Our next stop was a Great Wolf Lodge in California. We've been to one in Dallas, but it was a surprise to the girls that there were others around the United States. As we checked into the hotel, we each got our very own pair of wolf ears.
As soon as we woke up the next morning, we spent the entire day in the water park. It's hard to take pictures since I can't carry my phone around with all the water, but I did take my phone around a few times to grab some pictures as the girls played.
I love all the pretty colors that show up in the pictures from the fun splash pad areas. There were floating logs/lily pads that you could try and get across using the cargo net, and all the girls wanted to try. Taryn was just a little too short to reach the first step, but she got all ready in a life vest to give it a try.
Tessa and Aubrey both made it across. I took a video of them as they maneuvered their way across, but grabbed these still photos as well. They got across a lot faster than I thought they would with the movable lily pads and wobbly net.
We all really liked these racing slides. I tried to get a picture as the girls raced down and I think a couple of them are making the splashes if you look close enough, but you never knew when they'd come shooting out, so getting a picture was pretty tricky. This was my favorite picture I took there, with the slides and big bucket behind the girls.
The next three days were spent at Disneyland and California Adventure. Now that we've been a couple times and the girls were old enough to remember, we were able to navigate the parks pretty quickly and get to all the busy rides first. Here's Tessa and I on the Midway Mania ride which is the Toy Story ride.
We rode Mickey's Carousel ride again in one of the non-rotating carriages.
Aubrey and I rode the jumping jellyfish together and then we were in the right place at the right time to meet Princess Elena. The girls were so excited to meet her and talk to her. She was so pretty!
I always like to get a selfie with whoever's in the ride with me. Here's me, Taryn, and Tyler in our green shell for the Ariel Under the Sea ride.
The Chew-Chew Caterpillar ride is one of our favorites in Bug's Land. I took a picture of the girls from where Tyler and I sat together in the middle.
Abby and Tyler took a break while I rode Flik's Flyers, which is like a merry-go-round, with the other girls. I tried not to get too motion sick.
We all rode the bumper cars together. Aubrey was so excited to drive the car. I videoed as we rode around and tried to take pictures of the other drivers, like Taryn and Tyler.
We hadn't ever ridden Mater's Jingle Jamboree before because we thought it was too spinney like a tilt-a-whirl ride, but it actually wasn't bad; and we all really liked it as we flung around to fun music. Taryn chose to ride with Tyler, and Abby rode with Aubrey.
Tessa rode with me, so she gets the selfie. I loved our even number again, so we just took turns pairing up with different people as we rode the rides.
As we walked through Cars Land, Lightning McQueen drove right past us on the street. I grabbed a quick picture. Aubrey wasn't too happy that she got blocked out of the picture, but we didn't have a lot of time as he drove right by.
Here's one of the few pictures we got of all six of us together. I tried to get us all in while we were in front of the Disneyland entrance and Mickey flowers, but you can barely tell where we are. At least you can see all six of us though.
We ended up waiting quite a while for our first few rides in Disneyland, so the girls were getting a little grumpy as you can tell. They each wanted their own picture in the Toady car, but I made them all get in together for just one picture.
On our second day, we started in Disneyland and used our extra hour in the morning to head straight to Space Mountain. Only Abby and Tyler rode this one last time we were here, so the other girls were a little nervous and excited to get to ride the "one in the dark." Taryn was even tall enough to ride, but afterwards she said she didn't like it that much because it was too dark and too fast.
We rode the Storybook Land Boat ride and then grabbed a picture in the Tea Cup even though we never ride that ride. It's way too spinney!
The girls really liked the Thunder Mountain Railroad especially when all the lights go up the track like the explosives are going off. They ask every time if it's really going to blow.
I took a picture of the screen shot from our Splash Mountain photo. It's one of my all time favorites! From Abby's face getting splashed to Taryn and my screaming faces. Everyone looks so awesome - I love it! We also took a picture as we waited in line for the Winnie the Pooh ride, one of the girls' favorite easy rides.
