Autopia

I don't know how I could have possibly forgotten about the terrifying experience that was Autopia, but I did. Lil' Miss Coconut & Bug got to the driving in the little gas cars on rails. Seems harmless, I know. What a sad, sad misconception! I don't really know how I even managed to take pictures to tell you the truth. Bug drove Daddy & Lil' C drove me, though neither one could reach the gas pedal. We were in front with the boys behind us, but we kept stalling out & they kept running into us (which was totally not allowed!...Hello??), nearly causing whiplash. And you would think that those little rails would keep us somewhat on track. HA, ha ha! Ha ha! I was nearly thrown from the car on more than one occasion! The children however, enjoyed it immensely. It was an utterly terrifying glimpse and preview of what to expect in a mere eight years. Good Lord, help us all!

Disneyland Pix

Disneyland...the Saga continues

The sun was already starting to set by the time we made it over to Disneyland proper, so we didn't stop to get the professional pic in front of the Mickey flower display. However, I really wanted one of us in front of it, so Auntie C. took a pic for us. It would have been good to get one of just our kiddos in front of it, because there was this picture of my mom (Nana), Auntie C. & Uncle M in front of the Mickey flowers back in the day. It was in a picture cube that sat on my grandparents TV. It was a good pic.

Now, I'm not really sure why we made this decision, but instead of going to walkway in front of Cinderella's Castle to try to get autographs and pix with the princesses, we went to Buzz Lightyear's ride first. Great ride, kids had a good time...even Boo Boo Bear! Then Lil' Coconut saw this space ship ride that she really wanted to ride. I volunteered to ride so that Daddy didn't have to take Boo Boo out of the carrier. God Bless Daddy for carrying around our babies in that silly carrier. I hate it, and love Daddy all the much more for it. All I can say about that ride is, I've rode it, so next time someone else gets to. So, by the time we made it to the front of Cinderella's Castle, the prinesses had already left. Boo. Boo-hoo. Boo-hoo-hoo! That was slightly traumatic.

By this time, Auntie C. had pretty much reached the end of her walking tolerance. And there were all these little people screaming for food. It is not so easy to find affordable food in a packed amusement park after dark with a party of 7. Eventually we found food, ate, and then sent Auntie C., Mary Moo Cow, and Boo Boo Bear back off to the hotel.

Now for me, there are certain rides that are an absolute necessity on a trip to Disney. We'd already ridden the Tower of Terror, and right around the corner from our dinner dining experience was....Pirates of the Caribbean! Always good, but now they've updated to include scenes and characters from all 3 movies. None of the pictures turned out, but they have these new Jack Sparrow figures that are so life-like, I was sure at least one of them was real! For some reason, this ride scared Lil' C. She was fine on every other ride, so I'm not real sure what the deal was. Then, it was my turn to be very, very disappointed. My most favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion was closed! :( Oh, so very sad! I took a few pictures of the outside, and then got dragged on. Next disappointment came when it was just too darn cold to ride Splash Mountain. The kids tried their darnedest to let them go, but we figured hypothermia would not be a good memory. Sucks to be the adult sometimes.

We rode several other rides...had to skip a few rides because they closed for the fireworks display (although they weren't heartbreaker rides), and moved onto the biggies: The Matterhorn & Space Mountain! The kids loved the Matterhorn, and I think Daddy did too. I LIKED the Matterhorn, but think if I was any older my body would not have been able to tolerate it. We watched most of the fireworks (Daddy REALLY loves fireworks. I only shared a few of the hundreds of pictures he took of them. I'm kidding, there were really only about a hundred.) & rode the Finding Nemo ride (which nearly did me in due to my claustrophobia and motion sickness combined), and finished with Space Mountain. Everybody loved this one. It's a classic. Then it was time to go. :( We closed the place down. Bug & Lil' C were so excited to be able to stay up till midnight. Mommy & Daddy were so excited to ride all the big kid rides with our big kids. Auntie C., Mary Moo Cow & Boo Boo were excited to be sound asleep in their nice warm beds.

Stay tuned for the last installment : The Trip Home! I know you're all hanging on to your seats with deathlike grip waiting for each installment. I know you are. And if you're not...please don't tell me.

Disney's California Adventure Pix

"You've just won the Super Bowl..."

"...Now what are you going to do??" the sideline reporter would ask. "I'm going to Disneyland!" some big, sweaty football player would yell back. Does anyone remember those commercials? Where have all the good commercials gone? Well, we didn't win the Super Bowl, but because we got to take our kiddos to Disneyland, I feel like we did.

