Whale Watching Field Trip

My kids go to the best school ever!  The school hosts a number of field trips every  year. All of them are fabulous!

The field trip protocol is this:  You sign up, pay the fee (which is the school group price plus a few dollars more and the extra goes to a playground supply fund), you transport your children to and from the field trip, and you chaperon your children too. They also encourage you to bring friends, especially friends who might be good recruits. There are no buses, no asking parents to volunteer as chaperons, it's just set up so that if your child attends the field trip, so do you. Easy as that!

Since I'm a stay-at-home mom, this field trip thing totally works for me. And, I get in on the fun! Gotta love that!

Yesterday, we went on a Whale Watching Excursion with the school. We went in May also. It was fun then, and this trip was fun too!

I brought recruitable friends! My friend Kristin and her two little girls came with us, in fact, she drove. I guess that means I went with her.  It was great to have our good friends along with us because the downside of these field trips is that each child is with their family and the families tend to stick together and not mingle much. I don't know very many of the students and families well. It was great to share this day with our awesome friends! The four girls really enjoyed their outing together. I think being with friends adds a lot of value to the experience. Libby's favorite Kindergarten friend went too. She had her family and they brought friends too.  Of course, Gracie knew everyone on the boat by name. She probably knew the full price passengers too, she's overly social like that.

The boat ride was great! We left from the dock right on time and returned promptly too. Nobody puked! I consider that a great success!

We saw seals or sea lions, I'm not sure which even though the captain announced what we were viewing and what the differences are. I still forgot.

We saw a very large pod of common dolphins. That's actually the name of that kind of dolphin, "common dolphin".  There were hundreds of them!  The captain again made announcements and described life as a dolphin. There was a mother and baby pair that swam close to the boat. So cute!  All of the dolphins were swimming and leaping in and out of the water, they were really neat to see!  Especially such a large group of them.

No whales were sighted. I am glad.  Sure, I like these whale watching trips, but I am secretly afraid of whales. They are huge! The boat we're in isn't huge. I'm terrified that the whales will bump the boat from the bottom and put all of the passengers out to sea. I'm pretty sure that I am very yummy.

We came upon another pod of dolphins and the captain slowed down the boat, he was very excited. Instead of his scripted announcement, his voice was exuberant. We saw Pacific White Sided Dolphins. The captain said it was a rare treat to see them.

After we docked, the kids were hungry and antsy. I'm not sure which was worse, but my friend and I decided to let them play on the beach before we fed them. That way, we can lure them off of the beach to eat, otherwise they'll want to play all day and the whining will be nonstop. It's a good trick, they'll leave playtime if you offer them food and they are hungry.

Once they were on the beach, they completely forgot about being hungry. They played for two hours! The same children who were freezing cold on the boat, they all wore two jackets each, and three of them wore winter hats, were now in swimsuits and dashing in and out of the waves. They built sandcastles, chased seagulls, looked for seashells and had a grand time.

The clouds were weird and strange and interesting and beautiful! There was a curved break in the clouds that looked like a tornado in the photos.

Finally, at 3pm they were ready for lunch. We walked down the end of the pier to Ruby's and we ate well. It was delicious! The kids ate plenty (except one kid). The portions were generous. My friend picked up the tab and the tip. She's an awesome friend! I'm keeping her!

We stopped in the beach bathroom before hitting the road for home. Gracie came out of the stall and said "Mom! Someone forgot their phone!" She was very concerned. We asked around a bit but nobody claimed it and then I looked and it had two missed calls in the last few minutes.  I called that number back and said "We just found this phone" and the lady on the other end was very excited! She said to stay at the bathroom and she'd be right back. I told her we would be right next to the bathroom on the playground. We waited a while and just when we were starting to wonder how far away this lady had gotten, she showed up. She had already driven away. She was very happy to get her phone back, and she recognized Gracie from the excursion! Didn't I tell you Gracie knows everyone? She said her daughter goes to the same school. Then she handed Gracie a dollar bill and said she wanted to show her appreciation by giving her a reward and that's all that she had. We thanked her kindly, but Gracie was rewarded plenty just by seeing this lost phone returned and the lady was obviously happy to have it back in her hands. Gracie also didn't know anything about rewards for finding lost things. The lady hopped back in her vehicle and off she went.

