L.A. Part 3: Hooray for Hollywood, Thanksgiving, and Chill-ing Out

Finally, my last L.A. post! 

Mark, Monica, Maya, and Emma are currently living in Westwood (near UCLA) while they house hunt.  Papa Tig, the kids, and I had lunch at a pizza spot around the corner from their house while the rest of the crew prepared for Thanksgiving, which was the following day.  Love this mural on the wall at the pizza place.

After lunch we were off to Hollywood for a sneak preview of the (then brand new) Disney movie "Frozen."  Before taking in the movie, we wandered up and down Hollywood Boulevard, home of the Hollywood Walk of Fame ... and lots and lots of loony people.  Here's Scarlett acting crazy on Tom Cruise's star.  Well played on many levels, Scarlett.  Well played.

Silly girls on Aretha Franklin's star.

We saw Frozen in 3-D at the El Capitan theater, a beautiful restored theater that originally opened in 1926.  It was both Scarlett and Max's first movie in a movie theater, and they both did great (although all 30+ pounds of Max insisted on sitting in my lap for the entire movie).  Scarlett was ready for the show with her lemonade, popcorn, and upside down 3-D glasses.

The kids (and Papa Tig and I) really enjoyed the movie -- it featured two strong female leads and had really progressive messages.  Scarlett liked it so much that her official present request from Santa (both in person when she talked to Santa and in her "letter" that she wrote him at school) was for  a "Frozen doll" (translation:  Elsa, one of the two sisters featured in the movie).

Thanksgiving was a beautiful day and an amazing meal.  The Oaxaca 4 joined us -- Monica's brother Miguel, his wife Paula, and their kids Joaquin and baby Marco.  Check out these adorable Pilgrim ship snack containers crafty Paula made for the kids.

Crafts before Thanksgiving dinner.

Little turkey.

Pilgrim hat sneak attack.

Reluctant pilgrim.

Pilgrim hat hair.

Making play dough turkeys with Auntie Monica.

Maya, Miguel, and Marco.

Rocking the pink scooter and helmet with a little help from Papa Tig.

Family shot.

Who you callin' turkey, turkey?

Papa Tig and Mimi.

Making "berry soup" from mud and berries they picked from bushes in the backyard.  Despite their efforts, we went ahead and stuck to the previously planned menu.

Almost time to eat!

The kids' table.

Dig in!

You too, Papa Tig!  And for the record, the food was AWESOME.  I loooove Thanksgiving dinner, and Monica (and her assitants, but clearly not me) did an amazing job.  And now I'm hungry.

On our last day in town we headed to Long Beach to check out the Queen Mary's winter festival called "Chill".  There was ice tubing, an outdoor skating rink, a giant interactive snow globe, and "The World's Largest Rocking Horse."  

Checking out boats at the Long Beach dock after lunch.

Heading in to "Chill."

Scarlett's -- and Chris's -- first time ice skating!

Luckily only Scarlett flashed her belly on the skating rink.

Silliness!

Hands up in the air to catch the falling snow in the giant inflatable snow globe.

Prepare to be wowed by my amazing ride on "The World's Largest Rocking Horse."  JEALOUS?!?  no?  Yeah, that sounds about right.

Snowman hug on the way out.

Heading to the ship for a quick look around.  (Hard to read, but to the right of Chris's shoulder you can see where it says "The Queen Mary".)  

L.A. -- you were lost of fun, but exhausting!

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 ...)