Disney vacation--part 1

I suppose I should at least post SOMETHING about our one and only vacation this summer.  Kory commented a while ago that he could get used to both of us having a summer break.  Well, he will get used to it because that's just how education in a non-year-round school works. :)  So, we decided a few months ago that we would go to Disneyland with the majority of his family.  It was really fun, but really exhausting with a baby.

The first big event came before actually leaving for California.  My brother-in-law proposed to his girlfriend (finally!) and she said yes.  We love Crystal and are excited for her and Kevin to tie the knot!  I don't have any pictures of that, though.  Sorry.


 On the 23rd of July, we started our 2-day drive to Cali. I was a little nervous how Claire would do in the car.  Thankfully she has a wonderful cousin Jase who loves to make her happy so he did what he could to  help her.

She loves to drink water from a sippy cup.  That blue thing under her arm is Jase's stuffed Beanie Baby penguin, Petey.  She loves it and he would give it to her when she got cranky.

We stayed overnight in Las Vegas and again, Claire and Jase love to play together. Jase has his penguin and now Claire has hers.  It's name is Pammy.  Jase actually got Claire her penguin when I was pregnant with her and he got his at the same time with the hope that one day they would play "penguins" together.

We arrived in California on Tuesday.  Kory, Claire, and I got a hotel (thanks again Dad for helping us with this) right near Disneyland for napping purposes.  The others stayed at a friend's house about 45 minutes away from Disneyland.  Here we are on Wednesday, ready to take on Disneyland with a 14-month-old. YAY!

So, since we were so close, we were able to get to the park a little after 8am which is when it opens.  Guess who we saw right away?

Claire was not afraid of them at all and was acutally waving to them while we waited in line to get our pictures.  I wish I had gotten pics of her getting kisses from both Mickey and Minnie.  Minnie even made kissy noises when she kissed Claire.  Awwwwwww!  I was so happy. :)

Since the rest of the family wanted to visit the new Cars Land first, we headed over to Disney California Adventure.  Claire found the waterfall...and would have jumped right in if we let her.  Then here's where things got REALLY cool.

The creators of this place did an over the top job.  They made Radiator Springs.  It really does exist!! This place was so.freaking.awesome.

We'll  leave the adventure here and pick it up another time...