Gracie looked at the folded dollar in her hand, unfolded it and found that there were two $20 bills. What!!! Whoa!

Gracie's little friend was jealous that Gracie got cash and she didn't, so Gracie gave her one. I thought that was just fine since it was an accidental finding and no matter which one of us had gone in the stall where the phone was, we would have still done our best to return it.  Both of the girls understood that it was something very important to someone and it needed to be returned. They both have big hearts. So, sharing the reward was a good idea and I'm glad they thought of that on their own.  I don't know if either one of them realizes that $20 is more than $1. Their mommies are credit card swipers.

We ended up leaving Newport Beach just at the right time to be part of the five o'clock traffic on the 91. It was slow going and my friend was driving, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the visit.

Could the day have been better? No. Not possible. It was so great! A day with my girls, friends, dolphins, beautiful weather, good food, a good deed, and I didn't have the stress of driving in heavy traffic! It was amazing!

Marriage and Dating

My husband called me from work on Friday afternoon, after 5:00 when he should have been on his way home already.  

Fridays generally go like this: He is happy to finish his long week at school and he is home by 4:30pm -or- he is happy to finish his long week at school and he comes home at 8pm. If he doesn't rush out of there and head straight home then I know he went out to have a bite to eat and a beer with his teacher friends. More Fridays than not, he chooses to go out with his friends. I get jealous. I've had a long week too and I don't have the option of stopping on my way home for some grown up conversation in a grown up only restaurant where they serve grown up food and nobody throws it on the floor. 

Anyway, it was Friday again and he called. 

Husband, "Do you want to go out on a date tonight?"
Me, "No. Well, not with you. I will with someone else though."
Husband, "What? Why?"
Me, "Because I don't want to try to find a babysitter. I'll have to date someone else so you can watch the kids."
Husband, "oh, ok. Actually, the date isn't with me anyway. Lora and Mirna want you to go out with them after I get home."
Me, "Awesome!"

We've come to a point in our marriage where we can only date other people.  Now, what should I wear?

Was lots of fun! My friend drives a BMW and she put the top down. So nice on a hot Cali night! 

We tried to figure out a place to go, ended up choosing a winery restaurant in Old Town, parked and went to the place across the street from the one we chose. Talk about indecisive!

 It was great, we did a wine tasting, bought a bottle, ate dinner and sat on the patio listening to live music. 

 

Had a ton of fun. I really enjoyed it and it was nothing like my husband would have done, so I extra enjoyed it because I always go places that he likes and he never goes places that I like (for restaurants).

Mommy Meet Up

Almost 8 years ago, September 2005 to be precise, I went online to dig for information about pregnancy. I had just turned 40 and just found out a baby was on the way! Since my last baby was in another time and another place, I decided to see if I could read about prenatal tests and whatnot.

I found lots of information! Having babies in the digital age is fascinating! But the best thing I found was a forum. Real people discussing real pregnancies and real life.

And that's where I found my friends. My online mommy friends. Right there on the computer screen all those years ago! We went from the support group forum to our own forum to a facebook group. Over the years, we've really gotten to know one another. And we've learned a lot about each other's lives in various parts of the country. We "know" each other. It's weird, but I truly feel a bond with these women that I've never met. The friendships are genuine.

Thankfully, they all seem to feel the same way!

I've actually met quite a few of them in real life, but one at a time. They are all so nice and have such beautiful families. With this group of women, I have been excited each time I've met one of them and each meeting went very well. My kids have played with their kids. It's amazing that I found this great group of people!

Scattered as we are, there happens to be a fairly good size group of us in Southern California. Finally, we decided to all get together at once. Only a couple of the moms couldn't make it.

One of the moms offered up her house as the party place.  It was great! There were six of us that attended, and 16 kids! It was really nice to meet everyone and see these real people without a computer screen between us.

The kids all played together as if they knew each other all along.  They ranged in age from 10 years old to 1 year old. All of them looked like they were having fun and meeting new friends.

It was really fun. I'm so glad to call these mommies my friends! And now we are no longer online friends, we are real friends. That just warms my little heart!

Spider Cake

I am lucky to be able to say that I've got one of the best ladies God ever made as my friend. She is a gem!  I've known that but now I can prove it: She baked and brought over a chocolate cake in the shape of a spider!

