Last Day at Disney, New Years Eve

We spent the last day at Disney CA Adventures. Dylan seemed to like this better than Disneyland since it brought movies he had watched to life. Here he is at Casa Della tire shop,

 Hanging with Flick

 Linda and Dylan on the big spinning swing, I hate these rides as they make me motion sick, though roller coasters do not, weird.

 Watching the parade as Sully goes by,

 And the Incredibles,

 Dylan and Linda watching to see what is next,

 Toy Story

 We got dinner at the buffet at the Paradise Pier, a Disney Hotel, so naturally the characters came through for a meet and greet. Minny

 Mickey

 Daisy

 Goofey

 An upside down shot of Kailee, who chose to ride with Linda and I, and Dylan with my parents

 Being New Years Eve, celebratory hats were passed out,

 I found a Mike Wazowski hat that then Dylan wanted and Linda wanted to see us matching so I went back and got him one as well, needless to say he was pretty psyched.

 A very tired little one on the walk back to the hotel.

Disneyland Day 2

Day 2 at Disneyland started with a shorter walk to "Downtown" Disney and a ride on the monorail,

 After going on a Finding Nemo submarine ride Dylan got picked to participate in a Padowan training "class" to learn the Jedi arts.

 At some point one of the children up on stage had a breakdown and Dylan was move up, front and center,

After they were done with some training they each had to face off against Darth Vader, this is pretty hilarious as Dylan's lightsaber fails,

Next we headed for lunch in Mickey's Toontown where there are a bunch of playground like areas for the kids, 

 And of course a city hall since it is a "Town"

Eventually Pluto emerged from City Hall to greet his fans, most notably, Uncle Chris.

 The rain kicked up again in the afternoon and we spent some time cowering under an overhang around a food booth before all the "Big Kids" got to leave the little ones and go on the Star Tours "ride". Ride being generous in that it is more of a moving room that does not go anywhere and a big 3D screen. R2D2 was there,

 as was C3P0,

and us "Big Kids"

 It was pretty cool. Amazing how something that barely moves can feel so real.

Eventually the rain subsided and 

we headed to Disney California Adventure and headed to Radiator Springs. Really looks just like in the movie,

 There were some "stars" out to take pictures with,

And Mater has his own ride with Dylan and my parents enjoyed.

Not so Terribly Late Christmas 2012 Post

For Christmas we headed to California to visit with my family. Amazingly, after 23.5 months my parents had finally moved back into their home, though it still needed some finishing touches and many things were still on boxes of in storage. I've made several post about my parents home and the changes it has gone through.

In other news, we got to meet Jack, the son of my cousin Chad and his wife Melanie. Not sure what his super power is but Jak Jak Attacks, everything goes in his mouth, naturally and he looks good with the turtle shell hat.

 We had a chance to visit with Jing and her family. Dylan really had a good time hanging out with Theo who is 8 and also loves LEGO. Jing and Scott being the extreme outdoor surgeons they are introduced us to URBAN SMORS, who needs a camp fire and cold to have a delicious squishy dessert?

 Dylan and Kailee thrilled to have the Christmas tree up.

 Christmas day, riding uncle Chris or is it Auntie Joy (Dylan used to call Chris and Joy Auntie Joy)

 After Christmas my mom used the grandkids as an excuse for her to go to Disneyland. So we ALL headed down south, my parents, Joy, Chris and Kailee, Chris's parents and us. Naturally the kids were thrilled, that includes Linda who had never been before. Dylan and Linda getting ready to get  on their first Disney ride.....It's a Small World.

 Marketing and sponsorship at its finest, Sylvania must have provided all the lighting.

 The small world boat ride was probably a good choice since it started raining, here Dylan and Linda trek past the Matterhorn,

We headed back to the hotel because the rain was getting to us. Then across the street for some lunch at Coco's, they had a guy making some pretty intricate balloon things, though all Dylan wanted was a sword,

 Linda and Dylan headed back in during the afternoon while everyone else napped and had a blast. Then the rest of us went back in for the night shift. It really is a different place at night,

and every night there are fireworks, we managed to watch them from between the two locations they were launching from, Kailee was a little spooked.

 More night time scenery,

 Well that was day one at Disney.

21 Months Later

On our first weekend in CA last week we headed out to Vacaville to do some shopping since Linda always complains that she never gets a chance. Of course this was after riding in the morning so it turned into a very long day. My sister, Joy, her husband, Chris and their daughter, Kailee joined us as well. Dylan now plays very well with Kailee so it is great to see them together. Here is Kailee after diner enjoying so ice cream.

 and the two kids playing on a coin operated safari vehicle, with out the coins of course.

 Over the last 21 months, whenever we go back to CA to visit my family we stop by the home I grew up in and got burned when the house next door went up in flames (New Years 2011). The home that my parents are living in now is leased by the insurance company and the lease is up soon. SO here is the state of the home that needs to be done. Living room,

 Kitchen, with doors

 Kitchen cabinets...

Obviously there is still a fair bit of work to do, but it is a lot better than when it was stripped down to just the framing.

King of the Bed

It is really hard to see in this photo, but tonight we are staying at a hotel in the town of Joshua Tree right outside the park that has 2 king size beds meaning Dylan has one to himself. Naturally he is a sprawled out as possible trying to take up as much space as his little body can. This of course after he spent an hour jumping all over the thing.

We had a good weekend with my parents in San Rafael. Had dinner with everyone on Friday night, from Great Grandma all the way down to young cousin Kailee. On Saturday I got out for a ride with my dad and Linda got out later with my mom. On Sunday we headed up to look at the progress on my parents house (photos to come later) they have torn out all the drywall and are now waiting for approval on truss engineering to replace the whole roof. After that we checked out the art studio that my dad displays at, AurorA Art Studios.

Then to finish off the day we watched the 49ers beat up on the Arizona Cardinals, OK so maybe they should have beaten them by a lot more, but hey 9-1 is still 9-1. GO 9ers.

We have another day of climbing out here in J-Tree then hopefully we will check out a crag in the Los Angeles area and head back to San Rafael for Thanksgiving.

Photos this time

Here are the photo's I promised.
Dylan moving in for a closer look at his new cousin Kailee,
Helping Uncle Chris feed Kailee,

Dylan helping daddy empty the dryer,

and a video of Dylan at the Zoo, watching the seals and sea lions,