The Retirement Party

The main reason we took the trip to California was to celebrate Grandma's retirement. The kids were so excited for her party and kept asking me what day it was. I bought the girls new dresses and they asked me everyday if it was grandma's party yet. The party was thrown by fellow teachers and friends. It was a beach theme (very appropriate) and had some of the best catered Mexican food I've ever had.

The only kids there were these 8. The created a lot of noise and added to the fun since they didn't seem to bother anyone. They created a full band in this corner of the house banging on everything they could find.

Then they ended up in the guest room with about 900 stuffed animals

I am so glad we were able to be there to celebrate such a monumental event. Congrats on a lot of years of hard work Jan. We are so excited for more visits from grandma now that she's retired. Yippee!

Disneyland - Day 3

We started the day at California Adventure today. First stop: Little Mermaid ride. It was a really cute ride and the girls LOVED it.

Sophie was so happy after the ride

Todd & Amy's family
I can't believe I forgot my Schultz shirt....I felt so left out!

Grandma with all 8 of her grandkids
The Toy Story ride required 3D glasses - look at these cute kids!


We had a little too much fun with the Toy Story box

Luke was tall enough to ride alone on the swings and there wasn't an extra adult to ride tandem with him. He was a little scared at first to do this ride alone - but he did it and once it started he was having a blast.

All week the kids did this "special handshake" that Tayson taught them. I loved watching the kids play together.

She loves ice cream almost as much as her mama ... almost

After spending the morning and lunch at California Adventure we headed back over to Disneyland while eating our ice cream. We wanted to see the parade, ride Space Mountain again and watch the fireworks.

I love this family picture of all of us

The kids all bought their one special toy today. The boys all got light sabers and the girls got these reversible princess dolls. Claire and Emma got the same one of course.

While waiting for the parade we took the kids to the hat store and had them all pick a fun hat to try on. After taking a picture when I was making my kids put theirs back one of them asked me if we could buy one and I said entirely too loud "when would you ever wear a hat like that?" Yes it was in the middle of a store where people were purchasing them to wear. Rookie mistake on my part. They do look cute in their hats though.

The parade was a blast. The kids got so much attention. Captain Hook actually scared Luke when he put his hook right in Luke's face then had Luke shake his hook. Every princess blew kisses to the girls and the boys got lots of high 5's. The kids absolutely loved it! After the parade we had dinner then found a spot for the fireworks.



The firework show was so great. Sophie loved Tinkerbell flying across the sky. We were right in front of the castle and had a great view. All 3 days were so much fun!

Disneyland - Day 2

Today was yellow day. I bought the kids matching colors to wear so I could spot them easily in crowds. And I must say it worked well. First thing we did was hit Disneyland and ride the Matterhorn and Space Mountain. Sophie and Claire surprised me and LOVED the Matterhorn. Claire really liked Space Mountain too. It's fun that they are all getting tall enough to ride the rides. Tayson was very proud of himself because he is actually tall enough to ride as an adult with another of the kids with him. And when you have the adult to kid ratio we do that comes in handy.

Waiting in line for Autopia

Another attempt at getting all the kids in a single picture

Self portrait of us waiting in line

Me and the girls in our car right after rear-ending Todd & Tayson on accident. I was totally not paying attention to the road and looking down at Sophie and then I looked up and Tayson was at a complete stop. Oops!

Tayson was old enough to drive himself (he was so proud)

Grandma with 2 of the boys

Emma and Amy

Carson driving Todd & Owen
(this picture cracks me up)

I was so glad we brought the double stroller - it was always full of all our stuff and kids

Tayson on the rocketship

Luke & Claire with Grandma

During lunch Amy and the kids went back to the hotel for a bit and we did a few more rides at Disneyland. Then we met up with them at California Adventure for the afternoon.

Claire & Emma

Amy & Grandma took the kids on the carousel while Todd and I went on Soarin' with our parent passes

Claire dancing in line while we waited

The kids making silly faces in line
(we spent a lot of time in lines)

The boys doing their "crazy eyes"

That night we stayed for the water show - we didn't have great seats but the show was still amazing. Sophie fell sound asleep before we were out of the park that night. It was a fun filled long day.

Disneyland - Day 1

We started our day at Jedi training. All the kids were so excited to be there and Emma got picked to go up and be trained as a Jedi. She was too cute fighting Darth Vader and the other kids were great supporters.

Grandma was willing to ride the tea cups with the girls
(that ride makes me nauseous)

Todd and the boys (already throwing up)

One of our many attempts to get a picture of all 8 kids. This is no small feat.

Sophie did great in line - she was crazy and fun but she didn't run away from me this year.

The longest line of the day was for the princesses. I waited in it while everyone else went to Toon Town. I called them a few minutes before it was our turn and it was so worth the wait. Meeting the princesses was so magical for Sophie. She just lit up when she saw them and ran over to them for big hugs. It was worth every minute.

With Princess Jasmine

I love Sophie's face in this one with Belle (she was the most excited about Belle)

Tiana was so great.
She talked to the girls quite a bit and was so beautiful.

We decided to take the girls to the Princess Coronation to learn how to dance like princesses.

I love that Sophie's hair is flying during her spin in this picture

Sophie fell asleep while we were in line for Small World.

The other kids being silly in line.

We rode on the Jungle Cruise and the kids were so scared of the piranha's. Hilarious.

The ride of the day was the new Star Tours. Todd was so excited about this one. We had fast passes and we still had to wait 45 minutes in line. The line was almost 4 hours long without a fast pass. It is in 3-D now so we got sweet glasses for the ride. There are 54 different variations. We saw a different one than Todd and Amy (they waited outside with the kids then did a parent pass). But then Todd went again and saw the same one. What are the chances.

We decided to call it a night and went to get dinner (which ended up taking almost 2 hours!!!) then watched the fireworks from our hotel balcony. The kids were completely exhausted and all slept like rocks.