california adventure

day two at the happiest place on earth we spent at california adventure. such a fun place! and we love the cars land....amazing! there was so much to see and so much fun detail. bri loved looking at everything and there were a ton of fun rides there for her to ride. she was in disney heaven....again. :)

headed to our next adventure!

bri loved that ladybug ride....we rode it like 5 times.

bri turned into a little daredevil on the rides and loved to hold her hands in the air. haha.

big smiley girl!

she got so excited when she saw the disney junior sign. mommy and bri stopped here to watch the show to cool off later in the afternoon while the big kids went on big kid rides. she LOVED it!

"we saw pluto again! and pluto have a hat!"

watching mickey dancing :)

cars land was so cool! everything looked so cool!

loved spending the day here!

 just to preface the next few pictures.....we rode the ferris wheel. and my dad is terrified of the ferris wheel. i remember him riding with us one time previously. when i was little he always would say that he had to stay on the ground cause we needed someone to wave too. haha. he hates the "wheel of death" but luckily we had bri with us to convince him to ride and so bobby was able to experience riding the ferris wheel with my dad. it is a memory to be cherished. we even got him to ride on one of the carts that slides on a track. best day ever! haha 

we all squished into one cart so that we could ride together

the other side. this was before the death trap started moving.

the best part about the ferris wheel was that bri LOVED it haha. especially when it swooped. she would crack up and yell "look we up so high!"

heres a comparison of their reactions. so fun! thanks for risking your life for us dad!

waving hi to mickey....she got so excited that mickey waved to her!

waiting for the phineas and ferb show. cheesy grin.

high fiving ferb! so cool!

relaxing in radiator springs

such a fun place!

everyone at california adventure

 while everyone went on the roller coaster and radiator spring racers, bri and i got to relax and watch the disney junior show. bri was really hot and tired by this time so it was the perfect distraction. she loved the show and was so excited to see all her friends!

she was so snuggly in line waiting to see mickey

i couldn't even get a good picture because she was jumping around and clapping so much haha

daddy and bri got to ride on the really fun tire ride. they were flying all over the place!

she thought it was so fun to bang into grandma and dani

it was definitely time for a delicious ice cream break at the cozy cone motel!

we loved those cups! so fun!

bri thought they were really cool too

love the cozy cones! and this kids matching sunglasses

this was another of bris favorite rides. she kept her hands up the whole time and giggled haha. we rode this one a few times too.

one of my new favorite pictures....love these two!

while everyone went on tower of terror again, bri and i hit up her favorite rides one last time. she loved the fishy merry-go-round

one of my favorite rides....can't wait till next time we go so i can ride it!

such a great day with some of our favorite people!

girls in front of the ferris wheel

watching the mad hatter band and rocking out with grandma

at the end of an awesome day we headed back over to disneyland to watch the fireworks and fantasmic. they are so cool and fun to watch. bri liked the fireworks, especially tinkerbell but then she got nervous and snuggled up with daddy on his shoulder. and by the time he handed to her to me so we could walk over to our fantasmic spot, she had finally fell asleep. disneyland totally wiped her out. we started out on main street and she was asleep before we even made it to frontierland haha. and she slept right through the whole fantasmic show! which was kind of a bummer cause she would have loved it. but bobby and i were totally entranced. it is such a cool show and bobby still randomly talks about how he can't wait to see it again. i wonder where bri gets that... haha

watching tinkerbell :)

waiting for the show to start with our sleepy girl

our family on our magical vacation

we had such an amazing vacation! we are so grateful that we were able to take such a fun trip with my family! thank you for taking us and we can't wait until we can all go to disneyland again!!!

the happiest place on earth.

after we were in san diego for the day we drove to disneyland! disneyland is one of my favorite places in the whole world and i hadn't been since high school and both bobby and bri had never been ever. so we were all very excited for our first trip as a family to the happiest place on earth.

we thought that bri would probably think that it was cool and like some parts but we were completely unprepared for how much she loved disneyland. from literally the moment that we walked up to the park she started pointing out the benches that looked like mickey mouse and was so excited! she didn't nap the two days we were there and she was exhausted and yet she was seriously the happiest i have ever seen her. we had been talking our trip to disneyland for awhile and telling her all the fun things that we would get to do and luckily it didn't disappoint.

