disneyland 2015

i suppose if i have to be back at work today, i may as well post a blog about my favorite place to go...

disneyland!

usually we go as a family every 3 years, which should have put us at going in 2013 and then in 2016, but somewhere since our last trip we just didn't make it down on our usual time schedule.  with us all being not small children anymore (or in some people's case, getting married) my dad has been saying this would likely be the last "big" trip to disneyland with all of us.  i guess we'll see if we can twist his arm in 3-5 years ;)

anyways, we packed 7 of us in the van and drove down the sunday after christmas.  when we were leaving the house, google maps said it should take us 6.5 hours to get there.  clearly, everybody and their dog wanted to ensure that didn't happen.  we left at 2:30, and made it to the hotel about 9 hours later.  ugh.  we crashed in to our beds and were prepared for the early alarms the next day.

6:45 hit, and we rolled out to get ready.  by 7:20 or so, we started the walk to california adventure, getting to the gate in time for the park to open at 8.  dad went and got tower of terror fast passes while the rest of us headed to the back of the park for toy story mania.  i started off losing to aileen.  but i turned that around, as you can see.

holly, markham, dad & josh jumped on to california screamin' then we got on to toy story.  after that, we went to radiator springs racers, where we learned the fateful mistake of not getting passes.  the line started at a 90 minute wait, but we got in the line right around 9, and got off the ride around 11:30.  the plan was to hit the aladdin show at 11:10, but it is safe to say that didn't happen.

folks, if you want to stay sane... GET FAST PASSES or you'll be stuck listening to these lovely songs the entire time

roly poly was a constant that was sung the rest of the trip.  and lets be real...
it still gets sung.
there was a lot of back and forth across the park, since they wouldn't accept the tower of terror fast passes at this point, so they waited in standby while mom, aileen & i did some character hunting.  the incredibles left, so we went to where i knew toy story characters were, and buzz lightyear was leaving once we got there (here he is kissing my hand as he went by and jessie showed up)
so we jammed back over to the hollywood backlot for the incredibles, got that picture, then went BACK to the pier, got a picture with woody as he was leaving and then one with my man, buzz.
there was a lot of wandering around at that point as we now waited for the aladdin show at 5, so we went on mater's junkyard jamboree and soarin' over california, and we went over to the bridge by the pier to take some pictures.
i ordered these ears off etsy for us, and even though they showed up barely in time, they were so worth it!  you can get a pair of your own (either ready to ship or a custom order like i did) from elephant and mouse shop.  holly's are marie, aileen's have mulan characters on them, and of course, mine are buzz lightyear :)
mickey pretzels are the best pretzels. end of story.
we saw the aladdin show for the final time, since it closes this month.
i'm semi intrigued to see how the frozen show plays out (and if it has a run as long as aladdin did) but also wish they picked something besides frozen.
but don't tell andrew i said that...
we left the park to go get dinner at the earl of sandwich in downtown disney, and it was wonderful to finally get some caffeine and warm food.  i had the chicken tortilla soup, and it was delicious.  we came back, wandered the animation area, and went in to the beast's library where we found out who we are.  i got...
pretty sure last time i got mrs. potts. i'm sensing a theme here. after that, we went and met elsa, because there was no line, and i wanted to send andrew a picture.
then we went to turtle talk with crush before heading to world of color's holiday show. after world of color we called it a night in order to get a smidge more sleep and make our day in disneyland a longer day.  which is also the day i have less photos for, it seems.  so here's day two!
as you can see, we aquired an extra body for day 2 in the parks. aileen's fiance drove down monday, spend tuesday in the park with us before heading back to idaho on wednesday. we started off the day in tomorrowland, then jumped over to indiana jones & pirates. then back to tomorrowland for space mountain & buzz lightyear astroblasters. i'd like you all to be aware that they flipped the scores on this print out...
FINALLY got to ride thunder mountain for the first time in years, since it was either closed or broken down. we also waited in line for matterhorn for an hour and a half, because it also broke down. but it was absolutely worth the wait.
we bounced over to california adventure to get soup and bread bowls for dinner, as well as let the others get one more ride in for those that wanted to go on tower of terror. on the way back over to the land of disney, i was able to successfully cross paths with one of my favorite photographer friends! alas, her first day in the park was the day we left, but it was good to see her for the first time since WPPI 2012 in vegas!
we headed to thunder mountain to ride it one more time, and then were going to do matterhorn single rider, but it was still down and everyone else was good to go. so we watched the parade and called it a night. wednesday morning we ate breakfast at denny's, sent ben on his way and then headed to the science museum where we saw the endeavor
it was cool to look at, but clearly one of those things where i would feel like i learned more with a guided tour or someone there to talk about it. there were little signs all over, and docents giving little facts, but that was it. we went inside the rest of the museum for a little bit as well before heading home.
it was a pretty action packed 3 days, as well as a whole lot of car time, but it was overall enjoyable.
though it's pretty safe to say i'm already ready to go back to disneyland.
who's coming with me??

