Vacation, part 1

For our little family, Thanksgiving is a time for travel. While Christmas is filled with traditions and history and a desire to be near family, Thanksgiving is our time to get away and enjoy something new. And despite the daunting recession, we were able to make a trip work thanks to frequent flyer miles and the most gracious hospitality of our dear friends the Hatch family who put us up for four nights.

So we started our vacation at Disney, staying in the beautiful Rancho Santa Margarita (where they have street names such as Avenida De Las Flores - imagine having to teach your kids their address!) where we were hosted by the fabulous Beda and Brock and their awesome kids (who were oddly similar in every conceivable way to my own children). We had great fun at Disneyland (despite crowds) and California Adventure which we really enjoyed and was a first-time experience for all of us.




We took K2 to Ariel's Grotto at California Adventure to have lunch with the Disney Princesses. I am SO glad we did it, it was 100% worth it to watch her absolute awe. In one of the multitude of ways K2 and I are alike, I don't think I ever see her speechless. Except here. They bring the princesses out one at a time, and they spend a few minutes at your table so you have a little time in between each one. During those times, K2 would just sit quietly staring at the place the next princess would emerge and too anxious to eat. She truly didn't have anything to say! When the princesses would come she would immediately hug them, stare at them, talk to them, take a picture, get an autograph and then sit and wait patiently for the next. I think I got her to eat two or three bites of her spaghetti through the whole thing. She even made a picture for Sleeping Beauty ahead of time and was so excited to give it to her. Sleeping Beauty made such a big deal about it, telling her where she was going to put it in her castle.
Worth. Every. Penny.


Oh and K1, who insisted beforehand that he had no desire to take pictures with any of the princesses, was so overcome with their beauty he had to get in on the action. Yeah buddy, just what I thought.



There's a million more pictures and stories and we haven't even moved on to our second phase of the vacation, San Diego. I'll save that for another post. To end this one, a photo that sums up how much energy the kids expended each day: