The Happiest Place on Earth

So we officially had so much fun in California this week. Every year we like to go to Newport for a week in the summer and be beach bums pretty much every day, except one day we went to the Wonderful World of Disney. This is a picture of the firework show at the end of the day and I was loving every minute of it.This is lucky me with the fierce Captain Jack Sparrow. Jack loves to call himself that and he looked so darn cute.

The crazy boys...and the lovely girls.
Matt..we missed you!

Jake and Sarah getting beamed up on Space Mountain.

I finally met my prince charming Aladdin, except to my dismay he did not offer to take me on a magic carpet ride. Hey, that's cool.

We had such a good time and the kids loved it about as much as I did. One of my favorite parts of the day was when we were preparing to take Jack on the Matterhorn and we were trying to calm his fears of the Abominable Snowman that my brother Matt was so scared of when he was little. So we started calling him "The Agreeable Snowman" or "The Adorable Snowman" like on Monsters Inc. I thought it was pretty funny. Then I had the pleasure of riding with him on the ride and when we saw the glowing red eyes and claws it seemed odd to be calling that an "Adorable Snowman", but it worked. He loved the ride! I forget every time just how much fun it is at Disneyland. I don't think I will ever get to old for it.

This is absolutely one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Gracie gave me the hugest smile and was having a blast next to Lara. She played in the sand while Jack loved playing in the water every minute. On the first day he got chub-rub so the rest of the week he just wore his Batman underwear in the water and walked like a cowboy. It was so funny. Another day Matt Ellingson and I went boogie boarding in these fierce waves and they were tearing us up and spitting us out...or should I say just me for the most part. My swimsuit bottoms were nearly yanked off me a few times...we'll just leave it at that. We had a great time.

Mom and Dad enjoying our night stroll on the beach.

All in all it was another great Salmon Family vacation. It was sad to see it come to an end and realize it was the last time we would get to do that for some time. Lara and Matt move on the 30th of this month to Ohio and I am sure going to miss them and their little ones oh so much. Thank goodness for airplanes, cell phones, and emails to keep us sane. Well I hope you enjoyed a little sneak-peak into our trip!