Happiest Place on Earth

Last week we got to spend three days in Disneyland. The timing worked out really well since it was Rachael’s 16th birthday on January 7th, so she got to spend the whole day at the Happiest Place on Earth. It wasn’t very crowded, which meant we got to go on all of the rides as many times as we wanted and I stuffed my face with beignets, red beans and rice, mint juleps, and chocolate cake. We went to the Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside Pirates of the Carribean) for Rachael’s birthday dinner and it was as good as I remember. That’s probably a combination of the atmosphere and the gumbo, which was delicious.  
(Image via the Disneyland website because I forgot my camera).

We also went on the Mark Twain steamboat for the first time. I’m not sure why we’ve never done that before (except John) but it was actually nice and relaxing.
John and Jared played a game called “Jared falls asleep in public and John pretends to be asleep next to him and we take a picture.” 
I call this my “Blue Steel” series. These guys are clearly destined for great things.
And here’s some proof that I have a hard time keeping my eyes open in pictures . . . because every blog post needs at least one unflattering photo, right? 
Condor Flats (including Soaring Over California) was shut down, and so was the Matterhorn and Jungle River Cruise, so I’m excited to go back again . . . hopefully next year. I think Disneyland might be even more fun now that everyone is a little older and we can actually have conversations and just hang out together.