Disney Magic

It's...

here...


and you know us, we can't pass up a celebration!

We started off the trip with our annual picture of the kids on the stairs of the Del Sol Inn--our cheap, clean, favorite place to stay right across the street from the entrance to Disneyland. Since we spend no time in the hotel room, except to rest our weary bones after a full day at the park, we choose not to splurge on accommodations!

This time, however, we had extra kids to photograph on the pleasing purple stairs of the delightful Del Sol...

Yay! The Edgrens and the Callaways joined us for an unforgettable trip! It was especially enjoyable to experience it with the Callaways for their first time--they were Disneyland virgins!
We started Thursday off with early entry at Disneyland...

We also joined up with the Slavens making our group a whopping 26 (including Rach's parents Dixon and Denise and her sister Michelle and her husband Porter)! We were ALL able to fit in one boat on Pirates of the Caribbean!
Check out all these cute kids...


Chancellor and Owen have a special bond...


Maybe it's because he kept slippin' him these...

Mmmm!
Thursday was jam-packed and the kids (and adults) loved every minute!




Friday we headed over to Disneyland in the morning to ride some favorites again...

Jake got noticed by a beautiful young lady named Alice...

Check him out smiling like the Cheshire cat!

Then we headed over to California Adventure for the rest of the day...


Can I please arrange this marriage? Kiera and Alex are to die for!


Weeeee! I become a little kid at Disneyland...it's magic!


Shout out to the Slavens who helped Jake overcome his fear and ride California Screamin'! My rule is that when the kids reach the height requirement, they have to try the ride no matter what (I know, some of you are thinking I am so cruel) Jake sobbed and sobbed with snot running down his face the whole way in the line. Kristi sent me to the back of the line where I couldn't hear him (as much) and her and Monte helped Jake through the whole ordeal. He had a pep talk from the employees making sure that he really would ride the ride.

Disneyland Employee: "Hey there, Do you want to ride this ride?"
Jake (all sobs and tears and snot): "No, but my mom is making me!"

Finally, after two employees and ten minutes, he nodded that he would try it and they started the ride.

After the ride:
Me: "Jake!! You did it! What did you think?"
Jake: "It was okay." with a shoulder shrug.
(However, it was all he could talk about for the next two hours!"That was AWESOME", he kept saying to his buddies. "I wasn't even scared.") ha!
Thanks Slavens (and everyone else in line next to him who had to endure his wailing. Oh, and those in line behind him who had to wait through his pep talk!) What's that saying?? "It takes a village..."??
He was so proud of himself.
California Adventure closed at 6 pm so we headed back over to Disneyland (along with thousands of others). It was crazy! We road the train and then went to see Mickey and called it a night.



Chalk it up to another great adventure.