The Happiest Place on Earth!

After many years away, we took the kids to Disneyland. Many thanks to Disney's Give a Day - Get a Day program. (We made blankets for the Linus foundation.) We used our day credit towards year passes. So, this year, you'll see many photos of this special place, I'm sure. We are very excited! We had such a fun day. It was even more fun knowing we didn't have to cram everything we possibly could into a single day.


Since our family is a variety of ages/heights, we had to divide and conquer sometimes. So, I took Ren and MJ up Tarzan's treehouse, while Rusty took the older kids on Indiana Jones. I don't think Ren has ever seen Tarzan. We gotta pull that one out of the 'archives'.




Our Marsh cousins have passes and came for part of the day to hang out and ride a few rides. I took Alex and Ren on Dumbo. Ren was pretty clueless, but it was obvious that Alex had ridden many times, as he knew just what to do with the handle thing to go up and down.


Another case of divide and conquer, Nat and I took the smaller kids on the train, while Rusty, Porter and Chloe headed over to California Adventure to go on Tower of Terror. *MJ has been talking about going on that ride for a month now, but first, she is too small, and second, she chickened out. And I am so glad!


Here we are waiting to go on the Toy Story ride. It was hilarious listening to the kids compare their scores after the ride was over. MJ was so excited that she got 4600 points. Ava got a lot more than her...I can't remember the number. I didn't tell MJ that Ren got 4900 points. She may have been disappointed. :)

Fast forward one week. Fridays are like free days around here. No one has too do much of anything once school lets out! No piano practice, no homework, no cleaning. (Assuming your room is already clean, if not, it has to be done or no friends.) So, Chloe begged me to take her and her friends to Disneyland. (Lots of them of have passes.) I didn't really want to go, cause it was cold. But, she pretty much guilted me into it. I am so glad! We had such a good time. It ended up to be just Chloe, her friend Sarah and me. So, I asked Ellie to come so I'd have a partner on the rides. We ran around like little girls all night. We went on as many rides as we could! I am so glad we have that fun memory.

We went on the Tea Cups and It's a Small World. We even waited way too long (about 30 minutes for Alice in Wonderland. I've never actually been on that one, the lines are always long for it. Why? Couldn't tell you, pretty mediocre ride if you ask me. :)

All the girls had to pose at these silly little things. What are they constructions workers? I'm just not sure?

The girls couldn't resist this cute Arial's Carousel. We 'surfed' on the backs of fish and other water wildlife.



This was just as we are were about to leave. I think this is a candy shop along Main Street. As you can see, I was a little overboard and wore by puffy coat. I really did not want to be cold! In fact, I got a little too warm from running around so much.

OK, this shot was California Screamin' and was taken by there cameras and I took a photo of that photo. So, quality, not soo hot. But, you get the idea. Chloe and I are sceaming our heads off. Sarah has been on this ride many times and actually poses for the camera as we squeal around a corner at 50 miles an hour! (I don't know how fast. It felt super fast!) And Ellie is trying to shut out the ride by closing her eyes and thinking happy thoughts. You can see me holding her hand there...That is my new favorite ride! Sooo Fun!

What can I say about Splash Mountain...always a hit. We saved this ride for last since we knew we'd get wet. It turned out to be a good plan since no one but us (nearly) was still at the park at 11:30 at night. We went on it 3 times in a row, taking turns who would sit in front. In this photo Chloe is up front bracing herself, Ellie has finally loosened up behind her, Sarah tried to save her hair from getting wet in her hood and I was screaming with my arms in the air. Again, so fun!!!