Disneyland Last post!

Our last two days in Disneyland were so fun. We packed in a lot of things and saw a lot of Disney characters. Thursday was spent mostly in California Adventure with the girls. Anna and I had a fun time in Bug's Land with the girls, and we also rode the Monster's Inc ride which was fun and also rode The Little Mermaid...again. I think my girls loved that ride the best that week.

Chris stayed with Gradon in the room in the morning for his nap and joined up with us later when we had the chance to spend some time with our friends Matt 'Ho' Tysler and his wife Beth and their girls. Ho is a good friend of ours from VX9 days in China Lake. We were excited that our family vacations over lapped in Disneyland.

Gradon is not in the picture, he was sleeping in Grandma and Grandpa's room. Grandma was an amazing help that week!

 In the evening we enjoyed dinner at Goofy's kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. The character dining is a lot of fun for everyone.

We took the girls on Pirates of the Carribbean, which was not a favorite. Too scary! Our last ride of the night was Splash Mountain and we all got SOAKED. I mean soaking wet. Sophia said to me after Splash Mountain : 'everytime we go on one of YOUR rides something bad happens.' They didn't like Thunder Mountain Railroad either. Too funny. I guess they aren't ready for those more adventurous rides.

Friday was the last push, and I spent most of my day running around seeing every Disney princess and character you can imagine. The girls were so pleased. We also spent time with my cousin Julia and her sweet kids. We rode the Autotopia, Buzz Lightyear and a few others together. Her daughter Jane and my Ellie are two months a part in age and got along wonderfully. I wish we could see them more often!

Around lunchtime we spent a good amount of time at the Princess Faire in Fantasyland. Several of the princesses hang out at an area down past the rides and do a story time, a quick show and other fun events. Sophia had her heart set on seeing Cinderella, so this was our only shot at a visit with her. According to the Disney staff, she is rarely in the park anymore, and hard to catch. We were grateful that we were able to meet her that day. Sophia was upset that she didn't have her Cinderella dress, but I assured her that Cinderella wouldn't mind. Ellie was tickled pink to meet her favorite princess, Sleeping Beauty.

One of my favorite moments of the whole day was our visit with Rapunzel. I get teary even typing it out. Chris had waited in line a good part of the afternoon to see her, it's usually a 2 hour wait just to have 5 minutes with the princess. We visited with Tinkerbell and Silvermist in PixieHollow and then joined Chris at Rapunzel's tower.

Rapunzel was one of the sweetest most genuine princesses I have met at Disneyland. They are all polite and sweet and kind, but this princess was darling with my girls. She asked them about their days in Disneyland, and if they would teach her to be a fairy like them. They danced and talked about all kinds of things. It was magic. I was crying by the end of it. Really, I am such a baby. It made their day, and mine.

Dinner that night was spent at the Thunder Mountain Ranch BBQ, a great place for our last night in the parks. They pu on a fantastic family show complete with old time folk and cowboy songs. After dinner we headed back to the room for cake and ice cream to celebrate my brother's son Mason's birthday!

We had a great time all together. It was so hard to believe our magical time in Disney with the family was almost over.

Saturday morning we all packed up and our family made the drive to LAX to fly back to Maryland. It was a wonderful trip. It was so fun to be together as a family, all of us. My brother and his kids, and my cute sister and her wonderful husband. I am so thankful for the generosity and love of my parents. They made our trip so memorable. I loved every minute of our California vacation. I hope we get to do it again.

U2

 photo on Dan and Kelly's front porch prior to the drive to Anaheim
I have been a HUGE U2 fan for several years, maybe half my life...tells you just how old I am. =) I have been wanting to see them in concert for just as long, and have missed out on a few opportunities to see them over the years. On June 18th I FINALLY got my turn. About 10 months ago Chris and I were planning our trip to California and we realized that U2 was going to be in Anaheim over the dates that were planned to be in California for my family's reunion. We decided to include Chris' brother Dan and his wife who also live in central California. We also planned to surprise her with the tickets since the day two concert date fell on her birthday. For the last several months I have beens staring at the four U2 tickets in my dresser drawer, counting down the days to the concert.

Saturday afternoon we picked Dan and Kelly up in Hanford and made our way south we were kind of in a time crunch and of course hit traffic. Dan was great withhis smart phone navigating us through the worst of it, and helped us find a crazy burger joint for dinner. We arrived right on time and found our seats. It was a fantastic show. Lenny Kravitz opened the concert and until this point I had always liked his music, but his music live is another story altogether. Intense, powerful, soulful, blazing with a smoking brass section and back-up vocals, he almost stole the show. *almost*

After Lenny did his set, there was about an hour in between U2's opener, and I found myself on the hunt fora particular tour t shirt...I finally found one and got to meet several die hard U2 fans in the lines, amazing how friendly everybody was, It was so fun listening to fans tell their stories of concerts they had attended over the years, one fan who has seen nine concerts this year alone, and who has met Bono in Dublin. As I was finally making my purchase I heard the opening strands of David Bowie's  'Ground Control to Major Tom' echoing through the stadium. ( Space travel was a theme for the tour.) 

I grabbed my bag and RAN back to my seat in the stands. 'Even Better than the Real Thing' was the opener, fabulous. They played 4 songs from the album 'Achtung Baby' in a row, which was great for me, it's my second favorite album behind Joshua Tree. The night was full of song surprises, with interesting choices by the band stretching their  30+ year career. I wished it would have lasted just a wee bit longer...but isn't that the way it always goes? You just want one more song? I do wish they had played 'Bad' one of my very favorites and a classic song from the band's 'Unforgettable Fire' album, but all in all, I am so happy. I got to hear 'With or Without You' and 'I Will Follow' live. If you want to check out the complete set list you can view it here. It was a great night, a night well worth the wait.

midway through the concert via Kelly's iphone