Day One (June 14th)
On Saturday we left for the airport around noon. We got to the airport two hours early, anticipating long lines and delays (since Father's Day was that weekend) and also expecting to be a little slower since we had Makayla and all her gear. But when we got there it took us a whole 20 minutes to get through check in/security and to our gate. So we had lots of time to kill.....aaaaannnd Makayla was SO moody! One minute she would be laughing and running around crazy, and the next she'd be throwing a hysterical fit without any rhyme or reason to it. So we ate lunch and ran around the airport trying to make her happy while we waited, but we knew we were in for a long day of cranky baby. Right before we boarded the plane she calmed down significantly by watching the planes out the window. And apparently that did the trick because she was in a good mood from then on and we survived her first flight with our sanity in check! On the plane we watched several episodes of Daniel Tiger and played apps on the iPad. Thank goodness for technology! Makayla didn't have any trouble with the take off or landing, it didn't seem to even phase her.
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| Trying to entertain her grumpy butt. |
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| About to board the plane |
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| She loved looking out the window at the other "Panes" |
We picked up our rental car and took the short drive to Anaheim where we checked into our hotel and relaxed after a loooong day of traveling. Makayla loved jumping on the bed and running crazy around the room. That night she went down to sleep without any fuss.. she was one tired little lady!
Short side note: We stayed at Cortona Inn & Suites, which I wasn't very pleased with and would not recommend. The room was nice and big and the price was good, but it was farther from Disneyland than advertised (and didn't offer a shuttle), the continental breakfast was nasty, the bathroom had ants in the bathtub when we first got there, and the wifi didn't work.
Day Two (June 15th)- Disneyland
We woke up bright and early and started our walk to Disneyland. It took us about 20-25 minutes to walk there (what a drag!). It was busy, but not as busy as I would have expected for it being Father's Day (I guess most father's out there would ask to NOT go to Disneyland on their special day....lol!). Right when we got to main street we ran into Pluto and we got a picture with him! Makayla kept calling him Babo (as she does with all dogs except George). But she still wasn't too sure about this dog! haha!
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| Running to Pluto |
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| "What the heck is this thing?" |
We hit Tomorrowland at the very beginning. Branden took Makayla on her very first ride, the Astro Orbiter, and she absolutely LOVED it! I stayed off of it because it was a spinning ride, but I could hear her yelling "WEEEE!" the whole time..... Super cute! Most of the other rides in that land were either closed or she wasn't big enough to ride them...bummer! We stopped at the pixie land place and saw Tinkerbell...Makayla hated her.
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| Dad and Makayla's selfie while riding the Astro Orbiter |
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| Makayla wouldn't even look at Tinkerbell...not a fan I guess! |
We jumped over to Frontierland and went through Tarzan's treehouse and the Winnie the Pooh ride, but by then we were all hot, exhausted, and ornery.....so we ate lunch and then trekked back to our hotel to take a looooong cool nap! That evening we went back and did all the remaining rides and attractions that Makayla's height would allow. Makayla's favorites were watching the big parade, the Tea Cups (LOVED them), and playing in Minnie's house in toon town.
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| Tarzans Treehouse |
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| Makayla's minnie mouse ears...kept them on a whole 2 minutes and then wouldn't wear them again |
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| Cheeser! |
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| Dad and Makayla on the teacups..look at that smile! |
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| Minnie's house! |
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| Teacups for the second time...Branden talked me into going on them. Makayla wouldn't cooperate with our selfie! |
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| More of toon town |
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| Watching the parade! Look at those curls! |
Day Three (June 16th)- California Adventure park
We were much more relaxed for this day of fun! When we got to the park it wasn't nearly as busy as Disneyland had been. We did a few small rides and then went and [tried] to watch a cute little Finding Nemo show. Makayla did NOT cooperate well with sitting still though and threw a big stinking fit so we had to leave it early. We then spent most of the late morning-afternoon in the little bug land. There was a ride similar to the Astro Orbiter from the day before that, of course, she loved! Since it was so hot we decided to let Makayla go into one of the splash pads to cool of a little bit. We didn't expect her to really get very wet, but after a couple minutes she was DRENCHED and having so much fun! It was nice to see her so happy! She played in the water for a good hour or two before we decided it was time for lunch. While looking for a place to eat we ran into Donald Duck! We only had to stand in line for a few minutes before we got our picture with him. Makayla actually interacted with him, quacking at him, smiling at him, and giving him a high five instead of being super shy like she normally is!
When we returned that evening we kind of just meandered through the park. We ate a churro, had some other snack food, bought a big A balloon, and went on a few little rides. We stuck around pretty late to see the World of Color show. But we were on the wrong side of the park so we missed the coolest features of the show. We ended up leaving a little early because Makayla had fallen asleep.
