May Adventures

I was afraid I wouldn't be very good at keeping my blog updated. So, in an effort to "catch up" here's some of our May adventures.

Aria went to her first hockey game and Melodie had a tap recital. My best friend got her Masters in Social Work. I had a nice Mother's Day (Melodie and I went to a church Mother/Daughter activity the day before).

Aria and I went to Disney's California Adventure quite a few time because my annual pass expired this month. This is my FAVORITE picture from all our visits.

Once Upon a Time is one of my favorite TV shows. When I saw that the last two episodes were entitled "Second Star to the Right" and "Straight on Til Morning" I knew a season finale party was in order. Everyone brought fairy tale themed food.

 

My best friend had to go to San Luis Obispo for the weekend and Aria and I went with her. Road Trip! The bubble gum wall in SLO is icky. I found the cutest little place called  Avila Valley Barn. Aria and I spent a beautiful afternoon there.

Aria is 3 months old!

 

It was a very busy month with so many fun adventures!

Cars Land Preview

 I can't believe I forgot to blog about this. If I had done it earlier it would have been more exciting. Now Cars Land has officially opened, but on the 11th, I was able to go to the annual passholder preview. It was great to see the new land at DCA before the opening, especially because I probably won't be back to see it until after summer.
 We had from 6pm to 11pm to spend in Buena Vista Street (the new entrance area) and Cars Land. It was plenty of time.
 The Buena Vista Street theme is beautiful.

Even though we took pictures on the trolley, we didn't get to see Mickey and the news boys. Bummer! I'm a fan of Newsies from back in the day, so I look forward to seeing this. There was plenty of other atmosphere talent and characters though. Here's the ones we saw in the few minutes we were there:

We stopped for a quick look at Ghiradelli and then entered Cars Land.

Unfortunately, Radiator Springs Racers, the first attraction we came to (and the attraction we were most excited about) was down. Luigi's Flying Tires was an incredibly long wait, so we looked around a bit before going on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. While I wouldn't wait that long for it again, it was at least under an hour. Plus the queue had cute signs from all the Mater shorts. Cindy and I couldn't resist a picture with these:

It was a fun ride. After that we spent time looking around at the area. The theming was incredible. So much detail. One of my favorite things was this:

See Buzz? This was in the lobby of the Cozy Cone Motel.
After looking around a bit, we grabbed food (in my case just a milkshake) at Flo's Cafe.

By the way, the neon at night was perfect. The place glowed with neon signs. I loved it! While we were eating we saw Radiator Springs Racers opened. We went over after we were done and opted for the single rider line. 20 min. vs. 95 min. is a no brainer for us. It was a great ride. It reminded me a little of Test Track at Epcot.

 Luigi's Flying Tires was finally a shorter wait. It was my least favorite of the three. You lean to make the tire move and throw giant beach balls. The problem is there's really no where to go (think of really big bumper cars) and once you throw a beach ball it's difficult to get another one. Hopefully you got one in the beginning (there's not enough for everyone).

 We rode Radiator Springs Racers once more (yay single rider!) before calling it a night.

 Overall, Cars Land is a lot of fun. My only problem with it is that two of the height requirements are 32" and the Racers are 40". For a land themed after such a popular kids movie, I'm surprised their wasn't at least one attraction for a family to ride together.
 I can't wait to take Melodie. She'll love the attractions.

Peter Pan Magic

 I'm not sure when this started. I like to joke that it was here:

After all, if you hate the villain that much, you must love the hero. That's me, less than 1 year old, with my dad at Disneyland. Obviously I'm not feeling the love for Captain Hook.
 It was actually sometime in jr. high or high school when I read the book by J.M. Barrie. I liked it but at the time it wasn't my favorite.
 When I started high school I met the girl who would be my best friend for the rest of my life, Cindy. At some point we decided Peter Pan was our favorite Disney character. My best friend says, "we related to him." We really liked happy thoughts. And the idea of flying. And not growing up. We bought Peter Pan hats and actually wore them.
 When I moved away, we kept in touch. I shared my love of Peter Pan with my new little siblings.

It definately stuck the most with Megan. A few weekends ago she came down to So Cal to go to Disneyland with a friend. I got a call that she saw Peter Pan in the parade. She cheered so loud that he came over to give them all high fives. I was so proud. First, I taught them at a young age to cheer for characters during a parade because they will acknowledge you. Second, although she doesn't love Peter like I do, she thought of me.  After high school I moved back to So Cal. We worked at Disneyland (she was first, I followed). This meant a lot of our paycheck went straight back to the company because we bought anything with Peter Pan on it. Since we got in Disneyland for free, we watched Fantasmic! a lot. There's an amazing section with Peter on a pirate ship (this scene is not in Fantasmic! at WDW, which seriously leaves it lacking).

We would cheer like crazy during this section.
 After we both left Disneyland, we still sought out Peter Pan related things. My favorite Peter Pan movies came out in 2003. It starred Jeremy Sumpter. If you haven't seen this version, you need to.

 In 2007 we went to the El Capitan in Hollywood to see Disney's Peter Pan.

We went the first night, so there was a panel discussion that included animators and the character voices.

It was thrilling to meet Kathryn Beaumont, the voice of Wendy.

 I waited until my daughter was 1 for her first visit to Disneyland. Our first ride was Peter Pan's Flight.

 In 2010 an amazing show came to So Cal. Peter Pan 360 was one of the best shows I have ever seen.

  

We even bought tickets to a behind the scenes tour.

