The Happiest Place on Earth!

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD!! I was just going to pick a few highlights, but there were so many I wanted to include!

We just got home yesterday from an amazing trip to southern California! We had such a blast!! The whole reason we went was for my cousin Jeff's wedding, but we decided to make a vacation out of it. Here's Jeff and Natalie coming out of the temple. Aren't they the most perfect pair? Barbie and Ken?! :)
This was only the 2nd sealing I've been to since we've been married, and the first time I've been in the San Diego temple (except the open house, which I don't really remember).

We spent our first day in Los Angeles, first stopping at the La Brea Tar Pits. It was just about as exciting as it sounds..... But we got a fun picture out of it.

Then we had lunch at the original Tommy's. AMAZING! Nicki and I couldn't decide between the chili burger or the chili tamale, so we got one of each and split them. Verdict: both amazing!

We then bought a star map and drove around looking at homes. We didn't have much time, so we only saw about 4, but this was the favorite. Recognize it?!

SEAWORLD

We spent the day after the wedding at Seaworld, and Nicki had so much fun she wet her pants :)

We loved this rapids ride especially because some nice couple gave us their panchos! We also loved paying 25 cents to soak them as they came by!!

Is there anything better than Shamu? Yes, 3 SHAMUS!!!!

Watching shows with the fam.

Caydence touching the starfish. Everyone was so cute with Caydence and so much help! Danny didn't fly in until the next day, so everyone was really nice to help us a lot.

This was as we were going into the Polar Express 4D movie. Caydence had her one and only meltdown of the whole week, so she and I just walked around while they saw the movie. Her tantrum lasted about .5 seconds, so then we just wandered around. Not bad, considering we drove 10 hours in a van packed with 8 people to get there, and she hadn't had a nap in days, and she was hungry, and we did a ton of driving while we were there. She was really an angel child.

This is what she did instead.

DISNEYLAND

We decided to do something new this trip and go to Legoland instead of the usual Disneyland, but when we got there and saw it, we knew we could never betray our favorite!!

After a full day at Seaworld, we got up early and headed to Disneyland for the day. (We were there for 15 hours, with the biggest crowds of the entire year because it was New Year's Eve, and Caydence didn't complain once!! She was amazing)

We asked the workers if it was the busiest day of the year, and they said it was by far, so you can imagine the kind of crowds we were dealing with. But we still had such a great time! We abused the fast pass system, and so we hardly waited in ANY lines, and because of the stroller, 2 people got to ride each ride twice! It was golden!

Caydence was just BARELY tall enough for autopia, but not tall enough for the picture. They wouldn't let her ride on our laps, so she is in the middle of us. You can kind of see the top of her head.

Caydence's favorite ride was It's a Small World. She danced and "ohhhh'd" the whole time.

Outside of Small World. They still had the place decorated for Christmas which was way fun.

Dumbo

The boys liked Dumbo the most, especially riding together :)

We asked some random guy to take a picture of us in front of the castle. He did a great job of getting in the castle, but not getting in Caydence. She was in her stroller right in front of us. Ha ha. Oh well, Danny isn't in it either because he hadn't gotten there yet from the airport.

We wandered over to Small World at night to see the awesome Christmas lights. We just happened to get there right as they were doing some mini-show complete with "snow" made from foam bubbles.

Danny and Dad fell asleep at dinner. We were all really tired. We got there at 9:30 AM and didn't get home until after 1. We just really wanted to stay because we heard the New Year's countdown and party were amazing!

Free New Year's hats from California Adventure.

Happy New Year! You can't tell, but my ears lit up.

We decided to start walking out of the park at about 11:45 so we could see the fireworks at 12 and then beat all the crowds out the front gate to our cars. If you've ever been to Disneyland, and know the main street area, just imagine the ENTIRE street from the castle to the exit completely filled with people. It was NUTS!! They had it all roped off and made the sidewalk one way for people walking to the rides. But it was still wall-to-wall people. We ended up trapped right in front of Cinderella's castle right at midnight just in time for the amazing fireworks display. It was awesome! What a fun night! After that things cleared out pretty quick so we were able to move again.

On Saturday my family drove home, but Danny and I stayed the weekend. They were so nice to take Caydence home with them so we could have the weekend all to ourselves.

I took Danny back to Beverly Hills/ Bel Air so we could continue the star map tour. We saw some amazing houses. This was my favorite. The map said it was Dr. Phill's.

The pictures don't do it justice.

Then we went to Graumen's because Danny had never been there. And back to Tommy's for lunch because Danny missed it the first time.

We walked down Laguna Beach on Sunday. We had the most amazing weather the whole time. It was nice and warm. It was really hard to come back to snow....

GORGEOUS!! We even saw 2 dolphins!

We had such an amazing trip! Caydence was such a trooper, and everyone had so much fun!! Can't wait to go back!!!