Finally home, Easter, Disneyland

Well, I was gone 12 days!!! That is a long time. It was a great 12 days though. I took approximately 456 pictures, after cutting out the blurry, eye's closed and repeats, I now have 270 pics to choose from! I will try to pick the best and ones that will make the trip flow. I counted the pics there are 72! I figure if you don't want to see them you can scroll fast. It was hard choosing!

I packed two large suitcases because I had presents and two different seasons of clothes. I can't believe how many comments I got from people about them. You would think I had taken ten suitcases!

I flew out on a Friday, got to Rebecca's about 10:00. I made a nummy hummus dip all core for our vegetable dish and then went to bed.Aren't you impressed! We ate very healthy on the way down! (Catch the word down!)
We got up and left about 8:00.The s couldn't have been better. They watched moviescolored and slept. Gracie had a hard time being that she was sick, but other than that the trip was great. We drove all the way to Lizzie's in one day. We got there about 10:00pm I think. The next day was Easter, here's Tanner coming down the stairsThey found their baskets!
The Easter bunny brought all the s an autograph book for Disneyland, here's Anna's.Another thing that Rebecca had the s do was make a list in the back of their books of all the things they wanted to buy throughout the week. Then at the end of the week they could choose what they wanted most. It thought that was a great idea. Here's Gracie and Tanner enjoying their treats. Next of course is hunting for Easter eggs. Tanner was true to being a boy, he was very quick to hunt and very quick to start eating! The first pick is when Lizzie told Tanner he was going to have to share his eggs.Kate woke up and as you can see she was center of attention!!! It is hard to resist that cute little face and hair!
Lizzie who accuses me of wanting to be the favorite grandma and person in particular, wants to be the favorite aunt-she bought cocoa puffs and pop tarts for breakfast!We all went to vacation church except Tanner and Shad. Lizzie bless her heart, was sick all week and still prepared us a wonderful Easter dinner.After dinner the kids wanted to go out and swim, and of course since the grandkids wanted me to go, we all got in. We left much later than we planned, so got to our motel very late. To make matters worse, they reserved the wrong room (not Rebecca, the motel got it wrong) We got moved 3 times before we got to the right room. The poor s kept falling asleep in every room. Rebecca did this cool thing called Ridemax, it was a program that you download and then plug in what you want to do and it tells you what time to get to the park, where to go first and then you don't wait in line or barely wait in line. I have to tell you it worked! Since we had gotten there so late we decided to not to get up early and just pick up the plan the best we could. Amazingly enough it worked and we did pretty good the first day. Well, here they are in from of the big O in California Disney. We did a few things, one being the 3-d show a bugs life, Gracie started crying as soon as we got in there so Rebecca and her left and did the slowest ride known to mankind, you will see it later. Aliese and Anna and I went in it was great, they thought it was scary, but made it through. This is them in their bug glasses.After we walked around a bit, we went to lunch at Ariels Grotto. Rebecca had reserved us a place at the princess luncheon. They promised you would get to see at least 4-5 princesses. We were hoping all their favorites would be there. And thankfully, the only one we didn't see was Sleeping Beauty. The princesses and all the characters were amazing, they never hurried, they hugged each child, if they were a real person and not an animal, they talked to them. If they were an animal they did the most amazing job of communicating. I was so impressed. You will see the typical thing that all the princesses and characters did in this first experience with Ariel, after that I just put in the group pics. I probably had at least 7 poses or more with each person talking and getting hugged. The cool thing about the lunch was that we didn't have to stand in line, we just sat and waited for our lunch as each princess would come out and around to our table. They would hug the s individually, then together and again just before they left. Here's Belle!CinderellaJasmineGracie's favorite was Snow White, the first picture is when Gracie saw Snow White come out from the back room.The next pic isn't me being creative, I turned the lever the wrong way. I should have let you thing I was being cool!After we got done eating we were walking down the street and we could here high school musical music, we turned and looked and it was a parade sort of thing, we started following them and got in the front row. They asked for audience participation several times but the s were too scared. It was fun.Next we went over to Disneyland. But Gracie was just too sick and tired. Rebecca and her went back and the s and I walked around trying to pick up the schedule the best we could. But instead took advantage of things that were open. Amazingly enough Pirates had a small line so we got in line and I convinced the s it wasn't scary. I kind of forgot about the first "down" as Amy used to call them, and the s got really mad at me. Then the next down, wasn't as scary and they told me that was fun, by the time we got to the end they wanted to do it again. By then the line was way too long so we went on the Mark Twain, it was perfect for when you are tired!We then went over to the Pooh ride, it wasn't crowded at all so we did that ride, some shopping and some picsDid some castle picsWent to the Tiki roomI think Rebecca met us at this point we ate at Ihop, our first of 3 meals there. (across the street from disneyland) Aliese was tired, Anna and Rebecca wanted to keep going, so I took Gracie and Aliese back to the motel. Rebecca and Aliese did the Jungle ride and the fire works. It was a great first day.