november - instagram lookback

oh what a november it was.  busy for sure.  seems like every weekend i was doing something.  at least i like to think i was.  so here are a few of the non-disneyland highlights from the month.
- the day erika and i went to lodi for our sister's band competition (other photos from that day are here) and took a pretty dang good lookin' photo of us.  alas, our final photo at age 24... because as of monday, we are both 25 now.  so old, i know.
- betsy got married!  (more of those photos here) when i saw this card at the store, i knew it had to be the one... since dillon is a pilot and all.  it was fantastic to get to see their big day happen finally, and yet again, i wish them all the best for their lives together <3
- okay, so this cracks me up SO MUCH.  i drove out to natomas to have one of my friend's little sisters help me out with a homework assignment, and a few cars in front of me was this... a giant stuffed cheetah sticking out of the window all nonchalant like nothing was up.  i was dying inside from how hilarious it was, until i passed the car and it was creepily filled with stuffed animals all over the place.  hilarious, but still creepy.
- post disneyland, post birthday, i consumed my final cupcake from duff's cake mix.  so sad.  but at the same time, i'm afraid if i lived closer i would be there ALL the time and be a million times my size.  so yes, next time i am in los angeles, i will be hitting up duff's cake mix again.  now that i know what street it is off of, and the entire area is full of horrific left turn yields.
- started getting crafty again (finally) with the impending holidays, thus the weekend wips posts resurrected as well.  it has been nice to have a mental break from homework by doing something crafty and for a purpose other than just do sew something.  but one project turned in to i think five or six now... oops.  good thing i like the ability to pick and choose what i want to work on.  and have it not be homework related.
- the thursday after my birthday, ben came in to my room at the community center and said "yaya!  did you tell emily happy birthday?" so she made me a card.  and then the next week another.  and then the thursday before thanksgiving, she gave me this.  which is a drawing of me, with four crowns on.  i asked her about the crowns and i was told it was because she didn't have one big one.  so here i am, a princess with all my tiaras.  be jealous.
- i had a bridal consultation in lodi with a friend of lisa's and once i returned home, changed clothes and sat down for two seconds, my dad came in asking if i wanted to go see ender's game.  i knew nothing about the movie going in to it, besides it was about a game in space, had harrison ford in it, and was in my dad's top 5 of  all time favorite books.  so i went for it, and enjoyed it.  though i couldn't help but laugh when good ol' rico from the hannah montana days shows up as the mean kid.  RICOOOOOOOO!
- the day before thanksgiving, i "ditched" class after i got off work (aka was told there wouldn't be any in class assignments that day) and ran a bunch of errands for another one of my classes.  one of those stops included going to sac state to get a copy of my unofficial transcripts.  i was so sad that i didn't have time to go in to kadema hall and get a whiff of the darkroom.  i miss those chemical smells.  man, that sounds really bad.  i miss developing film!
- in all my craftiness & black friday failed sales shopping (beverley's didn't have much of anything on sale... boo) i cut out a bunch of projects, filled in some missing fabric i ran short on for another, and added 11 blocks to my scrappy square quilt.  someday that quilt will get begun.  maybe after these next few months of bridal & baby shower gifting.  which is just going to add more new fabrics in to the bunch.
as promised, here are the ride photos from the disneyland trip with jenny... just to drag it out one more post in length.  i can assure you my expressions are real on california screamin, radiator springs racers & splash mountain, but very much faked on space mountain.  jenny on the other hand, i think they're all faked except for splash mountain.

