Disneyland

Rob has a pretty good rundown of day one and how we got there...if you remember, rhys was sick. then irene was sick. did i mention that previously? she was 1/2 day behind rhys. on tuesday, everyone laid low. i was exhausted b/c i'd slept with rhys - slept? did i say slept? yeah. that would be overstating the fact that i occasionally closed my eyes. whenever i did that and sort of began to actually fall asleep, rhys would moan and need me to be awake to rub his little tum. so, i was not in my normal wide awake mode when i was supposed to be packing...packing didn't really happen until after rob got home. whoops. i just couldn't focus. and on top of that, every time that i DID try to go and pack, one or both of the kids would need me. ah well. we finally did manage to get to Pat and Bob's in Lodi. Pat had made her delicious vegetable soup. Rhys didn't want much of it, but Irene enjoyed it. so did the rest of us. i took rhys up to go to sleep and both of us fell asleep mere minutes after i finished reading Fox in Socks.

the hightlight of the next day's drive was rhys throwing up. wheee. i'd had a waterproof sheet on top of both kids b/c we were in the prius and i didn't want them to get syrup on the new car...the kids were watching a video and suddenly, there went the 4 bites of pancake. on rhys, his carseat, the sheet, and...my computer. for whatever reason, the incident happened in the middle of NOWHERE and there wasn't much of a shoulder, so rob couldn't safely stop on the side of the road to do all we had to do...so, miles and miles down the road (shades of trying to find a toilet on our way from richmond back to norfolk) we were finally able to stop and clean up the boy, sort of clean up the carseat, and get back into the car. yes the computer works. i had an extra flannel - hmmm - what to call it? not so much a receiving blanket as it's lovely and big (it was a gift from Jaye when rhys was born - it's large and serves MANY purposes for us), so we put that on top of the car seat and continued on our way. rhys quickly fell asleep for most of the rest of the trip. at some point, irene switched to pat and bob's car (smart girl!). we got to our hotel (Paradise Pier!) around 5. We had a fabulous view of California Adventure


it was actually light out - but this was the first picture we took. nice view, huh? we were VEDDDDY excited and happy with it.

rhys didn't make it for dinner, so everyone else had dinner while rhys and i went upstairs. they brought my dinner up for me and rhys had his toast. i think he had 3 bites of it.

the next morning was DISNEYLAND DAY!!!

irene had been all set to go on a million of the scarier rides, then changed her mind when it came down to it..."i'll do it tomorrow" was her mantra....but we didn't realize at ALL what the next day would bring. so, pat, rob, rhys and i did pirates while bob stayed w/irene. we went on several of our favorite rides. at one point irene thought she really needed to be back at the hotel (that tells you just how carpy she was feeling!). so we started to head back...then she rallied soon after i realized i needed my wallet.

more rides, more fun, no real awful lines. nightmare before christmas'd haunted mansion ROCKS in a BIG giant way. i went on it w/Bob and Rhys and once w/rob while pat and bob took the kids on the jungle cruise. we had dinner at the mexican place by Thunder Mountain Railroad -- it had broken down. it opened just as we were getting ready to leave, so rob and i hopped on (no line!) while, again, P&B watched the kids. then it was on to see about the parade. pat and irene stayed and saved our place for that while rhys and bob went on the paddle boat and roba nd i went on to space mountain. MAN that is a great ride. i've always liked it, but now it has rockin' music, it's faster, and it's DARKer. fabbo fun.

the parade was the same one we'd seen back in march. it was just as good. the fireworks got cancelled which was a bummer. of course, they weren't s'posed to happen until 9:30 anyway (well past when our kids fall asleep). we went back to our hotel and the kids fell asleep pretty quickly. rhys had fallen asleep on the way out of disneyland. irene was out before rob and i headed out for disneyland. pat watched the children for us while we had a wonderful time back at disneyland. it was so much fun to just go. we got some coffee, went on splash mountain (oh my dog did i get wet! i was in the very front. S.O.A.K.I.N.G. that's what i was. but it was great fun. from there we went to indiana jones and then back to space mountain. after that we perused various shops. we then walked back to our hotel and relieved grammie from babysitting duty and thanked her profusely. it was great fun to be able to go back.

