I'm Published Again - Yay!!

Just a quick note to tell all that a couple of my layouts will be featured in this calendar going on sale as early as next month! The calendar is being published through Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine which specializes in hybrid scrapbooking and hybrid scrap techniques. My super talented friend Julie Ann invited me to be part of this last year and I am so grateful. It looks amazing! Now I know it's not like the last Harry Potter book or anything but, if you are at all remotely interested in my craft please go pre-order a copy now!!! Go to Scrapbook Dimensions to reserve your copy!!! At least go to Scrapbook Dimensions and check out the blog about it, please. I am so excited! Yay!

So- Cal Adventure

We're back! Betcha didn't even know we left!! We just got back from our whirlwind trip of Southern California. We were in Valencia, Anaheim, Carlsbad, San Dimas, Santa Monica and Newport Beach. We went to Disneyland and Legoland and visited some of our longtime friends from college. We rode a ton of rides, ate in Goofy's kitchen and at the Pirates of Carribean, saw many fireworks, swam in various pools, met up with people we hadn't seen in years, and took lots and lots of pictures.
We stayed overnight in Valencia at a Hilton there just before Magic Mountain. We swam in the pool and had dinner at a Denny's nearby. Then on Sunday we made our way down to Anaheim and the Disneyland Resort. We checked in went into the pool right away. Then we had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen and took a walk along Downtown Disney before we went to bed. We needed to go relatively early because we wanted to take advantage of "Early Entry" into the park at 7 a.m.

Monday in the park was awesome because it wasn't too hot and it wasn't at all busy. We rode most of the rides we wanted to ride that day. We loved used the Parent Swap option for the rides. Because Sam was too short to ride some of the rides, I would get a Parent Swap card and as soon as Matt and Henry were done with the ride, I was allowed to cut in the front of the line and ride. Sam was scared of pretty much anything that was involved a tunnell and was dark. He actually believed that Henry, Matt and I were traveling in Space when we went on Space Mountain. I rode it once, and he made me promise not to go again for fear that he would lose me in space! Henry got to ride twice this way, which he truly enjoyed. We ate a late lunch at the Blue Bayou restaraunt which overlooks the Pirates of the Carribbean ride. It was really cool even though Sam said it was too dark and refused to eat anything except bread and lemonade. The rest of us enjoyed our meal anyway. Because it wasn't really busy we even got to catch the parade in the afternoon and the fireworks at the end of the night. Needless to say the boys were exhausted.

Tuesday and Wednesday was definately busier. We went into California Adventure on Tuesday and got to do pretty much all the stuff we wanted to do except Henry was heartbroken when he realized he wasn't tall enough for the California Screamin roller coaster. We spent about half a day in California A and then went back to Disneyland in the evening to take advantage of the lull in the lines that happens during the fireworks. On Wednesday, the first thing we did was ride the Newest Attraction at DLand - "Finding Nemo Adventure". We got there when the park opened and still waited in line for an hour and a half to ride that ride. That was by far the longest line we had to wait in during the entire trip. It was a cute ride overall and at least now we can say we rode it. But, we met up with an Australian family while in line to see Mickey and they asked us our opinion about it and whether they should stand in the now 2 hour line for it and we were honest with them. I mean these people have the actual Barrier Reef - they don't need to see one with fake talking fish... Some other highlights about Weds. are that Henry got to take part in the Jedi Academy a show in Tomorrowland where kids get to train as Jedi and actually fight with Darth Vader or Darth Maul. We also got to see Fantasia on Wednesday which was a nice way to end the whole fun time we had there.

We left Disneyland on Thursday and made our way towards Carlsbad where Legoland is. We stayed at a rather nice Hilton directly across from the beach. We went to Legoland on Friday morning and spent the day there. It was really fun. The rides are pretty tame in comparison to Disney but, there was lots of stuff for the boys to do. Their most favorite thing was this "Build and Test" area where you could build your own Lego race car then race them. They spent a real long time there. There was also a relatively big Water Play area at Legoland and the boys got soaking wet there, which was good because it really was a hot day.

On Saturday we got to meet up with our longtime friends from U.C.S.C. We went up to San Dimas where Eric, Christina and family are situated. We got to meet Clark's wife Lisa and child Owen for the first time. Brandon and his wife Carrie came by and showed us pictures of the film he's making. And we were even received a surprise visit from Bobo and Casey who were on their way from Santa Monica to Silverlake to catch a Rentalsconcert. I was so happy to see all of them that I completely forgot to take photos but, take my word for it they were all there. Seriously. I could hit myself for not grabbing the camera that was sitting at the table. It has been so long since I'd seen everyone! Everyone seems to be doing well and are happy. My only concern is Brandon's health which is under suspicion. He's either to afraid or too stubborn to go to the doctor or both. It's probably nothing...but I really wish he'd see a doctor soon. (Hopefully he reads this.)

After talking to the wee hours of the morning we stayed overnight at the Burgess house then headed to Newport Beach on Sunday. For Matt, unfortuately, the vacation was over and he had to get back to work. He had to attend a Sales Conference for Smith Micro at the Hyatt Resort where we stayed till Thursday. I was basically on my own with the boys. I took then to the mall nearby. They had a small train ride next to Macy's which the boys rode and we walked up and down the place looking at overpriced brand name stuff. I also took the boys to a couple nearby scrapbook stores and Chuck E. Cheese. About midday we'd go to the pool or watch movie in the hotel room. By Thursday, we were all ready to take the long drive back to Watsonville our car full of dirty clothes, expensive souveniers and happy summer memories...