Viva was totally amazing the entire trip! She loved being there, seeing all the people, soaking up the fun atmosphere. She practically had a smile on her face the entire time. Anna had a few freak out moments. The biggest was at a restaurant the first night we were in Anaheim. Ever since our move, she gets really scared of and overwhelmed by large groups, strangers, and loud laughter. That first night, when my family got together for the first time, of coures all of the above was taking place. One of the waitresses even won her a doll out of the claw maching to try and calm her down. It was very sweet. All in all, Anna loved the vacation. For days after we got home she kept listing off her favorite rides: teacups, rockets, train, and elephants (Dumbo).
In this picture, Viva is sporting one of her souvenirs from the vacation...a black eye. Lately, she's trying to crawl. She does this thing were she just rocks back and forth on her hands and knees and eventually lunges forward onto her stomach. Well, when we were at the airport coming home, she lunged forward, plunging her face into the metal leg of a chair. She cried for about 30 seconds and then got over it, but the bruise started forming instantly. It's almost been a week and it is still there.
Here is us on the carousel, which Anna loved. Apparently by the look on my face, I loved it too. I actually had more fun watching the girls than anything else. Anna was fascinated by the horses on the carousel. She particularly liked the fact that one of them was sticking its tongue out. She commented on it our entire trip.
Papa bought Mickey ears for all the grandkids and we had their names put on the back. We decided to put "Viva" on the back of Olivia's because that is what we always call her. The lady putting the names on the hats had a fit about it. She asked, "Is that her REAL name? Because we only put their formal first given name on the hats." Seriously? I could understand her saying something if we said her name was "La France" (which is another one of her nicknames) or "Poo-head" (NOT one of her nicknames)...but Viva? We had to have like three people go in and tell her to put "Viva" on it and even while she was doing it she was rolling her eyes. I think she was a very "un-Disney" employee.
One of my favorite parts of the vacation was when we went to the Tiki room. We ate Dole Whip Floats, which are AMAZING, before the show started. When we got in the room, both the girls loved it. Josh made Viva dance the entire show. It was adorable!
We also went to California Adventure. They have a live Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show that we took all the kids to see. Anna was jumping up and down and clapping and so excited. When it was over she asked, "Where's my Mickey?"
I have a list of "Goals for my Life" that I made when I was 16 years old. It has about 40 random things on it. I found it the other day and was pleased that I had already accomplished some of them. Some of the goals include having children (it specifies that I have to have at least three, so I'm not there yet), getting married in the temple (go me), bowling a 200 (hasn't happened yet), and other various things. One of the goals listed was to eat at the restaurant that is in the Pirates of the Carribean ride. I am happy to report that I marked that off my list this vacation. My family was wonderful enough to watch the girls while Josh and I went and had a date. I had a great time. The food was REALLY good. Might I suggest going for lunch and having the Montey Cristo Sandwich. Yum! I'm holding the cookie boat in the picture above. It was also incredibly delicious.
Fun random memories:
- We had IN-N-Out burgers the last night. Yum!
- We were in Disneyland on Saint Patrick's Day. It was fun to see all the people in green.
- For two days of the trip the grand-kids all wore matching outfits. They were adorable.
- We got to go to Disneyland before it opened one morning.
