Arrived in Auckland after a pretty good long haul flight - think the melatonin might have helped with getting some good sleep! Luckily for us the severe turbulence they were predicting just outside of Auckland didn't come to much or we might not have got mum on the last flight back to Christchurch. Actually we almost didn't get mum and Lauren on the flight when they went back on the path between the international and domestic terminals to look for one of Isobel'...

Last day of holiday today. We had a private tour booked of LA so she was very flexible! Our first stop was the Nike store for new trainers for John, then we headed to the farmers market for lunch. It was an amazing place with lots of different food options. We all had American hot dogs and soda. Then we hit the American Girl store where the girls went crazy. Thank you to all the relatives for the birthday money - still cost us a lot!! After that we went to see...

Spent the day at California Adventure Park. Was another great day and not as busy as Disneyland. The highlight of the day was the 'Cars' ride. Lauren couldn't get over the fact that they had replicated the street off the Cars movie. The ride was really cool - first you went on a road trip through Radiator Springs and then raced another car on the race track. Very well done! We did the Grizzly River Run which was a white water raft ride that include two big sudde...

Big day at Disneyland today. We hit the park at 8am when it opened which was by far the quietest it was all day. Started getting really busy around 10ish. We managed to do Autopia (a car race track), a fairground type ride, Roger Rabbit spinning ride, mini roller coaster, splash mountain, Indiana Jones and a jungle boat ride. Splash mountain was by far the most exciting - the drop over the waterfall was huge!! We headed back to the hotel around 2pm - it was gett...

Long day of travelling today. Left the farm at 9am and got to LA about 17 hours later. Tried to get the girls to sleep on the plane but they didn't. Then Hayley fell asleep after we landed! Got to the hotel then straight to bed!