Disneyland {Lovell Family Reunion 2012}

Every year my family has done Lava Hot Springs for our Reunion (since Phil and I got married) But this year with a few of us wanting to do the 1/2 in Disneyland we decided to make it our family vacation!

Saturday Sept 1st
A few weeks before we made the fabulous decision to fly. It is a 12 hour drive and Brigs in the car for a couple hours is already ify. After we drove to Lava with Phil's fam a few weeks before we were so happy we decided to fly. This was Brigs first time on an airplane and Koen hadn't been since he was 2 and under (when we flew every few months to come visit UT from PA)

Phil and I joked about who would man handle Brigs on the flights and decided we'd each take one. I actually ended up doing both but he wasn't too bad. He is just REALLY loud he has two volumes...loud and YELLING! haha I don't think the teenager sitting next to him loved kids. haha Oh well I was happy with how he did. :) He did think it was pretty cool, but I am sure he would have liked it more if he could see out the window.

Phil and I decided to rent a car so that we would be able to go to the beach any time we wanted since we were staying 7 days. So we picked that up and headed to the hotel where we meet up with my brother Ky and fam, Sis Lynae and fam and my parents (again, they were on our flight. :) They kept our kids so Phil and I could go pick up our marathon stuff. I was sorely disappointed to find the shirts where massive and they couldn't trade mine. No momento for my run. :(

 The girls(and Ky and Eli) headed to the store to pick up some groceries for the week while Grandpa and the Dad's stayed with the little kids to swim. After my lil family went to California Pizza kitchen to carb load and then it was off to bed for a very early morning ahead.

Sunday September 2
The morning was consumed with running and we even had some fam yelling for us during it(dad) and at the finish line (dad and Bry and kids) Thanks to my mother for watching my boys while we ran. :)

After we decided it would be more fun to sit on the beach than to walk the park so that is exactly what we did. I even had an hour nap on the sand. Pretty great. Ko and Brigs loved the beach. Ko hadn't been to the ocean since he was 2 in Ocean City Maryland and this was Brigs 1st time to the ocean. They were both a little unsure of the waves but loved playing in the sand. 

 Zach and Eli burried Koen alive

 Dylan, Zach and Marissa (Dillian's girlfriend) Dillian and Marissa

 Grandma and Grandpa and Nae's girls and the Baywatch boys!

We pretty much spent the whole day there and then got home, cleaned up, grabbed a bite to eat and then we headed to the park for a few rides. We ended up waiting in line far too long to get our passes and Koen was not happy about this! We did manage to get on a couple rides before it was too late and Brigs and I saw the firework show on the way out.

 Monday Sept 3
My nephew Dylan was only staying for a few days due to starting college so this was the day we all wore our matching shirts and went to Disneyland together. We really just spent most of the day there. I brought Brigs home early to swim and help make dinner at home. Phil stayed and took Ko on some of the big rides with the big cousins and Bry. That night we got the kids to bed a little earlier, and my mom watched them so Phil, Nae and I could go back. We had a good time going on some big kid rides :) realizing we are more than big kids on the Matterhorn {OUCH} and getting a little claustrophobic on Nemo. haha

 

 Brigs loved the Winnie the Pooh ride and the characters!

 Soarin and Tower of Terror were so fun!

Tuesday Sept 4

We headed to California Adventure to go on a few rides first thing. Since Brigs was too short Phil took him and they did there own thing for a really long time! They went on lots of kiddie rides and Brigs loved it. 

I spent the time with my Bro, Ky and Fam and my mom and dad and Ko. We rode a few things and then headed over to watch the Aladdin show where Phil and Brigs met us. It was such a good show and I thought we were gonna make it through the whole thing until Brigs had to go potty. Darn it.
After the show we saw quite a few characters and then Phil took Brigs again and got him to fall asleep in the stroller, miracle worker.

 Phil sat with Brigs while I went on a bunch of rides with Ko. He loved Screaming and I did not. I actually really like roller coasters but it totally made me sick. I hate being old. Koen ranted and raved about Tower of Terror and how it is his favorite but I practically had to drag him on. He then decided he loves the ride, not the video. We also spent some time in Bugs land. Koen is obsessed with talking like Donald Duck. He learned this from my Dad's BF Larry and has been doing it for months. He was really excited to show Donald and loved when Donald covered his mouth and belly laughed in repsonse.

That night we did the World of Color. We did the dinner before(not great, not horrible) but it gave us a reserved seating area. So after we ate there we met up with our good friends the Frasers and visited Cars land for a minute.

While Phil waited in our spot at world of color I took Brigs potty and to ride on Little Mermaid. That was for sure one of his favorite. We seriously loved the water show. It was really awesome. My kids loved it too.