Stow Aways: September 2016

(side-note - I came back to my blog to find that I never posted this. Better late than never.)

Long-awaited September finally arrived. We didn't do any big traveling over the summer (except to Utah) because we were saving all our pennies for DISNEYLAND! I had the goal to work enough last school year to pay for a Disney trip. I think my earnings just about covered it. Sad to think that working pretty hard over a 9 month period only earned enough to pay for one vacation, but hey, I'll still take it.

I wanted so badly to get the kids back to Disneyland one more time before Grace graduates, and truthfully, it will be really hard to take her out of school once she hits high school, so 8th grade was kind of the last chance. (I refuse to go to Disney on summer or Christmas break and wait 3 hours to ride each ride.) Even in 8th grade, it still proved to be very difficult for her to miss school. She had to make up both classwork and homework and it took weeks to catch up. More on that later. Harriet's teacher was super adorable and gifted Harriet a homework-free trip! As a fellow mom, she totally knows how awful it is to take homework with you on vacation and how crazy it is to try to catch up. She values family time and she just wanted Harriet to have fun. I wish more teachers were like that. Harriet was pretty cute and sent her a postcard thanking her for not giving her homework in Disneyland. She has it hanging above her desk in the classroom.

We tried to be as frugal as we could about this Disney trip. Last time, we just bought the whole package, flew, and stayed at a Disney property. This time, David had enough Marriott points that we were able to stay just outside the Disney gate at a pretty sweet Disney-themed Marriott. We also drove to California, which was a pain, but also kind of fun. We knew we'd be hitting CarsLand for the first time, so we watched Cars at our hotel in Kingman, AZ and took in all the Route 66 nostalgia that we could along the way.

We were so pumped and excited to pull into LA on Labor Day! Kinda forgot that there would be massive Labor Day weekend holiday traffic coming back from Lake Mead and such, so... traffic. yeah. Welcome to LA right?

View from our balcony

The kids were SO excited - we had a bunk bed in our room. They fought over who would sleep in it. No one ended up sleeping on the bottom bunk. They alternated between the top and having their own queen bed.

I loved our awesome room with the little table booth in the corner and a pretty swanky bathroom with a huge walk-in shower and separate room with a tub.

Knowing the park would be insane on Labor Day, we didn't plan to do Disney that day, but just enjoy the water park at our hotel and settle in. We were able to see the castle fireworks that night from our hotel balcony. We had one very unfortunate thing happen that day. We had no idea how bad it was at the time. While we were enjoying the water park, just near the end of hanging out there, we plopped down on those big lounge chairs to dry off and warm up. Grace came on over and kneeled on her chair, which had the back propped all the way up. She leaned over the top to see how to put it down and in the process, flipped the keeper out, and the back came smashing down on her right hand which was caught in the middle. We all watched it happen. I couldn't believe she had been so silly to do that. She cried and cried about how much her hand hurt. We tried to brush it off and convince her that she wasn't hurt so bad. Eventually, the excitement of the trip and the lack of need to use her hand much, convinced us that it really wasn't hurt that bad. But, when she started doing homework and writing... we found out... it was hurt really bad. We waited until we got back to see a doctor and it actually took 3 months to get it diagnosed correctly. In the mean-time, she fell so far behind in everything. She couldn't write, or draw (art class), or play guitar much, or go to karate at all, or ride her brand new bike, without it throbbing in pain. We took her out of karate. I wrote out most of her school work. Between her hand and already being behind from the Disney week, we were up until midnight for absolute weeks getting her homework caught up. It was so exhausting. Finally in December, she saw a hand specialist who decided she had a severe sprain (possibly unseen break) in her thumb, threw a cast on it for a month and fixed it! Whew. Quite the Disney trip that kept on giving!

Nighty night - tomorrow is DISNEY!

Woke up to a beautiful California Day. The weather was absolutely perfect the whole time. Not too hot or too cold, no rain or wind. Just glorious warm sun. I think fall is the best time to do Disney.

