happiest place on earth

 First ride we went on was The Little Mermaid. 

(That was mostly for me. I had seen it on youtube and couldn't wait to ride it.)

Holy moly, I have so many pictures to post on here but for some reason the universe is against me posting very many of them.  I have tried several times and every time I've tried, I've had a problem. These pictures are not in the correct order but they will have to do.  I'm not going to try to re-post them again.

So last month we took a trip to the one, the only, beautiful Southern California.  This is sort of becoming our family tradition now since Grandma Cindy and Papa Rich moved down that way.  We've been down that way 3 years in a row now and every time we go we fall in love with it.  And so far every time we've gone, Joaquin and I always talk about how we could figure out a way to move there and make it work.  It's like a drug!  We go down in the middle of winter, when the weather in our part of the country is ugly and dreary, so when we show up in So Cal, it's like seeing an old friend (and by old friend, I mean the sun.) welcoming us with open arms.  "Come and stay a while, lets catch up and just be happy together forever."   Then the end of our trip comes and then we have to say goodbye to that special friend.  

Well this trip, Papa Rich had won tickets for all of us to go to Disneyland for free!!! Joaquin and I have both visited Disneyland before but neither of us have ever been too excited about it.  Most of our families love Disneyland and we just never understood what was so fun about it.  Well this time around it was a different story.  To have the boys with us was like seeing it as a child again.  We both literally lived the experience through them.  They had a blast and so did we!  The first day we went, we spent the entire day in California Adventure and the next day was spent in Disneyland.  Both were so much fun and in different ways.  I'm so glad we spent entire days in the separate parks.  I think if we hadn't, it would have been too much for us and the boys.  I think my very favorite part of California Adventure was the Aladdin musical.  It was awesome and the boys loved it and sat through the entire thing.  It was kind of funny because, Everett was exhausted and just about to fall asleep while Joaquin was holding him and as soon as the music started, his eyes popped right open.  He loves anything with music.  Some of my favorite rides were in Disneyland though.  I love classics, it's a small world, oh and Peter Pan.  (I don't ever remember riding peter pan as a kid but I love that movie so that one was super fun to me.)  I also loved the newer ones like, Finding Nemo and the Buzz.

I could go on and on but I won't.  This post is already super duper long and I've got more pictures I want to post.  So that should do it for now.  We're just all so grateful Papa Rich won those tickets and was able to give them to us.  Thanks again Grandma and Papa, we love you!