We Burn the Tree

Our Christmas tree dried out.  Really, really dried out.  Half of it seemed to fall on the floor as I undecorated.  It was perfect for burning, and tonight, we burned it.  When Kent suggested yesterday that we burn it, Brandt's eyes lit up.  He was super excited!  We went to Christopher and Tysen's house last night, and got home late, so we didn't do it last night.  But we did tonight.  The tree was so dry it went up like a torch.  Brandt hovered around it, as the embers flew into the air.  It was so cool, I went down the street and hauled back a neighbors tree so we can burn another one tomorrow.

Fallen needles.

 

 

Brandt was getting far too close.

Embers floating into the air.

Brandt said, "Mom! Take a picture of that!"

They are lit by the light of the fire.

All that remains of a once full tree.

We Go to Disneyland, Part 4

If you are not directly related to me, in other words, if you were not actually on the Disneyland trip with me, you will probably want to skip this post.  I know I have already posted somewhere around 537 pictures which are not super exciting to anyone other than me, but I figure there are only about three other people reading this blog, it is family history, and so I'm going to finish posting the last 284 pictures and finish up our Disneyland trip.  Are you bored yet?  My kids aren't, so I'm going to carry on.

Thursday, November 8th

We woke to rain.  It was cool and overcast and before we left the hotel for the park, I went to Target and bought us all a jacket.  Kent had convinced me that we didn't need jackets, and so I left them home.  We all needed one.  We planned on going on our favorite rides one last time, and trying out one or two we hadn't done yet.  Inspite of the fact that we had already spent three days at the park, Brandt and Blythe were both eager to go back.  Kent was ready to go home.

We rode the train all around the park, sitting in the caboose.  Brandt acted as the conductor, and both Brandt and Blythe repeatedly asked for our tickets.

In this picture, Brandt is asking us to remain in our seats as the train begins to move.

Brandt and Blythe were both super excited about driving the cars at Autopia.  How cool is it to be in control of a car?  A car!  Blythe was a pretty good driver, concentrating and watching where she was going.  She liked it.  Brandt too.

I love that she has her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she watches the road.

Mikayla and her Prince Charming

 

Grandma Sue waiting in line for the Matterhorn.  

Did I mention the golden ticket?  

We have bi-passed the long time to wait for all of three minutes to get on this ride.

Hooray for a broken ankle.

Sort of.

It's a picture of me.

Hard to tell, huh?

My hair is looking good though.

We went on It's a Small World.

We filled a boat. 

It was horrible.

In addition to the obnoxious singing of "It's a Small World,"

all the little dolls were dressed up for Christmas and singing a Christmas carol I can't remember at the moment but which was rendered horrible in its presentation.

So repetitive. So irritating. So long.

With some rides, we just wanted them to go on and on.

Not this one.

Star Tours was Brandt's favorite ride.

We did want this one to go on and on.

To quote Brandt, "It was AWESOME!!!!"

Unfortunately, we only went on it the last day, so we didn't know how totally cool it was.

We should have tried it out the first day so we could have gone on it every day we were there.

Twice.

Oh well.  Something to look forward to for the next time.

 

Brandt and Blythe in their 3D glasses.

Looking good!

It was cold and rainy our last day.  We didn't last much past 4:30 in the afternoon.  We went back to our hotel room, did a bit of packing, lounged around until dinnertime.  We were trying to decide where to go for dinner, and sort of trying to coordinate with others.  Mikayla wanted to go to Benihana's, but Kent wanted to try out a Vietnamese place we had passed several nights earlier.  Everyone else went to Benihana's, and we went to the Vietnamese place.  There were lots of Vietnamese people in the restaurant; we could see them from the parking lot.  We thought that was a good sign.  Or a bad one.  Kent said, "It may be very authentic and not what we are looking for."  It was.  The waiter who seated us looked somewhat surprised that we were there, and when I looked at the menu I said to Kent, "There is nothing on this menu the children will eat.  If it were you and me, we could eat here and have an interesting 'foreign' experience.  As it is, with the kids, we need to find someplace else."  So we got up and left within two minutes of sitting down.

The dinner search began anew.  We drove around trying to find somewhere to eat and eventually settled on a Chinese restaurant that was sort of a dive.  They did, however, have orange chicken and stir-fry vegetables which the kids did eat.  We should have gone to Benihana's with everyone else.  Live and learn.

Friday, November 9th

We woke, loaded up the car, and had hours to kill before our 4:30 (then delayed to 5:00) flight home.  We had hoped to go play at the beach, but it was cold and windy, not ideal beach conditions.  Instead, we opted to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific.  Upon arrival, we discovered that there are harbor tours and whale watching boat rides that leave right from where we were at, but we didn't have time to do whale watching and the harbor tour left at a bad time for us to catch our flight.  The aquarium it was.  

I am happy to report that the aquarium was terrific.  I was a bit staggered by the price, but upon entry, was pleasantly surprised by how fantastic it was.  There were huge tanks, many different and interesting species of fish, plus penguins, seals, and sharks (fish, I know).  The touch pool was filled with brightly colored urchins and sea cucumbers, we saw sharks waiting to hatch, and the penguins were enchanting with funny names like Noodles, Shim, Whatever, and Kate.

After looking at fish, looking at fish, and then looking at more fish, we went and got some lunch and then walked along the beach.  There is a wonderful lighthouse near the aquarium, as well as a fantastic view of the shipping terminal with lots of cranes to lift shipping containers.  For the next time we go, we might very well go looking at whales or big cranes or both.

 

  

Check out the giant crab in the tank behind.

Weird sea horse.

And lion fish.

Pictures courtesy of Brandt. 

 

I think Brandt is biting this shark before it can bite him.

 

The view from the lighthouse. 

Our flight home was delayed a bit because of weather.  We were warned upon take off that our arrival was going to be bumpy with lots of turbulence.  We were to prepare ourselves.  At the end of a week spent on some pretty wild rides, the last half hour of our flight was the wildest we had had.  It was bumpy, rocky, and somewhat nerve wracking.  Our pilot, however, delivered us safely.  Three cheers!  

This is what we woke up to Saturday morning.  Our Japanese maple tree just outside our front door was weighed down with so much snow it was nearly brushing the ground.  Kent whacked off some snow before we went to bed Friday night, but it has snowed so much during the night, I had to whack it off again the next day.  Limbs were broken all over the neighborhood.  We lost several limbs off the Bradford pear trees on the north side of the yard.  Fortunately, they were smaller limbs and didn't damage the trees too badly.

 

Our across the street neighbor's tree.

Five major limbs had broken off.

Our next door neighbors tree largely in our yard.

It was weighted down and had a huge limb broken off on the other side of the fence.

It was all beautiful, but cold.

We missed California almost as soon as we were home.

"When are we going to Disneyland again?" I still hear about every other day.