Laughter is the best medicine and I sure did have a good hearty laugh over that cake. It was delicious too!

The recipe can be found on her blog, That Recipe.

Thanks for the laughs, Audrey! More than that, thanks for being such an awesome friend!

Friends with Big Warm Hearts

I have friends with great big wonderfully warm loving hearts. And.... then there's me. I've apparently got an ice cube beating in my chest. I'm not even upset by that, see how cold and harsh I am!

Recently, three of my friends have rescued dogs. As each one did this kind-hearted deed, I thought to myself, "No way would I have done that!" Kids, yes, I go all mama bear and am fiercely protective to all kids: mine, theirs, strangers... but dogs, no, they are not human children. My maternal instinct does not kick in for them.

We do have a pet dog and I do love her, but when it comes to other dogs I do not feel the same way. I am especially not warm-hearted when it comes to people rescuing dogs. Our dog has gotten away a few times, bolted out of the garage door when I got home with my arms full. Rather than chase her down while she's running 40 mph down the street, I just let her go while I take in my children, groceries and things and then I go back out and call her home. She enjoys a wee bit of freedom when she escapes, but only for a few minutes. On occasion, she is "rescued" by friendly neighbors just a block away, or less. Those are the times when she doesn't come back right away and I think, oh great, someone saved my stupid dog. ugh. It's the same routine, a few minutes pass and then we get a phone call from the Home Again people from which a code number was found on her tag. Yup, I'll go get her, where? Oh gee, that's just a few houses away and she's been gone for almost 5 whole minutes. Then I walk over, reclaim my lost and endangered dog from her rescuers who express all sorts of worry and distress on their part and we walk back home. These are not rescues, these are people who want to rescue but their big emotional hearts can't tell the difference between a dog who needs help and a dog who is just out for a joyful bolt in the sunshine. Rescue or kidnapping? You be the judge.

One of my husband's coworkers found a little dog and added it to her brood. She already owns three little dogs and after this lost dog wasn't claimed by anyone, she gave him a name and a personalized food dish. If that had been me, I would have not even noticed the little lost dog. And if I had, I certainly would have never entertained any thoughts of bringing it home and keeping it. No way! My ice cold heart wouldn't even have melted a little bit by just leaving the lost dog to fend for  himself in the big world. My friend, she would never think of leaving a lost little dog out on the street. He's a happy little mutt now!

Another friend found two black labs out wandering together in the street. So, she pulled over and put them in her mini-van and took them home. Her heart is big and loving and she just knew those dogs needed her help. She stuffed those big dogs in her van with her little children strapped into their carseats and took the dogs home. No freaking way would I put strange dogs, who incidentally, have big teeth, in my vehicle with my defenseless confined children. Me? Never. Ever. She called Animal Control and they came to her home and scanned the dogs for microchips, found the owners and all was well. Turned out that the dogs didn't eat her children and they were close to their home when she picked them up. Frosty ol' me says that's because they weren't lost and in need of rescue, they were just a short distance from home and probably would have returned home when the owner yelled for them. If I had seen them and felt any inclination to be of any help (let's face it, that feeling wouldn't have come over me anyway), I would have just called Animal Control and reported loose dogs. No way would I have risked life and limb to "save" them. She said she couldn't live with herself if they had gotten hurt. I say, they are dogs.

The other day, another friend of mine rescued a dog too. Once again, I totally wouldn't have done it. My thoughts, "Eh, dog in the street. He'll move."  My wonderful friend, "Oh no! A dog in the street! I'll save him!"  We were having coffee at a cute little coffee shop downtown and sat near the front door. From where I was, I couldn't see the street, but she could. A couple tied up their little dog to a chair on the patio and came in for coffee. Their little ankle-biter ran, knocking the chair over and my friend bolted out the door so fast I had no idea what happened. I heard the chair fall and could see it on it's side, all I could think was that someone fell over and proceeded to fall off the patio. Did that happen? See, I only think of helping people, not dogs. But even that thought did not prompt me to get off my tush and go be helpful in any way. I knew my friend was on the case, so there was no need for me to feign thoughtfulness. She ended up running after (or chasing?) the dog into the street and to catch him, she stepped on his leash. That act of kindness flattened her and she hurt her ankle. It looked like an Easter egg. But, she saved the dog from certain doom. I'm thinking, as fast as that little furball was going, he was not going to get hit by any cars. Plus,  his owners could have chased him down or hollared for him or something. At best, my effort to help in this instance would have been to stay in my chair with coffee in hand and just say out loud to the owners, "Hey, your dog ran off."  See, I'm not all icy inside.

