Fitzgerald Family Vacation Winter 2014!

A few weeks ago our awesome dad brought up the idea of a quick trip to visit the happiest place on Earth. When I say quick, I mean because we planned it quickly. I have to say it was fun not to have to wait very long for such a fun trip. This post has way too many pictures so probably no one but our family will read it, but I want to document our fun trip.

 First we made it to St. George and spent the day there. William had found us a slot canyon to hike, our first. It was very cool.

 Fun places to wiggle into. If you are smallish like Josh.

 The next day we got up and made it to Little Corona Del Mar to find some tide pools.

 We love tide pools, these had a lot of little crabs, sea urchins and star fish.

 We had almost given up on finding any star fish when Josh said, "what is this weird thing?" and it was a star fish! It is upside down on that rock ledge behind him.

 The next day we finally made it to Disneyland and the much anticipated Radiator Springs! We were so excited we were at the park by 7:15 even though it didn't open to us until 8. I went up to get a map from a lady at the gate and she asked me if we were staying at one of the resorts. I said no we weren't to which she responded, "well let's see if we can get you in anyway". It was one of the mornings they let people staying at the Disney resorts in early and she let us in too! So of course we ran straight to Radiator Springs Racers. The line was much shorter than it would be the rest of the day. And it is so cute we didn't mind waiting anyway.

 That is our family after getting new tires from Luigi! We went on this ride as many times as we could over the next three days. It was so fun!

 Resulting in this classic picture. Who hit me in the side of the head? The family voted this  my best hair ever!

 It was such a great time, riding everything in sight!

 

 Let's pretend Josh is much smaller on that big fish. I love pictures at Disneyland, they are always so colorful and fun.

 Don't know why, we always try on a lot of hats while we are there. Brittany and her dad in sparkly hats.

 Matthew and Josh in tire hats.

 I love the parade! We got there right as it was starting and found an awesome spot.

 We discovered a fantastic exhibit in the Innovations building. They had all of the Iron Man suits.

 They also had a place where you could put on a virtual Iron Man suit. See the screen? That is the suit going on Matt. Then once it was on it did everything you did. Very cool.

 Josh becoming Iron Man. Maybe Iron  Boy?

 Then there were fireworks. Gorgeous, fun fireworks!

 More time on Main Street in Radiator Springs.

 Followed by World of Color. So very pretty.

 You have to meet a few characters, my big kids are almost old enough not to be to interested but I made them, it is only fair that Josh get to meet them like they did. Donald and Daisy are Brittany's favorite so we ran over to meet Donald. He insisted on linking arms, which is why we are laughing.

 Love this picture of Josh and Pluto. Josh has always loved dogs so this is really fun.

 When did I become so much shorter than even Mickey Mouse? I love this picture of all of us, especially William. Doesn't he look like he is having fun?

 We decided Space Mountain was our favorite ride as a family, after Radiator Springs. We all love how fast and smooth it is, and Matthew and I like how it is in the dark so we don't know how high we are. Unlike California Screamin'.

Speaking of California Screamin', which William loves and is usually forced to ride alone because the rest of us are chicken, this was the year that changed. You have to look hard because of the glare on this picture, but that is Josh sitting next to William. He loved this ride! Did it over and over with his Dad! Then they tackled the Tower of Terror which the rest of us hate. He loved that too! So now he is officially his dad's scary ride partner.

When Brittany was little meeting a princess could totally make a trip. This was her princess moment this time. We went back to the Iron Man display one night because they also had Loki's helmet and Thor's hammer and we wanted to see them again. They were also supposed to have Thor's throne. So I asked a guy were it was, he said to wait in line it would be about 10 minutes. We had no idea what we were really in line for but got in anyway. Turned out they took us into a room with a lot of the Thor artifacts. It filled with smoke and lights and one wall opened up to reveal Thor and his throne. Disney doesn't do anything half way so it was very cool! Even Matthew and I were super impressed.

Love this picture!
No trip to Anaheim is complete without a trip to the Lego store!

 

 

After we left our favorite hotel, The Candy Cane Inn, we headed for Laguna Beach. What a fun beach town. Spent the day being lazy at the beach. The only thing better than the beach is the beach when it is cold and snowy at home.

Josh loved chasing waves. He was pretty good too. Notice the surfers behind him. There were a lot of them out that day and a few were really good.

Matthew dug two holes, one for each leg. Brittany spent a fair amount of time reading in the sun like me, one of my very favorite things to do but no picture of that.

All in all, a very good week. Wish they could all be like that but eventually we had to returned to real-life, but lucky for us that is pretty good too.