Halloween

Trick or Treating. Spooky Ghosts. Creepy Pumpkins. My kids are in heaven this time of year. If you took away the presents, my kids would definitely prefer Halloween over any other holiday. For a weekend or so we had Darth Vader, Chubaka, and a Skunk running around our house. So much fun. Getting them to hold still for a decent picture on the other hand, not so much fun.

Disneyland!!!

It wouldn't be a family vacation for us if we didn't try to wrap too many things into it, so of course we had a few stops along the way. Actually, the BK competed in his first Olympic Triathlon at Lake Powell the weekend before we went to LA. He did a great job, and trained pretty hard so we are really proud of him! He looks great too, especially when holding his LG who was so excited that the "yellow" team won.





We love LA. I never thought that would come out of my mouth. That said, it has definitely grown on me since visiting my brothers who now reside there. The kids have such a grand time visiting their cousins, and a trip to Santa Monica, topped off with a trip to Disneyland never hurt. The pic below cracks me up. It's too complicated for me to explain why we had to take this picture, but we are hoping that 20 years from now they all decide to meetup at the same spot and try to fit their adult bodies on this tiny porpoise.



We were grateful to have actually made it to Disneyland after we ended up buying our tickets from a less than reputable source. Let's just say that if your tickets include instructions as follows, you should probably just walk away:

"It isn't likely that anyone will ask, but if they do, tell them you were there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, not Monday, and today [Tuesday] is your 4th day."

You can imagine our relief, however, to learn that if on the off chance that anyone did ask, and we were kicked out of the park, that the refund policy included "new" tickets being brought to us so we could try again. The thought of explaining to our children how Disneyland turned into jail should have been deterrent enough. Let's just say we aren't that bright.





We probably deserved going on a day when the park closed early, and the "Small World" and "Pirates" exhibits were closed. Because of the close proximity to Halloween, they had made a few "tweaks" to the Space Mountain ride, basically turning into a spook alley with creepy screaming ghosts and demons following you around every corner. Just sayin' Disney, maybe a disclaimer at the gate would have been appropriate, warning us that the ride was no longer suitable for the younguns. Hard to believe that our kids were the only ones with their ears and eyes covered and shrieking hysterically for their lives to end.

Joking aside, it was a great trip. Thanks to my brother and his wife who tolerate us in close proximity, and thank you to Walt Disney for going just a wee bit overboard and dreaming big.