Family Reunion at Disneyland

We had so much fun for our family reunion this year. Andy's mom took everyone to Disneyland for 4 nights and we spent 3 days at the park. We were a little worried as the days of the reunion approached and we could tell it would be raining the entire time we were there. However, the rain didn't seem to stop any of us and we all went and had fun. In fact, the rain turned out to be a blessing as the lines weren't very long. We stayed at Disneyland until Christmas Even and then some of us went back to mom's house for Christmas. We enjoyed going back and forth from Disneyland to California Adventure. I got to experience the Tower of Terror for the first time and loved it in a weird way and managed to go on it one last time before leaving the parks. It was so much fun! Thanks to Andy's mom for everything!!

Here are some of the younger cousins on day 1 ready to go out into the rain!
Julia and Lucy in Mini's house. Julia is quite a character and so just looking at this picture makes me smile!!
Between the umbrella and poncho Lucas managed to stay pretty dry!
Lucas and Grandma at the Rain Forrest Cafe.

Here is Jane on her first Dumbo ride ever. Her face looked like this most of the day. She wasn't sure what to think of everything!!

This is one of my favorite memories from our entire trip. I won't go into all the details of how I managed to find myself in California Adventure for a few hours with just Ethan and a bunch of tickets that weren't being used for the afternoon. It wasn't really planned but ended up working out that way and Ethan and I had tons of fun. We went on Tower of Terror and then were able to go on California Screaming 2 times in a row without waiting in a line thanks to fast passes and extra tickets. We only had about 2 hours to do everything and it was tons of fun. Ethan loves a good roller coaster - as do I! On our way out of the park we bought a churro to share. He had never had one. We sat on the bench to share it. He was so so happy the entire time we were together. He said "this is kind of like a date huh? We should take a picture" Luckily I had my camera. I feel like I spend way too much time getting after Ethan but when I am one on one with him (which doesn't happen ofter) we have a great time together. I am so happy he and I got to spend those two hours together!
And it wouldn't be a reunion without some skits and games. Here is Mike holding a wrapped Lucy. Yes, Lucy is under all the wrapping paper. It was part of a game to see which team could wrap their person and deliver it first. Blake and Lucy were the lucky ones to be wrapped!!

This isn't a good picture - it's blurry but I had to include it because some of the cousins were showing different talents - gymnastics being one of them. Jane saw what they were doing and it was as thought she thought "what's the big deal. I can do that too." So, up she got and started showing off trying to steal the show!! I thought it was funny!!
Jane and Grandma. I love this picture. Jane kept running to grandma. Getting on her lap. Sitting for about a minute and then leaving. She repeated this many many times.
We also had a cousin gift exchange and a white elephant gift exchange with the adults. Here are Katie and Lucy.

I think Chad was excited to get a pair of underwear that would finally fit him!!
This was Lucas' first time at Disneyland. I think the monorail was his favorite ride along with Dumbo!! I didn't realize how scary the rides were until I went with Lucas! He's quite the nervous Nel! But he did manage to muster up enough courage to pose for a picture with Goofy!!