ideal place to eat for an anniversary meal but it had things that everyone would be happy to eat. The kids all ordered breakfast type items, but I was in the mood for some chicken. 

Curtis and I took a walk after dinner to help walk it off and we walked down a street that was lined with palm trees. We both love seeing streets like that, just lined with trees. It was a good way to end the day and the trip.

We thought we would have time to visit the Los Angeles temple before heading to the airport the next morning, but the traffic was so bad that we had to change our plans and head straight to the car rental to drop off the van and then shuttle over to the airport. Maybe next time. We had a 5-hour layover in Seattle, but we finally made it home. It was a great trip!

Disneyland Day 2

Ricky's family decided they were done with visiting parks and left for home Saturday morning while our family went for another day to Disneyland. We wanted to do some of the rides that we had not done yet, but also some of our favorites. I also wanted to make sure we got a family picture at the main entrance. The first ride we did that day was Indiana Jones because that's one of my favorites. Then Thunder Mountain Railroad. We also went on the Mark Twain boat ride because we've never done that ride before. We thought we were going to get to sit down and rest our feet on this ride, but we went up to the 2nd level and there were NO seats at all. All of the seats on the 1st floor were taken by the time we figured it out, but we also wanted to be up higher. I ended up sitting down on the floor so that I could rest my feet. 

We were finally able to ride Tiana's Bayou Adventure (Splash Mountain). It kept either having really long waits or closed because of problems.

On the Mark Twain boat.

Jack got soaked on the Tiana ride (Splash Mountain) because he was in front.

Our picture from Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Curtis and I planned our reactions for the picture ahead of time. I loved how it turned out!

We decided to hop on the train and get off over in Tomorrowland. We got on the Finding Nemo submarine ride. Curtis and I were so tired that we slept through most of the ride. It was slow moving and dark, so it was hard not to sleep. We then did some other rides such as Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Star Tours. Then it was time for lunch at Pizza Planet. Alice and I rode the Astro Blaster ride which is more for younger kids. It's similar to the Dumbo ride where you can move it up and down. We then went on Space Mountain (a favorite). Then on to the Monorail to go to Downtown Disney to visit the Lego store. Charlotte bought a Lego set while there of the Harry Potter Knight Bus. When we finished there, it was back on the Monorail and then the train again to go ride Smugglers Run in Star Wars Land. The boys were pretty much done so we started heading to the front of the park but stopped to do the Teacup ride. I was the only one who didn't do that ride because my stomach couldn't handle it.

Finding Nemo submarine ride.

Smugglers' Run

Teacups

We had to get a picture in front of Cinderella's castle while walking to the front entrance.

We finally got pictures at the front gate! Disney had a professional taking pictures and they even had a line for that.

This is my favorite.

They told us to point up, but we weren't sure what we were pointing at until we saw the picture later. I joked that Curtis probably just shot the Invisible Swordsman (from Three Amigos).

The boys went back to the hotel for the remainder of the day while Curtis and I stayed with the girls to do what they wanted. We started with getting some yummy ice cream. And then checking out Steamboat Willie at the theater on Main Street. Then over to Fantasy Land to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and King Arthur's Carousel. Afterwards, we wanted to do Pirates again and then the girls went up on the Adventure treehouse (Swiss Family Robinson tree). We got better pictures of it this time.

Gotta have it with Mickey's ears.

The girls did this pose all on their own. So cute!

The Adventure treehouse (Swiss Family Robinson)

Our very last ride of the night was Rise of the Resistance. We waited in the regular line this time because we didn't want to spend extra money again to get a fast pass. We got to where the ride started and then it broke down. They scanned our tickets to give us a fast pass to return when it was open. We went looking around in Star Wars Land and bought some souvenirs and snacks. By the time we finished, we headed back to the ride and were able to get on. It was good timing because when we finished the ride, it was close to time for a fireworks show in Star Wars Land. We had not seen it before. It's too bad the boys missed it because it was a great show and nice way to end the day. 

Alice's souvenir.

Here's our picture from Space Mountain. Curtis had a bored look on purpose, ha ha. It's hard to do that on that ride when it's moving so fast!

The walk back to the bus to get back to the Toy Story parking lot was very tiresome and then we had to walk another 10 minutes back to the hotel. I gave Alice a piggyback ride for a little while, but I was so tired also. The boys were both watching TV when we arrived back at the hotel and I think we got to bed around midnight that night. It had been another very full and fun day.

Beach Day and Medieval Times

Friday, Day 5 of our trip, was a lot more relaxed. We slept in and then we headed to the beach later in the morning. The laundry room at our hotel was closed, so Curtis had to find a laundromat near the beach we were going to and spent the whole beach time doing our laundry. Garrett went with him. Ricky had woken up early that morning and walked down the street from our hotel to do their laundry. We should have done the same thing. 

The beach that we decided to try out is Laguna Beach and we were in Fisherman's Cove. It was about 30-40 minutes away from our hotel, I think. The younger kids and Ricky were the only ones that got out in the water, but they had so much fun. Then there was some time playing with the sand on the beach. It was a nice little beach but there's not a ton of parking and you do have to pay for parking in one of those parking meters. I think we were there for about 2 hours. I'd remember better if I had written this right after the trip, but life just got busy, and it's been hard for me to do the posts.

The girls and I discovered some little critters in the sand. They're called sand fleas, and they hide in the sand right where the water hits the beach.

It was good that we went as early as we did because more people kept showing up and it was getting busy by the time we left. We needed time to get back to the hotel and clean ourselves up before going to Medieval Times for dinner.

Before leaving for dinner the girls and I had to get a picture with our chocolate frogs from Harry Potter world that we bought at Honeydukes in Universal Studios.

This year we had the black and white knight.

Charlotte used some souvenir money to buy a sword and shield.

And Alice bought a pink dragon.

Wes was having fun with his sword.

Tomato/vegetable soup that you drink right from the bowl. It tasted good.

Everyone gets an entire half of a chicken. They also brought out corn on the cob (that had a flavoring on it that I wasn't fond of) and some garlic bread, potatoes and then later some dessert. I can't remember what we had for dessert though.

Our knight during the final battle. He won!!

When we were planning our trip, I didn't really want to go to Medieval Times because we went last time, but because Ricky's family had never been and they really wanted to experience it. I am glad that we went again because it was a lot of fun cheering our knight on to victory. The kids enjoyed it also. Jack even bought himself a knife/dagger as a souvenir.