Disneyland

Summer 2008

I'm new to this blogging stuff, but I really enjoy reading through friends so I decided to test myself. I thought I'd start with our busy summer so far!

I decided to resign my teaching position this year for many reasons - I won't go into them all - but suffice it to say it was an excruciating decision for me. I've taught at Gearhart Elementary for 10 years and been through a lot there - I love that school - it's my second home. Having to choose between two things you love (job and kids) was not enjoyable... but it had become an either/or decision for me. So, after lots of tears and goodbyes the last week of school - our summer got started immediately!

A few days after school was out, we took off in the motorhome to tag along on a work trip with Ronny down to California. A few days later, we ended up in Moss Landing, CA - near Monterey. After some Mapquest searching, I realized we were only about 5 hours away from Disneyland.... well, then it was all over! Luckily I have a spontaneous hubby and we headed for SoCal! Online I found a hotel room across the park for only $10 more per night than the RV park, so we were able to get out of the motorhome for a while. We wanted to surprise the kids and say something along the lines of...."let's go outside for a walk and see what there is to do"... and then just walk into Disneyland for a huge surprise, but our hotel was too close to the park and as soon as Cameron went out on the porch he recognized the Tower of Terror from last summer's trip. So the surprise was ruined, but everybody was still excited!

Cameron and Tyler are in Star Wars obsessive mode lately, so the Jedi Training Academy was a big hit this time - as well the Star Tours ride. We had many wonderful moments (how can you not at Disney?), but one of my favorites is the Mickey Mouse picture above. Elie was sound asleep in her stroller as we were walking out of the park late one night. We stopped to get a picture of the boys with Mickey and Elie woke up, jumped out of her stroller and threw her arms around Mickey's leg! Not the least bit timid! We hardened her up after about 15 trips of Pirates of the Caribbean (the only ride we could all go on together aside from major kiddy rides) - the last few trips she pushed our arms away and held her hands up for the drops! Seriously! That girl's gonna be tough!

The boys, meanwhile, couldn't get enough of Splash Mountain - by far the favorite - although if you ask 3 year old Ty Ty which his favorite ride was he answer "all of them". The first time I went on Splash Mountain with Ty I thought he was crying after the big drop at the end - but when I looked down at him I realized he was laughing - this guttural, deep, loud laugh I've never heard before - another of my favorite moments.