Disneyland 2013

I know this picture is a little blurry, but Ava was so excited that we were going to Disneyland and she was going to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy that she grabbed her suitcase and started marching off to our hotel room.

Uncle Dick bought all the kids.....and himself bright yellow T-shirts, so that 1) we could locate children a little easier 2) it was the first day at Disney and wanted to show everyone they belonged together and 3) I think Uncle Dick just wanted to match his niece and nephews!

We are lucky that we even got this picture as the kids were so anxious to get into the park it was hard to get them to stand still and and look at the camera, let alone getting the adults settled.

One of the first things we saw as we entered in was Mickey and Minnie!  Ava LOVES Minnie Mouse, she was so excited to see her that she ran up to Minnie and gave her a big hug and kiss.  Every time we saw Minnie in the Park, Ava would yell, "Hi Minnie, I'm over here!".

Uncle Dick had taken Jake with him to go on the rides, that I refused to ride on, for example the free falling elevator, no thanks I don't need my stomach in my throat.  I stayed with the two younger kids that rode rides a little more my speed.  Good thing Uncle Dick came to go on the scary rides.  And of course, Uncle Dick makes friends and gets to essential get a fast pass to go to the front of the lines.....Jake was happy about that cause that meant he got to ride Grizzly Rapids twice in a row! Unfortunately we didn't get too many pics of Jake.  The younger two loved the same rides, so we spent alot of time on Dumbo, the Carousel aka the horsies,  and the infamous Tea Cups.  Ava especially loved to spin as fast as you could turn the wheel.  You could hear her squeal with delight as we whizzed past each other.  Will loved to help spin the wheel, he would spin as hard as he could and then tell me it was my turn, but it was just too much fun to spin that he would take over again and just yell at me to help.

While walking around Mickey's Toon Town we saw Goofy and Ava just had to go see him.  I think she had a running list in her head that she would just check off each character after she got to hug or high five them.  Right after this picture and she waved goodbye to Goofy, she said, "Now we got to find Daisy!"

 Cars Town was pretty fun.  Grandma and Willie on Luigi's Flying Tires. Basically this ride is bumper cars on big tires.  You use your body to lean in the direction you want to go.  Unfortunately I didn't read the directions so riding with Ava we only went one direction, good thing others just bumped us around.  Ava would just laugh and yell, "hey" at all those that bumped us.  We tried to bump Grandma and Willie, but it was too hard to control those tires.  I think I drove better in Scotland than I did on this ride.

Will and Uncle Dick on Tuck N' Rolls in A Bug's Land.  Will's face is pretty priceless...can you tell what kinda of driver he is gonna be???  Uncle Dick even looks a bit worried.  Ava rode with me and would stir us around.  She just wanted to bump everything in site.  Good luck to their parents, looks like they have some road raged kids behind the wheel.



Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was our first ride at California Adventure in Cars Land.  Ride kinda just whips you around and spins you in different directions.  Ava kept sliding back and forth on the seat which she thought was hilarious.  So much fun to ride these rides with the kids.  I understand why Disneyland has the tag line Happiest Place on Earth....every time I heard my niece and nephews laugh.