Day: May 30, 2012

Just two weeks after the “actual day”, we embarked on our little trip to Disney California Adventure, Disneyland, then on to the “camping” portion in Bryce & Zion. For brevity of each post, I’m splitting into sections of the trip. While California Adventure didn’t have a plethora of pictures, Disneyland does, so I’ll start with the first day and leave the mega-post for tomorrow.

We decided to do the California Adventure park first, for a few reasons – #1 we had two days, so thought we could see one park each day, #2 it opened later in the day and we were driving from SB, and #3 we were told it had a lot of younger-kid activities. I’d say that it definitely doesn’t compare to actual Disneyland, but I’m certainly glad we did it. It started a little rocky with a brief (and unsuccessful) stint in the Bug’s Life 3D video, where a larger-than-life 3D spider was just not Selah’s cup of tea (smart girl we have, yes?), and we spent the earlier portions of the day attempting to recover from the “scare” which put her in somewhat of a funk. But the day only went up from there, and I’ll have to post a few videos to cover Selah’s favorite activities there, which included dancing to the Mickey Mouse Club live show and running around the water fountain (this sounds much less impressive than it was – it was an interactive water fountain that kids could play in).

For now, I’ll stick with the still-photos of a few highlights.

Meeting Mickey Mouse was certainly right up there with the best of them. From her body language and shyness, you’d think she was slightly traumatized, when in actuality, I think it was her favorite. But much like meeting a favorite celebrity or teen idol, she froze up on the spot. However, recounting the event of “meeting Mickey Mouse” is a popular topic of discussion even to this day (over a week later! That’s eternity for a two-year-old memory!).

The man himself:

Warming up a bit (yep, only a bit):

The balance of the pictures I have are from a ride Selah enjoyed, but I feel like the adults were rather cheated. It had to be a 20 minute plus wait, and the ride probably took just under one minute. Literally, 60 seconds. Of which, 40 seconds of it were sitting still, waiting for it to unload. So, essentially, the ride was 15 seconds long. The risk/reward of that investment just didn’t pay off. That is, until I saw this sequence of pictures of Selah & Grandma. Of which I would have gladly waited another 30 minutes, of course.

All in all, the day was a success. And it warmed us up for the following big day at the Happiest Place on Earth. Stay tuned. 😉

I couldn’t have asked for a better Mother’s Day! I suppose, if anything, I would have prefered to trade the perfect weather for the previous day – Selah’s birthday! But, no complaints – we all enjoyed it fully. Started off with breakfast, where my awesomely thoughtful husband made me poached eggs (!). Yep, he Googled how to do it, and was successful! Yummy! Then he got Selah ready (another gift!) for church, and dressed up for the occasion (this is noteworthy, as we both normally go on the very casual side to church). And after a nap at home, we all drove to Ojai to enjoy the beautiful afternoon at Ojai Valley Inn, relaxing with appetizers and beverages on the patio with friends while all of the kiddos ran around on the practice green, functioning as the perfect “playground”. It was so nice that we’ve vowed that we’ll go there on a non-occasion day, just to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and great views (without paying the hefty pricetag for a room and golf).
Here’s my favorite selection of photos from the day:

Remember: click on the pics if you’d like to see them larger – these are from the big camera, so only show up tiny on the post.