Yes! We’re back!

It has been a wonderful whirlwind, my friends. I ended school, locked my classroom door, packed my suitcase and got on a plane. Mind you, this took a few days. but it already feels like the school year ended months ago. Going to California so soon after school was out was a great way to jumpstart summer, and the weather upon return didn’t hurt either. It’s 80 degrees today! I am loving it

So first, the trip. We flew down on Sunday the 22nd on Virgin. I would totally recommend that airline. It is pretty posh. Each seat has its own touchscreen where you can watch TV, movies, music videos, play video games and order food from. We brought our DS’s, books, and coloring stuff to entertain and it was totally unnecessary. I watched two shows I had never seen before, Top Chef on the way down and My Life on the D List on the way back. Totally shows I wouldn’t usually watch, but airplanes are the place for trash TV, magazines and all the guilty pleasures that take your mind off of sitting on a plane for hours on end. So they were perfect! Jude slept like a little angel both ways, which was nice for us and those sitting around us. It could have been really ugly as it was demonstrated to us by another baby on the return flight home.

We arrived on Sunday to sweltering 115 degree weather. We, however, were impervious to such weather and entered Disneyland with a skip to our step in time to catch the Parade of Dreams. The other visitors were not skipping much. They left the park afterwards en masse looking melted and droopy leaving short lines and small crowds. We headed over to the Tiki Room, which proved to be a favorite of Jude’s, and onto Pirates of the Carribbean, Winnie the Pooh, and Splash Mountain. It was a great start to a great week. We hit our stride pretty early, and by Wednesday we were pretty much done. The crowds were manageable and we were able to see a lot and do a lot in a short period of time. We continued to have fun though, of course, and upon leaving on Friday night, Guinevere and I were both tearful. This has been a pretty unique year for us. We were able to hit Disneyland three times spending 21 days in the park. That is pretty amazing. Needless to say, we are going to take a little break from Disneyland for a year or two. Who knows where we’ll go next year…

A few highlights:
*Gigi got a private meeting with Princess Aurora. Only three kids each day are given the honor.
*Tiki Room with Jude. He loved the singing birds and flowers.
*Meeting Cruella DeVille. Guinevere HATES her and was horrified that I wanted her autograph.
‘Auntie Cruella’ taunted her from a distance.
*The new Pixar Parade is AMAZING!
*Guinevere’s joy for her new dolls: Princess Leia and Padme. She loved them so much she was
hesitant to stop playing and leave the hotel room.
*Riding California Screaming. An EXCELLENT roller coaster.
*Guinevere’s newfound love for Pirates of the Carribbean and Thunder Mountain Railroad. We rode
them both MANY MANY times. Her excited screams were precious. Yes, ‘precious’ and ‘screams’
are both used in the same sentence here…
*Guinevere can really and truly swim now, without floaties!
*We traded for some really nice pins this time, each of us even found our dream pins. Lucky us…
*Indiana’s show and clue hunt was really fun.

A Few Lowlights
*Small World was closed leaving a big hole. It is one of the few rides that Jude would have
enjoyed.
*The massive weight gain by both Bradley and I brought on by multiple trips to Red Robin and
other high fat dining experiences. We both gained a fiver. We are back on the diet and exercise
regime today, trying to knock those bad boys back away. Hopefully they are not too ‘sticky’.
*It got crowded, like really crowded by the week’s end. And the people were rude too. Like,
they would just stop right in front of you or walk right in front of you. Talk about road rage!
*There was a mistake made before we left that my benefits would end while on vacation.
Someone forgot to file some paperwork so the beginning of our trip was a little bit stressful.
Everything is fine now and I’m still insured, PHEW!

While in the magical world of Disney, Jude decided he was done nursing. Thus, I was a bit uncomfortable at times during the trip. I would try to get him to latch and it would just tick him off more. He doesn’t usually scream, and nursing made him scream. Loud. Not a very ‘Disney’ experience. I did not bring my pump, so it was a bit of a predicament. Last night I hit the pump and the supply is really low now. Hopefully I can get it back up, but we may just be finished. Time will tell.

Finally, a wonderful bit of news, my good friend Beth is getting married! Yeah! We looked at dresses before I left and she found ‘the’ dress and ‘the’ bridesmaid dresses all at David’s Bridal. Everything is falling into place so easily… Totally meant to be. Yay Beth! October 4th will be a wonderful day…

Enjoy the heat!
Tamara


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