The Rest of our California Trip

After we left Disneyland, we drove down to San Diego. On our way, we stopped at the San Juan Capistrano Mission. It was really neat.


We made a trip to the San Diego Zoo. It was such a big zoo that we didn't get to see everything, but we did see birds, monkeys, bears, the koalas, and the pandas.

Mama and baby monkey

Nora wanted to be with Grandpop the whole time!

Sleepy Koala

Trying out the foot massaging chairs

The pandas

We took the "Skyfari" back up to the zoo entrance. Sure beats walking all the way back up the hill!

We also had a chance to go to the Mormon Battalion visitor's center in San Diego.

It was a great trip. It was hard to come back home to all the snow, though!

Small World video

Here's another quick video of Nora going on Small World. We were happy to be able to go on it. A few days after we left they took the ride down for some major renovation of the water ways. It will reopen at the end of this year. This was one of Nora's favorite rides.



The 8 year old staring off into space near the end is Andrew, Nora's cousin.

Nora's first Dumbo ride

Here's just a short little video's of Nora's first Dumbo ride. I know it's quick and crude but we're still on vacation. I'll post some more videos of the trip after I get home. Don't forget to look at more of our disneyland shots in the posts below.

I was happy to sit this one out and film from ground because I get a little sick on rides that go around in circles ;).

Disneyland!!

We flew to California on the afternoon of January 13. We checked in to the hotel, ate dinner, then went and watched the Electrical Parade at California Adventure, and then went to Disneyland to watch the Fantasmic show. On Monday, we rode the Finding Nemo Submarine ride first thing in the morning. It was a really neat ride, although Nora had a bit of a hard time sitting though it. Tuesday we went on all the Fantasy Land rides. Wednesday was our last day at the parks. We did a little shopping, and rode our favorite rides one last time.

Nora loved the electrical parade

"It's a Small World" was still decorated for the holidays

Mike and his cookie pirate ship. Yum!

Nora loved Toontown, especially Minnie's house

On Tuesday we had a "Magical Morning" where we were allowed into Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land and hour before official opening. We hardly had to wait in any lines at all!

Nora loved the Dumbo ride. We went on it 3 times!

We also went to California Adventure

Jenny and Nora went on most of the Bug's Land rides

Nora loved the craft table at the Princess Fantasy Faire (and so did Mike, Hehehe)

We got to see the show at the Princess Faire

Jenny with a Tigger Tail - marshmallows dipped in caramel and orange flavored white chocolate. Mmmmmmm.

Nora had a really fun time on her first trip to Disneyland. Her favorite attractions were Minnie's House, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, It's a Small World and surprisingly, Pirates of the Caribbean!

What a Bunch of Characters!

I wasn't sure how Nora would react to the characters at Disneyland, but she really liked them. She was a little shy at first, but warmed up to them pretty quickly.

Meeting Minnie Mouse

Pluto - she loved his whiskers

The Princess Fantasy Faire

On Thursday morning, we went to Chip and Dale's critter breakfast, where we were able to meet several characters.

Nora loved Dale

Meeting Meeko (from Pocahontas)

Having fun with Koda (from Brother Bear)

Meeting Terk (from Tarzan)

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve, we had a homemade-pizza party, mostly made by my dad. It was really yummy! Nora was tired, so we put her to bed at 9, but took some pictures with her first. Then we played "Apples to Apples" and "Compatibility" while the little boys made some forts out of boxes. When it was almost time, we turned on the TV to watch the countdown and the ball drop, then toasted to the new year with sparkling grape juice. Happy 2008!






(by the way, I made several posts today to catch up on our holiday activities, so keep scrolling down!)