The Ultimate Family Disney Adventure

Ever since we took the kids to Disneyland for the first time 3 years ago, we knew that we needed to start saving our money to go back!  Especially now that Whitlee was old enough to go with us this time and be old enough to create some memories.

One of the few perks to having our dad flying around the world with his business is that we get some serious airline miles stockpiled.  We were so blessed to have enough to cover the flight for our family to fly to Los Angeles!  This was a first ever flight for all of the kids except Ashlyn and Ian.  The kids were so excited to finally fly in a plane... and maybe just a little nervous for some of them.

The plane may have been the best part of the whole trip.

We got into our hotel after midnight and slept in on Saturday morning and started our vacation at Newport Beach enjoying a beach day in the low 80's temperatures which were far warmer than what we left at home.

This was Whitlee's first time to see the ocean and I think she loved it.

That night we decided to visit the shops at Downtown Disney, since we didn't think we would make time for it on our Disneyland day.  The Lego Store is always our favorite stop.

On Sunday, we wanted to keep our Sabbath pretty relaxed, so we took advantage of the awesome game room in our hotel!

And then we decided to explore Hollywood, something that none of us has ever done before!

We walked the Hollywood walk of fame.

And walked around outside the Chinese Theater (the most iconic movie palace in the world), trying to see what celebrities matched our footprints.

Next we drove to Griffith Park, which is California's version of Central Park in New York and explored Bronson Cave... because when you have a Bronson, you go to Bronson Cave.  But also because this is a cave that was man-made to be used in the early Batman and Robin TV show, as well as the early Zorro movies.  It has been used as a set in over 100 movies and TV shows, so that was pretty awesome.

Monday morning, we ventured out to check out Universal Studios, which was new to all of us except Zac, who had been there as a kid.

Harry Potter World/ Hogsmead Village was by far my favorite thing at Universal and maybe even the coolest part of our whole vacation.  We could have spent most of our day just in Hogsmead.

Hogwarts!

This was where Whitlee got to experience her first real "ride" as she rode on the Harry Potter rides and very quickly she realized that she HATES thrill rides.  Which was a terrible thing to find out when we had 4 days of amusement parks to fit it.

We took a tour of the back lots, which was quite magical.  This is the clock tour from one of our favorite movies, "Back to the Future"

Zac's Hero

It was crazy to see just how fake everything was behind the scenes!

Zac was sweet to take a turn with Whitlee on a playground while the kids and I did some of the more exciting rides.

Next, on Tuesday-Thursday it was time for Disneyland and California Adventure.  Tinkerbell left us shirts at the hotel to wear at the parks.

Our first ride was Indiana Jones and then Pirates of the Carribean.  Whitlee had a bit of a melt down and was in constant tears swearing oaths that she would not ride any more rides.  At this point we decided to separate.  I got to take Whitlee for the day and Zac took the other five. We stuck together at California Adventures (for the most part) on Wednesday and then Zac took Whitlee Thursday while I played with the big kids.

I actually quite enjoyed spending time with my Whitlee doing the things that the big kids never want to do, like watching all of the princess plays and meeting the princesses.

The bigs had fun riding Splash Mountain multiple times as it wasn't a busy week in the park.

And the new Star Wars land was absolutely breath taking.  It really is very amazing even if you're not a big Star Wars fan.

The night ended with a crazy laser and villain show for Halloween all across Disneyland.  It is truly amazing what they can do.

We lucked into meeting some of our favorite characters.

Wednesday was California Adventure day.  Cars Land is always a favorite and we ALWAYS have to stop off at Fillmores to say hi!

Ashlyn and Tanner showed us where they performed with their orchestra just last year on a stage in California Adventure

And then it was Thursday, back to Disneyland and Zac's day to spend time with Whitlee.

 One other special and memorable part of this trip was visiting the Newport Beach Temple on Saturday.  While the oldest three went in with Zac to do baptisms for the dead in the temple, the youngest three and I relaxed on the temple grounds taking in the beautiful scenery. 

It was a very beautiful and peaceful place and we feel blessed that we could visit.

All in all everything went almost exactly as planned (sans Whitlee hating all rides) and we had the perfect vacation.  We feel beyond blessed to have this time in our life with six healthy kids all thriving and all happy to spend time with their family.  I'm also very thankful to live in a day and age of digital photography and video, and the fact that it is so easy to pack the camera on a phone.  It makes it so easy to preserve and re-live a memory.  We are very blessed!