Well, what can I say? We survived! Emily and Boyce loved every minute of it! Well, maybe not every minute....there were some times they were very worn out!
Disneyland - We spent our first few days at the Disneyland Hotel. We thought that this would be a good location because it is close! We could have stayed in a hotel off the resort and had just as much of a walk! The weather was wonderful, though. It didn't get any hotter than 75 degrees the whole time we were there. The Disneyland people have the rides down to a science now! We did not wait any longer than 30 minutes to get on ANY ride. The actual roller coaster rides now have this option called a "Fast Pass". This enables you to basically make an "appointment" to come back to the ride and bypass the lines. The bonus for us was that you could also get what is called a "Switch Pass". The Switch Pass enables parents with small children unable to ride the coasters the ability to BOTH ride...One parent rides with the child while the other one waits...then, the other parent can skip the line as well to ride! We literally rode EVERYTHING in the Magic Kingdom. The kids loved it, but a highlight was our Character breakfast with Minnie and friends. Boyce has absolutely no fear of the characters OR the rides. It had been 16 years since I had been back to California (I'm from there originally, in case you didn't know!) and the nostalgia ran high for me! Every ride I got on was a case of deja vu! Em's fav was Star Tours, which used to be mine! We had a GREAT time! 
The Beach - We stayed in a great little hotel in Seal Beach for the rest of our stay! Unfortunately, it was a little too cold to swim, but that didn't stop Em and Bryan from taking a dip! The view and the ocean air was wonderful!
Hollywood - One of the highlights of our trip! Emily was DYING to go to Hollywood! We went down and drove through Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills first. Almost right when we turned onto Rodeo Drive, we saw a herd of paparazzi following someone. We craned our necks and it was none other than Larry King! We got a side angle picture of him! We drove over to Hollywood and Highland, which is one of the best views to get a picture of the Hollywood sign. Then, we toured the Kodak Theatre...where the Academy Awards take place! We got to see an actual Oscar (belonging to Eastman Kodak, of course!), walk the "winners hall", and stand in a box seat that over looks the whole theater! We got the play by play of how the show works and what goes on! It was really cool! The only drawback was that we could not take ANY pictures. We walked over to Grauman's Chinese Theater and looked at all of the hand and footprints and walked down the Walk of Fame! It was very cool to see all of the stars' squares!
Other highlights.....we saw my grandfather, my step-grandmother, and their son while we were there. AND, we met Mr. T in the airport on the way home!!
All in All a great trip....but, next year I think we will take a more "low key" journey!
P.S. Thanks to Dawn McCullough for making our blog pretty!!! :)
