Disneyland: Day 1, pt. 1

The vacation we'd been waiting almost entire year for was finally here! Buying tickets/hotel reservations on Black Friday last year gave us a simpler way of being able to afford it right off. Since three year olds need tickets, we decided to go a couple of months before Adelaide had her birthday so she would still be free. Clark and I were a little nervous that the girls wouldn't be up for waking up early, walking around all day, and waiting in lines but, all in all, the trip was pretty amazing!

We began our first morning (Tuesday) by going to California Adventure. The reason we did that was because Tuesday is a Magic Morning for Disneyland and we didn't want to have to fight the crowds of folks who had already been there for an hour. Plus, you can meet Elsa and Anna from Frozen only in California Adventure and we figured we'd nip that in the bud right away.

After going through security and checking in, we began heading for Elsa and Anna, but 500 feet into the park, we noticed there was a line for Mickey! Of course we had to throw our plans aside and get in line for him. I thought we were so lucky to be able to see Mickey first thing on our trip to Disney. As you can see, the girls were a little unsure about the whole thing.

After chatting with Mickey and getting his signature and taking pictures, we carried on only to find Doc McStuffins! Even though the girls have watched her show maybe a handful of times, they love playing doctor and were so happy to see her, too! So we stopped to visit with her as well. :D

We then got our Fast Passes to see Anna and Elsa (the only way to see them, it turns out) and since it was fairly early in the morning, decided to walk around a bit to spend the half hour we'd have to wait before visiting with princesses. Turned out we were fairly close to the Monster's Inc. ride and since the girls love Mike and Sully, we headed over. There was no line, so we even rode twice in a row! Azucena was not a fan of the noise (and we'd left her headphones in the car at the hotel--UGH) but she still enjoyed seeing the characters she loved.

 Just next to the ride was a line to meet Olaf! Once again, there was almost no line so we went ahead and joined the queue. He was adorable, giving hugs and waving to the girls. Adelaide, especially, was excited about seeing him.

We then headed over to the building where Anna and Elsa were stationed. The line to wait was indoors and air conditioned and there were several screens were playing songs from several Disney movies. The girls loved listening and watching (and it made the 15 minute wait much more bearable).

When it was our turn to visit the princesses, it took a little coaxing to get Azucena (in particular) to move forward, but the princesses were so sweet and joined her on the floor, used gentle tones, and shared stories about how much they loved their sister (each other) and how happy they were to see sisters visiting them. They didn't rush our girls at all (even though I know they must have a one or two minute time limit with each family) and asked if they could please have a "sister picture" with them.

 I loved this mural just outside of the princess room.

Walking out, we noticed another line and saw that Goofy was taking pictures! The girls love the original Mickey Mouse characters and were so happy to see Goofy. As you can see, Adelaide was starting to show her excitement, even though Azucena was still a little reticent.

More in part 2!

Travel List

Things I need to remember for my next vacation:

1. Don't travel pregnant (at least, during the first trimester)
2. Don't travel pregnant with a baby
3. Don't take the nice camera you were gifted less than six months ago
4. Pack an extra camera, just in case
5. Fly as much as possible
6. Avoid layovers
7. Pack more than two books to read in a one week period

Senior Celebration

 Since Clark is graduating at the end of April, we got to go to the Senior Celebration last night. Lots of activities were going on including a free game of bowling,

 

free food (Creamery ice cream, Scoreboard Grill burgers, pizza, etc.)

 

and lots of games where you could earn prizes!
This one we had Azucena balance stand against Clark, throw something at the bottles and she won a balloon animal.

 

The Bean Museum also had a small exhibit so Azucena got to see a snake up close!

 

I'm pretty sure this was Clark's favorite, though: He got to go in a box that blew air all around you and if you collected a lot or a certain kind of flier, you got certain prizes. he got his Rise Up football shirt and a small cougar for Azucena. :D

Riiiiicola

I'm still super impressed with how easily jingles can be remembered, even years later. Seriously, it's like crack, in TV commercial form. :)

One of my first loves . . .

. . . was a CD that was made as a gift for my 16th birthday. I still have it. It's a bunch of Legend of Zelda music, orchestrated. And it kind of makes my heart happy. :D

Guess what I've been listening to while at work today?

I have the weirdest stories . . .

