Disney Trip Pictures Day 1

This is nowhere near all the pictures that were taken, but here’s some highlights of our first day at Disneyland. Be sure to watch the two videos at the end of Casey and Cody’s Jedi training including a brush with the dark side!

Twittering our Disney trip

Go to twitter.com/spacytracie for our twitter updates about our Disney trip.

Happiest Place on Earth

… it freaking better be. This is quite the chore corralling and getting ready 6 (six) children/teens to hop on a plane first thing in the morning and go live it up at Disneyland.

The laundry… is almost done.
The packing… is almost done.
Rolling up the change we’ve been saving and getting it to the bank… done. (We saved $85 in change, not bad!)
Getting the small odds & ends packed… almost done.
We used the web to check in at the airport and print our boarding passes… so that’s done.
$208 later, we have a shuttle from the airport to the hotel. You read right.. that’s two hundred and eight damn dollars for a SHUTTLE for 8 of us. (Kayla is meeting us at the airport and is paying her own way.) Fortunately it’s actually a huge luxury bus decorated in Disney stuff. Using the passenger van shuttle service (supershuttle), renting a van and driving ourselves, or using the taxi service actually would have cost us more. Go figure.

I’m already exhausted and it’s only 4PM. Fortunately all this work means tomorrow we can just wake up and go. It’s taking two vans and the help of some friends to get this crew and our luggage to the airport, lol.

I wonder how many dirty looks we’re going to get when Jack and I pile 6 children on to the plane? It’s been a while since we’ve had them *all* out and about for an outing.. and this is an ‘outing’ of epic proportions!

For most of them this is their first time on an airplane. They are almost as excited to get to ride on a plane as they are to go to Disneyland!

I just realized I forgot to eat lunch. No wonder I am getting cranky. Off to go get food before this turns into a full on low that I don’t have time nor the will to deal with today!

TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow at this time we’ll be boarding a plane to Los Angeles airport and DISNEYLAND!

We took it a little easy last night, because we know tonight it going to be a flurry of activity. We’ve got 3 of our 6 suitcases located, but I have a hunch the others are in the attic, so when the kids wake up we’ll send them up there.

I have to work today, but Tracie has the day off for some laundry fun and hopefully a little relaxation. We get so stressed right before a big trip like this. (I love you honey!)

See you soon Kaykay!

California here I come…

Just a quick bullet-style update as we’re insanely busy getting all of us ready to go to Disneyland!

• Weather madness – in the last five days we went from days of 97 to over 100 degree weather to thunderstorms and rain and now a storm rolling in that may bring snow into the high elevations. SNOW. In August. Crazy.
• “Is this water sanitary? It looks questionable to me.” That is a Disney’s Tarzan quote we use all the time. Sunday we took the kids to Klineline Pond and I just had a hard time with the disgusting-looking water and the billions of children in diapers in it. Pond/River/Lake water never used to bother me, but for some reason it heebs me out now. We still had fun and I still swam, until the thunder and lightning came and they closed the water.
• Speaking of water – remember our neat new pool and all the hassle to get it installed? Yesterday morning it sprung a leak. And not just an easy patchable leak… but a tear in the seam. And not just on ONE seam, but where a bottom seam and a side seam met and it kept growing. So it was structurally unsound and had to be removed. I was kinda ticked about this. But I’m glad to have my yard back, even if there is a big ugly circle of mud in the center of it.
• Family – my brother is back to living with us again and hoping to put his life back together. Please keep him in your thoughts as he doesn’t have an easy battle ahead of him.
• More family – my sister moved to the coast. I’m bummed about that (since she’s no longer a quick drive away) but happy they are doing what they have always wanted to do.
• More family again – my mom has been stressed out lately due to her mom being very sick. I would call her my grandmother but she disowned me when I was a teenager so she’s just my mom’s mom. I feel bad for my mom, though and she could use some positive vibes.
• Walking – Jack and I were starting to take walks every night. We were doing great till it turned 100 degrees. We’ll be walking a LOT in California so I’m not too worried about that.
• Awkward – I saw an old friend I haven’t seen in years due to too many differences of opinion (primarily about how friends treat each other) at our garage sale last week. That was quite a surprise. And awkward. I rambled a lot. I do that when I’m nervous.
• Money – 0h yeah we had a garage sale and our garage is clean almost cleaned out. I’m happy about that.
• Health – things are about the same. I still need to call my doctor and ask him WTF though. ‘Cause seriously, even though it’s been over two weeks I’m still going WTF!?!

So. Yeah. There’s my crazy life in a nutshell the last couple weeks. I plan to post updates from Disneyland and hopefully pictures too!

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