Disneyland/So-Cal Trip

For a long time now we've wanted to go visit my brother's family and our friends the Dabos in southern California. We decided to actually do it this month. As long as we were going, we decided to hit Disneyland.

Tyler had bad memories of Disneyland and was not excited to go. I had great memories and couldn't wait.

We stayed at one of the Disney hotels since we were only going for one day. We wanted it to be convenient and we wanted to get in early during the "Magic Morning" hour.


The morning did not start out magically. I was on a mission to get out of our room by 8:00 to give us plenty of time to line up at the gate before 9:00. Eight o'clock came and went with Tyler working on his computer and Max and Bennett whining and crying. No one was mobilizing and I was very close to leaving those deadbeats in the room and just taking Charlie. I had to become Bobby Knight but I eventually got us out of there. We made it to the Disneyland gates just in time and I was able to chill out a bit. (I used to think I was a laid back person. I am not.)

Splash Mountain

It was a great day to be there--the weather was warm and gorgeous and the lines were short. I was still a little overwhelmed by the crowd but I have issues. Charlie rode everything and said "the mountains" (Space, Splash, and Thunder) were his favorite.


Max is much less daring and preferred the little rides with Bennett. He got worn out and zonked out in the stroller for the latter part of the afternoon.

My sister-in-law and her kids have season passes, so they met us for the second half of the day.


We hit it hard all day and were exhausted by the time the park closed at 8:00. I think Tyler and my views of Disneyland met in the middle--we both came away thinking it was fun but not the end all be all. We'll go back, but probably not for two or three years. Is that blasphemy?

We drove down to Temecula that night and stayed at Rex's house. He greeted me in this shirt again:


Some things never get old. Sigh. We drove to the beach in Coronado and I ate a big bag of Doritos on the way. (Take that, Kool-Aid Guy!!!) The beach was absolutely balmy and beautiful. It was hard to believe it was January.




We wrapped up the evening with a chaotic visit to La Salsa (six kids ages six and under) and then a serious strategy session about how I can get myself on Wipeout.

A girl can dream.

We spent a fun day Saturday visiting our friends the Dabos, during which I failed to take a single picture. We drove home Saturday night--at that point Goldfinger was probably not fit for human habitation but we pressed on. The kids slept a good portion of the way and we had some really hot, salty McDonald's fries so I would call the ride a success.