Disneyland 2014

The finale to wedding weekend was a trip to Disneyland! I've gone more times than one could count on a hand, but let me tell you, the magic is real. 

It was Matt and Valerie's wedding anniversary and they got celebration pins! 

Dumbo. My FAV-orite "no height restriction" ride. 

We did not shut the parks down. We are old(er), we love our sleep. We hoofed it back to our hotel (three city blocks ish away from the entrance) got checked in and moments after entering the room saw the fireworks going off through the balcony door. Matt put on the Frozen iTunes Radio channel and we had ourselves a fireworks show. It was perfect. 

We figured out a system for playing Pinochle in line! It was a great way to pass the time! People would walk by and say "What a great idea!" Let it be known it helps to have a skilled dealer. One person holds out two hands to be dealt cards into on behalf of themself and the dealer. The person leading the card holds their palm out with the card. Then whoever takes the trick takes the cards and stores them in their pocket. Take more than one deck. We did lose one. 

The animation academy is so neat! It's so fun to learn the techniques behind the characters. 

We learned to draw Olaf from the movie Frozen!

Another favorite "no height restriction" ride for us that is a must do is the Whinnie the Pooh ride. 

We had an afternoon cool off on Splash Mountain. 

These three left looking like they had rather large accidents. 

We got ourselves some "big ol' pickles."

We ended with the Magical World of Color. Please, if you go to California Adventures, do not miss this. It is worth an hour of waiting to get good seats. It is a high caliber show. 

We just had a great time. You'd think that at some point the magic might wear off. It doesn't. Each time there's something new to see, something I missed in times before, or something that I'm so fond of it tickles my heart!

Thanksgiving Break, Part II

Fantastic news, my blogpress app is back up and running which means soooo are my posts! Yay! Picking the Thankful break recap back up... I made Thanksgiving dinner for me, Luke, Aunt Audrie, Grandpa, Shan, and Weston. Cranberry sauce the night before.

Everything else the day of.

Luke mashed the potatoes and carved the turkey. Day 2 Disneyland sort of a late start as I kind of forgot the tickets the first time we left. Oops. I blame the turkey coma. Went straight to CA adventure and got World of Color tickets. Then hit up CA Screamin'.


Back to Disneyland where we signed up for our !Holliday Tour! And hit up toon town for pictures with Mickey.  Luke saw Donald.


As close as he's gonna get to Oregon for a bit. Then we went to meet up for our tour!!


We got to wear these stylin headphones that played Disney Christmas music between our guide talking.


We learned some main street trivia, an got to try the. Best. Pumpkin. Pie. Fudge. We were skeptical but man this stuff disappeared fast.


Soooo good! Then off to the Mansion where we got to go straight in. Because we were on a tour.


Then we took the train to Toon Town and sang Jingle Bells with our headsets. Yay. Then we went to Small World. Where we got to skip the line again. Woooot!



We had gone in when the sun was in the sky and when we came out it was dark and the whole small world castle was lit up. So magical!


Our tour then made its way to Toon Town where we got hot chocolate in a special mug and a Mickey Mouse Gingerbread.


Luke ate his very strategically.


Lastly, we were escorted to a special section of front row seats for the parade. Our tour guide read us a Walt Disney/Disneyland story. Then, we enjoyed our hot chocolate, gingerbread, and front row parade seats. My favorite part of the parade was the short legged snowmen. They waddled. They were funny.


Then we rushed right over to CA Adventure where we caught a showing of Disney's Wonderful World of Color. It was fabulous!


The next day Luke put up Aunt Audries Christmas lights. He's very particular about how they're folded.


I went with Aunt Audrie to pick out a Christmas tree and since Luke was the tallest he got angel duty.


Next Day: Disneyland Morning Magic, Early entrance.



The weather got to 80 degrees that day. It was gorgeous! The Morning Magic route was the way to go. There was only a 10 minute wait for Space Mountain and that because it took that long to get through the line.


I requested very strongly that we go on the Dumbo ride. It's one of my earliest faint Disneyland memories. You can tell Luke was thrilled.

Now mocking me.

Giving in to boredom.

Luke says this was his first time on the Peter Pan ride.

Remember that picture I posted of the family reading in line. Here's their digital counterpart.

One of our last adventures was a quick trip to the beach.

Where I took these so I could post them on my blog at the appropriate time. Better late than never.



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Thanksgiving Break, Part 1

Wow what a trip! The Friday school got out I turned dingbat and got noooone of my homework done. I was a vegetable, and my computer is being dumb. USB ports not working, Internet being sketch. I was not wanting to buy a new computer. Seemingly, my computers seem to average me about 3 years...you?
Anyway, I lounged around Aunt Audries taking afternoon naps and everything fabulous until Luke arrived at LAX the Monday before Thanksgiving. On Tuesday, was our first day of trip at Disneyland! (You're not getting all the pics because some will be our Christmas card.)



Tuesday was a cram day. We crammed in as many rides as possible. You know the cool exciting ones. Space mountain, Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain Railroad. When we'd done that we hit up shows. Bugs Life and Alladin though Aladdin experienced technical difficulties so we got bumped.



I creeped on this family that read the whole way through the Tower of Terror line. I would like to have a poster of them in my class.



Luke loves the Buzz Lightyear ride. Well actually Luke loves shooting and keeping score...same dif.



Take notice of the differences between our scores. Luke maxed out the display.



Wednesday we recovered and returned to vegging at Aunt Audries. Luke's Brother Jay came through "town" with a couple friends and we met them at Chipotle for lunch.





To be continued, I can no longer stall getting out of bed by blogging as I am officially late.
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