Sunny California...NOT!!!

We were going to go to Disneyland the week of Thanksgiving but noticed the deals to go in January were too good to pass up so we opted to go last week instead. I mean, you can't beat getting a 3 day pass for less then a 2 day pass. And the air fare was going to be cheaper then driving when you count the gas, hotels and extra days off work, so last week was the winning week. Unfortunately California experienced their biggest set of storms since El Nino. One storm for every full day we were there, lucky us!

We arrived Saturday evening and met Jen (Mark's sister) and Gonzo for dinner at Ruby's diner. It's always fun to catch up with family. On Sunday we had planned to attend church in Anaheim until we found out it was Stake Conference for all of the LA area. The parking was completely full so we opted to visit the LA Temple Grounds instead. That evening we met up again with Jen and Gonzo at Gonzo's parents for dinner. This is when the rains began.

We had decided that we would not go to Disneyland on Monday so we could miss the crowds since it was MLK day. It was also already pouring so we used this day to visit the La Brea Tar Pits. We all found this place very interesting. So many skeletons from animals that had been trapped in the tar pits were displayed. The kids enjoyed the hands on exhibit of how hard it would be to pull your leg out of tar.

We also visited the LA Museum of Natural History. We were glad to find another place to get out of the rain, though we had to wade through a river of sorts to get into the building. We were sad to see that much of the place was closed off because they were expanding the exhibits, specifically the dinosaur exhibit. We did enjoy these dinosaurs at the entrance.

We enjoyed the gems and minerals exhibit.

Of course another favorite were all the animal exhibits.

We ended the day with swimming! You can go ahead and add that sentence to everyday of our stay. It was more jumping and splashing but you get the picture.

Tuesday was our first day of Disneyland. We had an early entrance pass and were able to get 3 hours in before the torrential downpour really started. We started with Star tours and then tricked the kids onto Space mountain. We knew if we told them what the ride was they would refuse. We let them know once we were seated on the ride. Is that bad? Not one of them enjoyed it. How can they be our kids and not like thrilling rides? I should mention here that there were NO lines on all of the rides except for Indiana Jones were we had a 10 minute wait. When it did start to rain we made our way over to the Buzz Lightyear ride (our fav) and rode that one continually until the alarm went off and we were ushered outside. At this point it was pouring so hard you could hardly see. We were making our way out of the park but decided to duck into a store on the main street to get some reprieve from the rain. It was at this point that we noticed the water was over flowing the streets and coming over the curbs. If you remember how wide the street is (the one the parades go down) you can imagine how impressive the amount of water that was out there. I'm not just talking about water flowing just at the curb. The water was 5 inches high from curb to the other side's curb. It was crazy!!! We decided to make our way out of Disneyland cuz it was not letting up and we made it to downtown Disney (the place the tram lets you off) before ducking into more stores, hoping the rain would let up even a little. We ended at the Lego store where we heard that a tornado warning had been issued for the area (probably the reason we were being kicked out of the rides). So we headed back to the hotel for swimming.

Carley refused to go on the rocket ride so she found a rock to hang out on.

Lauren just had to meet Princess Tiana.

The rain was just starting when we got to the tea cups.

We went back to Disneyland for 3 hours Tuesday evening. It sprinkled here and there but was mostly dry. We finished visiting all of the rides we really wanted to go on. We did have another wait for the Matterhorn but that was because some losers unbuckled and were standing up on the bob sleds during their ride. They put up quite a stink and had the Disney cops come to escort them out. I'd hate to be banded from Disneyland. We were thankful for the teaching opportunity though.

Wednesday morning we ventured over to California Adventures. Our fav was California Soarin. Like the Museum on Monday, much of California Adventures was closed off for the making of new exhibits.

What a cute honorary bug!

The rain did not hold off for long. We left by lunch and had lunch at Brennen's Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney. They had this fun piano decked out with beads.

That evening Lauren lost her first tooth. She was excited and even more excited that the tooth fairy found her in California!

Thursday was supposed to be another pouring rain day so we went for a drive to Newport beach and watched the big waves coming in. It was pretty amazing to see how far the ocean came in. This was the same beach we came to 3 years ago and we had to walk in sand a good way to get to the water. This day the water was almost up to the parking area. We also went to the movies this day. We saw the Chipmunks the Squekquel. We had the whole theatre to ourselves so we put on a few short shows before it began.

Friday was our last day to use our pass so headed back to Disneyland despite the continual rain. We hadn't made it to toontown on our first day so we spent some time there.

After riding the Pirates of the Carribean ride, we had lunch at the Blue Bayou, not cheap! But when the hail started to pound down, we weren't willing to find another place. We were glad we ate there. It was really tasty and a fun atmosphere to eat and watch as people started their adventures on the Pirates of the Carribian ride.

After lunch we got our last fill of Buzz Lightyear before heading back to the hotel. We just couldn't hack the rain any longer.

Jen and Gonzo joined us Friday evening for diner at Bubba Gumps. They stayed at the hotel in their own room and we had fun chatting away the night.

The sun finally poked it's head out Saturday, the day we were leaving. We said our goodbyes and headed to the airport. It was amazing to see much of California covered in snow as we flew home. Anything that remotely resembled a hill let alone a mountain was covered in snow. It really was a beautiful sight.

We had tons of fun despite all the rain. We talked about how different the experience would have been if we were coming from Arizona never having lived in the northwest but we've braved rain before so it wasn't too bad. Though I've got to say, I've never seen it rain so hard, and so much for so many days, even in the great northwest.