disneyland - november 2013

oh right... i mentioned last post that i would post all the other pictures "next week"...  well, i intended to do this much sooner than now, but it is still within the week, right?  yeah, well here goes!
we drove down saturday morning, leaving san leandro around 6:45am, so we got to our hotel and checked in around 2 something, and then were in the parks by 3.  we headed straight for cars land, hoping for a fast pass to radiator springs, but they were all out for the day.  first ride we hit up was the mater's tractor pull.  cutest little short wait ride in the park for sure.  and it's actually fun (unlike the tire ride... erika and i found that one dull back in may)
hit up toy story mania, because that ride is awesome.  jenny beat me, but not by much!  so hah. here is my ever present feat of this trip.  never ever have i gone on an upside down roller coaster, and leading up to this trip i told myself "i'm 25 now... let's get this over with" and that, plus a 10 minute (probably less) ride wait, and that can now be crossed off my bucket list.  it freaked me out a bit, but i survived.  and i may consider doing it again.  but nothing more than this one loop as of right now.  anything more is a little too intense to even begin to think about!
a few years back (like not long after graduating high school) i bought this mickey mouse sweatshirt from hot topic.  turns out, at some point after that jenny bought the same one not knowing i had it.  well, they had to make an appearance on this trip, so after a failed attempt to eat at the rainforest cafe, we donned our sweatshirts and headed in to disneyland for the remainder of the evening.
this blog post brought to you by the number "5"
a jaunt back to our hotel, and then we settled in for the night.  alarms went off at 9 am, and then it was back to the fun.  ran and got our fast passes for radiator springs, and hit up some character spots in california adventure.  unintentionally, quite a few characters.  it was like we found there secret hiding place.
so obviously, i had to make sure i got this picture... and i did. hazah!
if i didn't admit to myself about how i buy mickey ears and then never wear them again, i probably would have bought these as my souvenir this trip. but i resisted the urge, telling myself about my super awesome toy story mickey ears that i already have waiting for me at home. and it worked. so he headed over to hollywood area to look for a character or two... and KABLAM we found a bunch. probably could have spent hours there just rotating through random character appearances. the onlyone we didn't get that was out while we were there were the mary poppins penguins. we weren't quick enough for them.
so i guess we were surfing?? i clearly didn't get the memo on that one
jenny was trying to speak raccoon, but i had to translate for her. when it was finally understood that he was asking what she was celebrating, she got the good ol' thumbs up from mr. raccoon
as far as getting to do all the rides we wanted to, we got lucky and got everything in over the course of a day and a half... of course with the exception of thunder mountain railway, which is STILL closed.  grrr.  hopefully all the renovations means it will be up and running again next time i'm there.  i miss that rickety roller coaster.  as far as all the other "taken on the ride" photos, those are all on my phone.  perhaps i will post them in the instagram post for november, just so they get seen in all their entertaining glory.  and so disneyland can be stretched out for just one more post.  :)
so this was one non-disneyland stop i made sure had to happen.  and was basically my only souvenir purchase.  and a delicious souvenir it was.  i LOVE the show ace of cakes (so sad it no longer airs) and when duff started a west coast bakery plus this little cake mix studio, i knew i wanted to go.  originally i wanted to do the whole sit down and decorate your own cupcakes shabang, but with not knowing what traffic was going to be like on the way home, bought 8 cupcakes (i shared with my family, don't you worry) and jenny bought a whoopie pie.  they were delicious, and made a fantastic week of desserts for me.
the trip was a nice break from reality, and well worth the get away.  it now tops the list as my longest drive ever...  boy am i glad i have my rav4 now.  my corolla would never have made it!  alas, now it is still back to the continued reality of school, work, and more work.  and crafting!  at least there is a little bit of goodness in there.  gotta get ready for these holidays that are sneaking up on us.  ack!

