This year we were lucky enough to have another 2 week business trip to Anaheim California! We drove down this year. We were so restless at the first hotel that Evelyn taught us ballet to help get the wiggles out! Then we watched a cooking show the rest of the night. "Chopped." We very rarely get to watch television shows, so we splurged a bit.
It was an interesting trip because we had to check in and out of 4 different hotels because of spiking rates. By the end we felt like we had been on 4 vacations. This is one of the nicer ones.
While Michael worked during the day, Evelyn and I would either do homework (for half of the days) or we would go to Disneyland! Then at nights Michael would join us either in the park, or we'd go out on the town.
Evelyn was much braver this year. She was a little hesitant to ride the Matterhorn with the new Harold, but she ended up being curious and asking me to go on it! We rode it like 3 or four times.
She would probably have been nervous to ride California Screaming, but it was closed down for the conversion of Pixar Pier. Neither Evelyn nor I rode the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. But Michael loved it.
Evelyn was in a new stage this year. She is growing up so fast! In order to make sure we didn't zone the trip out, I came up with get to know you questions. It was fun to talk over dinner or during some of the longer lines. I will make another blog that I will list the questions in case you like get to know you questions.
We got to go to the movie "The Greatest Showman" while we were there. It was such a fun show, and we all came away singing the songs. It was extra fun because we just studied that era in history, so we were able to look up Barnum and see what was true and what wasn't. We also noticed a lot of things in Disneyland that we had studied in History. That made for more good discussions.
It was so cold! Michael and I weren't prepared for the cold, because the forecast had been 80 degrees, so that's what we packed for, but then dropped to 40 degrees. We went and bought some sweaters, and heavily layered on the colder days. On the worst days, I wore two shirts, two pants, two sweaters, two pairs of socks, a coat, gloves, hat, and poncho!--And I still froze. It was ok though....it just meant we bought lots of hot chocolate. The Ghiradelli's is the best, but WAY expensive! It's cheaper if you go to the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney. Speaking of the Jazz Kitchen: super delicious beignets!!!! We finally tried them this year, and couldn't get enough!
This was our other hotel. It was a bit of an adjustment, because it wasn't as nice as it looked online, but it was clean. We just had to decide it was a hotel on the spanish main. We watched Blackbeard's Ghost, and then we liked it better.
Evelyn spent most the time playing on our little private balcony. I spent most of the time lying on the bed. It was a good hotel.
That weekend we also got a chance to go to Universal Studios. We haven't ever been together, and Evelyn was so excited for the Jurassic Park ride (I had told her all about it, and for some reason she loves dinosaurs!) It was so fun to do something different. Michael loved it, but my opinion was that I prefer Disneyland, and I am glad we were only there for the one day.
I loved the photo-bomb in this shot! It was like being stalked by Professor Snape!
We all loved the Jurassic Park ride the best, and went on it 3 or four times. It was nice to have my scooter so we didn't have to wait in the lines.
We also got to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific, which was also a first. It was mostly just your average aquarium, but we especially loved the jelly fish, the puffin exhibit, the poison dart frogs, and the cheap gift shop! Evelyn bought a turtle and I got plastic frogs.
Then we went to Medieval Tines again, and Evelyn got picked as the Queen of the Tournament! She had been blowing kisses and flirting atrociously with our knight, and we were right on the front row. He would see her, and smirk, but give the flowers to others. She wasn't getting really frustrated, when he picked her for Queen of the Tournament. She was so pleased!
I had bought Evelyn a princess crown at Medieval Times, and dressed her up for the next Disneyland Day. She loved it. But halfway through the day, we saw a little three-year-old Cinderella. She was all dressed up with a bun and everything. All she needed was a crown. So Evelyn took hers off and asked the mom if she could give it to the little girl! That sweet little girl lit up like a Christmas tree when she got it, and Evelyn and I smiled the rest of the day.
This was taken when we were in line for Peter Pan. We were trying to come up with good baby names for twins. That was funny.
Our favorite place to eat is at Tortilla Joe's. Usually we get right in, but one time we have to wait for about an hour, so we had a Downtown Disney photo shoot. We discovered that Michael doesn't know how to smile when he is taking selfies.
This was Evelyn and I practicing our sassy looks. Evelyn didn't quite know what that meant.
Evelyn ran into a Disney worker who was named Evelyn from San Antonio. When Evelyn exclaimed, "That's my name!" The worker gave Evelyn her name tag!
Here is one of those Daddy-can't-smile selfie shots. The one below is better.
I found some awesome haunted mansion socks. I bought these for me, and some for Michael that had the stretching portraits on them.
