Disneyland 2013

 Are you ready for a ton of Disneyland pictures? We spent a couple of days in sunny Southern California with Grandpa this last week. Cars land was new to us, so there are a lot of pictures of Radiator springs, which, by the way, was awesome. They did a really good job (with the exception of the tire ride, it was kinda lame).

 Ash and I wanted to get frosties here, but it was closed.

 Brian getting ready for the Radiator springs racer ride. This ride was soo much fun! You drive around the town a little, then race another car through the mountains. We went straight to the fast pass line when we got into the park, had our tickets 5 minutes after the park opened, then rode the ride an hour later after waiting about 10 minutes. I hate lines.

 Ty trying out the "rock climbing" course.

 We ran into the Brundages while at the park! The kids got to ride Toy Story Mania with their friends.

 We only managed to talk Ashlynn into riding on California Screamin'. She said it wasn't bad for being her first upside down ride. But... her glasses did fall off and into her lap during the ride. Whoops!

 We sat down in the evening and watched the parade. Sometimes we just needed to sit. I kept trying to snap pictures of the kids to show how excited they were about the show, but my camera kept reacting too slow, or my picture taking skills were too slow. One of those two...

 Each of the kids had "goals" while visiting the park. They wanted to try rides that they had previously been too scared or too short to ride. Indiana Jones was that ride for Ty. And he was so excited when first thing Friday morning, there was a zero minute wait for the ride! He was so worried he wouldn't be tall enough that he stuffed his shoes with padding that morning to guarantee a ride! He liked the ride, but the anticipation was too much for him and he mostly rode with his ears plugged. Baby steps.

 Space Mountain was Briggs's goal ride. We knew they would all have fun on it, so we bribed Ty with an extra day of video games to ride. And they all loved it! In fact they said it was their favorite ride in the park!

 This was the picture from the first ride of the day. Ty insists he wasn't scared, he just didn't know his picture was being taken. So the next time he rode, he posed. Goofy kid. And yes, I look a little silly too. Oh well. It's Disneyland!

 As we were riding the Alice in Wonderland ride, I noticed that Ashlynn had taken her Mad Hatter hat off. I suggested that if she put it on, maybe it would grant us special powers and we would be able to ride on a special track or something. Just as she put it on the ride broke down! The kids started panicking and I started laughing. We ended up climbing out of our car and walking off of the ride. I thought it was so cool but the kids didn't. I don't get it! I made sure to snap pictures of walking in the ride. Wish I had taken video.

 Mickey's house

 Father son twins

 Ashlynn's 5th grade teacher was there, so we snapped a picture. Who gets the chance to see your teacher at Disneyland?!

 All of the brave people went on Matterhorn while Ty and I rode the carousel. And took selfies.

 Ty's souvenir pillow pet. How many stuffed animals does this kid need?

 The whole time we were at the park, we kept bringing up memories of Grandma Caroline, and how much she liked Disneyland.

Briggs's teacher loves Tigger, so we made sure and snapped a picture for her benefit.

We had a great time with Grandpa at the park. (but my feet were done after 2 days...wimp.)

Black Chasm Cavern

 Grandpa came for a visit so we went for a little drive up to the foothills to check out some caves.

 Once of the perks of living in Northern California is we are in a central location to take in a lot of different terrain and sights. Even though I grew up in Northern CA. I never went to any of these caves. So we packed a picnic and headed out for the hour drive!

 I thought the kids might be bored by what they saw, but they do pretty well with stuff like this. They love listening to the guides and trying to answer questions and learn new facts. This cave is one of the best places in the world to see these calcite deposit formations.

 They look like crazy little worms that have been squished out of a mold, or fancy blown glass sculptures.

 This formation is called bacon.

 And here's a picture where I look like a bat. I thought it was appropriate, being in a cave and all.

 Waaaay down there, the little speck of blue is an underwater lake.

 I just like this truck.

 In the gift shop, the boys wanted to buy geodes. Before she helped them crack them open, she explained how they are formed. I honestly don't remember what she said. Something about heating up and cooling down.

 Ty's had cool little wormlike formations inside.

 Ashlynn chose to buy a back of "rare gems" in sand.We used the sluice they had outside to separate the rare stuff from the sand.

 Then we drove into Jackson to check out the cute little old mountain town. My Great Grandma use to teach school around here somewhere.

 We found the best shop in town. Grandpa said Grandma would have loved this shop!

 When we asked Grandpa what she would have bought he pointed to the white fudge and said, "Divinity". The kids said, "What's Divinity?" The little old man behind the counter quietly gave them each a sample and said, "I can't have kids leave my store who haven't tried Divinity!" The kids liked that!

Ashlynn and I vowed to come back and hit every single one of the antique shops someday, when the men fold aren't hovering over our shoulders!

The Day After Christmas

The day after Christmas Brian wanted to organize closets. Luckily Grandpa was there with the better idea of going into San Francisco! Good, Better, Best, Brian...

 The lobby of the Hyatt at Embarcadero.center.

 It was a cold and foggy day in the city. Within minutes of reaching the end of pier 39, the fog cleared and we snapped this picture.

 Just for fun, we decided to take BART into the city.

 Daddy and Grandpa were entertaining the kids with physics puzzles - flies on trains and Newtons Laws and other nerdy things.

 They were obviously enjoying themselves.

 Well. Except for Ty.

Can you tell I liked the lights.