California Dreamin...

So many of my childhood Disneyland Memories were trashed while on this trip - beginning with the submarine ride...

M enjoyed it immensely and could not get enough of Nemo... but I was still looking for that scantily clad mermaid that caused such an uproar back in the day...

Not sure with this one if they were enjoying Disney so much or they just wanted another picture...

probably the latter - and what's with my 7 year old flashing gang signs of unknown origin? Could somebody please remind her that she lives in Suburbia?  Good old suburbia... ahh, where everyone is almost as polite as the trash cans at Disney...

almost.

Couldn't resist one "Small World" photo...  even that has changed - the puppets look a little more real (read as "creepy")... but the song?  Pretty sure that is exactly the same.  Although the ducks quacking along in tune might have been a new addition.  but not one I highly approve of.

Oh wait, make that TWO "Small World" photos...  look, the boys were smiling, I think that means they liked it...

Wait, where's W?  Hey dude, why are you hanging your head over the edge of the boat? All these random strangers that got caught in my picture are going to think you're sea-sick... maybe we'd better save the Tea-Cups for another day!

 Proving that even ManOfTheHouse got into the Spirit! Adding his Tarzan yell to the treehouse ambience. (while I sulked in my childhood memory of the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse...)

My girls were awesome - for three days we walked past all those character signings - kids and their parents waiting in ridiculous lines to meet some potential creeper dressed in a costume... my girls? M asked me once if I could just photo-shop her into a bunch of pictures with all the characters.  Assured that I could (notice I didn't say WOULD) we walked past as I snapped a picture of characters with random other youngsters.

This one though - Pluto walked right up to us - so H is not just a random youngster :)

 oh, also not random youngsters? These girls got to play Musical Chairs with the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit...

H here was supposed to tell a joke when she got eliminated... she couldn't come up with one.

 M was one of the last two contestants - and since they added back in about 7 chairs they called it a tie...  meaning she didn't get to tell the joke she had in mind.

All of Disneyland should be glad because she was still dwelling on the $3 craps sign that she saw while driving through Vegas.

 The best part of her being one of the winners was the prize - They got to put away the chairs!  So proud of the big happy grin on my girl's face at this announcement - though I wish I'd gotten a picture of the monumental SCOWL on the other girl's face at the same moment...  hilarious!

Enough pictures for one day? Yeah - probably...  especially since this is the point of the trip where the bar came down on my camera during the Haunted Mansion ride and knocked the battery case open and knocked it to Manual...  which took me all day to realize so I got a bunch of over-exposed pictures...  blech - if you squint you might be able to see that the girls got to hang with Mater and that other Car...  yeah, yeah - you know, the star of the show... whatever - Mater is funnier :)

If you're sick of Disneyland come back in a few days - I'm sure that by then I will have moved on to pictures of the Air Show and Birthday celebrations.  At the rate I'm knocking these out you'll be hearing about my Spring Break until Thanksgiving! (and still not have spent as much time reading about it as I did in the line for Peter Pan...)

 

Hotel California... part one...

I spent some time going through the 500+ photos today - reducing them to the shots that I knew were winners... 

Eliminating about 59 of the "It's A Small World After All" pictures... even though I KNOW that's what everyone wanted to see... 

and I was left with 72.

Too many?

Yeah, I thought so too...

SO - you'll get them in small doses.

and maybe somewhere along the way I'll realize that you don't need to see EACH of the kids attempting to pull Excalibur from the Stone - just me.  Wait, I didn't do that did I?

I present to you - Day One.

Well, the last part of day one...  they frown on you taking pictures of your little girl in church who can barely sit still because she knows that we'll soon be leaving for Disneyland.

And pictures of the car trip?  Aside from the very blurred picture of a sign advertising "$3 Craps" in Las Vegas (which was BEYOND hilarious to a 7 year old) there just wasn't much to report.

First stop in California...

Okay Second stop... the first was in a small podunk town for gas and a potty break - but the "potty break" didn't happen thanks to the whiff we got of that bathroom. We have standards people.  And apparently really really strong bladders.

I present the Redondo Beach Pier...

and that's the Veggie Teen up close and personal with the local Pelican wildlife.

