The Magic Kingdom

Sooooooo 2 weeks ago my sister flew into Sacramento all the way from Minneapolis Minnesota. It was sort of a last minute thing, we booked the flight just a few days before. Katie and her nine month old son Liam made a 7 hour plane ride out to good ole California...better mother than I, I would just assume avoid the hassle of a baby on a plane ride no matter what the reward on the other side. I recently came to the conclusion that there are 2 kinds of mothers out there. Those that can put up with all the hassle, fuss and inconvenience of pushing their kids to miss naps and sleep schedules in order to actually "do things" and not be bored at home and those that can accept the boredom in order to ensure their kids aren't crazy lunatics when they miss their naps or go to bed way too late. I would be the latter. I would much rather have my own sanity and not feel scatterbrained and crazy to keep an overly tired, over stimulated baby entertained out in public...I would chose to be bored at home, in my eyes the lesser of two evils. Anyway back to the story at hand...We went to Disneyland!!!!!

Now a bit of background info to get you up to speed. Every year Dad has a Podiatric Conference at the Disneyland Hotel. And every year for quite a few years that meant someone if not everyone joined him on the trip and went to Disneyland. There was a time in High School that my BFF Rachel and I went down there with him and got to feel like hot shot big kids going to Disneyland alone ALL DAY LONG!!!! And then mostly the rest of the times it was family vacations with Mom, Dad, Eric and Chelle and their kids (which there was just Rob and then Kam later) Katie and I. There are no words to describe how much I love Disneyland. I realize that alot of people love Disneyland but in my eyes no one can love it more than me and my sister Katie.

There is just something about the smell of popcorn and churros that permeate the roads of Main Street. There is the indescribable smell that you can never forget in Pirates of the Caribbean. A smell of damp wetness, no doubt the smell of the water that has been swirling around down there for who knows how long. There is the way you never seem to forget where every ride is, in every land. How you could tell your sister "meet me at that that one clam chowder stand outside of Pirates and inside of New Orleans Square" and she would know the exact location of which you were speaking. The way the water mist sprays up and covers your face during Fantasmic, how you can feel the heat of the water on fire when Mickey slays the evil Maleficent in her dragon form. Disneyland is a place unlike no other... and while I don't consider myself to be religious these days, I am a devout Disneyland enthusiast. If church could be as awesome as Disneyland I would never complain again about having to wear some dumb dress and waking up early to go. I could go there everyday.

However....this was the first time going to Disneyland as a parent. And while I loved taking Olivia on little rides and seeing her face during parades and shows...there is no way she could possibly understand or fathom what was going on. Here are a few realizations of Disneyland since becoming a parent....

1. That place in crazy crowded...like insanely claustrophobic! You can hardly move anywhere without someone coming towards you in every possible direction.

2. Strollers are plain and simply a pain in the ass. While dodging people and strollers seems inconvenient as a childless person....it just becomes a huge hassle once you have to be one of the parent drones mindlessly just trying to survive from one location to the next with your stroller. Not to mention trying to judge just how close your front wheels are to the heels of the person in front of you. Thankfully everyone just seems to accept the fact that at Disneyland you are bound to be a victim of a stroller bump at one point or another, so they pay it no mind.

3. There is no way to explain to a 16 month old that you have to wait in line in the heat to go on a fun ride. No you can't get down because if I lost you in this crowd I'd never see you again. The constant misunderstanding of a baby of why we have to be so bored and why I have to hold you and why we are in direct sunlight....well it falls upon deaf ears....but she did enjoy the rides once we went on them.

*I think it would be a great idea for parents with kids under the age of two to be able to jump to the front of the line...however that is problematic because everyone in line for the fantasyland rides seems to be a parent with a child under the age of 2!

4. While Disneyland is obviously the main attraction...California Adventure is like Disneyland's younger, cooler, hipper, little sister.....hmmmmm sounds familiar, ha ha. That place is CUH-razy!!!! I mean they have this "glow-fest" thing going on at night....you'd swear it was some giant rave with the the oddly dressed neon clad teenagers dancing around on pedastools and platforms! Its really funny to me that people can come from the Midwest and see "Californialand" and think that this is what California must be about! Help perpetuate the stereotype of the "California lifestyle".

