Dent Beebe: The Big Trip

Camp Pendleton (just outside of Oceanside, CA) is long freakin' way (2 days, 8 hours or so each). Especially with a 2 year old repeating the word "sunglasses" for hours.

The cottages on base were awesome - literally right on the beach.

Anya's first experience with the ocean? Slightly hesitant at first, but then Daddy had to hold her back from launching herself in! Willow liked the wind.

She spent many happy hours in the water with the boys and playing in the sand with Joey. Pouring shovels of sand on her head was super fun, apparently. We've been back for two weeks and I think we may have just gotten all of the sand out of her ears and hair.

It was great to see where Jake's family is living, and I love hanging out with Nat. The boys and Uncle Sean always have a blast together.

On Wednesday, we headed up to Anaheim for the girls' first trip to Disneyland - Anya was so excited! Unfortunately, she got sick for it, but no matter how tired she was by the end of the day, she would be saying "more Disneylam?" when we got home at night. The Dumbo ride, the carousel and meeting Mickey Mouse were big hits, and she just seemed to love the ambiance. Willow went on Dumbo and Pirates of the Caribbean and seemed to really enjoy it - throwing out her arms and legs, smiling and yelling "oooohhh!".

They have a new feature called "Jedi Training Academy" where a bunch of little kids (Anya was too young) get trained as Padawans by a Jedi Master and then each one gets to fight Darth Vader. Anya was so incredibly excited when Darth Vader came on stage. She was jumping up and down yelling "Darth Vader! Darth Vader!" - I thought she was going to rush the stage like an Elvis groupie.

When we left on Saturday, Sean said "Say goodbye to Disneyland!" and Anya waved and said "Bye, bye, Disneylam". Then added, very softly and sadly, "Bye, bye, Sleeping Beauty's Castle."