Disney Trip Part 2 - Meeting Mater

Besides helping keep track of the family and providing a fun keepsake of our trip, the matching t-shirts my mom nearly sprouted an ulcer over have helped me decipher which days are which in all my thousands of pictures. And bonus -- they gave us a color coordinated family picture every morning before we left. I can't say enough great things about our beloved matching t-shirts.

Jeff loves pictures. No. No he doesn't. He hates pictures with all of his heart. So he mostly glared at me every time I said, "Jeff! Turn around right there and smile!" Ben hasn't had 5 years of me pestering him to smile for pictures, so he was slightly more willing to pose at my every request. Here we are happily making our way to the front gate!

See what I mean?

Our plan was to hit the new Cars ride first thing in the morning while the line was somewhat manageable. Eli made this face 99% of our Disney-ing. Don't worry. That's his "I'm happy but there are too many things for me to look at so I don't have time to smile" face.

Eli loves anything with moving wheels. And he especially loves Lightning McQueen and Mater. We were eager to see if he'd make the 40" height requirement to go on the Cars ride. I wish I had snapped a picture of him getting measured. He is currently about 39 and 3/4 inches tall. He got measured about 3 different times before the Radiator Springs gatekeepers graciously forgave him of his lacking 1/4" and let him on the ride.

Carson and I hung out while Eli and Jeff were on the ride. Carson danced every time music came on.

Ben lucked out because he would get to go on rides with Jeff and Eli by waiting in line, and then he would immediately re-enter the ride to go with me with a rider switch pass. 

Eli was a little scared of the Cars ride and told Jeff he didn't want to ride it again after his feet were safely back on concrete. We met Lightning McQueen and Mater to let Eli's nerves settle a little bit.

We made our way over to Disneyland to meet up with the rest of the family. Just as we were pulling out our lunch, a marching band came charging through the castle and provided us with unexpected lunch entertainment.

Pluto gave Carson a little pat on the head. Carson was not amused.

After the parade, we discovered what would be Eli's most requested ride -- The Buzz Lightyear ride.

He was actually a pretty good shot, too.

We ran into Abe and Klarissa with my parents, so we strolled the babies around together for nap time.

Then it was time for a parade. Which we turned our backs to and instead enjoyed a little rest time since we couldn't go anywhere anyways with the main walkway blocked off.

My dad cooled my kids off by sharing some of his frozen lemonade with them, and Eli and Carson were given their "First Visit" buttons here.

After the parade traffic died down, we made our way to It's A Small World for Eli, Carson and Newland to experience their first cousin ride together. Magical.

We grabbed some dinner just after that at a yummy grab-your-dinner-out-of-a-bucket BBQ place where Jacob and Laurie met up with us just in time for a group picture.

At the end of dinner, we were given moist towelettes to clean our BBQed hands. Eli took a moment to proudly clean off his First Visit button. He loved that thing.

At some point during the day we went on the other Toy Story ride. The line was forever long, but we had to endure it because it was scheduled to be shut down the rest of the week.

Claire was very upset after I broke the news to her that her whole family went on the ride without her because she was down for a nap.

After a successful first day, we made our way back to the house for cute cousin matching jammy time.

We said goodnight and rested up in preparation of our fun filled beach day!