2nd Day
We got up at 5:40 am literally grabbed our breakfast ate it on the run and on the bus, got to disneyland by about 6:30. I ran ahead to get our place in line, a common ritual for the rest of the week. We were about 20 people back from the front. There were about 8 lines but still! When they opened the gates Aliese and I took off running, we were the first ones through the castle that morning and the first one's in line for Dumbo, we waited for Rebecca, Gracie and Anna though. Next we were off to Dumbo, Gracie's favorite ride she rode it I think 9 times with Rebecca and I trading off! Aliese and I flying through the air!Next to the tea cups, here's Rebecca and GracieWe went to the canal boats next, it was the longest wait we had-30minutes. Anna got to ride on top with the guideOff to toon town to see Mickey!Gracie was afraid to hug Mickey so he pretended to cryThere was a cute little park that Gracie loved that we found. Gracie loved this pumpkin. We then went on the Go-Coaster, the most fun easy going roller coaster and the shortest! The s ended up going on it about 9 times over a three day period I think. I think we then went back to Ihop for lunch. Back to the room for a nap and swim. I think we came back and went to Fantasmic, I think it is called. It was soooooo amazing. I am getting tired and so am going to start pasting pics. That night Lizzie and Tanner came, they stayed with us 1 1/2 days. After the first day, Rebecca decided that we all needed hats, so she bought us all hats. Waiting for Nemo! We basically walked on! Pretty amazing considering it is a min. of 90min wait.Next we did little kid rides, Tarzans Treehouse (yes it is very sad, Swiss Family Robinson tree house is gone!)Tom Sawyers Island: The first pic is us walking to a cave, Gracie and Tanner panicked, so the s and I went alone, we went to this spot where there was a piece of gold and you were supposed to pretend you were trying to steal it. So I did, a skeleton hand with an eyeball came down and said something to us, then it raised made a crunching sound, the s were grosed out, I thought it was funny, then I tried to steal it again and a skeleton head popped up and said something to us, the s were not happy with me. I thought it was funny. We ate lunch at this cute place in fantasy land, we learned that the food was really quite reasonable, and delicious.We went on the Train that was in Dumbo next, me pushing the wrong buttons again! Back to Pooh land (Critter Country)To Buzz Lightyear!! We shot with laser guns, they really worked!Next to Autotopia, I tried to get pics but this was the only one I got. We went again later in the week and Anna and Aliese did a lot better the second time.Somewhere in here we went to toon town and Tanner went to see Mickey. He loved Mickey and didn't want to leave, so we watched after our turn for a few minutesWe then all got to see Minnie Mouse she was a big hit with Gracie and the s, Tanner wasn't as impressed.Off to main street for the parade, we bought candy and ice cream on main street on two different days, pretty good stuff! This is Gracie with her choice, we ran into Mary Poppins and Bert, they were pretty funny. after that it is us sitting on the street watching the parade
This is the parade where Ariel talked directly to Gracie, it was amazing!At some point in the day, Tanner conked out, the following pic is him when it was time to go home to bed!The next day we went to California Disney again we went first to bug land and did all the little kid rides there. It was pretty fun, very laid back, the first ride was the slowest ride in the world!The slowest bumper cars in the worldThe most relaxing rideAt lunch that day Anna, Gracie and Tanner, were having a great time by the water, talking about who knows what.Anna and Rebecca went on the Ferris wheel while Aliese and I shopped and she threw a coin in the water and made a wish. The location was very important to her.Gracie feeling betterRebecca and the s finishing PiratesChip and Dale had to go, but they still hugged the s and did something that really made Aliese laughThe last day we ate lunch at the Blue Bayou, it was the resturant in the Pirates of the Carribean. We reserved it ahead, worth every penny! We loved it the atmosphere was great, the dishes beautiful, cloth napkins and tablecloth, the s loved it. The food was fabulous, we would have done it again in a heartbeat!While I ran to California Disney to get a fast pass, the s took there time going down main street and low and behold, there was Sleeping Beauty!While they went on their last ride in Calif. Disney, soaring over California, Gracie and I danced and danced and danced, sad to say noone to take the pics. Then we went back to Disney land for the Fireworks and to buy our souvenirs.It was a truly magical last night we got to see amazing fireworks, listen to Snow white sing and the wishing well respond, and last but not least we went on the Jungle cruise. I think Rebecca and I were the only ones that laughed at his corny jokes, we were tired and quite frankly thought he was funny. Well, if you read this far, it was the most amazing week, enjoyable beyond imagination. I am truly the most blessed Grandma ever!