A year later--Disneyland 2012 trip re-cap

Man, the past year has been busy and the thought of keeping up this blog for the 2 or 3 people that read it has seemed a little silly (not to mention the people that DO read it are also Facebook regulars who get all the updates and photos in real-time anyway).

But I've started missing using the blog for occasional longer journal-type updates, so I'm going to try to start it up again--we'll see how it goes.  While I'm not going to try to sum up events of the past year, I did want to post our Disneyland February 2012 Disneyland Trip re-cap with photos and details for my own benefit, and in case you all want to live vicariously through my posts (or learn anything about planning your own Disney trips!!)  Note, this trip was a year ago, so although I took detailed notes of which rides we went on at what times, I forgot a lot of the other details.

So here's a re-cap of Day 1, Monday, Feb 6, 2012

  6:30: We wake up the kids.  Maddy tells us "I've been awake since 5:30."

  8:04: We leave home

  8:49: Abe asks if he can have his trail mix, since he found 10 airplanes (the kids were airplane-hunting as we drove by the Phoenix Airport).  We told him he had to wait until 9:00.

  8:59: Abe gets to have his trail mix 1 minute early because he found a total of 20 airplanes.

10:45: Bathroom break at the Blythe, CA Carl's Jr.

12:25: We stop for lunch at Burger King in Thousand Palms

  1:00: Back on the road.

  3:02: We arrive at the beach (Huntington Beach).  Along the way, we saw the Via Balboa beachfront condos/apartments and wondered how much they cost--not sure the rental price, but the 2Bdr units are currently selling for over $500,000.

  4:45:  After checking in at our hotel (Howard Johnson across from Disneyland), we headed to Downtown Disney.

The kids in front of the Disney California Adventure Park entrance...no more oversized letters to stand in front of.

  5:15:  We met our friend Cody underneath the Mickey Sorcerer hat at the entrance to the Disneyland Hotel.  He took us on a tour of the Disneyland Hotel, including a tour inside the Concierge lounge and the awesome Pirates of the Caribbean Suite.  Here are pictures of the kids hanging out in the hotel lobby's teacup seats:

  6:00:  Went to the Paradise Pier Hotel and ordered the Kitchen Sink dessert.

  6:45:  We tried to head back to Downtown Disney and got lost on the walkways/streets.

  7:40:  We arrived at our hotel for the night.

Alrighty, so that's the first day--other days coming soon!!!

Disneyland Pre-Trip Preparations

So as you know, we're heading out to Disneyland in just a few days, so I thought I'd do a quick blog update about or Disneyland preparations.

Obviously, one of the biggies that I do is plan our itinerary for what rides we're going on when.  But instead of showing it to you know, I'll wait until after the trip and do a side-by-side comparison to see how closely we followed the agenda.

But I will show you our typical "things to bring" list for our Disneyland trip [click to enlarge]:

As you can see, it's pretty much like heading into battle.  Is there anything we forgot?  The kitchen sink, perhaps?

Speaking of the kitchen sink, there's a dessert called that at the Paradise Pier Hotel next to the parks.  

 Here's a picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/prettydaisies/2616259927/ 

Yeah, we're gonna get one for all of us to share on the day we arrive in Anaheim.

Lest you think we're gluttonous, notice that our food list doesn't contain a lot of candy and sugary treats.  We're trying to eat healthier on our trip--plenty of fresh fruit, wheat crackers, string cheese, etc.  One treat we are having on the drive, however, is homemade trail mix:

Last night, we set out bowls of various trail mix items, and let the kids bag their own custom mixes:

Elliott got a little too excited and spent most of the time eating it:

We've also been watching our many Disneyland trip home videos, and we even found Maddy's old Mickey Mouse hat, which Elliott has been wearing all the time:

Next update: Disneyland Trip 2012!!

2011 Wrap-Up Party-o-rama

"Uh, Andreas, you've neglected to update your blog for over two and a half months. I would advise you to post a new entry; preferably one which recounts the events in a brief but entertaining way."

Ok, Elliott the Nerd, whatever you say. Here it goes: Since we had to move to a new house Dec. 3, the old house looked like this for most of November:

But we still had Thanksgiving dinner, much the same way as the pilgrims and Native Americans:

(Obviously, shirtless Joel is playing the part of a Native).

The move went pretty smoothly, and if nothing else, it made it really easy to find the Christmas decorations. We put up the decorations before we even finished unpacking:

Of course we took a trip to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple, disrupting the spirit of peace and reverence there:

Along the same lines, Abe decided to put on his own Nativity scene--here he is as a swarthy wise man:

Judy and Libby and Ethan came to visit for Christmas. Amanda knitted Libethan a smitten:

The kids opened books for Christmas Eve (also note the fireplace video on TV--thanks Netflix Instant!)

Elliott is obsessed with the vacuum

So we got him his own toy vacuum; alas, he still prefers the real one (though he does use the toy one pretty often, too).

At work, we WERE going to have a White Elephant exchange, so I found 2 potential gifts at Goodwill:

This hand-crafted Harry Potter statue was both amazing and frightening. Someone clearly went to a lot of work sewing, painting, possibly even welding (since it's metal on the inside); yet THIS was the best they did.

I also found this picture/stitched image, which I find fascinating:

A sad clown painting happy clowns on clouds with faces, while another clown watches. And some of it is STITCHED. I want to know what was happening in the mind/life of this person. I gave it to Libby for Christmas, but she just couldn't appreciate it like I do, so she let me keep it. It's currently hanging by the computer desk, much to my wife's chagrin.

Elliott also had a birthday the beginning of this month. Look at the pure, unadulterated joy on his face as he sees his new present (cars toys):

He also got some new Cars pajamas recently--thy make him look very sophisticated, though the buttons tend to pop open, making him look very macho:

So, that pretty much catches things up, except this picture of our countdown chain:

Yep, we're headed to Disneyland in a few weeks--we had planned on going in May, but decided to move it up to February, for numerous reasons I won't list here.

Happy 2012 everyone!!