Christmas Vacation - Disneyland Part 1

Day two of our Christmas vacation took us to Disneyland. Neither Yohn nor I and obviously not the kids had ever been. We've been told several times we'd missed out, but in truth I'm not much of a theme park person. They're a lot more fun when you like rides and I don't. But still, Disneyland was a lot fun, just a little too crowded cuz' it was Christmastime.

The kids all insisted on having their pictures takin inside of Tarzan's home. They pretended they were captains of a big ship.

The decorations were spectacular, grand and everywhere! This picture does not do it justice, make sure to check out all the decos in background of this picture too.

We rode the Pirates of the Caribbean first. Rides like this one I like - simple, lots to look at, fun with a few drops that made it interesting. Elisha and Bethany loved it although they really didn't know what to expect to begin with and got a little frightened when it all went dark and we went down a waterfall. After that they relaxed and enjoyed themselves. Jewell on the other hand, cryed the whole time. Poor thing is not real fond of the dark.

Once outside of the Pirates ride we ran into Woody and Jessie. We were actually kind of lucky to get a picture as we were one of the last ones in line before they closed it. Elisha was super excited about meeting Woody but was disappointed that Buzz was not there too.


Susan's kitchen is full of cow stuff that she's collected, so she really wanted this picture of Woody and Jessie in cow-print to add to the collection!

I wasn't able to get a good picture of Elisha and Bethany on the Dumbo ride so I caught them just as they were getting off.

The kids posed for me on the Dumbo they had outside the ride.

The kids and Grandma Susan on the Teacup ride, or should I say just before it started.

The view of Smallworld all decorated for Christmas. Actually it looks a lot better at night but that picture is for another post.

The clock came to life as we waited in line. I comes to life every 15 minutes but I've heard it's grander to see when it chimes on the hour. We always managed to catch it at the fifteen or forty-five mark (you know like 1:15 or 3:45).


As we waited in line I took a picture of us. I knew there would only be a few of me as I am often reluctant to give up control of the camera.

Pictures from inside of Small World. I don't know if you can see it but everything was decorated for Christmas, either with lights or presents, or hats or mistletoe.

The girls on Minnie's couch. We went inside thinking she was there but she wasn't. So we just looked around.

When we left Minnie's house we went to Mickey's. He was in his barn and so first you toured his house and then you waited in line to see him. Since we had to wait anyway, we took our time going through his house. Here we are in front of his fireplace.

And Gene and Susan and Jewell too.

Elisha is on Pluto's bed pretending to chew on the shoe. I think he actually put his mouth on it though, eww...

And there's Mickey. We were actually a little rushed through, so we only took a picture of the kids.

If we just ppuuuuusssshh a little harder maybe it will start!


At Goofy's house Elisha got really photogenic and wanted me to take a picture of him with everything. He had a lot of fun with all the stuff around his house.

Yohn and kids pose in Goofy's lounge chair.

See, there he goes again!

There was no sign of Goofy so I took a picture of his cute scarecrow in his garden instead.


But Bethany spotted Donald as we were leaving Goofy's house so we followed him to take this picture.

Then we noticed the line forming in front of Minnie's house and realized she had arrived, so we went back and stood in line there so the kids could meet her too. She's Jewell's favorite character and Bethany likes her a lot too.

See told you she was kind of fond of her. She wanted her own picture of just her and Minnie.

We were getting ready to head back to the Condo for lunch and naps when Goofy went walking through the crowd ahead of us. Goofy is both Gene and Yohn's favorite so to say that we chased him is an understatement. Unfortunatly this picture is sans one little girl because she was proving just why we needed to go back to the condo for lunch and naps.

Goofy was teasing Elisha as he was trying to high five him and instead grabbed him and gave him a big hug. I barely had time to snap the picture, which why it's a little out of focus.

More to come, stay tuned!

Christmas Vacation - Malibu

So as you already know, we headed South for Christmas vacation with the kids this year. We were invited to go with our friends Gene and Susan. They own a time share at Worldmark so we only had to pay for our tickets to the theme parks, food and gas but not lodging. It was a busy, busy week but we had a lot of fun. After settling into the condo the night before we headed out to Malibu where Susan's parents help run a mobile park by the beach (or rather across the street from it).

It was overcast most of the day but I thought it still looked pretty enough for the background of pictures. I had the kids pose for a photo shoot. Unfortunately they were too hyper and didn't want to cooperate, but I eventually won and got my way!

This is one of the few pictures you'll see of me the entire vacation since I was behind the camera most of the time.


See that camper in the background? That trailer belongs to none other than Matthew McConaughey. From time to time he stays at the mobile park Susan's parents help manage. They said when he's in residence they have to keep the poparzzi at bay. Unfortunately he was not there when we were. Susan's mom called a few days later and said he did come by and took a tour of their new trailer. Ahh well... I'm not really into meeting famous people anyways, I'm just a little to introverted for that.


The kids found this ribbon blowing across the park and Elisha put it on his head and told me to take a picture. Yeah he's gonna regret that someday.


How can you go to Malibu without stopping by the beach. It wasn't exactly primo conditions but the kids had a blast anyway.


Bethany, Grandpa Gene and Yohn were playing a game with the waves. They were trying not to let the waves "catch" them. Jewell and Elisha stood further up on the sand for quite a while, going no where near the water. Bethany is always on the lookout for fun, so she was right at the edge of the shore as soon as she could be.


Elisha eventually joined in, I think he realized his sister was having fun and not getting wet... well, for the moment she wasn't getting wet.


It didn't last long. See her pantlegs? The waves "accidentally" caught her. I really didn't want them to get wet, but you know we're not by the beach all that much, why not let them have fun? The mobile park had showers and dryers and it's only clothes and shoes. These are memories they are making here.

Elisha didn't stay dry either. This was his reaction after the first time the waves caught him. He actually ended up falling down just a few minutes later and the waves totally drenched him then. Too bad I did not have the camera turned on when it happened, his shocked look was priceless!

The sun decided to come out and warm up our play time a bit.

Jewell eventually joined in too, but it took much coaxing from Grandpa Gene.

I love this picture of "my boys."

All in all it was a beautiful and relaxing day. Next stop, Disneyland!