First Family Photo in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle

Well, that was day one! Here are the rest of the days. I was so worried that after all that planning and expense and dealing with school, that this trip would fly by and we would hardly feel like we had been there. But, Disney has a way of sucking you in so that you feel like you live there, and it's totally normal to get up every morning and eat a giant baked good while standing in line for a crazy ride, and putting it on repeat. It felt like we were really there and present and that we escaped real life for a significant amount of time. We needed it so much. We hadn't had time as a whole family together, pretty much all year. David had been traveling like crazy for work, and the kids were pulled in so many directions. It was so perfect to be there together without any outside influences. We came, and we drank the Disney Kool-aid freely.

Okay, I took just hundreds of photos that I will put in a separate book for the trip, so I'll try to keep it down for the blog:

DAY 2: We started in Disneyland. We got there before they opened the ropes and just plowed our way in with the crowd. Strangely, Buzz Lightyear didn't have a line at all. The last time we came, that was the ride we had to keep getting fast passes for. They have seriously streamlined it though, and you can get right on, pretty much any time of day. We did it a bunch. Love that ride!

Thundermountain Railroad. This ride is one that I have vivid actual memories of riding with my dad when I was about 7 years old. Between that and just how much awesome fun it is, I get so excited every time I see it or ride it. The kids love it too.

We got to do the 3D Star Wars ride that was being built the last time we were here, but unfortunately, (Hyper) Space Mountain was closed for our entire visit this time! SO SO SAD.

I've decided I really don't like the 3D-sit-in-seats-in-front-of-a-screen rides. They make me way more motion sick than real rides.

Oh wow- SPLASH MOUNTAIN. The kids have been talking about this for 6 years since the last time we came! They had it on their list, and they hammered it hard. They would find times when the wait lines were short and just keep riding it over, and over, and over (usually when it was cool, so people didn't want to get wet.) I think one day, they rode it 6 or 8 times in 45 minutes.

I couldn't believe we got on a boat with only our family and no strangers in our photo. This was our first run. I commented that I would put it on our Christmas Card, kind of jokingly. But, the more I thought about it, the more I knew that this was what I wanted on our Christmas Card this year. Our family, just us, together, having pure fun. It has been so many years since I paid to have our family pictures taken professionally, but I kind of like paying for these kinds of pictures more. It was like $90 to buy everything from our 3 days in Disney, so I chalked it up to be my family photo budget for the year. That's a steal. Most people pay $250 for a sitting. haha...

Us, and some strangers in the boat - they can't all go on the Christmas card... but this was Harriet's turn to be in the front seat. She got brave enough to put her arms up. Sorry for blocking your face, David. We did this ride so many times that we started planning what we would do for the pic and trying to get our faces in certain places.

After spending the morning at Disneyland, we headed over to California Adventure for the afternoon.

We took my friend, Tiffany's, suggestion to eat at Flo's V8 Cafe. She did not disappoint! They served real food. Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, ribs, delicious shakes... It tasted so good to eat real food in the middle of an amusement park and not more chicken nuggets and fries.

Every so often, one of the famous cars would drive by, like Mater or Lightning or Mack. It felt like we were literally living inside the cartoon. I want to live in Radiator Springs forever. It could not have been more whimsical and adorable and life-like.

Luigi's

Life could be a dream, life could be a dream... shoo doop shoo boop...

Ah, Stanley...

Cute little farting tractor(s)...

Cozy at the Cone! Their gift shop had this super ugly orange sleep tee that says "I got cozy at the cone." I looked at it 100 times and finally decided I had to have it. Oh man, it's so ugly, but I love it, and now I fight Harriet for it. She likes to steal it.

MATER!

I've been "hearing" all the buzz about the cars ride for years (ever since we just missed it last time.) I was prepared to love it, but I was not prepared to LOVE IT. THIS IS MY FAVORITE RIDE. It makes me grin like I'm 7 years old. The kids still have soft spots for Splash Mountain, but I kinda think this is their favorite ride too. It is also everyone else on the planet's favorite ride, so you have to be crafty to get to ride it more than once. I think we accomplished getting on it about 4 or 5 times between fast passes and being those rude people who push little kids down at the gate and jump over moms with strollers and knock over people with cameras to RUN to get to this ride when the park opens. Okay - we didn't knock anyone over, or hurt any little kids, but once our kids knew where this was, the next day, there was no stopping them at the gate. In seconds, I couldn't see them anymore and they were off at a dead run, darting in between and under people in the crowd, to claim their place in line. David's job was to go straight to the fast pass line (which is as long as the ride line) to get tickets for more turns later. Eventually, we all found each other at Harriet and Grace's sweet spots in the ride line. Teamwork people.