disneyland in instagrams

yes, you read that right.  an instagram post of JUST disneyland photos.  last weekend was a whirlwind of a trip, but i took plenty of photos to show for it.  still catching up on sleep, but here is an instagram summary of disneyland 2013... the second time :)
- the trip was all formulated after two break ups, and jenny being gifted a two night hotel voucher from her travel agent aunt who suggested a girls weekend.  well, a very girls weekend it was.  drove down saturday morning, checked in to our hotel (that wasn't as swanky as advertised) and then walked to the park.
- a battle with will call machines being down, and then we were in to the parks.  we were hoping to get fast passes for radiator springs racers, but they were long gone.  decided to deal with those the next morning.  spent a little bit of time in california adventure.
- toy story mania round 1.  jenny won this one, but not by much!
- i was feeling exceptionally brave, and with a 10 minute wait (probably less than that.  we got swept right in and on the ride) i experienced my first upside down roller coaster.  it freaks me out a little bit still, but i would probably go on it again in the future.  well, at least that one.
- we wandered through to the other side of the park, and the pixar parade was happening. got a quick snap of my main hero before wandering through the rest of the park and eventually onward to downtown disney.
- the idea was for dinner at the rainforest cafe, but it was a hot mess.  stopped by the lego store for a few pictures, and then headed in to disneyland for some pizza port.  mmm pizza.
- for the first time EVER it was appropriate for me to get a happy birthday button from town hall.  so yeah, i was all over that like no other.  jenny got a "i'm celebrating" button, which all the characters saw first before mine.  and awkwardly pointed at her.  haha.
- hidden mickey?  maybe?  randomly seen after a troop of hooligans in front of us for splash mountain pointed it out.  so yeah, i instagrammed it.  like a boss.
- mickey mouse pretzel.  need i say more?
- i'm pretty sure i've seen the "believe" holiday fireworks show more times than anything else done at disneyland.  okay, that may be a slight dramatization...  i feel like it used to be narrated by julie andrews though.  or maybe that's the voice i expect to hear in my head.  she's like the disney version of morgan freeman as far as narrations go.
- monday we wound our way through LA traffic after hotel check out and swung by duff's cake mix... and boy was i excited to FINALLY be able to taste some charm city cakes style goodness.  of course, it's still on my bucket list to make it to the show location in baltimore, but this totally hit the spot.  and makes me want more more more.
- i mean SERIOUSLY?? a rex cake?  wait, a rex that is BOWLING cake??  no way could mr. cake boss come up with something of this caliber.  i saw a screen cap of this on a show or something (i follow duff on twitter... so that may have been where i saw it) and when i saw this cake in the store still... HAD to take a picture.
stay tuned for next week's collection of stretch armstrong pictures, plus some character photos!

