The Happiest Place on Earth!

This past week we went to the Happiest Place on Earth... DISNEYLAND! 

It was so much fun. We took my Grandma and my little brother Taos with us. 

We also spent a day driving  through Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, and Beverly Hills

and we also spent an day at the beach. 

Here  are pictures of our great adventure........

Disneyland- August 2012

The trip started out with a fun mess up with our rental car. We originally rented a Suburban but due to the rental car place screwing up,we ended up with.... a 12 person white van! YAH! It was quite the ride.

Taos and Broxton listening to some beats in the car 

It is tradition in Brody's family to put together "travel presents" for each person to open up along the way, when they go on long trips.So we found some fun presents (everything from candy to toys to crossword puzzles to tickets) and wrapped them up in Mickey Mouse paper and everyone got to open them at certain times. It was so fun and made the trip seem not as long when there were gifts waiting to be opened.

Tinley opening up one of her gifts. She got a Tinker Bell toy phone. She loved it

The Big gift was surprise Angels baseball tickets

 and Angels hats for Broxton & Taos. 

They were so excited.

Our first day we drove to Las Vegas (we left really early in the morning so that the majority of the drive the kids we asleep) and stayed the night so that the trip was broken up some and the kids didn't have to be in the car any longer. We stayed at Circus Circus. We went to the amusement park and the boys played miniature golf , we grabbed something to eat and then we were all so tired that we went back to the room 

and were all in bed by 7:30pm. Don't know when the last time I was in bed that early, especially in Vegas:)

The next day we got up and headed to California. 

Along the way We made a small stop and visited the Aliens

 

When we got to California we checked in and then headed down to DOWNTOWN DISNEY. It was a fun street right outside of Disneyland, full of shops and restaurants, and entertainment. It was really fun. We went to ESPN Zone and the boys played games.We saw the Lego store and right outside of it were these huge 

Disney Characters made out of nothing but Lego's. It was AWESOME!

Broxton with Buzz & Woody

Brox, Tinley, and I with Beauty and the Beast

 

The next day we headed to the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH! It was so fun to see how excited Broxton got we we were on the shuttle over to the park and then how his face light up when we entered the gates. He was so excited!It was a requirement in my book that everyone had to wear a Mickey Mouse t-shirt when visiting Disneyland. So as one of the "travel presents" everyone got a shirt. Brody's shirt had a grumpy Mickey Mouse representing how he felt about wearing his t-shirt. :)

Broxton and Taos = Best Buds!

Broxton just loves Taos. He looks up to him and tries to be just like him.

I love having my little brother with me and so glad he got to come with us on this trip.

Disneyland wouldn't be complete without some personalized Mickey Mouse Ears

 

Broxton and Dad waiting in line for his very 1st ride.

Broxton's 1st ride.... Tomorrowland Rocket

Broxton loved Dumbo!

Tinley loved It's a Small World

Broxton Finally got to meet Mickey Mouse. 

Brody said he wasn't afraid at all. He went up and gave him a big hug and a high 5.

They got to drive Mickey Mouse's Car too!

Half way through the day we got some tired kids... so they took a nap:)

Grams and her two Mickey Mouse buddies.

It was so special to me that my Grams could come with us on this trip. 

She means the world to me and it will be a very special memory that I will always cherish!

Grandma came with us the first time I went to Disneyland.
I think I was12 years old, the same age
Taos is when he came with us this time.
Here is Grams and I infront of It's a Small World.

The next day we headed out on a drive to Beverly Hills and then to Santa Monica Pier! It was a stressful drive as the traffic is horrid at all times of the day. What should have taken us 26 minutes took us 1 1/2 hrs. It was so crazy.  We found Beverly Hills and saw all the beautiful spectacular homes. Then we made our way to Santa Monica and we drove forever trying to find a restaurant to eat. We seriously drove around for an hour looking for something because every place we typed in to the GPS took us back on the freeway. 

We finally found a place called NORMS. It was a very old restaurant and kinda needed a face lift but their French Toast was great!After our tummies were full we headed down to the Santa Monica Pier.

We saw the strangest thing ever.... Muscle Beach at Santa Monica. There were
people working out everywhere in speedos and there was yoga going on and
people doing cartwheels. It was so strange. It was definitely something
I wasn't expecting to come across.

Taos bought new sunglasses on the Santa Monica Pier. 

They were pretty cool and he loved them!

The next day we got back in the car drove to see Hollywood and Rodeo Drive.

We got to see the HOLLYWOOD sign and so fabulous cars. Taos was in heaven seeing some of the fancy cars that people were driving.Don't know why he was so in awe when we had the fabulous 12 person van:)

After the Hollywood sign we headed to the beach! It was a beautiful day at Huntington and such a neat place. I would love to go back and just stay there and stay in a condo right on the beach. 

Grams enjoyed sitting on the beach reading her book! She was such a trooper.

Grams did however eventually get close to the water. She was helping Broxton look for his little toy dinosaur that he had put on top of his sand castle and was washed away by a big tide.

Tinley's 1st time to the beach. She loved playing in the sand and water.

Taos catching the sand crabs. There were tons and tons of them.

We had a wonderful time in California but it was time to head home. We got up early and all jumped in the van and headed down the road back to Vegas to spend the afternoon and eat at the Rio Buffet, which was fabulous! I love Vegas buffets! Our room was so neat. We looked over Caesars Palace and the Bellagio. 

View from our room

Grams wanted to go to the temple while we were there. So we dropped her
off for the afternoon while we went to M&M world and saw the Bellagio Fountains. 

Broxton was so scared of the M&M guy so he refused to be in the pic.

The Bellgio! My favorite hotel. It is such a classy romantic
hotel and one day I will get to stay there.

Watching the Fountains! Broxton loved it!

The funniest part of our trip was  on the way home Taos stepped on his brand new glasses (after 3 times of me telling him to not leave them on the floor) and shattered one of the lenses.We laughed and laughed! 

Taos was such a sport about it! It will for sure be something we remember for years to come when we think about this trip.