Oh! Hello Disneyland.

Oh Hello Disneyland … haven’t seen you in a while.

Well, that may not be entirely true but it sure does feel like coming back to an old friend every time we go. I've already mentioned Disneyland in a few other places Black Hole, Best Day Ever, hee hee!  I really cannot get enough of that place and we are very lucky to have an Uncle and friend who wants to go with us every time. Thank you Uncle Tim we love spending time with you and enjoy all of the little stories you have about the place.  

We spent an entire Sunday at the parks. The hot sun beat down on us but I was prepared this time with water, a very BIG sun hat, and a plan to stop at every refreshment stand in site. Last year when Allie was still nursing we went to Disneyland in the summer sun and I fainted. As you all know I have a tendency to faint. It gets too hot, I faint. I don’t drink enough water, I faint. I don’t eat enough, I faint. I don’t eat enough of the right foods, I faint. The sky is blue, I faint. You get the picture. So last year I was nursing and not eating enough and not drinking enough water and it was just too dang hot, so I fainted. I was holding Allie and everything started wiggling. Think to Wayne’s World and the “Scooby Doo Ending” and that is what everything started doing. I quickly got Terry’s attention and shoved Allie into his arms stating, “I am going to faint.” Then I woke up to some women pouring water over me. Now, you may think that this was very nice but really it just made me wet. It didn’t help with the dehydration issue. I need to drink the water to make it work. But they were very kind and helped my butt off the ground, literally I had sat down on my butt and slumped over. I have plenty of stories that all relate to me and my inability to regulate my temperature. This was also not the first time that I have fainted at Disneyland, the first time I was in my teens and we were visiting Toon Town. It was a new attraction and the entire family was there to check it out. I checked out at Minnie’s house. So after those stellar performances I decided that this time there was no need for an encore.

We enjoyed Refreshers at Starbucks, Lemon Gelato at Ghirardelli and the air conditioning in Ariel’s Under Sea Adventure. At Disney’s CA Adventure there is an attraction Redwood Creek Challenge Trail with a new scavenger hunt by Russell from UP. We found Kevin’s tracks, howled like wolves and conquered our fears on the rock slide. Allison loved running and jumping on all of it.

As the day came to a close we went to watch the Aladdin show and then the fireworks. It was a great relaxing and faint free day!

Everyone enjoy your week and remember to look around you … Right Now!

Kites, Mischievous Umbrellas and Swimming Cars

Kites, Mischievous Umbrellas and Swimming Cars

Allison and I had an adventure on Saturday; we went to Hemet Lake campground to visit with Grandma, Papa, Gabriel and Xander who went there to camp for the Fourth of July weekend. We got up, packed some snacks, threw some water bottles in the car and hit the road headed toward a lake I have not been to since I was a kid.

 

 

My sister and I were very lucky as children to have both sets of Grandparents to spend time with. In our family a vacation was a camping trip. When other kids at school talked about “going on vacation” they meant hotels and beach resorts but when my sister and I talked about vacations we meant trailers and campfires. Every Memorial Day we went to Bishop and watched the Mule Days Parade then camped at French Camp near Rock Creek and fished until we caught our limit. Most other three day weekends were spent at Table Mountain, Idylwyld or Hemet Lake. During the summers we would go out to some campground set up and then stay for weeks at a time with our Grandparents while our parents commuted back and forth for the weekends. So armed with many happy memories of camping and fishing at the lake I headed out for the day with my own daughter.

 

The lake was a dark steel blue and little waves were continuously pushing onto the shore, there were very high clouds swiftly moving across the sun giving everything a hazy warm feel. When we arrived the boys had been fishing for most of the morning but so far had caught nothing, it might have been the absence of the “fishy song” that my Sister perfected over our fishing career. She really was the only one that was ever able to make that song work on her fishing pole. An umbrella and fold up bench were set up on the shore next to two gently swaying fishing poles. As soon as I sat down the umbrella leapt off of the pole and flew away. Gabriel and Xander screamed with delight and chased after the mischievous umbrella. Later they told me that the umbrella had been trying to run away all morning, this was the fourth time they had retrieved it.

Everyone agreed it was time to pack things up and try our hands at kite flying since the wind wanted to play so very badly. Thanks to Uncle Tom we had brand new kites, which we made in Oceanside on our trip the week before, to use. A blog on that trip to come! Yeah! More memories flooded in as we sent those kites into the blue sky. On one trip to Hemet Lake a large group of my Grandparents friends went with us. Julie and I were the only kids and that was just fine with us! We were the center of attention. There was a real telescope set up and we were able to see Venus at night, we caught tadpoles and played with little dogs. Everyone seemed to have a small dog skipping around their site. Each RV had pin wheels and windsocks decorating the awnings in a rainbow of colors, the vehicles seemed to be dancing while the wind blew the ornaments. Then we had kites, dragon kites, we flew them every day. I remember the red tail of my kite swirling back and forth as I used little tugs to keep it up and floating on just the right breeze. As we flew our new kites on Saturday I was reminded of all the fun I have had there and I was glad to share new memories with my daughter and nephews.

 

After the kite flying we decided that it was time to eat. Gabriel said, “If we had caught any fish we would be eating that but now we are going to have hot dogs and corn. Corn is really good, almost as good as fish.” So we all headed back to the campsite where there were people sitting at our table. When we asked what was going on they pointed at a car that was in the lake! Someone had driven their car straight into the lake and it was slowly being towed out. The story was that two people were in the car and somehow the car had slid down the side of a hill and right into the water, the two people got out but the car was completely submerged. The tow truck driver had to swim under the car and attach the tow line to slowly pull the car out. He had to do it slowly to allow all of the water to drain out of the interior and it was A LOT of water. When it was finally on the truck all of the campers cheered and clapped, then the tow truck driver took a bow.

 

After eating we went on a walk around the campground to the tether ball courts and the HUGE communal fire pit. The pit was cold and we sat around it to watch Gabriel play tether ball with some other kids camping. Grandma and Xander played “I Think An Ant Bit You” a great tickling game that had Xander in stitches.

 

As the day grew long it was time to head home. My little baby was tired and we still had two more hours to spend in the car. As I drove down the winding rode the sun set and I had a lovely view out my windshield. The day ended in a splash of color and then soft blues.

 

Enjoy your week everyone!