Disneyland......

Last year I swore that we would be going to Disneyland in November of this year. Our house was supposed to be done. And it would have been a great reward for all of our hard wok on it. A chance for us to regroup as a family. Then Mom died.... and since a) it is the Happiest Place on Earth, and b) my Mom's favorite place to go, I knew no matter what we would go. I got my family in on the action, Dad and Talon, Dave and Sarah, Tenille and Mike, Sarah's Mom and all of us went. Somewhat in memory of my mother. We planned to pass back through Overton on the day she died and have all of the kids go together to her grave. That was a hard day. My little brother didn't join us, understandably, because he has the starkest reminder of her absence. The rest of us went to the grave, shed some tears, or in my case bawled like a baby.... At her burial we noticed that they misspelled her name "Jo" as "Joe." This year it bothered us a great deal and we finally got down in the dirt and rearranged the letters- McGuyver-style, with the help of a dime, a pocket knife, and scrabble-skills. (Sarah you know what I am talking about!!!) The relief of that was enormous and we are looking forward to a permanent headstone soon. Anyhow on a lighter note, we also enjoyed our time immensely at Disneyland. Cameron and I were slower than the others and they promptly split away from us to explore on a more adult level. Cool by us. We spent our time entertaining our kids riding the kiddy rides and watching the great faces that occurred. Kairi really enjoyed the Dumbo ride as well as the Teacups. Kesslynn enjoyed the Teacups as well. We were brave and took her on them with a rich reward. We also convinced Kairi to ride Splash Mountain twice which she still maintains that she didn't like. There was so much to do and because of our slow process we only saw Disneyland. We didn't even touch California Adventure, with the exception of about 15 minutes (which I spent in the Mother's Room.) We highly recommend anyone else being so adventure-some to pay the extra money, stay close to the park and take your kids to the hotel for naps. It killed about 2-3 hours of our day, but the kids managed much better.

Also just for fun: At Disneyland they have a thing called PhotoPass. You take pictures in the park via photographers that Disney employs. They scan your card and then you give this card to any of the photographers you encounter to take your pictures. You come home and can view and print your Disney pictures from home. I love the idea, and I do have a favorite photographer who just so happens to be my Aunt Connie. Here is the link, but if you are going to check it out you have to do it by 12/14/07 because they will expire on that day.

http://www.disneyphotopass.com/photopass.aspx