Found Disneyland Pictures... Yep, There're More!

Here are a few more pictures. We stay in a hotel a few miles from Disneyland because they have a great breakfast for $4 a room. 

 The parade was, as always, magical. The girls were with Scott and I was with Jake and Eth and some older cousins, having just got off Indiana Jones. It was awesome. We love the parade! Brookie talked about it for weeks.

 At Jared and Amanda's house...Alisa as the warrior princess?

 On the way back, we detoured to see our old house in Loma Linda and drive up to the Redland's temple. We bought a bag of the most delicious oranges on our old running route, too. $3 a bag--I miss those delicious oranges!

The temple was beautiful. It was fun to see the old stake center, too.

 Partying it up in the hotel room. Cousin love!

 Breakfast pictures

 I must say that Brookie was totally sick and throwing up a few days before we left. She had about a day and a half with no tummy trouble, so we thought she was good. But on the way over she kept saying she had to potty and wouldn't go. Because of miscalculation on our part, we were almost on empty in the middle of the desert. It was really scary. Scott and I were both biting our fingernails and praying that we could make it to an exit that had an open gas station (as opposed to the abandoned ones at 2 different exits!). We pulled in to our third stop with about 2 miles of gas left. It was open! I raced in with the kids to go potty. Jake was first, but Brooke was so droopy and all the sudden needed to go again. We left, went to the men's stall, and just as we entered she threw up. Most of it got in the toilet, thank goodness! Then she was on to diarrhea. Poor thing! I was so glad we ran out of gas so we had to pull off right at that moment. It was a blessing in disguise. I really felt like God was watching over us that trip! The next day we tried to take it easy with the foods, but she was fine again and eating junk food by the end of the day!

 Alisa chose yet another princess polly pocket type doll with her obedience money. Hm... we already have about 12 of them! And we had Ariel already, but this one came with shells and a tail. Brookie chose a baby Lion King (darling) and Jake chose a set of Star Wars figurines which now reside in his pillowcase. I think he plays with him at night when we take out his reading light!

 Little Mermaid ride. Awesome.

 Swings. 

 This was really funny. Just as we had a guy taking our picture all together, Lisa and Jesus came walking up, joined the group, and we got a picture of all of us together! :)

Disneyland in about 100 photos

In February we went to Disneyland. This was thanks in part to my generous parents Christmas gift. The kids were so, so, so excited. Beforehand, actually, they were too excited and their behavior suffered. So Scott came up with an incentive. If they were good, they each got $20 to spend. As they misbehaved, they got dollars taken away. It was pretty good motivation! They did great, and ended up with about $17 each. We are not above a good bribe! 

We met up with my sister and her family, my other sister and now fiance, and my brother and family. It was so much fun! We missed the days of just hopping over for a half day from our house in Loma Linda. These pictures are out of order. They are from my phone and stollen from my sisters blog, but I am too lazy to put them straight. 

My kids were thrilled to meet some characters at the beginning. I was thrilled because I really dislike Toon Town. 

 Mickey had to go. This is all we saw of him.

 Donald

 While the older kids went on the new Star Tours (which is now rockin' in 3D but made me a little motion sick), we rode on Autopia with Brookie. As soon as we started going, she was ready to get out. Oh, well! 

 Jacqui and I got parent swap passes (best thing ever with kids) and rode on space mountain together. We look pretty gross, but hey! we're happy!

 ... and we are also too cheap to buy the pictures from Disneyland.

 We ran into him. He gave Jake and Eth a little fake-out that got their hearts pumping. 

 Waiting for Small World

 We were worried about the noise level on the rides and Brooke. She is very sensitive to noise and stimulation. She did pretty well, overall. She prefers outdoor rides, but hung in there, even on Pirates.

 It has been so fun to go with our cousins. Jeff initiating the dance party.

 Yuck--Tea Cups. I volunteered to watch, but the older young kids were too young to go without an adult, so I got forced into it. I just held my stomach tight the whole time. 

 oops

 Ariel (Alisa's favorite) was pretty lame. Fortunately they don't remember. 

 Cinderella, on the other hand, rocked. We had at least 5 minutes alone with her. The girls were thrilled.

 When we finally gave in to Brooke's request to wait in line for these guys, the lines had closed! I took pictures for the memory of it all. Brookie loves Winnie the Pooh. 

 Alisa was so brave to go on Splash mountain with me. Just look at that terrified face! She actually went twice, missed out on Pirates because of it, and mourned her loss for about 2 weeks (tears and all). 

 Little Mermaid pose on the rock.

 California Screamin'--Jake's favorite. He went probably six times. Those are his fingers by me. 

 A little crack... crackin' me up!

Who is this gorgeous grown up young woman?!

 At least there was a reward at the end of our endless wait... what was it, over an hour, when it said 25 minutes? Sheesh. Hard to keep those crazy boys sane for such a long time!

 Cousins. Lize insisted on Lotso for her special gift. He comes all scruffy and the white parts are gray and crusty. Pretty funny. She named him Winnie the Pooh Lotso Donald Duck. 

 These little stinkers came to join us, too. Love those mugs! Jared took on the three kids (3 and under) solo on the second day. Good thing we were all there to pitch in! They are such cuties!

 The Little Mermaid was FANTASTIC. Seriously. No lines, and awesome! Not scary... all the kids loved it and we went over and over and over. Brookie's favorite!

 Waiting!

 Notice the homemade lunch. That's how we roll at DL... we bring all of our meals and snacks and save a ton!

 Aladdin Show-- a must see. I only took kids to the bathroom 3 times in that hour!

 Olivia's generous nature amazed me. She bought this balloon for her sister with her own birthday money. She is seriously so giving!

 Tower of Terror

 Riding in to the park on empty trams... love this time of year!

Entertaining themselves waiting for Peter Pan 

We had a great time at Disneyland. Afterwords, we drove to San Diego and went to the beach (no idea if I took any pictures of that, but it was freezing and windy and the kids had a blast! That's also where my sis-in-law Amanda showed us how to get sand off with baby powder. Genius!). We hung out and camped out at Jared and Amanda's house, ate great Greek food, chatted all night with Li and Jesus,  went to church and took off. It was so much fun! My kids are constantly asking me when we are going back.