No matter who I compare myself to, I am the cold one. I have ice running in my veins. I do not care about dogs on the loose unless they are about ready to attack me or my children. No way would I grab hold of a strange dog. They don't know that they need to be rescued. They don't know that they shouldn't bite. They might have ringworm or lice or who knows what kind of dog ickiness. I don't want that! My strong sense of caution overpowers any generosity, charity, friendliness or compassion. My friends, wonderfully loving people, they are all admirable women who have enormous hearts. I think they're all nuts.

Disneyland Day - First Trip this year!

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

We had such a fun day! I'm going to write about all of our Disneyland trips in as much detail as I can because they are very special days and I am not trying to flaunt and embellish, just trying to record great memories and reflect on our magical lucky days. Warning: this is going to be a long post!

Since we are beyond the diaper and nap stage of life now, I can pack lighter for days out.  I brought our ears, Libby's blankey, and a few snacks. Plus, I brought our Princess Encyclopedia. It's a big picture book of princesses and it has pretty pictures of each of them. It's a lot to lug around, but we keep it in the basket of the stroller so it really isn't a big deal. And, I kept a sharpie marker in my purse. We got the book at the Scholastic Book Fair last year and took it one other time. That time we got only one autograph, but it was Dr. Faciler from The Princess and the Frog, an unusual character so it was pretty cool!

I decided to ignore the electronic sign on Ball Ave that says (and probably always does) to turn left on Harbor Blvd for Theme Park Parking. I prefer the Mickey and Friends parking structure since it is a lot closer and takes less time to get to and from the vehicle to the park. Bad idea. The M&F structure had cones in front of it and the traffic was routed around to the Toy Story parking lots just off of Harbor Blvd. This took an hour! I should have obeyed the sign and saved myself 45 minutes at the very least.  Live and learn, this included parking. I don't know why I can never manage to get in there. I have parked in there just enough times to know it's where I'd prefer to park. Oh well, we parked in the Woody lot and rode the bus to the park. We didn't get a blue Toy Story bus though, they tossed in an extra bus since it was a busy day and we ended up on that one. It was fine, plenty of room and easy enough to board and hop off with the kids, bag and stroller, but it wasn't blue with Toy Story characters painted on it. So, the bus got a big "awww" from the kids, but they were happy to hop on instead of wait for a blue bus; guess it wasn't that big of a deal after all.

First stop: Ticket booth. Tickets are available online which would save time, but I decided to buy our passes at the park for two reasons: 1. We were going on a SoCal Select Blockout day and buying online would have blocked us out that day, but buying tickets at the gate you can get in that day and buy the same pass that would have blocked you out but you don't have to buy a blockout ticket ($70 each) on that day. So, buying at the gate you can go any day you want to and still get the SoCal Select pass and get in the park too.  2. It's more exciting and fun this way!

We waited in line for 15 - 20 minutes, it probably would have taken me longer to navigate the website and print out my e-ticket if I had done it at home. Time saved = none. We bought three SoCal Select Annual Passes and a parking pass. Since I already paid $15 to park, that price was refunded to me. Walt sure does charge a premium to visit his park, but we will make the most of it!

We entered Disneyland first (as opposed to California Adventure) and since our passes were brand spanking new, we had to get our photos taken. The photos are no longer on the pass, but on the computer. When the gate keeper scans your pass, your photo pops up on his screen.  There were lots of photopass photographers right there in the entryway, but they were in training, so it was actually difficult to get anyone to take our pictures even though it looked like a swarm of Disney photographers were ready. They weren't. We got it done though, and had a group photo taken in front of the Mickey Mouse flowers too.

We entered Main Street and were struck by the magical "awe" that is Disneyland! Being there in person is amazing! It was all decorated for the Christmas Holidays! So pretty!  Mickey and Minnie were both on Main Street doing "meet and greet".  The girls wanted to see Minnie and I wanted to see Mickey, but I was persuaded by their big eyes and happy smiles so we visited Minnie Mouse.  The characters don't always stay long and you are never guaranteed that you can see one or another, and the girls really seem to understand the hit and miss way of the Main Street characters. It's been a whole year since there were here and they have amazing memories for being such young things.

