The post that is Disneyland

Hooray!!! I'm finally posting about this almost exactly 6 months late. How's that for timing? Nice.

I'm sure this will be more pictures than words since, you know, we created these memories 6 months ago. But I'll give it my best go.

We left for Disneyland April 29th, 2012.

Spent the night in Vegas and then headed for California and a beach afternoon on Monday. Kevin and the older two kids LOVED the beach and boogie boarded for hours. The younger two kids tried to like the water until a wave knocked them down face first. That was the end of their water adventures. But they LOVED the sand.

Me? I don't do the ocean. I love looking at it and being on the beach, but the salt of the water and, frankly, the fact that BIG fish with lots of BIG teeth also live in that water keeps me safely on shore.

This was Sanders' first time ever at Disneyland. I'm pretty sure I was more excited about it than he was.

I made these next shirts with my silhouette my in-laws gave me for Christmas.

 

 I love that machine as if it were one of my children and use it often. The shirts are pretty cool and we were all super happy with them.

Sanders riding Casey Jr. he would have been happy to do that all day!

The super fun part about this trip was my sister, Annie, her cute family, and my mom and Dave came with us! My mom's legs aren't really known for the amount of walking she can do. They opted to rent a wheel chair and she HATED every minute of it. It was probably the right choice at least for the first day, but for the rest of the time, mom was sans wheels and did just fine. Hooray!

As you can see, these cousins adore each other and can't be bothered to stop moving and playing with each other for a lousy picture ;)

Does this not just CAPTURE the Disney magic? Look at those sparkle eyes!

I think Karaia was feeling nervous because those hands stayed up in all the pictures

waiting in line for Star Tours. Mr T was super excited to be tall enough to ride this!

Awwww, Sanders' first pair of Mickey Ears. SUCH a treat to give the kids their first pair.

The stinker wouldn't look at the camera. What can you do? He's still cute. And those mouse ear...I die of cuteness over load.

And now we come to the series of mom-really-REALLY-would-like-one-nice-picture-of-all-of-us-so-let's-be-as-crazy-as-possible

What is Sanders doing?

Still they are hilarious and so I include them.

Again, Sanders?

soooooo close

Clearly this is Beckham's favorite part

Good job, Beckham! Wait. Where did Sanders go? Tennyson has decided that slapping himself with the strap is a better option than looking in the camera. Nice.

Almost....

Wait, Sanders disappeared again.

3 out of the four are at least smiling. Let's take a few more just to see if we can get lucky.

And Sanders has disappeared yet again....sigh.

This is as good as it get! At least we can see everyone's eyes.

Waiting for It's a small world.

My four little Mousketeers

I think it's a rule that the youngest child must fall asleep at least once in the stroller. Thanks for keeping the rules cute Sanders.

The Second day of Disney. I made my shirt, the kid's shirts and Karaia's skirt. They loved them. Sanders did NOT like his picture taken.

Told you. He was NOT happy we were taking pictures.

Tennyson, however, wanted to make SURE you saw his great new shirt his mom made him.

Tennyson is making up for Sanders smiling by smiling even bigger.

Disney cuteness for sure!

Can't ask for a better backdrop.

Love this picture of Beckham.

These two are such good buddies.

I promise Kevin was having fun! I'm not even being sarcastic. He really was. He just looks kind of grumpy when pictures capture him relaxed. It's a running joke.

Great now Kevin is smiling, what's up with everyone else?!?!?!

We also went over to California Adventure on that second day to meet up with the Lawson's and mom and Dave. Annie and I collaborated to make similar  shirts for our kids. Fun times!


Now to try and get double the amount of children to look. at. the. camera!

L to R: Sanders (3), Beckham (7), Brenner (4), Mckinney (6), Davis (2), Tennyson (4), Karaia (9), Brightynn (8)

Clearly, it's time for a dance party!

These next ones are pictures Tennyson took. I think he did a good job!

See, they had these turkey legs that were nearly as big as your head. Kevin couldn't resist. I think he may have been more in love with that leg than with me for a few moments.

Onto the 3rd day! The Lawson's had left by then and boy did we notice. The kids kept asking where their cousins where.

AND because I am a gluten for punishment, I tried to take pictures of the kids. When will I ever learn.

At least they were having fun. Doesn't Karaia look adorable?

At one point Karaia and Beckham thought it would be funny if I took pictures of them "fighting"

I'm so glad Beckham is choosing to fight like a girl because he is fighting with a girl. Classic.

Can you tell it's the third day by the look on Kevin's face? Happy but exhausted.

What's this?! A rare sighting of the mom! Hooray! I was actually there!

Back on Casey jr. He loved it so much.

This was the best! All Tennyson talked about before going to Disneyland was doing the Jedi Training. The first day we tried it was rained out. This was our very, very last chance and he got chosen!

I thought it was so cool how they came up from the ground.

The last night there we decided that ice cream for dinner was the thing to do when at Disneyland. It was perfect.

He makes a good pirate!

And then we went home. We closed the park out every night. It was a great vacation. Sanders talks about Disneyland nearly every day. We can't wait to go back!

PS looking back I remember more pictures with Nana and Pappa. I wonder where they are? Hmm...I'm going to have to go and find those.