Disneyland!

We took a family trip down to Disneyland last week. The girls had three days off school, and we were counting on it being good timing as far as crowds. Grandma Bevans went with us, and it made all the difference in the world having another adult along. I wouldn't do it any other way given the choice. The kids had a blast. Claire loved the rides and had no fear. She was educated in all the princesses, and seems to have decided Cinderella and Snow White are her favorites (at least those are the names I can pick out of her mumbling). She also loves Minnie Mouse, and is obsessed with her little "Baby Minnie" that Grandma bought for her. Brooke was pretty much willing to try anything, and found that she loved all the roller coaster rides. Janelle was gun shy about a lot of the rides, but found her courage on the last day or so, and decided Splash Mountain, Grizzly Rapids and Soarin' Over California were her favorite rides. Sophie loved absolutely everything. She had no fear when it came to rides, and got really into pin trading with Grandma. She's a collector at heart, so it was no surprise. We have WAY too many pictures to choose from, so I'll just post a few here:

At the new Toy Story ride - a 3-D video arcade style ride - really fun!A preview of Halloween this year. We figured since we were going to hit the Disney Trick-or-Treat party, we'd all go as Disney characters this year. Sophie is Jasmine, Claire is poor Cinderella, Janelle is Snow White, and Brooke is Tinkerbell.
Friday was the first day of "Gay Pride" weekend, so that was educational...According to their ears "Jay" and "Z", share a moment on the Alice in Wonderland ride
Meeting some princesses
Pictures from the Parade of Dreams:

Janelle on the Jellyfish ride
Sophie and Grandma with their pins
Family picture
In Minnie's house

Claire got excited about the cheese in Minnie's fridge (I think she has cheese radar)
Putting Claire to work
Meeting Mickey
Disneyland is soon changing it's motto from "Happiest Place on Earth" to "Dorkiest Hat Place on Earth"
Jedi Training - this was great. The Jedi master chose kids from the audience to participate in some Jedi training, then all of a sudden, Darth Vader and Darth Maul come up from the ground and the children have to prove their resistance to the dark side. (The videos show some of it)

Southern California/Donut Land: Californians must love their donuts, because you can't swing a dead cat down there without hitting a donut shop. (It clearly does not correlate with Southern California/ Bikini Land). While we were driving around Hollywood, trying to find Robertson Blvd., [the hot celebrity shopping spot -I was supposed to see Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon there. I feel totally ripped off that they didn't show] I started taking pictures of the donut shops we passed on ONE street - and these are just the ones I was able to get pictures of! I wonder how they all stay in business? But I guess up here, we love our coffee shops, don't we?