Saturday morning (the one following the trip to Hollywood...I can't remember what day it was!) we drove to LAX and picked up Auntie C. who flew down from Oakland to go to Disneyland with us. The kids were super excited to see her! Did you know that Disneyland isn't just Disneyland anymore? Apparently they needed to expand like their friends in Florida and added a 2nd park called California Adventures and a Downtown Disney. We skipped Downtown Disney, although there was a Rainforest Cafe there (I could almost hear that chocolatey raspberry cake thingy calling my name), but we couldn't skip California Adventures because 1/2 the stuff we wanted to see was there. If you've been to a theme park recently, you know how ridiculously expensive it is to get in. Now imagine paying for 2 theme parks. Thank you Auntie C. for helping out. It was totally worth it though, because Pinky Lee got to see all her Playhouse Disney friends from TV and absolutely loved it!

First we went to the store (???) so I could get the kids Mickey ears. Who knew they had so darn many choices these days. Although I don't seem to have a picture of him, Boo Boo Bear was the only one who ended up with the regular old-fashioned Mickey ears. He's not so big on hats. Then the High School Musical 3 performance started right outside the store, which is what Lil' C really wanted to see. She loved it. Auntie C let her use her camera & we have about 50 shots of the show. I've narrowed it down for your viewing pleasure. Daddy and the big kids rode Soarin' over California which they thought was cool. It's one of those "virtual" rides that make me very sick. Playhouse Disney was next. Oh, Pinks had SO much fun! She was dancing & jumping & singing! The 15 minutes we spent in there was worth the entire enormous price tag. The kids got to meet, get autographs from & have their pictures taken with Minnie Mouse, Stitch, Frozone & Mrs. Incredible. We also lost, then found Daddy & Boo Boo, and rode the Monster's Inc. ride. (Daddy claims to be right where I told him to be...)

Do you see the picture of the Hollywood Tower of Terror? Do you know what happens on that ride? It's sort of like a big elevator with seats & no front doors so you can look out. Then they take you up & let you free fall over and over again while sometimes opening doors in the exterior of the building to let you see how frighteningly high you are above the park before plunging you back down into total darkness at breakneck speed. It's so totally cool!!! It's on my list of Top 5 Rides Ever! The best part??? Bug & Lil' Coconut rode this crazy ride & liked it!! Hello, they ARE my kids! Crazy little thrill seekers.

We had already spent a good portion of the day at California Adventures & seen and done all the necessary things, so it was time to move over to Disneyland proper. Stay tuned for the magic. I promise to get to it sooner than I did this post.

Haircuts

Bug & Lil' C get haircuts

We've been trying to grow Lil' Coconut's hair out so we don't have to go through the drama of trying to put an ear length bob into a bun for cheerleading competition this year. The problem is, as it gets longer, these curls on the underside of her hair keep popping up. (Poor girl got my hair, too!) I wasn't really sure what to do with it, so I took her to the salon with me. She was very good & sat very still while they cut and blow dried her hair. It looks very nice, so I hope it works.

Bug also needed a haircut. I wanted to try something a little different. So cool! He loves it, his friends love it. Pretty much everybody we've seen thinks it looks cool. So I guess we did good with haircuts this time!

Big Boy

Big Boy...Proud Mama

So this post is a little late, but back on February 20th (okay a lot late) we were at McDonald's after storytime. Every Friday we go to the library for storytime, and sometimes a group of us take the kids to play & eat at McDonald's afterward. Well, on this day, nobody from story time came with us, but Daddy & some of our other friends came and ate lunch with us. They all had to go back to work after eating, so I took Pinky Lee & Boo Boo Bear outside to play by myself. Wouldn't you know that on that day, of all days, Boo Boo Bear decided to crawl over to the play place and up the stairs into the tunnels ALL BY HIMSELF!!! We don't have any stairs at our house, but he just kept working until he made it! He was so proud of himself & so was I! What a big boy! He loved crawling around in the tunnels. I hope he does it again next time.

Then the next day, Daddy was trying to make him walk, and he took 2 steps all by himself!! YEA! Daddy always seems to miss the first steps of walking so he was really excited to see that. Unfortunately, since that day, he has steadfastly refused to stand or walk on his own. You try to stand him up and make him walk, and his little legs just turn to jello. So stubborn. Wonder where he gets that?