*Sidenote: every summer my family used to make a trip out to Utah to visit our cousins and I was always the "California Cousin" to my cousins' friends. "Why aren't you tan if you live in California, Do you know any movie stars, do they teach surfing in PE at school, Do you go to the beach everyday". This was my big chance to be cool and I don't think I have ever been considered cool in my life...however I was young and these questions were often met with confusion. Why would I be tan, it's just as hot here as it is at home and I hate the heat. Why would I know Movie Stars, I live in the suburbs. How would they possibly teach surfing at school...there's no ocean within 100 miles....and to be honest that water in the closest ocean's beach is freezing I would never go in that water! I also remember having my Idaho cousins come visit us in CA and we would usually always go to San Francisco. Those crazy Idaho cousins of mine would dive like headfirst into that chilling water at the Pacifica beaches, while I wouldn't be caught dead having anything but my ankles get hit by those waves.

5. I love Disneyland and I had a great time...but I cannot wait for Olivia to be a few years older to where she can really enjoy what's going on....and maybe ditch the stroller!

So anyways it was just Dad, Mom, Katie, Liam, Olivia and I at the Magic Kingdom. Dad was in meetings and conferences all day so it was really just us girls and well Liam. The weather was pretty warm but not crazy hot and we seemed to be able to trade off to go on rides when one of the babies were sleeping...since it seemed they never slept at the same time! We were there Wednesday night to Sunday morning with the 3 day hopper pass for Thurs, Fri and Sat. Well as you may or may not know Mitchell travels 5 days a week for his job. This week we were in Anaheim Mitch just happened to be in San Diego for his work. With fourth of July being the next weekend his work crew decided not to come home like they usually do over the weekend and just stay over the weekend so they can finish stuff up early the following week and have a 4 day weekend for the fourth of July.

So Mitch was pretty nearby and had nothing to do for the weekend...he called me and said "Hey what do you think of me coming to Anaheim". I told him that it would not be a great idea since my Mom wanted this trip to be about mother daughter baby bonding. But he had not seen Olivia and I in a week and it would be another week before he could see her since they were staying over, I can't blame him for wanting to see his baby. So as per usual Mitch didn't listen to me and called Friday night and announced "Guess who just got off the train 2 blocks away from Disneyland". Great...leave me to break the news to Mother...she was annoyed but played a good sport. Mitch got his own Hotel room which proved to be helpful since we were all jam packed into one room with four adults and two babies. Then Mitch joined us for our last day in Disneyland on Saturday. I may have been the only one really happy that he ended up coming...but oh well what can I do?

Sunday Mitch took the train back to San Diego and we all piled into the car to drive far far away from the happiest place on earth. I drove the Lexus and Dad drove his Corvette and through many fits from Olivia in the carseat and Katie baby wrangling we made it home....HALLELUJAH!!!!! Sheer hell to be stuck in the car with two babies for 7-8 hours!

Katie then stayed another week before going back to Minnesota. We took Mom to a movie and lunch for her birthday (Jul 2) and Katie also cooked dinner that night and we had cake. We spent the 4th together and the babies had a good time hanging out together. Olivia proved to be something of a gentle giant towards little Liam. While Liam had no qualms about stealing her toys, pulling her hair, biting her, and mowing her over if she was ever in the way of a toy he might have wanted. She would just cry...not even try to fight back or take the toy back....just cry and say "no, no, no bebe bebe bebe". It was both hilarious and heart breaking! I never knew I had such a sensitive little soul. Dramatic...well that went without saying, but not a mean bone in her body when it came to all the bullying she withstood from her 7 month younger cousin! I guess boys will be boys...and in Liam's defense...he didn't know he was being mean and seemed to always want to be near Olivia. She liked him but seemed a bit nervous when she saw him barrelling his way towards her on all fours "Oh no what does he want now".

So Katie and Liam left on Wednesday and it feels quiet once again at the Larsen abode. Olivia has seemed to wonder where the baby went and runs up the hall yelling "Kagey, Kagey, Kagey"....which of course means Katie. So Olivia's first name recognition besides mom, dad, nana, and boppa.....was "Kagey"....it was cute! And aunt "kagey" of course loved it!

And that...that is enough for now!

And for some reason stupid blogger isn't letting me post any more pics...so tommorrow I will post more pics of Disneyland and then 4th of July