Minnie was great!  I had Gracie  hand her the book and I opened it to the front cover. This is the moment where I notice that Gracie had written her name on the front cover as well. That's fine, but the book should be for both of them, so after Minnie signed it I had Libby sign her name there as well. Minnie even wrote "To Gracie"!

We went up Main Street and the wonderful sugary smells were strong today. I love the way Disneyland smells! It's one of my favorite things about the parks. Can  you say that about Six Flags? Nope!

Our first stop was "the hub" to admire the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey. Gracie and Libby know him as "Mickey's Daddy" and they like to stop and see the statue and see what color flowers are planted around him. The flowers are different at different times of the year, always fun to see them.

Onward to the castle!  Passing under the castle archway is a thrill! First we stopped in the handicap accessible room which is a very nice little room filled with royal trinkets. It's a small little space with a video playing of the castle walk-through that goes over the castle which is mostly stairs. But of course, it is done up Disney style and it's very beautiful. Then we went into the Sleeping Beauty walk-through up over the castle arch and down the other side. As expected, Libby was brave as long as she held my hand and Gracie was afraid of the section where Malificent's shadow appears and her evil laughter comes out of the speaker. We watched Sleeping Beauty's dress turn from blue to pink and back again before we left. We left when it was pink, of course.

The aptly named by my daughter, "Mary Poppins Band" was playing in front of the Bibbidti Boppity Boo shop and we listened for a bit. The next song they played was from Beauty and the Beast, which Libby recognized right away. Since she was dressed as Belle, she caught the reference and beamed! She was thrilled that they played a song for her! Along came Mary and Bert, they were walking with a little girl who was wearing a Mary Poppins dress and she was just adorable. The band played a show tune from that movie for them. They didn't perform but they did dance with the children who were there and Gracie asked Mary to sign her book. We didn't get a signature from Bert, maybe next time.

Next Gracie tried to pull the sword from the stone and become the ruler of Disneyland. She tried her best, but that sword wouldn't budge from the anvil. I recently read somewhere that there is an ipad app that will unlock the sword and  you can pull it up from the stone, but not completely out and go running off with it. I do not have an iphone so I don't know if this is true, but it's always worth a try!

Finally, we can make our way to the restroom! That's my only complaint about Disneyland: I wish there were bathrooms as you enter the center of the resort, before you go into the gate and enter Disneyland or California Adventure. After a long car ride and then the shuttle to the park, a restroom would be handy dandy before the excitement of entering Disneyland! There are two bathrooms right as you enter Main Street, but who wants to stop right when you first enter the magical land of enchantment? My favorite bathroom, "the hidden bathroom" on the left side of the castle was gone! It was behind a construction wall, looks like they are improving that area so we went to the right and used the Queen of Hearts restroom.

The Princess line-up has been moved to the stage area where the villians have their meet-and-greet in October. Hmmm, are they improving the Princess Fantasy Faire? That line is always long and it's a hard one to stand in without much for distracting entertainment. Hopefully, they are at least improving the queue! We wanted to visit princesses of course, so we hopped in line to see them. One nice thing about having them in this new location is that the kids can see the princesses visiting with everyone while waiting your turn. More fun while you wait. The line wasn't extremely long, but plenty long enough. Ready to greet us were Ariel, Cinderella and Tiana. We found the right pages in our princess book for them to sign autographs. About halfway there, the princesses all left the stage and there was a bit of a break in the action. Two new princesses came to replace the three that left. We met Jasmine and Belle. Not sure why the third space wasn't filled, but the girls were happy to meet two of them anyway. We were able to get them to sign their pages in the book. This book is going to be fun!

Small World had an unbelievably long line, so we decided to skip that and come to it another day. We were all too excited to do anything that had a line that long! Right across from Small World was Merida! The new movie "Brave" just might end up under our Christmas tree this year. We saw the movie in June at the theater with Fenna as one of the last things we did together. It's no surprise that the girls were super excited to meet the princess Merida. She didn't have a page in our book since we bought it before her movie came out, but she signed a spot on the back page. The page has each princess with her prince and she commented that she doesn't have a prince, but she'd sign there at the top anyway. I think we should get a Brave storybook and have her sign it. We could start a collection of books if we keep going back! Why not! Merida was magical! She took her time with the girls and gave them the special attention that one can only hope for. I was wishing that the weather was a bit warmer because she was wearing her cloak over her dress and I was dying to see that costume! Maybe next time.