 So why am I thinking of all of this now. Last night Cindy and I took Melodie to her first real musical she'd been to other made-for-kids-so-they-were-short plays). We were thrilled that Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby was in our area. We were excited. I debated for a while on whether or not to take Mel, but I thought it would be perfect if Melodie's first musical was Peter Pan. We dressed up for a night at the theater.

We arrived early knowing we needed a booster seat for Mel and that we'd want to buy some merchandise. I ended up buying a program, a Peter Pan glow stick, a magnet and a Tinker Bell necklace for Melodie.

We had seats in the orchestra level (which Cindy and I don't normally spring for).

There's nothing like the moment when Peter Pan flies onto the stage. Cathy Rigby (and the rest of the cast) did an amazing job. It was fun to watch Melodie (who does know some of the music since I listen to it quite often). She did NOT like the pirates (actually found them quite scary). But that was fun too. Her reactions were amusing to watch.

Her favorite part was the very end when Peter Pan flew over the audience and the croc chased after Captain Hook. It was a very magical night.

Scots Fest 2012

 We're not Scottish, but yesterday was our second time going to Scots Fest at the Orange County Fair Grounds. Last year Melodie really wanted a kilt, but they are expensive. This year I went to my favorite second hand store to find a plaid skirt for her to wear. I found one for $1.
 The friends (Matt and Meghan) we go with are Scottish. Matt has a kilt. I had to get a picture of Matt and Melodie together to start off the day.

While we waited for the clan march, Melodie took a picture with the Queen. We shopped a bit, then ran into a Brave booth. We had already received paper fans from the info booth. At the Brave booth they were giving out postcards, coloring pages, a poster and a mood card that tells how brave you are. I'm thrilled that Disney advertised here. Meghan and I had debated whether or not they would. I was firmly on the side that they would and should. Meghan thought maybe they wouldn't since it's a built in fan base. I'm so glad they did!

 We got some food (banger for me, sausage roll for Rocky, Melodie ate some of both of ours) and at while listening to Brother (a favorite of Meghan's). We had met up with one of Rocky's co-workers while we were there. He camps at the fest over the weekend. He got haggis and strongly encouraged us all to taste it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Even Melodie tried a bite, but she didn't like it. Thank you Rob for letting us try something new that we never would have paid for! Melodie loves music and enjoyed dancing to it after eating.

 On our way to the kids area we walked by the Brave booth and noticed a wig. More pictures!

                      Pretending to shoot an arrow                                     Caber Toss

 At the kids area Melodie tried a caber toss, but was distracted by all the inflatable bounce houses, slides and obstacle courses. We signed her up for the competition, which was in a half an hour, and let her play.

When it was time for the competition, none of the other kids were there, so she tried doing the caber toss again.

A few more kids showed up, but not enough to do all the activities. So they just did a sprint.

There were actually quite a few false starts (I think this was one of them) so when the race actually started she didn't go until she heard us yelling at her to go. She came in dead last, but was thrilled with how fast she went. All the kids got a medal. She was a little confused because it said 1st on it.

 Rocky likes archery and I was definately willing to spend the money for it because if you did you could enter a Brave raffle. The prize is a screening of Brave. Woohoo! I hope we win! Melodie and Rocky each had six arrows.

Rocky helped her at first, but after a couple she was doing it on her own.

Melodie was a little sad that none of hers stayed on the wall, but I was impressed she even made it to the wall. Rocky actually hit the target a few times. Wow!

We also watched dancing, sheep herding, and the athletics. It's fun to be Scottish for a day!

CANMT Trip: Midpoint Cafe, Glenrio, Santa Rosa, NM

 When we arrived in Adrian, TX, we thought we'd have dinner at the Midpoint Cafe. We drove up, and it was closed. Darn! There were any hours, it's just open whenever. We took pictures because this is the midpoint of Route 66 and started to drive away. Then I noticed a man trying to get our attention. We stopped and it was the owner. He invited us in to look around. He was a blast to talk to. He told Melodie that Flo's Cafe in Cars was just like this cafe. He talked to her a lot about Cars and Route 66. It was really cute.

Talking with Dennis

We looked around the gift shop, when Rocky asked about the Ugly Crust Pie. Dennis (the owner) offered a piece to us. The grill was closed, but there were still pieces of two pies left in the refrigerator. Rocky and Melodie were very enthusiastic.

This was one of our favorite stops along Route 66 and hopefully we'll go back someday. Dennis is a new owner and has some amazing plans for Midpoint.

 We drove through Glenrio next. I really wanted to see it. It's located in both Texas and New Mexico. It's a Route 66 ghost town. In Cars, there's a closed motel in Radiator Springs named Glenrio Motel. It was a little sad to see all the old, run down buildings.

 And then we finally arrived in Santa Rosa, where we were staying for the night. But first we ate dinner at Silver Moon. It was the first place we saw and we were starving!

Melodie had a quesadilla with a side of nachos. She was thrilled that there was a side of nachos. I had Enchiladas de Santa Fe (blue corn tortillas sounded interesting and there was a green chili sauce...have to have green chili in New Mexico). Rocky had a hamburger. Before bed we drove by some of the sights.

Railroad Bridge (in the Grapes of Wrath movie)

(was a Texaco service station in 1937)

(St. Rose of Lima Church built in 1865)

On the way back to our room, we saw Mater.

He was in front of a car museum that we quickly decided to visit the next morning since it opened early (nice change since most places we've been to didn't open until 10). And then, after a very long day, it was time for bed.

(Cassie gave Mel this doll)