Make A Wish Trip Day 4

Well, my goal is to finish blogging about our trip before Christmas! 

I should be done by then! haha

These are Day 4 pics. We were so worn out from the Disney parks that we thought it would be a good idea to just chill and not do anything too spectacular on Day 4.  As promised, we graced the Lego store with our presence again.  I swear we had to tell Sam if you say "Lego Store" one more time we will NEVER EVER go in one again! haha He bugged us nonstop from the first night that we had to put an end to that! 

He stayed primarily in the Star Wars section and talked to random strangers about the various products.  He is currently saving up for the Death Star ($800 I think!)  

Good luck with that one, Sam! ;)

Gandalf the grey

Their loot 

The cool outdoor display of characters made completely of Legos

Beauty and the Beast

Ready to go to the pool.  We were originally going to just chill and then head to the beach, but the boys were insanely attached to the idea of getting to swim in the pool at the hotel. So we obliged and they were ecstatic (see next pic) 

We started at the Kiddie pool (a foot deep)

(check out his super cute swimsuit from Ms. Sheri and Make A Wish!!)

and then moved on to the bigger pool...

Both boys are pretty good swimmers but we insisted on the life jackets because that water was butt freezing cold and I didn't want them to drown while Joseph and I argued over who had to jump in to save them! haha 

I finally convinced Sam to try the giant slide. He was so scared at first but then once he realized they recycled the water through the slide and it was significantly warmer than the pools,  he went down the slide another 20 times!

We couldn't decide which Pacific coast beach to go to.....too many options

Finally decided on Balboa and it was very pretty

After walking out on the pier we told the boys they could play in the sand 

Literally 5 seconds later they were shoeless and doing sand angels! yuck! boys!

If you zoom in on Joseph's expression it will tell you just how cold the water was!

It was beautiful, different and a great first experience.....but (you knew there was a but!) we still are in love with our Destin and Ft. Walton Beach beaches.  I guess that white sand will always stay in my blood! haha

They had a beautiful little town, and manicured park area, so cute!

Our view for dinner. We ate at a little harborside restaurant. Watched a pelican and a seagull fight over a fish, a rowing team row by, tiny/medium/big/huge boats go by, and several ferry trips during dinner. Overall it was a great day to just chill and see some sights. 

I'll post pics from our last day soon (we went to the zoo!)

More of Day 3 (Make a Wish trip)

To continue with Day 3 at California Adventure...

We LOVED the PIXAR parade! Mainly because we LOVE every PIXAR movie.  The boys weren't that interested in any of the princesses or princes.  We've watched most of the Disney Princess movies but their favorites will always be PIXAR!  

One of Sam's favorites: The Incredibles!

Finding Nemo 

(I can't think of Finding Nemo without instantly thinking about the first time I saw it in the theater...it involved us, meaning me and my two sisters and my parents, wearing hoodies to the Sun Plaza 8.  The hoodies were key because we all had 20 oz. cokes, oreos, bags of chips and anything else we could find stuffed in them!! haha Good times, good times!)

This "costume" was so funny because it was actually several people making up the various segments and they would periodically get "lost" and wander around!

Several of the parade floats had trapeze/circus artists

Army men

Eli got to wave at Buzz again!

Another float that had trapeze artists! 

After the parade we headed back over to Cars Land because we were told to be there at sunset for the lighting of the town.  It was so cool!  Right as the sun was setting each place flipped on their lights and they blasted the "Life Would Be a Dream" song just like in the movie Cars where Lightning fixes the road!  The boys loved it, but I think Joseph and I loved it more!

Last ride on the Racers...Eli insisted on sitting by himself!

The "canyon"...so pretty!

Here are some characters from the ride...it was so hard to get good pics of the characters on the ride because of the lighting and how fast we moved from scene to scene!

When we got off the ride there was a street party with one of the Cars characters (the D.J.)

After we took this pic the lady asked if we wanted a second one since Eli was making faces...I told her all that mattered was that he was happy and in the pic! haha

(Oh! and Joseph and I are sporting our souvenir sweatshirts....we remembered to bring the boys' jackets because they had them on that morning, but Joseph and I didn't realize just how cool it was going to get that night! So $100+ later and we have some souvenir sweatshirts! haha)

We ended the day watching the World of Color show.  The boys fell asleep at least 30 min before the show even started but this is what I wanted to see so we just let them sleep and we enjoyed it! 

It was awesome! We could see it every night from our hotel window but it was much more fun in person.

They projected images from dozens of movies onto the walls of water created by the fountains. 

It was definitely a memorable show.  I think I even got some of it on video!

Day 3 was fun. It was definitely the pinnacle of the trip because it is what Eli wanted to see the most. We were pleased because even though we skipped some of the other rides, he got to see Lightning, Mater and ride the racer cars!  Day 4 and 5 were just fun days so I'll blog about them with some pics of the Pacific Ocean and the San Diego Zoo! :)

Enjoy!