The Happiest Place on Earth!

Sorry for the dearth of posts...we have been on vacation. We left last Sunday and got home last night. Greg had business in San Diego, so we decided to fly down as a family with him, then surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland on Ellie's birthday.
We woke up Sunday morning and arrived at the airport by 9:00. I dressed the girls in matching outfits to make it a little bit easier for me to spot them should they wander off (I also wrote Greg's cell phone number in pen on their hands). The girls had a great time wandering the airport, looking out at the planes being taxied around, and just anticipating their own flight (this was the first flight any of them could remember).
After an easy flight, we arrived in Sunny San Diego and checked in at the hotel with enough time to head to Balboa Park for a relaxing Sunday stroll. The park was beautiful, as usual, and Greg and I just soaked in the sun and warmth.

We stayed at the park until just after dark (the girls were particularly fascinated with the fountains and this dragon sculpture/play land) then headed back to the hotel for a lovely night's rest. We stayed at the Residence Inn in a 2 bedroom suite & could not have been more thrilled with the arrangements, especially since Greg was gone in the mornings--it was very nice to have a little extra wiggle room for our four wigglers.
The girls and I spent the next three mornings relaxing/swimming at the hotel.

I think the girls thought I was out of my mind as I kept muttering "It's February! I can't believe it's FEBRUARY" but really, who could blame my state of disbelief when you see how pretty it was?
When Greg got home from his meetings in the afternoon, we took off to see some of the local attractions. We went to "Shell Beach" which was appropriately named--the girls were in heaven collecting sea shells and looking in the tide pools where we found a lot of anemone.We stayed until sunset, then went to seal rock reserve where we watched the seals and sea lions coming in out of the water for the night.
The next day we took the girls to Coronado/Old Town. The girls loved Old Town, but didn't really care about the "big bridge" we were so excited to show them.

On our way home from Old Town we took the girls to see the San Diego Temple (which was only about 5 minutes away from the hotel). It was beautiful to see it again, but the pictures were taken just at dusk, and it wasn't the best lighting (but at least we have something).On Wednesday we took the girls to Birch Aquarium. They had some great exhibits, and we have a few pictures on Greg's phone, but our camera fell out of my bag in the car, so I don't have any pictures here to post :( but the girls had a GREAT time. They had some great tide pools where the girls got a ton of hands-on time with star fish, sea cucumbers, anemone, lobsters, etc. They also LOVED the sharks, jelly fish and kelp tank (and they loved making a news reel, and playing in a water-play area).

Thursday was the "BIG DAY." It was Ellie's birthday, and we surprised the kids by driving up to Disneyland. I don't know who had a better time--the kids or me. OK, I'm pretty sure I did :).
They got to meet SilverMist and Tinkerbell at Pixie Hollow

We walked right on to the teacupsThe kids loved Casey Jr.
And they found it quite humorous that the white rabbit's house was actually a store.
Sarah and Rachel LOVED Dumbo, and in general the girls did great at Disneyland.
And I think we did a pretty good job wearing them out!

I haven't uploaded the pictures of the last couple days of our trip, so I'll try to get back to it soon, but I will end by saying that despite a little bit of rain at Disneyland (which only helped to make the crowds smaller) it was a great vacation!