I took another selfie of all six of us as we waited for the show to start in the Tiki Room. We hadn't ever seen that show before and it was pretty cool. There were a lot of singing birds and singing Tiki poles.
I took a picture of the girls in front of the castle as we walked past. And we grabbed a picture in one of the dumbo cars even though we didn't actually ride that ride since the line was too long.
On our final day, we wanted to catch all the last rides we missed. We rode Luigi's Joy to the Whirl car ride which had been out of service the first day. It was a new ride that they had changed since our last visit, so that was fun. Aubrey got the selfie this time and Tessa rode with Abby.
And Taryn rode with Tyler. This was the closest I could get to them for a picture, but I love how if you look close enough you can see that Taryn's face is perfectly centered in the eye of the car.
Taryn was tall enough for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride which used to be the Tower of Terror. We all went on it together, although I think Aubrey was the most scared. The girls dabbing in the picture were trying to reassure Aubrey while we waited in line that it wasn't that bad. Although they survived the ride, I don't think it'll be on their top favorites list. However, it did make us want to see the Guardians of the Galaxy movies which we since have and really like.
This first picture was my phone screen saver for a long time because it's such a cute picture. The girls really wanted a picture with the California Screamin' ride in the back. They used the first two days of our visit to talk themselves into trying the ride with it's upside-down coaster. Taryn was too little for this ride still, so we took turns riding it. You can just see Aubrey and Abby in front of Tyler in the yellow cars. Tessa's next to Tyler, but you can't really see her at all. This was right at the beginning of the ride as they get shot off after a quick countdown.
Here are the screen shots for Tyler's ride and then my ride as we rode the coaster. The girls got to go twice and decided it was one of their favorite rides ever. They were super excited to tell everyone about how they went upside down for the first time on a roller coaster.
Taryn rode the King Triton carousel multiple times as she waited for everyone else on the roller coaster.
We rode the Toy Story ride again because it's one of my favorites. I grabbed this picture as we walked through the line and passed by Mr. Potato Head. Abby and Tessa were across from me, so I took their picture before we headed in to the ride.
Finding Moana was a must for our trip. Our friend Clare, who's almost 2, is obsessed with Moana, and the girls really wanted to meet her so they could take a picture and send it to Clare. They liked talking to Moana and I got this really cute picture.
We finished off our Disneyland rides with taking a trip on the pirate ship. I even got a selfie with Tyler as we rode around the big lake. We really love Disneyland!
The final part of our epic vacation and really the whole reason we headed to California in the first place was for Tyler's 10-year optometry school reunion. They had food and fun activities like face painting for the kids while the optometrists went to a CE class. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Taryn. She chose Wonder Woman for her face painting and she wanted to make sure you could tell in the picture that she had lipstick on too. I love it so much! Aubrey chose this blue flower and loved it so much that she used this picture to have it repainted on her face again at her first school function that had face painting.
Abby decided to have something painted on her upper arm. It was a design she found, but the lady had never done before so she asked Abby if she could take a picture of it to put on her website. Abby loved it. Tessa of course had to have a turtle. She didn't see anything that she liked from the ladies' pictures, but once she told her she wanted a turtle, the lady just came up with this. It was amazing.
The only other picture I was able to take from the reunion was after the picnic lunch when the classmates got out of their class. This was on their campus and Tyler really enjoyed catching up with everyone. We had a dinner and slideshow that night which only Tyler and I went to. And Tyler was able to see even more of his classmates. I can't believe it has been 10 years since he graduated optometry school. It definitely doesn't seem like it's been that long. Time sure does fly by.
On our entire epic vacation as we drove to and from California, any time this song came on, we turned up the music and sang along. It became our theme song for our trip. "It's good to be alive, right about now." It was perfect! And now whenever we hear this song in the future, it'll remind us of our awesome vacation when we had so much fun. I love my family!
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