weekend round up - 2013 del oro band tour: chaperon style

here we go.  finally regrouped myself enough from nearly 24 combined hours of school bus time, a hooplah of jousting, knight fights & eating with our hands & about 15 hours in the disneyland parks.  thank goodness for blogstomp!
we left friday morning around 7:15, a la school bus and began the voyage.  the bus seemed to be making pretty good time for the most part.  we thought we would get to medieval times early, but nope.  we hit lovely LA traffic... and probably sat in the same spot for a good 20 minutes.  not even the license plate alphabet game could save us.  we made it to medieval times JUST in time to get in there, get our crowns (blue knight again.  same as 2004) and get our seats.  the girls swooned over the "thor" looking knight, but his good looks didn't get him very far.  he was killed off, letting us all down.  what a punk.  though, the announcer guy (top right photo) has a strange resemblance to my 8th grade history teacher.  after our sad defeat, we loaded the buses back up, and headed to the hotel to get some sleep before the big saturday.
after a lateish night, an early morning came, and we got ready and were down to go by 8:15.  walked to disneyland from our hotel, and then after the rundown of the chaperon spot, we were free.  erika and i zoomed over to CA adventure to get a fast pass for the cars speed racers.  we waited in a gigantic line to get our fast passes... but once we got them, they were for our EXACT chaperone time.  total ugh.  but disney customer service to the rescue got us passes good for any time during the day, so we were stoked.  made our way through cars land, which was totally adorable.  the tractor ride was awesome, but the tires one, not so thrilling.
the speed racers thought? super awesome.  it starts out slow, kinda in the way the monsters inc ride does, taking you through and "prepping" your car for the race.  then you get lined up at the starting line and the car speeds onward.  yeah, i'm pretty aware how stressed out i look in that picture.  but it was fun.  seriously.
we were going to head to the toy story mania ride, but i stopped us when i saw that jessie was out, and had a short line. once we got in line, we were informed buzz would be here soon to switch with jessie, and at that point in line, we would probably be getting our photos with jessie. so we went through the line, got our pictures with jessie, and then got back in line again for a photo with buzz. got lucky with that. but not so lucky as far as getting on toy story mania. the ride hadn't opened for the day yet. lame. we checked out the little mermaid ride. it was cute, but nothing super fancy to rave to all your friends (or blog readers) about. if you have a small princes loving child or need to rest your feet for a minute or two, totally go on it.
headed back to disneyland, got our fast passes for space mountain, and then hit up star tours & astro blasters while waiting for our chaperon shift to happen.  the new star tours was pretty cool.  it scans the audience and selects someone as a rebel spy and shows their photo on the screen.  and each "tour" is a little different each time.  and it's 3D.  well, i could go with or without 3D.  got our pretzels, found goofy, and then it was bench sitting time.
well...  erika generally sat on the bench.  i sat across the walk way by town hall because we found an outlet.  some reason, my phone became lame and did NOT want to stay charged at all during that trip.  so for a good 45 minutes, my phone charged.  no kids came up to tell us they weren't feeling good.  so that's a plus.
we got the desired sister pictures in front of the castle (aka the reasons why we decided we should/could chaperon this trip) and then once we delivered erika's sister back to her group, it was back to fun time. and off to space mountain.
we got on super quick. thanks awesome fast pass idea!  no wait time at all getting on this one.  we  rode space mountain, looking super intense in our photo, and then headed to pirates.  that line wasn't as horrible as it has been in the past, but it wasn't a short wait either.  but of course, it's a classic and everyone generally wants to ride it...  so that's what's up.  tried to get some winnie the pooh character pictures, but they decided to bounce out (literally... tigger bounced out) as we got there, and had no desire to wait in that line to wait for them to come back... and then wait for our turn.  thought about going on small world (erika likes that ride) but when we saw the line, decided food sounded better.  so back to CA adventure we went.
i'm still not sure how i feel about the lack of giant letters in front of the gates...
we ended up at boudin's... because bread bowls are delish.  but a real pain to chew.  after eating, we went to toy story mania, which was open, but a fairly long line.  but we decided to wait it out.
this, my friends, is why we don't take "above" photos in lines...  hey there, creeper lady in the back.
p.s. i won this game, like a boss.  but erika says "accuracy is what counts" you can decide who really won... aka.  me.  after this, we attempted to charge my phone for 30 minutes, but it really didn't do any good.  got in a short wait line for soarin over california, where erika let out her aviation knowledge to some small kid in line.  apparently she has this best kept secret about airplanes.  after our lovely tour of california, we headed BACK to disneyland for a final time that night.
met up with my dad, and then we went and rode matterhorn.  they've since updated the bobsleds, so no more awkward seat snuggling with someone behind you.  which also allows for a single rider line.  we tried to go see how space mountain's wait time was looking, but at 75 minutes, we opted to do otherwise.  dad headed off somewhere, and we rode star tours again.  we had a different beginning, but the same ending.  we went to space mountain again, got up to the front and next people in line, and then apparently some moron decided to try and stand up on the ride.  so they shut the entire thing down, and we had to wait for it to reopen.  erika met up with her sister, and i met up with my parents, aileen & her two friends.  decided to go on star tours... where this time i was the rebel spy.  bum bum buuum.  this time it was the same beginning, but a different ending.  interesting how they do that.  then we rode the astro blasters ride, and i totally beat aileen.    alas, space mountain never reopened for the night, so we headed back to main street for the final meeting spot.  yeah, and i almost wanted that sweatshirt, but it wasn't my size.  it WAS bryan's size though... haa haa haa
it was a VERY long day in disneyland... but some how we made it.
i managed to only buy food & water, and no souvenirs or anything.  which is pretty amazing!  a walk back to the hotel, and then everyone was down pretty quick for the night.
erika and i claimed seats to ourselves for the way back and boy were we glad.  much sleeping was done, well, up until the food stop that got all the kids hyped back up on sugar & caffeine.  a lovely search for a shabby little gas station happened, and finally, we got home around 7:45 that night.  was it crazy?  yes.  would we do it again?  probably not.  was it worth it?  yes.  am i totally stoked to go to disneyland again in the future?  absolutely.