The Trip Down South...

We're back...

I don't think I had anything to worry about as far as how long we would be in the car driving down to Los Angeles. It took us eight hours to get there (damn that LA traffic, not to mention that the grapevine had been closed up until a half hour before we got there due to snow). I thought that we were going to be out of our minds on the way down when Bea asked "are we there yet" a half hour into the drive. But, I didn't really have much to worry about. The girls watched movies and slept, and the ride back was just over five hours and was quite a breeze.

So, what wasn't such a breeze? Well, remember how I recently lost my iPod (and then found it)? And then remember how I recently lost my camera (and didn't find it)? Well, if there ever was a case of things happening in 3's, then this was it. And it was my most valued possession...my precious engagement ring. It was lost for 3 days. I swore I had it on my hand while we were at Disneyland, and then on the drive home I discovered that I was not wearing it. I panicked. And then we were sure it was gone forever if I really did truly lose it at Disneyland. My brother looked through his photos and it appeared to be missing from one of the first rides. Then, my mom said to dump out my purse. It wasn't there. Upon returning home and cleaning out my suitcase, there it sat, all by itself near my makeup bag. If only I had cleaned out my suitcase that night, I could have been relieved a lot quicker. I snatched up that ring as soon as I spotted it and threw it back on my finger. So the third missing item is now found...and there shall be no more missing items. I've had my three, and that's final. No more.

The visit was more than a good time. I saw family that I hadn't seen in a while, and we took the girls to Disneyland, along with my brother and his wife, V. I think we might have called it wrong when we took the girls on to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride for their first ride. After that experience, one where you hear a child screaming and crying when the ride comes to a halt, was a first hand experience for me. Olivia wanted to ride with me and was so excited to sit in the car and pretend to steer, but things turned ugly real fast when explosions happened and things flashed, and oh, it was just so noisy. Every indoor ride after that was the same, even the Winnie the Pooh ride, which I had never been on before and deemed it surely had to be mellow, was not her cup of tea. And neither was It's A Small World. Bea did just a step above her, but didn't like a lot of the indoor rides either. I really wanted to take Bea on Splash Mountain, and she even saw the people coming down the huge, main drop, and she was just tall enough. She begged to go on. But, we did pass in the end. I think their favorites were the Dumbo ride and Nemo submarine, and they always like carousels. We also did the teacups, with me and Bea spinning super fast, and Josh and Olivia taking it easy. Bea loved it, and so did I. The big thing we wanted to do was see the princesses, and the only princess that they were most interested in seeing was Ariel. Unfortunately, after waiting a good half hour to forty-five minutes, they switched out the princesses. We were nearly ten people away from the entrance when we saw Ariel saunter off, and then it was just a disaster when they let us in to see Mulan, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. I just can't tell that story.

Family time was awesome, and we enjoyed seeing everyone and spending some time enjoying the holiday season, too....

The beautiful castle...the girls are in the bottom left corner. Yes, Olivia wore her princess dress to Disneyland:


Aunt V and Bea in the monkey cage (as were the rest of us) on the Casey Jr. train:


The girls kept themselves occupied while we stood in line:


She saw something cool and let the world know it:


With dad in line at Roger Rabbit (yet, another mistake on our part):


The best damn corndogs in the world are at Disneyland (who knew??) and can throw you into a tizzy:


Fortunately, we didn't need to make any stops here:


Before the Pooh ride...can you tell?


My bro, V, Josh and the girls waiting for the submarine to take them to find Nemo:


Todd and O on the carousel - our last ride:


And my favorite pic from the happiest place on earth (for most):



I have to include some family photos in here...so you have to believe me when I said I took close to 200 photos on our trip, and I'm just picking a few notables:

Four generations:


O kissing the newest member of the family, Tanner:


Bea was grumpy, so in order for her to oblige with a family photo I yelled "Oh MY GOSH...I SEE WALL-E OVER THERE!" Hence, the look on O's face as she tries to see where exactly Wall-e is, and Bea is so happy he is there, for just a second:


Mom and Dad really liked their present:


O lights a candle on the menorah for the first time:


The magnificent seven:


The Hannukah pinata was a new addition to the festivities this year, but was a hit and will continue for years to come:


She loved my aunt's holiday village, and continued to rearrange it every chance she got:


My brother is bound to post more photos (and he is a much better photographer than myself) sometime soon. If you're lucky, you might see some pretty funny ones of me...I tend to mess up a lot of photos with funny faces. He's at www.thalimer.com.

Now we're just getting ready for Christmas around here...