I love being able to say that! "Next time!"

While we were in line to visit Merida, we decided to call the Grandmas to tell them Thank you and let them know we were having a fun day at Disneyland. We got to talk to Great Grandma and we told her that we were there and having fun. It was hard to hear anything with all of the noise surrounding us, but we said our Thanks into the phone and the little girls had a lot of excitement in their voices, so I think that worked out well.

As soon as we hung up, I got a text from my friend. When I talked to her the day before, I told her about our exciting gift of passes and that I was planning to bring the girls this weekend. Their family also has passes, but one step up from the passes we have which allows them to go on Sundays. Her text message said she was at California Adventure and wondered if we made it to Disneyland today or not. I replied and we decided to try to meet up in front of the Ariel ride, which is a long way from where we were presently.

Secretly, I did not want to try to plan to meet up with anyone on our first day back. I knew I would be too excited and I didn't want to be watching the time and trying to steer the girls toward a designated meeting spot, and keeping all of this on the back of my mind on our first day back. I just wanted to be sucked up in the Disney excitement and forget the rest of the world. Which is pretty much what happened! But since this was not really planned and there was no pressure to actually meet up, we were just going to try to find each other but if we didn't then we would just laugh about it later, there wasn't any of that planning or pressure that I was avoiding. Actually, since we were on opposite ends of the Disneyland Resort, it was going to be hard to time it right anyway. Luckily, I have great friends and there was no real pressure to make this happen. We can plan to do a Disney day another time together. My friend was just saying that she was thinking of us and happy for us, and for that I only felt more loved than I already felt  that day. Magic! 

After we visited with Merida, we boarded the train which goes all the way around Disneyland with several stops in between. The train took us through the facade of The Small World and on to Tomorrow Land, then Main Street. We got off at Main Street.

While on Main Street we saw the Disneyland Fire Fighters play a couple of songs and then we went to the entry where the Mickey Mouse flowers are. What! Princesses! There was Snow White, Ariel and Cinderella! We were able to meet with two of them, but then the lines grew way too long. They must have just come out when we did because we didn't wait long at all to see Ariel and Snow White. Gracie was really happy to get more autographs in her book.

When we entered California Adventure, I handed over our passes to the gate keeper and she asked, "did you just buy these today?" For a moment, I thought we weren't going to be able to get in since it was a blocked out day for those passes, and now we were in between parks!  Maybe you can only get in once and our day was done! oh no! I should have stayed in Disneyland! I told her "Yes, today." And she said, "Have fun!" and let us through. Whew! I told the girls I really want to ride the Ariel ride before we go to Cars Land. They were dying to see Cars Land! But they can't say no to Ariel, and it's not far from the entrance.

But wait! A street show! Mickey Mouse and maybe it's the Newsies? Whoever they were, it was a great show. We stopped to watch them sing and dance. It was a back-in-time sort of performance and Mickey Mouse was heading to California to build Disneyland with just a suitcase and a dream. Very cute!

Onward. Where were we going? Oh yes, the Ariel ride. The girls' favorite!

Guess who we saw in front of the Ariel ride? The girls' best friends! It was awesome that worked out so well! We couldn't have planned it if we tried. The tiny amount of planning that went into meeting up was insignificant to the amount of planning it should have taken for this to actually happen. Funny how things work out. They told me they actually hadn't planned on being at Disneyland in the afternoon, they wanted to come in the morning and leave by 1pm so their girls would nap on the way home, but they changed their plans last minute and decided to spend the afternoon and evening at Disneyland instead of the morning. Since they knew we might be there, they took a shot in the dark and sent a text wondering if we were there. Actually finding one another was amazing too, it was a very busy day in the park. As soon as we approached the Ariel ride, they did too! Timing was great!

We rode the Ariel ride all together. There wasn't a line at all, we walked right on! How exciting!

When we came out of the ride, Phineas and Ferb were singing and dancing right in front of us! Gracie, Jillian and Mallory danced with the Fireside Girls and Libby watched. She was wearing down.

