THE NEWTON'S

Well they aren't the greatest photo's... and Ashley didn't even want to be in a picture at all... but I did get the camera out and I did get some pictures! Alyssa and Alex heading off on the bus. Alyssa's first day of all day school! Then we've got three pictures of Angela on her first day of school ever! She has done so well and aside from about 5 seconds of her eyes getting slightly teared up when she went with her class to her classroom- there were no tears! She has LOVED going to school each day!

The next day we slept in a bit and didn't get to the parks until close to noon. First we went over to California Adventure and saw the Aladdin theatre show... SOOOO Good! The Genie does an amazing job with the jokes and it is a great show. We were in the first row of the balcony and the pictures really don't do it justice. Then we went over to Disneyland and hit the big rides. Splash mountain, Thunder Mountain railroad, The Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Alyssa even rode on Indiana Jones and liked it! We ended the rides for the day all riding the Matterhorn Bobsleds. At the end Angela turned to Rich and said "That was FUN!" For dinner we had it at the restaurant near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and Rich and I tried the famous Monte Cristo sandwich... it was definitly unique... a cheese sandwich deep fried. It felt more like a dessert than an entree, but we had a fun time. We ended the day watching the Wishes fireworks a...

The next morning we got to Disneyland bright and early in the morning. First stop was Finding Nemo... we saved ourselves a long line by going there first and were on one of the first 5 boats to go out that morning! Alyssa rode on Space Mountain for the first time and liked it, and we of course went on Dumbo and the Carousel and Peter Pan. I forgot to take my traditional Carousel pictures, so it's the first time I don't have pictures of all the girls on the carousel at Disneyland. Oh well...

After the family reunion we decided we were only about 9 hours away from Disneyland, so it would be a shame to be that close and not stop by... we had planned it the entire time, but the kids didn't know until we were sitting outside the hotel and we told them we wouldn't be home for another whole week, and Grandma and Grandpa Newton would be here the next day! The first day we went to California Adventure: While we were there we got the surprise that Rich's brother was engaged and getting married on Saturday! There's a picture in this batch showing Rich's parents talking... and I'm sure that's the subject of their discussion. :) That night we went to Goofy's kitchen for dinner... so much fun for the kids seeing so many characters! You can see Angela's smile was just so huge she loved it! The food there was great too! :)