Our vacation

*Forewarning! This post will definitely have to be in several segments. We just did too much and have too many pictures!*

We have been planning our trip for a long while and the day finally arrived! The girls were soooo excited! To fly on a plane (their first trip), to be in another state, and of course, go to Disneyland!!

We left on a Friday (the 10th) and drove to Austin to spend the night since our flight left early the next morning. Here's a picture of the girls before loading up our car with all our luggage...

I know it looks like a lot. But we had to divide things up - an Austin bag, a carry on for each, stuff to do on the plane (it was a 3hr flight), stuff to take to Disney, we had to pack empty bags for things like picnics and souvenirs and such, we had a camera bag, a computer bag, etc. So really, I don't think it's *that* much luggage for 4 people.

Anyway, we got to Austin, checked in to our hotel, and went and ate at The Spaghetti Warehouse. We love that place! (and I love that their website address is meatballs.com. Haha!)

Then back to our hotel to go to bed early for our flight the next day, that I was a little nervous about.

First, it was the first time either of the girls had flown. So we weren't exactly sure how they'd handle it. I figure they'd be ok with the flying aspect. But they are known to not be the best travelers so I wasn't sure how they'd do cooped up for over 3 hrs in a tiny seat, after the newness wore off of being on a plane. Just in case, I packed an entire (big) bag of M&M's. Whatever works. If it kept them quiet, I'd pull it out and let them eat the entire bag.

Also, I was a little nervous because we were flying on Sept 11. I'm not usually a superstitious person, but it was just a little eerie. And lo and behold, there was some creepy guy in the terminal near our gate the whole time. I pointed him out to Brad. He was wearing a black hooded jacket, with the hood on the whole time. We never saw his face. And he was traveling with no luggage. Creepy huh? So, I'm keeping my eye on this guy the whole time we're waiting. We thought we were fortunate b/c even though we did not pay the extra $10/ticket to board early, we knew we would be able to board right after those people that did b/c we were considered 'family boarding'. So I was hopeful we'd get a pretty good pick of seats.

Wrong! Apparently everyone else on the plane decided to pay that extra $10/ticket. So, the only seats left that were together were in the very back row. You know, right next to the bathroom. Ugh. And remember creepy guy? Yea, guess what...he was indeed on our plane and sat right next to Brad the entire flight, with his hood on, looking like this.

Anyway, obviously we are all still alive. And creepy guy did nothing but sleep the whole flight. Whatever. The flight was relatively uneventful. Brooke loved it and enjoyed flying through the clouds and getting the airplane snacks and seeing all the stuff below. Brenna wasn't that excited beyond taking off, but they both watched a movie and were fine for most of the flight. With the exception of the one time that Brenna decided she wanted to go potty on the airplane potty. The stupid idiotic person in front of me, disguised as a sweet grandmotherly type, decided to flush the toilet (you know, the extremely LOUD! airplane toilet) RIGHT in front of Brenna with the door wide open after we discussed not flushing it so Brenna could hear and freak out while we were waiting in line together. I wanted to slap that lady! Brenna had a complete meltdown after the toilet flush busted her eardrums (ok, not literally, but you know how loud those things are!). Obviously, afterwards she refused to go potty (who wouldn't?) but she calmed down within 10 min or so. And all was fine the rest of the flight. No M&M's needed. :)

So, we landed and got shuttled to our rental car agency. That sentence makes it seem so simple and easy. Not the case. We took our carseats as well (it was an extra $150/day to rent them!) and 2 strollers so trying to maneuver all that through the San Diego airport was not fun, but we made it. We got our car, which was some Hyundai SUV and it was pretty nice. It was stressful for a bit, but we managed to get everything and not loose any luggage or children in the process. :)

So from San Diego, we drove to Anaheim (about 1.5 hr away) and found our hotel/condo. We checked in and unpacked. Finally. No more traveling for the day. Of course, we gained 2 hrs with the time change. But we had been traveling that day alone for something like 6 hrs and that doesn't count the drive to Austin the day before. But the kids were fabulous through it all! Luckily, thanks to modern technology, I had enabled my phone as a mobile hotspot and we set the iPad up in the backseat so the kids were able to watch streaming Netflix instant queue movies while we drove. It was fabulous. :)

Here's some pics from around our hotel/condo. It was huge! Over 1200 sq ft - 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Almost as big as our house! We were within a mile from Disneyland and the grounds were beautiful. (Oh, the name of the place is called Dolphin's Cove Resort)

The resort had lots of activities scheduled daily and my only regret on this trip is that we didn't have time for any of those activities, or even any swimming while there! The first night, though, Brad and I did get to enjoy free (endless) wine and cheese and crackers.

That night we went to get some groceries for the week and some cheap souvenirs ahead of time. Disneyland tip #1...go to Walmart first and buy cheap stuff before going to the park. A lot of times its the same stuff for half the price!

Afterwards, we went and ate at the much heard about In-N-Out Burgers. Several people told us we HAD to eat there. Well...it was ok. We weren't impressed. Or maybe we just went on a bad day or maybe we were just tired and jet-lagged. Either way, that was our one and only trip to In-N-Out Burgers. ;)

That was it for that day. Now, we had a full week (7 days) to spend in Southern California. There were certain things we knew we were going to do and other things we just decided as we went. But we built up to Disneyland...that being at the end of our trip.

More to come later!