Christmas 2008

Christmas was flippin' awesome. Yeah, flippin', because I can't say the other word to describe the Lord's birthday. The boys were just crazy excited when they got up and so were we. We heard them talking in the hallway early in the morning. They were whispering about the presents under the tree and how cool it looked. Hard to be mad when they are so cute.

They made their way downstairs and found that Santa had once again cleaned out the cookies and milk but left their stockings full. Chubby dudes love cookies, I should know. They made short work of the stockings and went running to the tree.

We had to stop them from ripping through every package with abandon. Turns out Santa made some smart choices this year. The boys really like everything and have been busy the last few days enjoying the fruits of Santa's labor.

As for the other family part of things; Christmas eve we went to Mimi and O's, and then Christmas Day we went to Ma and Poppy's. Mimi and O laid out a great spread and we got to see cousin Alex and Aunt Renee'. Can't beat that. Ma and Poppy and had the usual suspects over, including a good dose of rain, but that didn't stop the party. If there is one meal I look forward to every year, it is the Italian feast Cindy's Mom throws down. Sweet baby Jesus, it makes my belly smile.

Merry late Christmas to everyone. I hope you all got to spend time with family and friends celebrating this most awesome of holiday's.

Disneyland 2008

We got back last night from our trip to Disneyland. This was our Christmas present to the boys this year...and to ourselves. It turned out to be the best present ever for all involved.

We left Saturday morning to make the drive across the desert. We were loaded down with games, DVDs, and music to keep the boys occupied, but mostly they just wanted to talk about Disneyland the whole time. I haven't made that drive since I was 17, and it was a lot easier than I remember. Pretty much a straight line to Disneyland, with the occasional wildcard detour thrown in from our friendly gps.

Our hotel was great. Big, with a full kitchen and three beds....and cheap. I like cheap. Especially when a full breakfast is included in the cheap. Mmmm...savings.

Our first day we made to the park about 1PM. The weather was perfect. We rode Star Tours first. Then we went and had lunch, much to Jake's disappointment. He wanted to ride more right away and let us know with his words and big droopy lower lip. As he barely ate, I noticed his loose tooth kind of wiggling a bit. I asked him if he wanted me to take it out for him, or if he wanted to do it himself. He tried first, but couldn't get a good grip. I grabbed a napkin, got a good grip, gave it a gentle squeeze and POP!, out came his first tooth. He went from all frowny, to all smiles...blood and all. He is now our little toofless wonder. What a guy.

After that whole scene, we were off and running. Jake had a new big guy stride and Brady was about to show us something about him too. We went on Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Nemo, Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, and Jungle Cruise. Jake and Mommy share a little problem with motion sickness so they'd had their fill for the day. Brady though...he couldn't wait for the next day, and the next ride...

At California Adventure, they have this crazy, sick, awesomely insane ride called The Tower of Terror. It's a 183 foot ride that looks like just an old outdated hotel, inside and out. There are cobwebs everywhere inside and it's dark and creepy. Besides that, there's not much too it. Except for the terrifying, blood curdling, vomit inducing ride at the top. This is what Brady wanted to ride. My five year old. My little guy. Since I am the only one that could take a ride like this, when he asked me, I had to say yes. I told him it would be scary, and let him watch a few rides from the outside, and how much people scream when they ride it...but he was undeterred. Ugh. We went inside, leaving Jake and Mommy at the entrance. I was hoping he would get scared at some point and turn back, but no such luck. I was freaking out on the inside, but I didn't dare show it to B. I was determined to let him have his fun, if this was his idea of fun. He was all excited the whole time. Not once did he even look concerned. The special effects before you even ride are just awesome. He got a kick out of the fake ghosts and spooky music. After our turn to buckle into the "elevator", he was just the picture of ready. The ride starts off nice, showing you some more cool affects, before revealing to you that you are about to possibly die on an amusement park ride, or at least feel like it. You see, it's not so much that the elevator drops from the top, you are actually pulled down by a cable at ungodly speeds and then lifts you back up and does it again over and over and random intervals. This causes your butt to go airborne, only held in by the thick seat belt. Holy Hell. Brady closed his eyes and held on for dear life. I held on to him and tried to keep from crying and puking. The ride isn't that long but it felt like 30 minutes of hell. When it stopped, Brady opened his eyes had started laughing like crazy. He had a single tear in his eye, and a huge smile on his. He kept saying, "My butt was in the air, I was floating!" over and over. The other riders, who were all grown adults all smiled and busted out laughing with him. Brady is brave beyond my ability, and I am not looking forward to his teenage years.

While me and B were busy trying to not crap our pants, Jake and Mommy found some other fun to get into. Sully from Monsters, Inc. was walking around and Jake became fast friends with him. He walked and held hands with the big guy all through the backlot until Sully had to go in for a break. Looking at Jake sometimes and how big he is, it is easy to think he is way older. But inside that huge body is sweet, tender hearted little fella who still likes him some animated characters come-to-life once in a while.

Later that day we found the best ride in the whole park, according to us. Grizzly River Run, is by far the most fun we all had together the whole time. Yes, it was cold. Yes, we got wet. But, we had dry clothes to change into, so that made it almost a logical idea. Jake was pretty apprehensive at first, but we rode with these four cool little kids who kept him laughing right up until the ride started it's drops and splashes. Then, it was all over with. Jake was hooked. We were all hooked. We rode it three times back to back, getting progressively more wet and laughing even more each time. Too cool, we need to make it back during warmer weather and just kill this thing all day long.

We had a great time the rest of the trip, even in the rain on Monday. We rode a few last rides and munched on churros with our ponchos on. On the way out of Disneyland, we stopped in to the little candy store on Main St. to get them a much-begged-for lollipop. When we walked in, I saw a bunch of TV cameras and lights, and behind them I could see some dude's unnaturally blond and spiky hair. There is only one guy on TV that looks like that, and his name is Guy Fieri. We like us some Guy Fieri in the this house. Even the boys. He was making some candy and chatting up the folks who work there, so look for it sometime on your tube in the near future. I took a quick little video to give you a taste.

After three days of Disney they boys were not ready to leave, none of were so there were a few longing looks back at the main gate and few tearful goodbyes. We'll be back sometime, but for now...I am still so pumped up from all the fun we had and I know the boys are too. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Merry Christmas boys.