The ride (and the whole town) is so well done, you could totally convince yourself that you're in the middle of the southwest desert with those rock formations and the real crescent moon hanging overhead.

So, our family's second favorite ride is probably Grizzly Rapids in California Adventure. Apparently, everyone likes to get soaked at Disneyland. I don't mind the water from Splash Mountain, but the Grizzly ride- you might as well jump in a pool. Once I ride that one, my underwear is dripping wet for the rest of the day and I freeze if the sun isn't out. This is also a ride that can be done multiple times in a row if you're willing to stake out the less optimal times of the day and be continually wet and cold, which my kids LOVE to be. Sometimes I don't know how I am related to them.

We did make it over to the Pier, for what is a charming spot, but contains the worst rides. I HATE that ferris wheel. I will never go on it again. I used to like California Screamin', and it was one of Grace's faves the last time we came. But, this time, it was just painful and sickening. We did it twice just to prove we were tough, but truthfully, we all wanted to go to the hospital when we were done.

Still, it is a beautiful place to be at night when it gets all lit up and the lights reflect in the water. We were lucky to be there on a night when they did the Colors of the World show. We've seen it before, so I thought I might get a little bored. Nope. Disney shows are so well done... It just blows me away. That show was unbelievable. The kids wanted to be in the front, so we got fast passes to sit next to the water. We ended up getting pretty wet and cold from all the spray, but thankfully, they have fire stuff to, so we warmed ourselves with the hot flames shooting at us.

Okay, full disclosure, I came back two years later to find this post unfinished. I'm not sure where I was going with it. Sadly... the finish will be what I remember from now what is nearly 3 years later. The kids have grown up so much since we went on this trip and the girls and I have already been back to California Adventure (last summer.) Just looking at that last picture of Harriet and Grace in front of the Mickey Ferris Wheel... makes me more than physically ill at how much they have changed. Harriet is now a couple inches taller than Grace. They are both teenagers. The innocence of this photo is just gone. And that hand injury that I mentioned at the top? It did not get fixed by that cast. Grace is still in pain. Since then, she has had it cast again, has worn multiple braces for endless months. She has had physical therapy and has done everything you can think of to get it to heal. We had an MRI taken last year, hoping that it would show something that could be fixed surgically, but they can't find anything to fix. She just had to excuse herself from a practice AP exam on Saturday because her hand hurt so much. The first day of this trip has definitely remained with us.

I digress... I suppose I should finish this post. It was the last really big family vacation we took where David could spend the whole time with us. (We've gone tons of places since, but he hasn't been with us the whole time and/or they were smaller trips.)

This cars ride is still our favorite ride in Cali Adventure. The kids probably call it a tie with Splash Mountain.

Each day as we entered the park, we had our picture taken (before we were soaked by some crazy ride!)

Grace and her Star Wars obsession... sadly, this time, she was not convinced that she was truly a Jedi, but she still had fun watching the show and building a new light saber.

Haha, I do remember this. It was so hot and sunny, we decided to take a cool quiet break on "It's a Small World" Harriet's face tells how bright it was. I don't know why she won't ever wear sunglasses.

The Pooh Corner near Splash Mountain is also a shady cool spot with a quiet ride for a nice break.

And, we saw our favorite - Tigger!

And Pooh!

This was our last day at DisneyLand. The girls wore their new shirts. I absolutely love Harriet's Minnie shirt. And Grace opted for an old school Mickey.

We went back to both parks to say goodbye. First stop, of course, CarsLand! And, Grace FINALLY got to meet Lightning. She's been obsessed with him since she was tiny. For just a minute, she was lost again in the movie and convinced that everything around her was real.

Love Pluto!

The line for a Lightning picture was way long, so we opted for some candids :)

And of course, went on this a few more times.