After that, as promised, we went to Cars Land. Our friends wanted to go there too, so we all went together. It was much more fun to be together! Cars Land is amazing! It looks and feels like you are walking in the movie, right there in Radiator Springs. We loved it!  It was crowded though and lines were long. The lines for the rides were way too long. One ride had a 120 minute wait!

Libby was getting tired and hungry at this point. Gracie didn't care if she was hungry, she was too excited. We decided to ride one ride, after all, we were there! We chose the ride with the short line, only 35 minute wait time and hopped in line. Gracie was through the roof excited! This kid knew the entire dialog of the movie when she was still in diapers. However, Libby found her melting point. Gracie rode Luigi's Tires with our friends and I took Libby for a stroll. 

Gracie had such a great time on the ride. It was like bumper cars. Libby enjoyed the stroll. Libby and I wandered all around Cars Land. We both loved the canyon scenery. So beautiful! Even though it is just a facade, it looked so real!

We also saw Mater, Lightning McQueen and DJ.  DJ did a little dance show with the waitresses from Flo's V8 Cafe. Gracie and our friends were off of the ride at this point and we found them easily. Time to eat! The kids were starving. I brought little snacks, but nothing with sustenance. We walked over to the Food Court near Paradise Pier.

Libby wanted a $12 bowl of macaroni and cheese from Flo's V8 Cafe. Luckily, I talked her into a $6 Asian kids meal instead. Gracie wanted an Asian bowl too. I got that for both of them, but they didn't eat it. It was too spicy and had rice instead of noodles. Aaah, well, we tried!  I had a burrito from the Mexican counter. It was delicious! Gracie ate half of it and I ate part of her Asian bowl. Libby nibbled at things and the kids all talked and chattered away. It was so much fun to sit and eat with our friends in the middle of California Adventure!

Something horribly embarrassing, but really funny happened while we were eating. I was having a conversation with Brian (J&M's daddy) and eating at the same time. Not especially polite, but I had to shovel it in to keep up with the kids and actually get something to eat too.  I was replying to him and a surprise loud burp came out of me! Sneak Attack! Oh it was a big one! We laughed so hard, I couldn't believe it! This is what friends are for, to laugh at and with us. 

I decided our day was going to have to be over. I wanted to stay all evening and into the night, but I didn't think the kids were going to be able to last that long (well, one of 'em anyway).

The night show I really wanted to see is Fantasmic. I've never seen it! It was at 9pm, and probably lasts a half an hour or so, then there would be the crowd of people leaving at the same time; I'm sure it would be awfully late by the time we got home if we stay to watch it. They only have that show on weekends though, so I was hoping to see it today. Since we were all pretty tired and Libby didn't eat well, I gave up the idea. It didn't start for another three hours! We had enough fun for one day already. When the girls are several years older we can come back to Disneyland and see all the night shows. Our friends were done for the day too.

Since we were deep inside the California Adventure park, we had to wander through other areas to exit. The shortest route was through Bugs Land. Such a cute little place! The kids had all kinds of fun just walking through there. We decided to ride 'Heimlich's Chew Chew Train". It is a cute little train ride on the back of a caterpillar who eats and burps his way around the track. Brian called me Heimlich after this. Too funny!

We made our way toward the entrance but before leaving, we stopped to enjoy the fountain and the pretty Christmas tree. We took several pictures together and separately. It was so much fun! We were all very happy that we spent the last part of our day with our good friends.  This was where we parted and went our separate ways to our vehicles. They parked in the Mickey & Friends structure. How did they do that? We were at Disneyland before they were and we couldn't get in there! Someday, I'll have to figure out the trick to getting into the parking structure.

When we boarded the bus (we got the plain white one again), it was after 8pm. The day went so fast! We arrived at 11am, got in the Disneyland gate a little after noon. We put in a long day, but there was just no way we could put in three more hours to see the Fantasmic show. My legs were tired! Gracie had a blister too and Libby wasn't going to make it much longer.

We left the parking lot at 8:30 and Libby was fast asleep at 8:34. I'm surprised she lasted that long! I thought Gracie would sleep too, but she was too busy talking and reflecting on her day. She chattered all the way home. I was glad she did because she kept me awake and alert too. We put in a long day! A long, magical, wonderful day!