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| Branden spoiled Makayla with this big Mikey balloon! |
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| Family selfie on a ride |
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| Waiting for the show |
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| If you say "cheese" to Makayla, this is the face she makes! lol!! |
Day Four (June 17th)
We checked out of our Anaheim hotel around 8 am and started our seven hour drive to Half Moon Bay, CA. It was a really long drive, and Makayla wasn't a fan of it. But all things considered she did very well! She did a lot of coloring and watching of Daniel Tiger. She also took a fairly long nap. Towards the end of the drive she was really cranky, but can you blame her? I was surprised to see SO much farm land on our route. I guess I always expected all of Cali to be primarily crowded cities/communities. We got to our little beach-side inn around 4 and checked in. It was a cute little place, more of a B&B than I was expecting. Our room, which was situated right outside the main sitting/dining area of the inn, had a gorgeous view of the ocean. The only problem was that the inn-keeper told us as we were checking in that they don't usually allow children, but because I booked the room through Travelocity there was an oversight of that. So we were really stressed out trying to keep Makayla quiet, especially since there were a bunch of people (particularly older, retired people) staying around us. We tried to spend as little time as possible in the room so people could enjoy their vacation; Makayla was very cranky and would not be quiet (a really hard task for a toddler!). So we took walks on the beach and watched a lot of TV. Makayla dipped her feet into the ocean for the first time this day... it was freezing! She called the ocean the "Big Blue" and would say hi and bye to it every time we saw it. We went to dinner that night at a fun irish pub. The night was pretty rough, though, because Makayla wouldn't go to sleep. We would typically let her cry it out until she fell asleep, but that wasn't an option with this thin-walled little inn. So we were awake most of the night trying to keep her quiet and happy...sigh!
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| We are standing on our room's patio here, fantastic view! |
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| You can't really see Makayla, but this is her first time in the "Big Blue" |
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| One of our walks along the beach |
Day Five (June 18th)
Despite our lack of sleep the night before, we still had a really good day. We got up around 8 and had a DELICIOUS breakfast in bed, provided by the inn (peach french toast, sausage, fresh fruit, etc...yum!). We had to check out of this first room by 11(the room wasn't available both nights when I booked it) and move into a different room, which wasn't available to move into until 2 ish. So we packed all of our stuff up and went for a drive. Not very far north of our little inn was a paved hiking trail. We decided to go for a little walk. The views of the ocean were incredible!
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| Driving...she wasn't this happy very often while in her seat |
We then ate some lunch and started driving south to explore that way. We ran onto Pebble Beach, which was a pretty cool site. On one side there were huge rocks, almost like lava rocks that we explored for a while (Branden really enjoyed this). Then we went to the other side and the beach was just a ton of tiny pebbles instead of sand! It was really weird, but Makayla had a blast tossing around the pebbles.
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| Branden exploring the rocky beach |
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| Pebble beach |
We checked into our new room that afternoon and it was SO much better! We didn't have a view of the ocean, but the room was in a separate building that only had two other rooms. The walls weren't nearly as thin and there weren't any gathering places in the building. So we let Makayla play and yell as she wanted. She was much happier!
That night we spent most of the evening on the beach just walking around and playing in the sand (the water was much to cold to play in!) Branden found a few sand dollars, which he was pretty proud of! We watched the sun set then went back to our room and got Makayla to sleep. It was a relaxing, fun day!
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| beautiful! |
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| That little house up above us is where we stayed |
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| Running back towards mom |
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| <3 |
Day Six (June 19th)
Our beach portion of our vacation ended this day. We checked out of our hotel and drove an hour to San Francisco where we stopped to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was super chilly so we didn't spend much time outside looking at it. We drove through the city and admired all the big buildings and steep roads. We made our way across the Bay Bridge and into Oakland where we checked into our hotel. There we just hung out in our room for a couple hours, resting, before going to our highly anticipated Red Sox game!!
The Red Sox were playing the Oakland Athletics that night, and I had bought us really good seats for Branden's father's day present! We got there, found our seats, and watched all the pre-game excitement. Makayla hadn't gotten a very good nap earlier in the day and had fallen asleep on the drive to the game. Because we woke her up she was really cranky for the first three innings. She didn't know what she wanted, so she just sat and whined. It was frustrating, but by the end of the third inning she started perking up and started cheering and dancing with the music. She would clap when the rest of the crowd clapped (which incidentally was when the the Athletics were doing well, not the Red Sox). After a while she picked up the phrase "Go Saw" (go Sox). We had a couple other Red Sox fans sitting in front of us and they thought she was the cutest thing ever! We ate a lot of junk and had a blast! Unfortunately the Red Sox lost the game, but it was still a fun experience!
Day Seven (June 20th)
This was our last day of our vacation. We didn't have anything specific planned, but our flight wasn't until 8:30pm so we had a LOT of time to kill. We ended up driving back to San Francisco and walking around Pier 39 for a couple of hours, which was pretty neat! We were really hoping to get tickets to go over and see Alkatraz, but they were all sold out (my bad for not booking the tickets several weeks ago when I looked). We then drove to the San Francisco Airport area and hung out at the a nearby mall for a couple hours. We ate ice cream and played at the little kid play area. Makayla ran around like a mad woman there, she had so much fun!
We returned our rental car, checked into the airport, and ate dinner. Our flight was slightly delayed, but Makayla was being really good so we didn't mind. The flight itself was fantastic. We watched the movie Frozen on the iPad and the flight felt like it was really quick. When we got home we all just zonked out!
We had such a great time on our little vacation and made everlasting memories! I am so grateful for my little family, they bring me so much joy! Thanks for reading!
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