Haha - girls trying on hats in the emporium shop!

Oh, and Harriet and her bags/purses. She found this adorable and expensive backpack in the main Disney store at downtown Disney. She spent her own money on it and was so excited to have such a fancy backpack. She used it for school for a couple of days when she got back and then decided to keep it nice and quit taking it to school. At the time, I thought it was a good idea to not take it to school and keep it from getting ruined (it was so important to her), but the days when you want to carry a Minnie backpack are so short... I kinda wish she had just worn it out, gleefully using it.

Hanging on the monorail. I have such nostalgic memories of this when I was little.

In line for the original car ride - where you get your own license and get to drive in TomorrowLand!

Harriet in Sleeping Beauty's Castle:

Ah and Toon Town:

Harriet with the Dolphin topiaries in front of Small World. This girl loves dolphins so much!

Then.. we shut down the park at Splash Mountain. The kids rode it over and over and over. They would get off and run back to the entrance. At this point in the evening it was a little chilly, so there was no one in line. I forget how many times they rode it in a row, but maybe 8 or 9?

David and I got tired of getting wet, so we took a break on the Pooh ride while the girls kept going on Splash.

We knew they'd be starving from their Splash adventures so we bought them giant treats at the Pooh Corner Sweet Shop. They almost died that we bought them!

Then, one more run on Splash as a family.

Ah DisneyLand, you really are a magical place where you can truly forget reality and suspend time. I don't know how they pull it off, but it's a great feeling to be there with your kids.

We opted for a day less at Disney so that we could hit Universal Studios for the first time ever. We moved to a hotel in Hollywood so that we could wake up and get there quick.

The girls love Harry Potter and couldn't wait to get to Harry Potter World. It was really magical walking in. Very much like Disneyland. You can forget reality there.

The Hogwarts Castle ride broke down while we were on it, so we got to have a free turn and go on it again. That was cool.

By the time we got to Universal, the girls had spent most of their money at Disneyland. They weren't prepared to pay for how expensive the wands would be and were sad for a minute that they knew they couldn't afford one. They were super cute and didn't even ask. I wasn't worried because I had planned to buy them anyway, but I felt bad that they thought they wouldn't get one for a minute. Although, it did make it all the sweeter when David and I surprised them with the news that we would buy their wands for them. They totally freaked out and happily picked out some very cool wands. Grace got Snape's wand, and Harriet chose Hermione's.

They had so much fun going around Diagon Alley and trying their wands in all the interactive spots. It was definitely worth it to get them. What a fun thing!

Then, we ordered butter beers. I made the mistake of ordering FOUR. They were expensive, but I had no idea that each one was enough for our whole family. 4 of them was SO MUCH! Harriet took a few sips. Grace drank a bit more. I couldn't finish mine. So... David drank most of them. Poor dude.

Had to grab a pic of David and me at Hogwarts. We read the Harry Potter books out loud to each other as they were published. We are original fans! I even took Grace to one of the book release parties when she was a tiny baby. I drew a lightning bolt on her forehead so she would look like a baby Harry Potter when he was dropped off. haha

The train!

Okay, the rest of Universal paled in comparison to Harry Potter, but we still had some fun, especially at the Simpson's corner. Harriet of course, bought one of the giant donuts from the Kwik-E-Mart!

Homer and Marge themselves!

Love this - it's from the movie Despicable Me. It's "Miss Hattie's" home for girls. Hattie doesn't get to see her name on very much, so that's always fun.

The other cool ride in Universal is the Jurassic Park. Most of them are the movie theatre rides where you just sit in a seat and the rest is virtual on a screen. They make me sick. I much prefer a real ride outside.

Of course, we bought a chocolate frog on our way out. So fun! (It didn't jump though. Bummer.)

After a long day at Universal, we moved again, to Hermosa Beach for our last day. It was nice to relax and watch the girls play in the ocean after all the rides and walking for so many days.

I can't get over Grace's hair in the humidity.

My little beach babe! She is so in love with the ocean!

hmm, these somehow got out of order, but here's a library of splash mountain pictures (and a few more Disney.) We tried to get creative with poses after a while. haha