I was perusing my old e-mails (I've neglected my hotmail account so long that I had 48 pages in my regular inbox (I'm down to 25 now!)) and found this gem of a story:

So, the phone rings at work and I answer like I always do--"Creamery on Ninth, Naazju speaking, how can I help you?" And it's a guy wondering if we've gotten his application and can he get an interview? "Let me connect you with one of our managers." So I go down to the office and tell Anna she has a phone call. All the managers are there (they are actually in the middle of doing interviews) and I'm great friends with all of them, so I stay and chat for, like, two minutes while Anna is on the phone--and we kind of listen in. He's aking her what the job description is, what kind of perks you get (the only one is 50% off of our meals up to $5 a day--whopee), etc. Finally, he asks something like, do any Hispanics work there? Anna responds, "yes, we have a couple, and actually, one is sitting right in front of me, her name is Naazju, would you like to speak with her?" So she hands me the phone and says, "I think he doesn't understand something and wants it explained in Spanish." So I say, "this is Naazju, how can I help you?"
"Were you the one that answered the phone earlier?"
"Yes, I am."
"Oh, I thought you might be Hispanic, because you said my name correctly." [It's Pablo Gutierrez]
"Okay."
"Well, I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime."
"What?!" [Please note that I really did say that into the phone and my co-workers teased me about it for months.]
"I was wondering if you'd like to go out sometime."
"I guess so."
"Great, I have an interview there on Friday at 7:00, would you like to meet me at 7:15? Then we can eat there [yeah, at my work!] and your manager says you have, like, a coupon or a discount? Like, a 2 for 1 deal? We can use that when we eat." [Yeah! My discount at my work!]
"Um, okay, I'll see you on Friday."
So I'm worried about it all week long--I mean, he's weird and I've never met him, and I'm teased about it all week long and everything. So I sign up to work on Friday night at 8:00. I figure that's a good 45 minutes, and if *I* want the date to continue I can just say something like, "I'm really sorry, I have to go to work, but we can hang out again tomorrow," or something really lame.
Friday night rolls around and I'm in the office with the managers waiting for him to show up. 7 o'clock. 7:15. 7:30. 7:45. Nothing. He missed his interview AND his date with me. Lol. I worked, it was good, yada yada.
The next Tuesday, I get a phone call while I'm not at work. My friend Annie answers it. It's Mr. Pablo (as we affectionately call him at work). He wanted to apologize for not coming in on Friday for the interview OR teh date, and gave his number to Annie to give to me so I could call him and we coul talk and set something else up, because he (thankfully!) has no other way of reaching me, except through work. Annie accidentally threw the number away. :)

Aw, yeah. I had completely forgotten about Mr. Pablo until I ran across that e-mail. Also, just to put it in perspective, this e-mail was sent just less than five years ago. :D But the story took place about five years ago exactly (it was right in between summer and fall semesters at the Y). And I'm still giggling! :D

Memory

Today would have been my grandmother's 87th birthday and my grandparents' 69th wedding anniversary. My grandparents were wonderful people and I loved them very much. I remember once, when I was younger, my grandma visited us (I think we lived in Puerto Rico at the time) and I was complaining that I was always held responsible for things that weren't necessarily my fault, just because I was the oldest child. Grandma told me that I shouldn't feel bad that I was the oldest--it was actually a privilege to be able to be the oldest--and the oldest girl, no less. She then invited me to her special club, the "Oldest Girl" club. She told me that she had been an almost life-long member and that my mother had joined, too. She also said that it would be our special thing, because not everyone could join the club.

I also got to live with my grandma and grandpa the two summers after I graduated from high school and I am forever grateful that I was able to. Even though I worked crazy hours (usually at least 60 hours a week), I was able to spend a lot of time in what I called my "second home" because my grandparents moved into that house back in the 1950s ('57 or '59, you'd have to ask my aunts and uncles to give you the specific year). Those summers I learned to garden, love tomatoes, get along with my sister (love you, Nicoel!) and learned the importance of knowing personal family history. I am so grateful that Grandma did so much family history and shared the information with all of us. I'm glad she instilled a love of our country in her children and me. I am grateful to have had such wonderful people in my life for as long as I did.

Blast from the past

I only remember playing this game once and it was with my grandpa (i.e., more than seven years ago). As soon as I saw this picture, though, that memory burst through and I kind of want to get the game, now . . .

12 Days of Christmas - Day 8

When I was five or six years old my dad's parents sent us the most amazing audio cassette of my life. They took turns introducing songs and other snippets to us. My two favorite parts of that recording was my grandma telling the story of how she had to memorize "T'was the Night Before Christmas" in elementary school (and then reciting it for us) and my grandpa saying that, even though my grandma didn't like the song, he was going to include "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" on our tape (which is still a huge family favorite). I miss them.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 4

So, this one time, my parents totally rocked at being Santa. I mean, I know I stopped believing at some point (eight? Nine?) and I kept quiet and played along for the younger siblings but I didn't actually catch them until I was nineteen years old. Nineteen! I mean, who is that good your entire life? I'd already been gone to college for a while at this point but I had never seen my dad eating cookies or my mom taking presents from their closet to under the tree. Seriously. It caught me off-guard to walk upstairs that fateful Christmas and see my parents quickly and quietly placing gifts in our stockings.


I hope I'm that awesome when I have kids. :D