Our California Adventure - Part 3 - Disneyland

Before I go into the Disneyland day, I must reminisce on the one day we spent shopping and sight seeing. Mark has spent many overnights in Santa Barbara during his travels with work. Most of these outings are short, or if he does find something interesting, there usually isn't anyone to share it with. On Sunday, he got the chance to show us around a little bit. The most notable "sight" was the skate park. We probably could have stayed there all day...

But, alas, Elliot had his heart on shopping. What he was shopping for, no one knew exactly, but shopping was our next stop. There were lots of fun stores to look at like Restoration Hardware, Cost Plus World Market, and Antique Alley. However, I was traveling with BOYS so we went to the toy store.

Side note: While walking to the toy store we saw Josh Holloway aka "Sawyer" from LOST. Mark and I were both a little star struck but tried to play it cool. We only backtracked once to nonchalantly watch him come out of a store he was shopping in. Then we continued our excursion to the toy store. As we walked, a woman ran from the other side of the street to brag to her friends who were walking behind us. "I SHOOK HIS HAND. I SHOOK HIS HAND!!!" My thoughts on that for another blog posting.

At the store El found this unique little pen. A "Tattoo" pen. Just what he's been looking for. "To remove, use washcloth with soap and water. WARNING: Ink lasts several days. Do Not use on face. Will stain fabrics." Who's brilliant idea was it to allow him to buy the pen??? (Oh yes, it was me- I even found it and showed it to him.)

We walked home from the shopping trip with our new found treasures. We played with Jo's bouncy ball, broke open the Rock Geodes, and yes, drew tattoos on arms and tummys.

Later that night I thought Elliot was brushing his teeth. All the adults were sitting in the living room unwinding and talking. In bursts El (as is his only way to enter the room), "Look Mom, I'm a cat!" On his sweet little radiant face were now four blue "tattoo" lines on each side of his mouth in the place of whiskers. If I had been level headed, I would have grabbed the camera. Instead I grabbed a washcloth and began scrubbing. I tried to not crush his enthusiasm, but also wanted to make the point that we don't draw on faces. "How about my neck?" Always the optimist.

Monday: DISNEYLAND DAY!!!Can you tell I was excited to visit the "Happiest Place on Earth"?

What should have been a 2 hour drive, was really a 3 hour drive. That's okay though because we were going to DISNEYLAND! (okay, still a little excited) We also had 3 DS players in the backseat.

The DS games gave Mark and I a chance to play Slug Bug. We've become a little obsessed, and I will try to stop mentioning it.

We got to the park and it was a little drizzly, but we're Washingtonians- we can handle it. Our first stop: Tomorrowland and the Buzz Lightyear ride. This obviously wasn't here when I was a kid. It was so much fun to shoot the Evil Emperor Zurg (and Mark who was riding in the car behind us). I loved experiencing this with all the boys for the first time. Growing up, my family made a few trips to Disneyland- enough for me to have some very solid memories. This trip, for me, was revisiting my favorite rides and sharing them with those I love the most. Some had changed (the submarine ride) and some were exactly how I remembered them (the Tiki Room).

The day went fairly smoothly with a few meltdowns. At one point while waiting in line for our second ride, an exasperated Jonas said, "I don't know if it's even WORTH it anymore!" But, then the line was moving again.

No trip to Disneyland would be complete without a visit to "It's a Small World"!!!! About 25 years ago, I made my parents go on this ride again and again. I love it. It's so happy and everyone is singing. It made me giddy to just be in line. If I didn't know it before, the boys proved how much they love me. Not a one of them complained, and they all said they liked it- although they didn't want to turn around and ride it again for some reason. Mark even leaned back one time and told me that he could understand why I liked it so much. It really is a happy place to be. And, don't we all need a little more happiness?



Look at him humor me.



Here we go!

  

Dancing and singing animatronics everwhere!



We packed in as much fun as we could in the 7 hours that we were there. We were all very tired by that night. Thankfully, we "camped" at Rachels house in LA instead of driving the 2-3 hours back to Santa Barbara. All in all, a wonderful vacation.