Epic Summer Vacation Part 4 - Great Wolf Lodge, Disneyland, and a Reunion

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!

Epic Summer Vacation Part 3 - Sea World and Legoland

Once in California, we stayed at a resort on Coronado Island. We love going over that huge bridge to get to the island and usually do our beach trips there. Here are the girls outside our resort room. In the second picture, you can see the bridge that we drive over to get to Coronado Island. These couches were right outside our resort which was right along the beach.

The cool thing about the resort we stayed at were the flamingos that lived there. We could see them from our room's patio. The girls thought that was so cool. We swam in their heated pool and used their volleyball and basketball courts too.

We ate dinner at the Bluewater Boathouse Seafood Grill and it was super yummy. We tried different fish and shrimp and we all loved all the food. We had to wait awhile to get our table, so we took a picture outside the restaurant by the marina.

We walked along the beach while waiting to be seated for dinner too. The girls liked walking in the waves and looking for shells and sand dollars. We found probably a dozen full sand dollars, but made sure to leave the ones that were still alive (we found some of those ones too!)

While at the resort, we were able to rent their bikes for an hour, so Tessa and Aubrey rode bikes along the beach, while I jogged along with them. It was pretty fun, although Tessa scratched her leg on a broken piece on her bike, so we had to end a little earlier to get her cleaned up and bandaged. Aubrey and I rode a little longer after that, which is where we found this playground that Aubrey had to check out for a little bit.

The next day, we headed to Sea World in San Diego. We haven't been to Sea World since Abby was a baby. It was a surprise to the three younger girls, so they kept trying to ask and guess where we were headed. When we were driving into the parking area for Sea World, Aubrey goes, "It says Sea World on the street. Are we going to Sea World?" And then we pulled into the parking lot enough for them to see the rides and the entrance. They were so excited! It was fun to have animals to see and pet and rides to ride. Tyler helped Taryn touch some reef sharks and we stopped at the swings for our first ride. Abby and I watched while the others swung round and round.

The three little girls liked all the kiddie rides, and I tried my best to get pictures on the roller coasters. Taryn was big enough to ride almost everything as long as she had an adult rider, so it was fun going on all the rides together as a family with no one sitting out.

We wandered around the park going from one ride to another ride to animal shows and displays. Here was a cute photo spot right outside the penguin exhibit.

We saw the Killer Whale show, but made sure to sit high enough up the stands to not get wet. It's amazing the tricks they can do. I was so in awe by watching that I didn't get many pictures or videos. We also saw a dolphin show, a sea lions show, and a pet show which I think was the girls' favorite. It was mostly dogs and cats doing tricks, but they had a pig, an emu, and some ferrets that were also in the show. It was really cute, but I totally forgot to take any pictures of that one.

We spent a lot of time wherever we could find turtles because Tessa was in heaven. She loved the huge sea turtles. Their exhibit was indoors, so these were the best pictures we could get; however, you can see the turtles really well, so I guess they're okay.

Throughout the park, there were lots of fun photo spots. Taryn wanted one in this sea boat while Tyler and Tessa were looking for the perfect turtle stuffed animal to buy for her trip souvenir.

Aubrey chose to have her picture taken on this turtle, and we took a picture by the huge shark teeth after visiting the shark exhibit.

The blue roller coaster behind the girls in this picture is called the Manta. It was the biggest and fastest roller coaster that the girls had gone on so far. Aubrey loved it and still talks like it is currently her favorite roller coaster. Tessa was a little too nervous to give it a try this time and Taryn was too little for this one. Abby and Aubrey rode it twice. Once with me and once with Tyler since one of us had to wait with the non-riders. It was super fast and twisty. It's the kind that gives you a headache from bouncing around so much, but it was fun.

We road the Shipwreck Rapids which is the boat one down the river. We got soaked! It was probably the longest line we waited in; and I think we waited too late in the day to ride it because by the time we were finished, there wasn't enough sunshine left in the day to dry out my soaking jeans. The girls thought it was fun though, and they laughed the whole way down as people got splashed and soaked from the rapids.

