Day 1, The Dinner After...

This is a little long, but Brody was exhausted and it was HILARIOUS! This was dinner after our first day in the park...

Disneyland Day 4, December 5, 2009

We headed to Newport Beach for our last hurrah...
It was beautiful, we loved the pier, we loved all the cute beach-houses, the fact that our kids played in that freezing cold water, and the smell of the ocean.

We are thankful that we had so much fun with our family and our friends! I could have spent one more week just laying on that beach! (That will have to wait)

After we fed some sourdough bread to the birds, we drove to St. George and stayed overnight. The best part of St. George was the In N Out burgers for dinner! Then we drove home. 12 hours in the car with kids is never a cake walk, but we loved our trip so much!!! Thank you Granny for helping us to go, we love you!

Disneyland Day 3, December 4th, 2009

Day three began with a few rides and a train ride to Toontown...

The best part of ToonTown are all of the photo opportunities! The kids were in hog-heaven, running around and touching EVERYTHING!

Mom's, too :)

Gracie was a little tired, so Minnie let her take a snooze on her very plush sofa.

While Brody made us some cake.

This picture is representational of the men for the whoooole trip. They were such troopers, pushin' kids and haulin' gear.

Amber and I made all the mad dashes for fast passes, we were "the man"!

I love how expressive our kids faces are, I love this picture!

Above is Avery in the very spot that my mom took a picture of me in 1992. I was 14 years old and Toontown had just opened.

So, of course I had to get my family on this same dogbed, 17 years later! Times sure have changed. (For the better...would anyone in their right mind want to be 14 again? NO! Especially in those socks? WTH was I thinking?)

Disneyland Day 2, December 3rd, 2009

The day started out with Cal. Adventure. LOOVED IT! That place has way better food, less lines, and rides that we loved. We went on Tower of Terror twice, Soarin' twice, Mulholland Madness twice (Brody's fav), and Screamin' twice (everyone else's fav). It was heaven.

And, we saw Santa!

We had a princess dinner, which was a lot of fun for the girls and surprisingly fun for Brody.

He said, and I quote..."I am going to marry her and then kiss her on the LIPS!" There really was a lot of emphasis on Lips. Rob's reply was, "Way to stick with the brunettes, Bud."

Avery met her fav

Gracie met hers...

And we had time to do some more Magic Kingdom! They did this neat ceremony to light up the castle, where a little boy asked for snow. My friend Amber turned to her son, who asked if it really would snow, and said "no honey, this is California". Right then they made it "snow" on Main Street, where we were standing, with soap bubbles. It really was magical and made me feel like crying a little.

P.S. I did pray, I'm loathe to admit, that the princesses we wanted would be at the dinner. (Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella) We had Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Ariel, and Sleeping Beauty. How is that, for an answer to prayer?

I really was very thankful that little Avery got to meet her favorite princess and we didn't have to stand in line for 30 minutes to make it happen. She is my little princess, I wanted it to be special for her. I loved every minute of this day.

Disneyland Day 1, December 2nd, 2009

This was actually December 1st, after many hours of driving. We are happy to be showered and comfortable. We are even more happy that tomorrow we get to go to Disneyland!!

On the shuttle, in the morning, we are on our way!
Boston, Brody, Sadie, Gracie, Avery...our crew of youngsters.

I love it when he pretends to like me. It makes me pretend to like him :)

Avery's own personal Fairy Godmother, at the character breakfast.

Gracie and Christmas Minnie. Seriously, there were a lot of variations of the characters running around.

Brody and his evil friend!

We are happy to be here! (I couldn't find my Watterson Family shirt from our family reunion this summer, so everyone but me was matching. I'm glad I didn't get stolen, no one would have been able to find me, with that non-descript t-shirt on!)

Finally, the part that Mommy and Daddy were excited for! RIDES!!! Brody NEVER stopped asking to go back on Buzz Lightyear, it was his favorite. (We did ride it three more times)

It was a long, but fun day! I really recommend the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland's schedules and tips, they totally worked. We did not wait for one ride, over 5 minutes, following that schedule. Sheer awesomeness.
Gracie was a little put out, you can barely tell.

First Tooth!

This little princess lost her first tooth and recieved a fabulous golden dollar from the tooth fairy!