bobby was surprised at how much he loved it too. its our new favorite place and we wish we were already back there. i am not exaggerating when i say that literally every single day since we have been home, bri has talked about disneyland. she will randomly say "it was so much fun to go to disneyland!" or ask "we go to disneyland today mommy?" and its not a surprise to hear in her prayers even now (a month later) "thank you that we can go to disneyland".

it really is the happiest place on earth! thank you so much grandma and grandpa brooksby for taking us!!! we had such a blast!

right when we got in and didn't know how magical our day was going to be yet haha

 this is the story about how we met minnie mouse for the first time.....

if you don't know, brielle's favorite thing in the whole world is mickey mouse clubhouse, and more specifically, minnie mouse. our house is full of things dedicated to minnie. 

we were kind of afraid that bri was going to be scared to meet the characters cause she can be such a scaredy cat sometimes so we spend a lot of time talking up meeting minnie and mickey and telling her that they were going to be big, but really nice and that she could give them a big hug. but honestly, we had no idea how she was going to react to them.

we got in early on the first day and just as we were coming in the characters were coming out. there was already a line for mickey and goofy and she got excited to see them. 

and then minnie walked out......and she got the biggest grin on her face and started pointing and saying "look, theres minnie! look!" we were only about the 5th people in line to see her and the whole time bri was anxiously trying to see her around the people in front of us and talking about how cute minnie is. "minnie has a beautiful dress." "i see minnie and give her a big hug!"  and our favorite, "minnie have eyes!"

it was finally our turn and she walked right up and gave minnie the biggest hug! not scared at all. she had her minnie doll with her and she handed it to minnie for minnie to hug her too haha. them we had her go stand by her for a picture and she was so happy. but the best part happened when we told her to give her another hug before we left...she gave her a big hug and then stepped back, looked at her, and gave her a big kiss on the nose. it was the sweetest thing of my whole life and i seriously almost cried to see her so happy. the whole line of parents behind us collectively "ahhhhhed" and we could have just left the park happy and successful at that point. our disneyland trip was complete from the very start.

first big hug!

our baby girl meeting her hero. such a happy mom moment!

now that the pressure of finding minnie was off we got to enjoy going on all the rides. since i was pregnant, bri and i went on rides together and relaxed while everyone else went on the big kid rides. the rides were bri's other favorite part, she loved everything she got to go on and see.

buzz lightyear was the 1st one we went on and she LOVED spinning the cart....thats all she did the whole time.

teacups!

the teacups were another one of her favorites. she is still asking if we can go and ride the teacups

and of course she always loves the classic merry-go-round.

trying to pull the sword out....

we got closer to getting it out than daddy did.

so happy to be together in disneyland! :)

 while everyone went on splash mountain, we stayed with grandpa and rode on the winnie the pooh ride and got in line to meet tigger, eeyore, and winnie the pooh. she wasn't nearly as excited about seeing these guys as she was about minnie, but she still wasn't scared and loved giving them all big hugs.

"tigger bounces mommy"

eeyore was always my favorite when i was little.

love her sweetness!

checking out the map.

feeding mommy frozen lemonade while we wait at the end of indiana jones.

pirate faces.....pirates was the only ride that she didnt love. it was "too dark and scary"

 she loved when we headed over to toon town....definitely the spot for her!

checking out herself in minnie mouses mirror

we got to see minnie again! and at her house! so exciting! and i was so bummed that bobby's face was in the light for all of these pictures.

playing with minnie's tea party with aunt cc!

we loved minnie's house!

chilling on goofy's couch with daddy!

we love goofy's big chair!

riding in mickey's red car

meeting pluto :)

pluto is another one of our favorites and she was excited to see him!

showing their muscles

hanging out with daddy and goofy....no big deal.

daddy on the its a small world ride....the scariest ride in disneyland!

dominating buzz lightyear. i'm surprised they could even get a picture with how much bri was spinning us haha

everyone at disneyland. we had such a great time and only having preston there with us would have made it better!

waiting for the parade. bri even loved watching that! disneyland is awesome.

one more of my baby girl and her bff :)

brielle, having the best day of her life haha

getting excited for the parade to start...the music had just started

one happy family at the happiest place on earth!

day one of our disneyland adventure was amazing! we all came back to the hotel exhausted and bri was particularly sad to leave! we were ready for day two!