M knew to keep her distance, but really wanted to see that HUGE bird!

My kind of shop...

The sky was FILLED with cool kites - there was crazy wind - and this kite gave sweet M a little bit more reason to hold tight in the wind.

Awwww... You'd think that they liked each other... maybe this really IS the happiest place on earth?

The walk-ways all along had these cool fishy themed reliefs on them, M decided this was the only way she was getting to pet a dolphin. 

And then I realized that "petting the dolphin" actually meant "caressing the layers of Seagull droppings that are coating the ground"...

Ick - where's the hand sanitizer?

And thus we became familiar with beach bathrooms... better than Podunk town bathrooms...  a little.


Oh yeah - we went to Disneyland too... 

See :)

 Goal #1 of Disneyland - Use all of the different bathrooms within the park.

Yeah, didn't happen.

Goal #2 - Ride all the rides once.

Also, didn't happen.  Is there ever a week when all the rides are even OPEN?

Don't worry - I have a lot more "happy happy joy joy" pictures to share...  and maybe a few "snarky snarky boy boy" pictures... but those will have to wait - it was a VERY jam packed Spring Break and I'd like to milk the fun for all it's worth here at least... in person it went by WAY too quickly!


 

If you can't say nothin' nice... don't say nothin'...

Only it wasn't the "nice" that was giving me troubles.

well... maybe once.  But seriously - soccer coaches of 7 year old girls really should not be so competitive.

I was keeping a secret.  Now, at long last I can let the cat out of the bag...

not THAT secret!  Oh for crying out loud I'm already a mother of 5 wonderful kids - that can can stay in the bag.  Consider that bag knotted and tossed in the river.

Great, now there's going to be hate mail from PETA.

bring it on...  I do my part for animals by not owning any... trust me, it's for the best.

...

Oh, yeah - the secret...

*cue the music*

We're goin' to Disneyyyylaaand...

did you sing that too?

No?  Well get back up there and try again because you are obviously need a little pick me up.

As I write this my kids have no idea...  none.  We're telling them tomorrow.  Packing should be fun - I mean, isn't that the best part of the trip???

A little prayer of thanks that I did 97% of the laundry in the house on Wednesday - because today?  Today the washing machine broke.  Yep...  I think last time we planned to go to Disneyland our washer broke too... only it managed to break BEFORE we purchased non-refundable tickets and so we enjoyed a lovely vacation at home scrounging for the last clean clothes until the new washing machine ("the happiest washing machine on earth") could be delivered.  Almost as much fun... and without the fear of some creeper dressed as a huge over sized stuffed animal coming up behind us.

Oh wait... we're excited about this really... I mean, I've already packed my Grumpy t-shirt and I'm wearing my Grumpy sun visor even though it's 11:30 at night.  Wait, it's daylight savings tonight so let's just call it 12:30am... which makes wearing a sun visor totally acceptable.

I'll take lots of pictures... lots and lots and lots... otherwise all the effort that went into finding color coordinated shirts for my kids will have been wasted.  I'll take and share so many pictures that you'll think you were there with us.  You may even experience a little nausea after the tea-cups... I know I will.  Okay, I won't photograph that.

So many pictures... just none today.

(and if you NEED to get in touch with me for some reason, well...  first, it had better be uber stinkin' important if you're going to cut into my Mickey time - and second... oh, there's no second... just message me on twitter... or text me if you're lucky enough to be one of the 17.6 people who have my number...

and trust me, you don't want to know about that 6/10ths of a person who keeps calling... she's right up there with the soccer coach on my "people who are causing me to re-evaluate my 'the meek shall inherit the earth' belief"

don't bother robbing my house - I'm taking all the good stuff with me...  leaving behind the busted washing machine and a big attack dog who hasn't been fed in weeks.

oh crap - I already mentioned my dislike of animals...  you might believe the "hasn't been fed in weeks" before you believe the "dog" part... and you'd be right...

Instead I'm leaving a lot of clutter right inside the front door... because being sued by my trespassers sounds like a lot of fun - and unfortunately, not as far fetched as you'd think.