The Planetarium

Bella was very excited for her school field trip to the planetarium. She woke up at 6:00 in the morning and kept asking "Is it time yet?" I finally had to get her a watch and tell her what time we would be leaving. She spent quite a while just watching the numbers move. It wasn't until we left that I realized she was really just excited because Dad was going to take her. They seemed to have a good time and I enjoy some quality shopping time at Gateway.

Disneyland -Day 3

Today was our day in costume. Bella was very excited to go as Mulan and really wanted to meet her. (Unfortunately we discovered too late that she has a meeting with the Emperor on Thursdays, so that will have to wait for another time.)

Little Tinkerbell!

We headed straight to the Princess Fantasy Fair and waiting for the requisite 2 hours. We saw Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

June was not interested in meeting any of them.

We ran straight over to have lunch at Ariel's Grotto. Again, June not happy to be left even with a princess.

She did grant Cinderella one smile, but no one else.

Check out these beautiful princesses!

After we saw Donald Duck on the way to Playhouse Disney. Bella still loved it, especially the part with Little Einsteins. I am glad she isn't too big for all of this yet!

Pretty happy, even after spending a lot of the day in a stroller.

Entertaining June while we waited for the parade.

Dancing in the parade. Bella immediately headed off on the conga line, which made Mom a little nervous, especially when she was out of view for a few minutes. She made it back safe and sound, and danced the rest of the parade!

Goodbye Disneyland! We can't wait to come back and visit again! (Bret has sworn you off until June's 3rd birthday!) Tomorrow we have to head for home!

Disneyland -Day 2

Look who we saw first thing! After the fiasco of the previous day, I wasn't taking any chance on people thinking my beautiful girl was a boy!

Who is the cutest Minnie Mouse?

We ran into Brer Fox over by Splash Mountain. He kept smelling the flowers in Bella's hair, which she was not thrilled with.

She wasn't any happier when he brought Brer Bear over to smell them too. She put up with it pretty patiently. She and Dad went on Splash Mountain and loved it, so we did it again.

Check out Holly sneaking a little kiss to Pooh Bear!

Tigger checking on a sleeping June!

Brer Fox spent a lot of time playing with Holly while she was waiting for us to go on Splash Mountain. (Janine, Bret has a ton of cute pictures, but this one is my favorite!) We call Holly the little movie star, because she always takes the best pictures!

Meeting Mickey! Bella was excited to have him dance with her for a few minutes. June was not to certain about seeing these characters. She was interested, but made sure to keep a tight grip on Mom or Dad, just in case.

Sitting in Minnie's chair.

Bella really loved these fireworks for some reason, because she hates real ones! It was another great day!

Disneyland- Day 1

Hooray! We finally made it to Disneyland. I love to be here with my kids. It is so fun just to watch them.
June started out in her Mickey shirt with adorable mouse ears that she wouldn't leave on. It was to bad because everyone kept telling me what a handsome little guy she was. You can imagine what I felt about that. The ridiculous prices of a t-shirt (and Bret) was the only thing that stopped me from running to the nearest store and outfitting her entirely in pink!

We headed over to Pixie Hollow first thing. Bella has been waiting for years to meet Tinkerbell. She asks about her every visit so she was pretty excited to finally see her.

While we were waiting in line, Bella peeked through the grass. Tinkerbell noticed her, waved and blew her a kiss. You can imagine how excited she was. I think she was a little nervous to meet Tinkerbell, she got a little shy. She was very excited to look at her signature in her book after. Then we headed to Small World. Still a favorite, I love the clock even more. I am not sure that I love the addition of the new characters. Instead of Bella noticing the people from around the world, she seemed to be looking for her favorite Disney characters. It is still a great ride and will always be my favorite.

Dad and Bella on the teacups, always fun.

This was the year of a big change for us, big rides. I should say Thunder Mountain Railroad. Bella loved this ride and wanted to go on it over and over.

We met up with Janine and Jeremy in California Adventure and Bella and Lily tried all the rides in Bug's Land. The loved this little roller coaster.

The girls riding together. Notice Bret and Jeremy each rode in their own cars instead of together. Janine and I got a kick out of that. This was another really hot day, so it was nice when the sun went down. The girls also loved the Rapids Ride and Soaring Over California. We headed back over to Small World before we went home.

San Diego Zoo

Today we headed to the San Diego Zoo.

Notice the glasses are present again. She loved them!

Love the super model pose!

Where did that monkey come from?

My favorite things to see, the tigers,

the hippo, (Bella was especially impressed by the size of it's bum. Don't you love 4 year old potty humor!)

and my favorite, the pandas. I do have to mention the worker at the panda area kept going on and on about their mating habits. Much more information than I ever wanted to know.

Bella in the flowers. This picture does not accurate show what was going on. It was hot, hot, hot and this girl was grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Now that we know it was 103 that puts a much different spin on things! I think if we were to go to the zoo again, we would do a bus tour. We kept getting mixed around where we were going and the place was huge!

Three little bears in the cave!

It was so hot, June was kept in the stroller shaded most of the day, but we did take her picture on the bear. I just wish you could see her little zebra striped shorts!

At The Beach

We had originally planned to head to the San Diego Zoo today, but after the crowds at Sea World and the heat, we decided to head for the beach! Bella was very excited to dig in the sand and a little nervous about the water at first.

June was pretty happy just to be outside, sun blocked like crazy, in a hat and under an umbrella of course!

We tried out the ocean water.

Not happy! But don't you love those rolls on her thighs!

Bella eventually warmed up to the beach and loved to play. We found this great beach that had some tide pools as well as lots of sand.

The girls loved to play and dig. They captured a bunch of hermit crabs and Lily was busy making little homes for them.

Bella discovered these little pools were much warmer than the ocean.

I love this picture of Janine teaching Bella to keep her feet in the surf! It was a great day to spend at the beach. (Especially when we discovered later that it got up to 107! We were warm, but there was a great breeze off of the ocean.)

Sea World!

We started off our vacation with a trip to Sea World. Poor little June was constantly getting sunblocked and in a hat the entire time. She seemed to enjoy riding around and looking at things in her stroller. We hit an odd day at Sea World, not only was it packed, but very, very hot. On the way there, Belle had to use the potty. She told us just as we got to Sea World that she had to go and it was an emergency. As soon as we got in the parking lot, Belle and I jumped out of the car to find a bathroom. Unfortunately, there was not one to be found in the direction the parking attendant pointed us. We looked everywhere, even asked a security guard and he said there wasn't one except inside the park. The problem with that, Bret had our tickets and was still parking the car. Finally, after a bit of convincing, I discreetly hid Bella and she went in the bushes. It was quite a start to our day!

The dolphin show was fun to see.

Poor Janine, Belle was very attached to her almost the entire day.

June was too tuckered to even eat!

Check out the flamingos!

I thought the penguins and finally the Shamu show were the best parts!