Another Awesome Vacation - Day 1

If you look back at posts from the past, I have invited all of you to visit us in California, as it is one of the greatest places to visit! My sister and her husband and their little girl finally saved up enough money and vacation days from work to come visit us. They dragged my parents along with them so that we could really turn it into a family outing.

They could only stay for three days before getting back to the daily grind, so we stuffed as much vacationing as possible into those three days. Day 1 consisted of California Adventure and meeting as many characters as possible at Disneyland.

California Adventure was perfect for our first day, as we could get to everything there without killing ourselves on a day when the parks closed early.

The kids loved being together, and A1 and A2 couldn't wait to show Cousin Carmen all the best things about the Happiest Place on Earth. We went on all the rides, with the kids going on the Bug's Land rides at least three times each. It was exhausting, so the kids forced Grandpa to take a rest with them (or was it the other way around?). These three love their Grandpa more than anything in the world.
While the adults took turns riding all the "big-kid" rides (the California Screaming roller coaster is the best roller coaster EVER!!!), the kids played in Bear Country. It's like a gigantic playground with ropes to climb, slides to go down, and lots of areas to explore. Their favorite was the slides - they would slide down then giggle and run madly to do it again, all the while with me trailing behind begging them to wait for me. This is the closest I could get to taking a picture of them standing still. They couldn't stop their fun for a lousy photo!
We also met lots and lots of characters, 12 to be exact: Woody and Jessie, Tiana, Ariel, Belle, Pooh and Eeyore, Pluto, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Silvermist and Tinkerbell. Alison (my sister) made the cutest personalized autograph books for the girls, and they had a blast asking the characters to sign their books. This will truly be a great memory keepsake. Thanks, Alison!

Just one picture of meeting the characters:

Did we have fun? Oh, yes, we did! Time to go home and rest up for Day 2.