Photo Shoot

Where Dreams Come True

You'll never guess where we got to go last week...Disneyland!!! Hunter's long-time friend, Dave Malan, who works for Disney, and his wife, Natalie, called us to tell us they were in town and they invited us to go with them for free! We knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we adjusted our schedules and drove the less than an hour trip to Anaheim.

I think the fact that our admission was free made our day very relaxed and enjoyable. We didn't feel the pressure of seeing and doing everything. I had never been there before, so I had no expectations. Here are some photos of our memorable day:

DISNEYLAND

Paulo's and Andre's first ride ever.

Paulo's first encounter with Mickey, and you know what he said-- "No! I don't like him!"

Toon Town is so cool. Everything looks like a cartoon--the cars, the buildings, even the surrounding hills.Paulo shooting the laser on the Buzz Lightyear ride.

CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

A Bug's World

Hahaha. That's a pretty good imitation, Andre!

Pixar Parade

This was literally a dream come true. Look who was coming...

...THE Lightning McQueen! This, by far, was the highlight of my trip.

This parade was awesome. We saw characters from Cars, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., AND we even saw...

Uncle Tyler! Or was it Uncle Joey? Anyway, funny eh?

And just when we thought it couldn't get any better...

Mater. Eee! Paulo was so happy.

This was the Toy Story ride. Mr. Potato Head was talking to us.

The trip was so amazing. Aside from the Pixar Parade, Hunter's favorite part was our visit to Tomorrow Land, where we saw a REAL humanoid robot, made by Honda, named ASIMO. It was pretty amazing. You really should check out this website: http://asimo.honda.com/ The "ASIMO TV" part is very impressive, too.

We also got to go on the Jungle ride, visit the Tiki Room, and see the Fantasmic show at the end with all the Disney Characters and fireworks. Andre, amazingly, slept through the whole thing. Paulo started to get scared from the loud noises, so Daddy took him to watch it from within a store. I was so excited to see all the characters I loved growing up.

This was quite possibly the most fun day we've ever had as a family. We still talk about how special it was. I love seeing the smile on Paulo's face as he recalls all the cool things we did that day. Such a grateful kid. Such a wonderful day.