Johnson Family California Trip: Disneyland Day 3 and Manhattan Beach

After a long day at Six Flags the day before, we decided to sleep in a little bit on Thursday morning. After a lazy morning at the hotel, we finally got up and headed to Disneyland. Most of my family was already there and they were busing riding some rides, so we headed out to Toon Town. Gavin and I rode on the roller coaster there and then we let him play in the fountain, one of his favorite things to do.

Avery had fallen asleep so Andrew took Gavin on Roger Rabbit. After Avery woke up I decided to get in line to see Pluto while I was still waiting for Andrew and Gavin. Luckily they came out of the ride just as I got to the front of the line, so we were all able to see Pluto.

While walking back to find my family we ran in to Donald. Most days if you ask Gavin who his favorite character is, it's Donald. So he was excited to see him.

Gavin earned a yummy treat for being so good. I forgot to get a picture of him eating it, but here is the after shot!

It was a very short day at Disneyland because we were all heading out that afternoon to Manhattan Beach. It had been a long time since my family had family pictures taken, and since we were all together at a beautiful location, we decided to get them taken. Megan, the photographer that took Avery's newborn pictures, drove down to Manhattan Beach to take them.  It was kind of stressful deciding whether we actually wanted to get pictures done. We knew it would take up half of one day of the trip. We also knew we would have to spend the time to figure out how to coordinate outfits etc. I think after we scheduled it and were committed, we all kind of questioned whether it was the best thing. But I am so glad that we did! Not only did we get amazing family pictures, it was a fun experience to go spend the afternoon and evening at the beach. We had plenty of time at Disneyland and it was a good break.  I want to do a separate post with the actual pictures from that day, but here are some that we took with our cameras. 

Here we all are getting ready for pictures. We went with a blue and green color scheme. I think it turned out great!

While we were waiting for pictures all of these helicopters flew over top. We later learned that it was President Obama!He was going to George Clooney's house for a fundraiser event.

After pictures were over, everyone wanted to spend a little time playing. The sun was setting and it was pretty chilly, but everyone had a great time.

We couldn't keep Gavin away from the water. He just loves the beach so much.

Everyone got a little bit wet.

Kaylee was even brave enough to put on her swimsuit!

Gavin was wet enough and had enough sand all over him that we had to shower him off afterwards.

After a fun evening at the beach we stopped at Knottsberry Farm for their famous fried chicken dinner. If you have never had it then you are missing out. It is so much food, but it is delicious!!

The meal is huge! You get the most amazing homemade biscuits and jam, soup, salad or rhubarb, corn or cabbage, chicken and potatoes and boysenberry pie. You leave there feeling 20 pounds heavier, but happy!!

I think everyone enjoyed their meal!

Johnson Family California Trip: Six Flags

Day 3 of the trip we decided to take a break from Disneyland and go up to Six Flags. The good news is that it was a Wednesday and the park was extremely empty! The bad news was that it was so incredibly hot. But we still had a great day and had a lot of fun!

Gavin had no idea who Bugs Bunny was so he didn't really care to go see him at first, but after everyone else was doing it, he wanted to get in on the fun.

My parents were so great and volunteered to stay with the kids in the kid section the entire day! A couple of us rotated through to stay and help them out.  They only had a few rides and you could tell that they were very dated, but there was nobody else there so we had the whole section to ourselves.  After my parents had been in there for a few hours, one of the attendants came over and discreetly said to my parents "You should really go to Disneyland. We don't have a lot of rides for kids here, they have a lot more there." Haha. I don't think her employers would have appreciated that advice!

These trucks were definitely the favorite ride for everyone.

They had this pretty great room with all of these balls. There were these vacuum hoses that would suck up the balls and then you could shoot them out. The kids had a great time in there!

We rode on this little train with Gavin.

I then got to sit in this bird cage. It was definitely not comfortable.

There was a children's show that we took the kids. too. Because they were the only ones there, they got to be the volunteers. I was surprised that Gavin willingly went up there and stayed up there the whole time. He just did whatever they told him to do, even though I am sure he had absolutely no idea what was going on. Rachel also went up with Gavin. She was awesome!! It was a water show and they both ended up getting soaking wet. They went along with it and had a great time!

Gavin waiting patiently for them to tell him what to do next. This picture just shows me how grown up he is becoming.

I'm sure that Gavin was thinking "My turn, my turn!"

 He loved the water balloons!

Here are some great videos of the show.

The two awesome participants!

After the show we met up with everyone else. While talking and trying to decide what to do next, Gavin snuck off to have a little snack.  When I went to find him he quickly told me to go away!

Andrew held Avery to help her get a little sleep. The pink wrist band that he has on was one of the greatest things all day. If you bought a souvenir cup for $9.00 then you were able to get free refills all day long. We definitely got our moneys worth on that thing! (the wrist band was proof you had purchased it)

Grandpa and Seth.

My favorite ride at Six Flags is "Goliath." I love that roller coaster!

Gavin had fun on the small train.

And also the big train.

He willingly rode the carousel, even though there were only horses and no monsters or elephants.

Avery was not very happy to ride the carousel.

Grandpa took the little boys on a few of the rides.

Gavin loved this truck ride. We got on it and because there was nobody else waiting for it, the ride attendant let us just keep going around and around. I probably had to go on the ride about 25 times around. At least Gavin had fun!

It was a really fun day at Six Flags.

After Six Flags we stopped at BJ's Restaurant for pizza. They have gluten free pizza and it's always been a favorite of my parents. They also now have gluten free pizookies, so Greg was very excited to eat it!

It was an extremely long and exhausting day. I love roller coasters and I love Six Flags. We were very lucky to have a non crowded day so we were able to go on lots of rides and we somehow survived the heat!!

When we got back to the hotel Avery was awake and super happy. Love that girl.

Although I love all of the pictures of my kids, the award for best picture of the day goes to Seth. Hello Bugs Bunny!