L.A. Part 2: The Happiest Place on Earth

The kids were pumped for Disneyland, and were ready with their shirts from Max's Mickey Mouse party.  (Several times that day I was momentarily taken aback when a stranger would call one of the kids by name until I remembered they had their names emblazoned across their chests).

First up, obligatory photo just inside the entrance in front of the Mickey flowers.  Let's do this!

Chip and Dale in their Christmas finest (the whole park was decked out for the holidays) were the first characters we encountered.  Scarlett was skeptical.  Max wanted absolutely no part of them.

Walking down Main Street.

Scarlett, her Daddy, and the castle.  Apparently, this is Sleeping Beauty's castle and Cinderella's castle is at Disney World.  Scarlett was certain this was Cinderella's castle, so we'll just go with that.

The gang with the Matterhorn in the background.

Big girl on the carousel.

Max is a little iffy.  He made it about halfway through the ride, then "Mama hold me!"

Maya!

Emma!

Crazy hat #1.

Crazy hat #2.

Dumbos.  (To be clear -- the ride, not the two grown men riding a tiny elephant ride.)

This one cracks me up because you can't see Scarlett and Emma, so it looks like Chris and Mark stood in line for 30 minutes to ride Dumbo by themselves.  Not that there would be anything wrong with that.  (Who am I kidding, there would totally be something wrong with that.)

Happy girls on the teacups.

Spinnnnniiiinnnnngggg!

Getting ready to ride It's a Small World.

Admiring the sights.

My cute little Mousekateers.

Maya tries to pull Excalibur out of the stone.  No luck ... maybe next time.

Max and I stumbled across this nice random dude in a feathered puffy hat prince on our way to lunch.  Max actually stopped to check him out, but when I tried to get a photo of them Max freaked out and ran for his life.  Here he is fleeing.  (Maybe the prince was handing out poisoned apples?  Maybe he was in cahoots with those scary Pirates of the Caribbean (see below)?  Apparently you can never be too careful.)

Aladdin and the Genie (Jasmine was on a break).  Scarlett still leery, but look at the Genie's perma-grin.  Can't say I blame her.

Ready for the Christmas parade!

Not so ready for the Christmas parade.  Max almost slept through the entire thing, including a huge marching band less than 10 feet away from him.  He woke up just in time to see a dozen giant rollerskating reindeer whiz past him, which had to be disorienting to say the least.

Roller skating snowflakes.

Elves.

Santa.

Waving at the princesses.

Sweet kisses from Max while in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Had he known we were about to get on a ride that would scar him for life, he might not have been so generous with those kisses.  Scarlett did great, but Max clung to me like a magnet, silent but trembling.  Afterwards I asked him if he had fun and wanted to go again.  He said, "Not go again, pirates MEAN!!"  He was still talking about the pirates the next morning, poor thing.  I tried to tell him that the pirates were pretend, but the problem is they totally look real so I sounded like a big fat liar.  I finally convinced him that the pirates are just on that particular ride, because he started talking about how all of Disneyland was "MEAN!", presumably because he had visions of roving bands of terrifying pirates pillaging the entire place.  But no worries -- it's all sorted out now: Disneyland is fun.  Pretend pirates are fun.  Real pirates are mean.  Real pirates stick to the scary ride.

Cat nap on Daddy's shoulder in line for our last ride of the day on the Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure.

Evidence of a great time:  Scarlett's morning-after-Disneyland hair.

We can't wait to go back!  (But we'll probably steer clear of the Pirates of the Caribbean for a few more years ...)

L.A Part 1: California Dreamin'

Chris, Scarlett, Max and I headed out to LA for the week of Thanksgiving to visit Mark, Monica, Maya, and Emma.  Papa Tig and Mimi joined us out there as well.  We had lots of fun on the agenda ...  beach, Disneyland, and Thanksgiving, just to name a few.

On our way!

Our rental house in Santa Monica less than two blocks from the beach.

Checking out the "secret garden" with Cousin Maya after lunch at The Grove.

Lunch at the Back on the Beach Cafe in Santa Monica, just down the street from our rental house.  There was a playground right next to the dining patio ... genius!

We had two celebrity sightings at lunch.  First Cuba Gooding, Jr. was eating a few tables away.  Then Chris spotted Valerie Bertinelli heading to her car.  Here's Cuba photobombing Max and Scarlett, who were busy playing in the sand.

Papa Tig is always guaranteed to play at the playground, too.

While we were at lunch, we witnessed a marriage proposal by five sky-writing jets -- amazing!  A few minutes later the jets came back by to inform us that she said yes.

Three excited little girls heading down to the ocean.

Papa Tig and Scarlett taking it all in.

Mimi, Emma, Maya, and Papa Tig admiring the view.

The light was beautiful.

Max decided to stay far away from the waves, focusing instead on the sand (which we continued to find in our house and car for days).

Maya strikes a pose.

Hey Max, where are you going?  (Maybe back to the restaurant to chat up Cuba Gooding, Jr.?)

This photo looks sweet, but Scarlett is actually super hacked off because we told her it was time to leave.  Chris is negotiating.  Unfortunately, they could not reach a compromise, so it didn't end well for either of them.

Telling Max we were leaving the beach didn't go much better.  Here he's wailing and trying to escape my clutches while I haul him back to the car  ("More beach!!! Mooorrreee beeeeaaaccchhh!!!").  Parents can be so cruel.  Also of note is my "Why are you taking a picture of this, Chris?" face.  I suppose I should just be glad that I'm actually in a picture since I'm always the one taking them.

Back at the house it was hot tub time!  I'm not really sure what's going on here.  If I had to guess, I'd say that Maya's being a shark, Emma is escaping from the shark, Max is squealing with excitement (probably due to the imminent shark attack that nobody else seems too concerned about), and Scarlett is smugly wondering what all the shark fuss is about.

Next up ... Disneyland!