Abby, Tyler, and I waited while the girls rode some of the kiddie rides. Sea World had the best food option where you could buy an all you can eat pass and get food every hour throughout the entire day. We tried all their different restaurants during the day, and ate food and snacks while we walked and while waiting for the girls to ride their rides.

Taryn didn't even need an adult for most of these kiddie rides, so we just watched as they tried them all.

The Abby Cadabby spinning ride was almost too much for me to even watch while everyone spun around as fast they could go. The three girls got their own car, so they were happy. We watched a few glow-in-the-dark shows after it got dark, but the girls wanted to ride more rides. I took them for one last ride in the twilight while Abby and Tyler saved our seats at the show.

The final show we saw was a huge fireworks and water show. There were clowns, ribbon dancers, a guy who used a jet pack to fly out of the water, and other acrobatics. It was really fancy and cool. We all really liked it, although it had been a long day and I think at least two of the girls were starting to fall asleep before the show finished. Tessa was super tired by the time I took this picture, but they said they loved Sea World and had a great time.

The next day we headed to Legoland. We had been there so many times that there was no surprise for the girls. As soon as they saw the first Lego letter on the long drive up to the parking lot, they knew where we were headed. It was nice to be so familiar with the park though so we could go straight to our favorite rides. The girls love the Beetle Bounce and the Lost Kingdom ride which was right next to the Beetle Bounce.

Taryn and Tessa both went on the Technic Coaster, which was Abby's and Aubrey's favorite from last time. I'm surprised Taryn did so well because it has a huge drop, but she just screamed like the rest of us and said it was fun when it was all over.

We waited in the longest line for the Ninjago ride since it's one of the newest additions to the park. The girls liked getting their pictures taken with all the Lego creations around the park. This one was right in the middle of the line while waiting for the ride.

We rode on the Cruise ride all together and after taking a picture of the three little girls in front of us, I had Tessa take a picture of us three in the back row.

We paired off for the Safari ride. Abby and Tessa rode together, Tyler and Taryn rode together, and Aubrey rode with me. 

We also spent most of our line waiting playing Heads Up on my phone which is a game where people describe the word on the phone and you have to guess. It kept the girls entertained so they didn't complain about the long wait times, and it even entertained the other people around us as they watched us play. It was pretty fun, although it did run the battery down on my phone quite quickly. But it was totally worth it to keep the girls busy and happy.

This was probably the best, or maybe the only, picture of all six of us together. We were waiting in line to go on the Dino Coaster which was the girls' first roller coaster from our first visit there. I thought it was a really cute picture for being a selfie.

The younger girls rode the Lego Friends merry-go-round while Tyler and Abby bought and ate our usual crepe treats from the bakery in the Lego Friends section. We always get a berry crepe and a banana, nutella crepe. So yummy!

The Driving course ride actually has two different courses - one for 3-5 year olds and one for 6-12 year olds. We decided to sneak Taryn onto the older course so she could go with her big sisters and Tyler and I could watch them all together. She was only shy of being 6 by two months and we were confident she could handle driving the car and following the street signs. She did awesome!

The girls all passed by where we were watching during their drive so I could get an individual picture. They each got a card driver's license when they were finished with the course and Taryn was so excited. She was also equally upset when she found out that her "driver's license" got ruined when it got washed in the pocket where I had put it to keep it safe after we washed clothes once we were home. Oops. She really was super proud of herself for getting her very own driver's license.

One of the other family rides we did was the boat drive. Abby had had a hard time with this ride one of our first visits because the steering wheel is moved opposite the way you think and there's a delay before the turning affects the boat's movement. 

But we talked her into trying it again and even Tessa was old enough to drive her own boat and ride with Taryn. Aubrey drove the boat with me and they all managed to drive just fine through the water course. I think Abby still decided boating wasn't her thing, but we all survived.

We ended at Legoland a little early for it's closing time, but we had ridden all the rides we wanted to. And we still had more fun adventures awaiting us at the next surprise place...