We have been to the top of the mountain and down again... er... went on vacation and came back home, that is. Although "vacation" is a bit of a misnomer in this instance... as it was a lot more "work" than "vacay"
The kids had worked SO hard putting on their kids camp we had them contribute $$ if they wanted to do "one more day" at an amusement park this trip. They all wanted to do THREE days instead of our normal TWO. So, we did SeaWorld on Monday, beach on Tuesday, drove up to Anaheim and did California Adventure on Wednesday, Newport beach on Thursday, and then did Disneyland on Friday. WHEW three days. It was just as exhausting as it sounds, especially considering we pretty much stayed and closed each park each of those three days. And hot, hot, hot. I don't think I've ever been that uncomfortable at a theme park before... apparently we've never gone in July before. Never again in summer!
On the other hand, how great was it to go with three BIG KIDS?? Josh was tall enough for every ride. We didn't have to mess around with meeting characters or riding any of the "little kid" rides. Josh really liked the big rides... California Screamin, Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, Space Mountain... he loved all of it. We didn't even have to venture into Fantasyland or ToonTown... awesome. We did stop about 20 times each day for the kids to trade PINS with every shop owner in CA and DLand though, sheesh! My husband was brilliant when he bought a big lot of cheap Disney pins on Ebay before we went... so each of the kids had pins to trade with, and didn't hardly look at any of the "new" pins at retail prices... so our credit card escaped from the parks relatively unscathed. I say RELATIVELY because it's still Disneyland. Seems to be even tougher to save $ at SeaWorld when you have to pay $16 for parking... it cost us about $50 for lunch and probably another $30 in snacks @ SW, not to mention the souvenirs...
Worst line: Jungle Cruise, in the sun in the middle of the day @ Disney
Worst show: Dolphin show in the middle of the day @ SeaWorld
Worst ride: Space Mountain. MAN, that one is too rough and hurts!
Favorites: Sea Lion Tonite show, the "Filharmonics" acapella group (from Pitch Perfect 2 fame) concert @ SeaWorld, Aladdin show & Mad "T" Party @ California Adventure
Best rides: Radiator Springs Racers, Tower of Terror, Manta
We've been recuperating and playing catch up for the last few days. Slept many hours on Sunday. I finally got all the stuff from my old computer transferred to my new one, installed all the new software from Adobe Creative Cloud, and am currently blogging on my new machine! Still using the old mouse and keyboard though, as the new ones are a little small and too streamlined for me. Now I'm just hoping I get sent some design work and start earning my keep.
School starts in a mere SEVEN DAYS! Woohoo! Kids and I are SO ready. They are so bored, spending WAY too much time on screens and way too much time at home. Every day I promise I'll take them somewhere if/when they clean up and do chores... but those "to do" lists never seem to get accomplished so we never end up going anywhere. Fine by me, because my computer and my office have gotten MUCh more organized than ever before this summer!
Speaking of office activities, I've actually SCrAPBOOKED several spreads this month too! Amazing! Here's to catching up on all those old pics I never printed & layouts I never finished! Manda is a great helper and loves to do it.
Allison is going to be a big 8th grader this year. She's so grown up, loves to hang out with her friends, doesn't mind practicing piano so much anymore (as long as it's songs she wants to play). Her favorite thing to wear is jeans, even in the dead of summer. It kills me when I see her wearing tight long jeans when she could be wearing shorts! We went through her dresser and most of her closet yesterday... she'd outgrown more than half! I had to convince her to go with me to the thrift store last night, and we found lots of cute new replacement things for her to wear to school.
Manda went through her drawers this morning too and passed down a dozen shirts to Allison, so her drawers are a little bare as well! I will be taking her shopping tomorrow and hopefully find some cute stuff. She is super hard to fit. By the way I love thrift shopping, where I can afford to buy all the brands I wouldn't even think to look at @ malls.
Time to get something done today! Peace out!