here are some pictures from the day:

our hotel had a character breakfast - we'd all forgotten about that...so i was upstairs until rob called and said BRING THE CAMERA!!!

irene and daisy :)
daisy was very sweet and funny. rhys had quite the cowlick and she kept trying to press it down. it didn't work.

isn't this a fun picture of pat and bob with pluto?
irene, rhys and MICKEY! (the spot on rhys' leg is actually the remnants of a halloween tattoo)

not the very best of pat, but here are bob, irene, and pat on peter pan. the camera didn't want to take multiple pix at that point. dadgum!

here are rob, rhys, and I - the "cast member" took this for us

on the train with gramps

gramps and rhys in a funny toon town car

two silly children in goofy's house

pat and bob are sitting in front of the fountain at toon town. and in the foreground, you can see rob in the rust sweatshirt and galaxy quest hat. and if you click on it, you can see rhysie behind rob - in an orange shirt.

just before the parade started (irene and rhys anxiously looking for that first float)

day two of disneyland was less than perfect. when we made the reservations (several months ago), we were trying to figure out a time to go that would work for everyone and that was during irene's time off track. halloween didn't work b/c pat and bob were just returning from hawaii. there needed to be a bit of a break for them before traveling again. the following week (which is this week) didn't work b/c rob has to go to las vegas for a big gaming convention thingy. rob doesn't have a lot of vacation days, so our thinking was that if we went on thurs/fri, he'd only miss 3 days. well....friday was veteren's day. well, not really, but that's the day that all the schools got off. i have never NEVER seen disneyland so busy. just getting in caused my heart to beat a bit faster - and not in a good way. when pat, bob and i went to new orlean's square to find something, i was ready to pass out. the line for pirates was already more than 1 hour long - and they were putting up ropes from the outside of pirates practically to the water! by the time that pat and i were done, i'd say the line was at least 2 hours. so, we decided to head to it's a small world. it had just opened up on friday - newly winterized (holiday-ized). we were going to get in line and our friends, judy, dustin, and their daughter, abby could meet us in line. well, par for the course, it had broken down. we decided to wait there anyway and maybe it would open. about 10 minutes after judy et al arrived (it took them about 2 hours from their hotel door to us -- and their hotel was only 5 minutes away!), the ride opened! so we were able to hop on. to hear irene tell it, we had waited all day for that ride. it wasn't working properly for the 1st half of the ride, but they let us ride it a second time. so we got 2 rides for the wait of 1. that was nice. if only we'd known that we could have done multiple fast passes, maybe we'd have done more stuff. but probably not. we headed over to california adventure for lunch - took judy, rob and bob about 40 minutes to get lunch. took dustin even longer to get the kids' lunch. after that, rob took irene and rhys (rhys was just done and done in) back to the hotel. bob went with them. the rest of us headed back to disneyland to do a little bit of shopping. about an hour later - maybe a bit longer? we headed back towards the hotel. pat opted to wait for the return crew and sat and people watched for a while. rhys was still sleeping, irene was frustrated and upset that she'd gone on so few rides. i think all of us were feeling that. i stayed w/rhys. judy et al stayed with me to keep me company. the rest of the crew headed back to california adventure and went on Soaring Over California. Irene loved it just as much as before. Pat and Bob really liked it as well. they then went on the jellyfish ride (an up and down kind of ride - similar to the parachutes at knott's berry farm - but smaller - for littler kids) and then had dinner. rob had told irene that after dinner they could go on everything she wanted for as long as she wanted. the poor sweet thing fell asleep at dinner and could NOT be woken up for anything. the next morning she woke up crying b/c she didn't get to go on all the rides she wanted to go on. poor beanie.

so, all in all, it was a good trip. just disappointing that last day. now we know for sure that we really need to do the midweek thing. tuesdays are still the best days to go (in my opinion). but do not EVER EVER EVER go on a holiday. my word. just crazy.

and the pix for day two are on a different computer. sorry about that.

the kids are feeling ever so much better and we're back to the normal stuff.