Disneyland Day 3

Our final day at the Happiest Place on Earth was actually spent half at Disneyland and half at Laguna Beach.  What a perfect way to spend a nice sunny day in California!

 "K Mom, I'm ready for a day in the sun!"

 Ava was enthralled by Minnie Mouse

 Jetta was too!

 The inside of Minnie's house was adorable!  A must-see at Disneyland, I would say.  The girls loved how everything was just their size.

 My cute mommy and Ava

 My mom made all of the granddaughters princess dresses.  Ava was Tinkerbell.

 Laurel was Sleeping Beauty (how appropriate for a newborn).

 Lily was Cinderella (and Jetta was Snow White as we've already seen).

 My mom also made Ava this awesome Tinkerbell blanket so the one souvenir we bought was a plush Tinkerbell doll for Ava.

 All the girls had lunch at Ariel's Grotto.  The food was awesome and we got to meet Ariel, Mulan, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White while we ate.  It was such a fun time with the girls!  Thanks mom! (For some reason my mom wouldn't get in the picture with us).

 Lily and our beautiful tower of appetizers. 

 The Barber girls with our desserts.

 Ava was pretty tired so she wasn't too cooperative with pictures, but I wanted to show that she really was there!

 My mom with all of her girls in their dresses.  Thanks mom for making this trip even more magical!

 The family Dokii at the beach.  The sand and water at a beach make life pretty difficult for a one-legged man, but my cute husband knows how much I love it so he comes and does his best to have a good time, and that makes me very happy.  What a good man!

 My beach baby!

 The Barber clan

 My two favorite people

 I could have sat there on that beautiful beach all day.  It was perfection.  

To finish off the day, we drove up the coast and ate at Joe's Crab Shack.  The Barber Family knows how to eat some crab!

The next morning we packed up and Jake drove us to the Long Beach airport (if you can really call it an airport.  It's more of a semi-permanent shelter with some runways) and we flew to Chicago while the rest of the family made the long drive home.  We had an awesome time and really enjoyed spending it with some of our very favorite people.  Can't wait to do it all again!

Disneyland Day 2

Our second day at the Happiest Place on Earth was spent in California Adventure.  What a fun place!  The kids loved all of the Pixar characters and the adults had plenty of fun on the awesome rides.

 Wait, did I say the KIDS were excited about meeting the Pixar characters? I meant to say the kids + Drew were excited.  If you didn't know, Drew loves all things that have to do with cars, so obviously the characters from the movie Cars were his favorites.  He was pretty excited to get his picture taken with them.

 When the kids saw Woody they all ran up and gave him a huge hug.  Pretty stinkin' adorable.

 Just a pic of me and my babe in between rides

 Doesn't she look adorable in her hat?

 My dad (aka Papa) and little Laurel (and I think a giant cup of Diet Coke). 

 The girls were all wearing their matching shirts that my mom gave them back in March so we tried to get a picture of them (TRIED being the key word here).

 My mom is such a great grandma.  The kids adore her.

 Ava loved being entertained 24/7 by her cousins.  They were so cute to play with her.

 Okay, I admit it.  I took a picture of the Tower of Terror picture, but I just couldn't resist.  I mean, really, was I going to fork out 10 bucks for this thing? No way!  But it had to be preserved in some way.  If you notice, my dad and Drew are both laughing.  Not at the ride, but at ME!  What can I say?  It's a TERRIFYING ride!  

 Dallin and Austin are so funny.  They went on this kids ride in bug land and I thought it was worth documenting.  

 Cheesy, I know, but you can't walk by this sign without taking a picture.  Besides, it's true!

 We went swimming at the hotel after our day of fun.  Ava loves water so she was a happy girl.

I just had to put this picture on here for the sheer comedic value of it.  Does it look like Drew is rehearsing for something he'll be doing in say, about 8 years?  (He really wasn't, I just happened to snap the picture at an awkward moment).  Too funny!

Disneyland Day 1

Ava and I drove to Disneyland with my family on Wednesday, April 27th and Drew flew into LA and met us there that night.  We then spent three magical, wonderful, magnificent, amazing days at Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth.  It was perfect.  Not only was Disneyland great, but our whole family was together and we had a blast.  Here are some of the pictures from our first day there.

 Here we go!  Ready for all of the fun Disney can throw at us.

 The Barber family riding the teacups.  Shouldn't this picture be on a Disney advertisement or something?

We went to the Princes Fair with the Barbers and it was perfect!  We got to meet Belle, Tiana and Ariel.

Jetta hugging Belle.  I just love this picture!

 And here I am with my favorite Disney character of all time.  I love Belle.  Some might say I'm obsessed.  Any way that you put it, I was in heaven.  Too bad Ava was out for the count.

 The Dokos fam with Tiana

 And with Ariel

 After meeting the princesses they put on a little show and then danced with everyone afterwards.  Jetta got to dance with Snow White which was perfect because my mom had made the granddaughters princess dresses and Jetta was Snow White. 

 Meeting her twin

 We were able to go inside Rapunzel's "Tower" and meet Rapunzel and Flynn.  It was actually pretty cool (and extra cool that Michelle worked it so that they held our place in line and we could all go eat lunch instead of waiting in the line for 2 hours)! 

 Our sweet little Ava was such a trooper and just slept when she could.  What an angel!

 That evening we went to the water show World of Color.  Here the whole group is waiting for the show to start.  Even though we had to stand in pretty tight quarters for over and hour before it started, it was totally, 100% worth it.  The show was absolutely incredible.  There are hundreds of fountains that shoot literal walls of water high into the air and then scenes from Disney movies were projected onto them.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I actually cried during it, it was just so magical!  

 I mean really, this is projected onto a wall of water!