The count down to happiness!

We made it and all of us had so much fun!

After our fizzled family vacation announcement, Lincoln would ask me how many days until California (very casual) and then he would run into Brinley's room and say "Brinley, only 5 days until Disneyland". I am still a little confused at why they were upset about going in the first place but I guess thats kids for you. They were so excited to get there and they didn't even think of sitting in the hotel room once we were there, in fact we were only at the hotel to sleep.

These are some of my memories of the trip:

I knew that Lincoln would love the Jedi training and planned to get there in time for him to be in the front row so that he might be picked to be in the training group. Well, he didn't really want to do it because he felt that he hadn't been practicing with his light saber enough. He did stand up there with Brinley but neither one of them were chosen. Brinley was in tears after the show because she wanted to fight Darth Vader. I had no clue that she cared.

We took her back the next day and told her to jump up and down waving her hands so they would see her. They didn't pick her again. She stayed for that whole show while Lincoln and I went to look in the stores. When we got back she was in tears again because she didn't get picked for training. I didn't know that she liked Star Wars so much. We tried to avoid the training area from that point on.

I had to put this picture in because.....

I'm pretty sure that my kids touched every single garbage can at Disneyland and if they weren't pushing the door open, they were hugging it or seeing what was inside. I guess there is entertainment for everyone at Disneyland. Yuuuuck!!

This is my buddy, Peter Pan. I didn't want to go on Dumbo (because it's so boring) so I went and sat down on a bench to wait for Doug and the kids. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed somebody jump on the bench next to me and they were kind of squatting with their feet beneath them on the bench. That someone said "What ya doin?" I looked up and it was Peter Pan. (I was caught off guard and just a little emberrassed because there were no kids with me.) I said, just sitting here. He said, "Why are ya sitting here?" I said because my kids are in line for a ride. And then I thought, I don't care if I'm alone, It's Peter Pan and I need a picture so he posed for me. What a cute little actor, he was one of my favorites.

Here is Doug and Brinley with Lincoln in the green Dumbo behind them. I took these pictures because I didn't dare sit down again for fear that another character would come and talk to me.
This is the parade that the kids just loved. Lincoln was impressed because the characters were singing a song and when they sang "YOU" Peter Pan pointed right at Lincoln. They invited the kids out to dance with them, which Brinley did and then they did the Conga and invited kids to join in and Brinley took off as fast as she could to be a part of that. The above picture is of her in the Conga line.

I know this is a little weird but I was just amazed at being able to see the border of Mexico. This is the Colorado River running into Mexico.
On the white sand hill in the back ground there is a brown line which is the fence between California and Mexico and there were border patrol cars driving all over the area.
This is one of the border stops that we went through where they look in your vehicle and ask if we are all citizens and we say yes, then they let us go. It's kind of interesting. I honestly don't know how they monitor who is coming and going through because it seems to me that anyone could say yes I am a citizen. Oh well.
This was the farm land down in the lower part of Arizona. It was beautiful. I was amazed that they could get things to grow there with the heat and the desert sand. They grow Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Corn, Cotton, Hay and more.

We also went to Sea World which is my favorite place and I love watching the Killer Whales. They are just amazing. I didn't take the camera and really regret it.

The hotel that we stayed in had plywood over the front entrance because the earthquake blew out the windows. I'm glad we missed that.

In the end our trip was very fun and we all appreciated it. Even though I had cold sores all over my lips, an eye infection and ended up getting sick on the Pirates ship (which is the calmest ride there is) I still had fun and hope that we can go again sometime. Doug and I took the kids on the Tower of terror - not sure if that's the name but anyway, it was pretty scary and the kids will never go on it again. I loved it, however, my sunglasses flew up in the air and then down on the ground on the ride so I reached down, picked them up and stuffed them in my shirt so that they wouldn't get lost. Well, when we came out, they had the pictures of us on the ride and there I was with my hand down the front of my shirt. NICE!!! It's a good thing the kids weren't older or they would have disowned me!

We have grown to appreciate the area we live in just a little more since our trip, due to the fact that someone who shall remain nameless didn't lock the front door after putting the garbage out before we left. Yes, our house was unlock from Wednesday to Sunday and either no one wanted our junk or no one tried. Whew!!!

Below is a slide that I put together of our trip and also, while having dinner with the characters, Lincoln started dancing. I caught him having fun and I'm going to share it.