Disneyland

This is going to be a very long post... and I only used about half the pictures I took!  

We had such a blast at Disneyland.  Garreth and I were worried that it would be hard to coordinate 25 people and still get to do everything we wanted to do, but it turned out to be not a problem at all.  It was so much fun being all together!  It was also great to have helpers around to watch the smaller kids so we could ride things with the older kids.  (Thank heavens for pregnant Cait and motion-sickness-prone Tom!  We owe you guys!)  

We all got around in a big RV driven by Papa, which the kids loved.  Here they are on the way to Disneyland in their "Bambi's-mom's-murderer-hunter-orange" matching T-shirts, which was Nana's great idea.  It made our kids easy to spot and you could always pick our group out in a crowd!  Thanks, Nana!

And on the tram...

We started out the day at California Adventures.

LOVED the new 3-D Toy Story ride.

 Tegan and Declan were pumped to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater.

After a few hours at California Adventures, we headed over to Disneyland.  Sam got very excited about the characters walking around, even though he didn't recognize a lot of them!  He wanted to meet them all, but we settled for Donald...

...and Pluto.

Declan was a great navigator.

Here we are on "It's a Small World."  I don't know why this ride gets such a bad rap.  Yeah, the song gets a little annoying, but nothing feels better in the heat of the day to ride in those air-conditioned boats.  I am a big fan of this ride, just like my grandpa...

When he found out months ago that we were going to Disneyland, all Liam cared about was going on Indiana Jones.  We got Fastpasses and walked about 2 miles into the huge cavernous line before he started having second thoughts.  Then he turned frantic, crying that he didn't want to go anymore.  The only problem was that the rest of us were super-excited for the ride and nobody wanted to turn back.  So mean mom that I am, I made him go on it and covered his eyes the entire time.  He seems unscarred.

On the jungle river cruise. 

Cousins on the Jazzy.

One of my favorite things about the trip was having Grandpa and Grandma there.  They were so much fun and such great sports.  I love you guys!

Waiting for the parade.

Grandpa gettin' down in the disabled section!

The parade was awesome, but I liked watching my kids' faces more!

It was a great day to be a Beckstead in the Magic Kingdom.  The weather was great, the lines not too bad (love those Fastpasses), and the company was the best.  

One more highlight of the day:  celebrity sighting!  Tracy and I were taking Sam and Iris to the bathroom when we passed John Stamos (that's right, Uncle Jesse!) and 3 friends posing for a picture in a teacup.  Tracy was quick to react and snapped a picture.  I'm a little ashamed about how excited I got - what's up with that?  Over John Stamos?  My favorite part was that after they took the picture, a worker escorted them to the front of the line for Alice in Wonderland.  Four adults with all-access celebrity privileges and they go on Alice in Wonderland?