Disney Land!

We had such a fun day on Friday at DISNEYLAND!! That place is still really fun even if you are not a kid!

The park was decorated for Christmas!

Here we are in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Erik, His Mom, & Jaime

We stopped in a few shops. Erik found a hat he liked. haha.

Even though Disney Land is smaller than Disney World, we still did not make it through the entire park. We did get on some fun rides though like Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, & Jungle Cruise.

Here we are on Space Mountain! haha


Pirates & Haunted Mansion are located in New Orleans Square. It really did look like NOLA!

Here is the Princess (& the Frog) singing in New Orleans Sq. Can you believe the only character we saw touring around the park was Buzz Lightyear?

Haunted Mansion was dressed up like Nightmare Before Christmas





The castle, as it started to get dark out.

We stayed for the Christmas Parade, too.



Ariel!

Princesses

Woody

Chip & Dale

Best shot I could get of Mickey. He would not stand still! haha

Pooh on a Sled

Donald Duck

We were so tired at the end of the day. It was such a fun day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

On Thanksgiving Day, we chilled out & relaxed all morning. We watched the Macy's Parade, of course. We had dinner reservations in downtown LA so we decided to head to Hollywood first. We brought the fam to the Walk of Fame to see the fun sidewalk & crazy costumes.



Avatar

Michael Jackson, alive & well

Erik & his Mom

Me & Erik near a giant macaroni & cheese noodle

We then went to the Millenium Biltmore Hotel for dinner. This is an old & historic hotel. It had beautiful architecture which was very detailed, including the ceilings. This hotel opened in 1923 and has hosted grand events, celebrities, & parties. It was even home to the Oscars in the 30's & 40's! JFK was here in 1960 for the Democratic National Convention.

The hotel is still used for movie & TV shoots.



Here's a photo from the hotel's history hall of Shirley Temple & Walt Disney at the Oscars.

We had a great dinner at the hotel. They had a fixed menu with a couple of choices for appetizer, main meal, & dessert. We started the dinner with a glass of champagne. Then, I had the Butternut Squash Soup. For dinner, I had the Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, stuffing, & vegetables. For dessert, I had the apple tart. We also all split a bottle of wine. It was delicious! Eating holiday dinner out at a restaurant is great - no preparation or clean up!


We tried to take a picture after dinner but we were just totally exhausted. haha. You can definitely tell we are fading in this pic. After dinner, we definitely went home & crashed. Of course, we put on Home Alone but I think I only made it to where Kevin goes runs around the house after realizing he is home by himself. hahaha.

Thanksgiving Vacation: Day 1

Last Wednesday AM, we drove down to Long Beach. We took I-5 all the way down which basically runs down the center of the state. We had a pretty, mountainous view.





Co-Pilot, Evie. She loves to stand with her paws on the center console although it's really not safe. For most of the trip, she sat in the back seat however, she loves to sit in the front seat. With about an hour or two left in our ride down, I sat in the back and gave Evie the front. She will curl up in the front seat to nap which is great. Plus, I got to stretch out in the back seat!

After 7 long hours, we finally saw our destination!

We rented this adorable house in Long Beach. It was just blocks from the beach & easy to get to any freeway. It had a fenced in back yard, 3 bedrooms, and an open floor plan. We loved it! Our neighborhood was called Bluff Heights & is considered a historic part of town.


We immediately walked down to the beach with Erik's Dad, Brother Jaime, & Evie.



Evie dragggged me to the water and was running around like crazy.

Evie loooooves the beach.

Happy Girl!

After the beach, we showered and relaxed. Erik's Mom made us rice & beans for dinner which was soooo good. I think we were all asleep on the couch around 930pm. haha. We had to rest up for the next day.....Thanksgiving!

Long Beach

We are here in sunny, Long Beach, CA! We left SF around 6am on Wednesday and drove down to Long Beach. It took about 7 hours which included a stop for gas and two bathroom breaks. Luckily, one of them was at Wendy's so we could get Frosties! Yum.

We arrived in Long Beach around 1pm. Erik's family was already here since they arrived on Tuesday. Our house we rented is super cute and just a few blocks from the beach! We brought out stuff in the house & went down to the beach for a walk. Evie looooved running in the water & sand.

Yesterday, we stopped in Hollywood on our way to Thanksgiving dinner in LA. It was great.

Today, we are off to DISNEYLAND! So excited.

Full recaps & photos to come :-)

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

Ants in my Pants

I am super antsy today at work. It's a two day week and Thanksgiving week!! Today, we went to Starbucks in the mid-afternoon. Their holiday drinks are out & I definitely have to recommend the Caramel Brulee Latte! Yum.


Tonight, I have Bingo & am going to try to pack some stuff for the trip. We decided we are going to leave on Wednesday AM, really early, rather than try to drive down on Tuesday night. I told Evie she gets to go on vacation with us & she is excited! haha

"I'm going to the beach!"

Movie Review: Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban

After finishing the book, I wanted to watch the movie of Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban. Yes, I skipped watching Movie Two before watching Three. I liked movie #3 better than the first one, for sure. This one was pretty good throughout and I liked seeing this book come to life since I thought the book dragged a little.

It's also nice to see Hermione with better hair. haha.

Rain, Rain

It has been such a rainy weekend. Friday night, rain. Saturday, it was nice all day. Then, rain. This morning, on & off rain. Yesterday, Erik went surfing and I did some cleaning, then went downtown. I had a few things I wanted to get for Christmas gifts. I'd rather make the downtown trip before the madness begins but I prefer to do everything else online.

It was fine down there except for when I came out of the mall and it was pouring rain. I didn't even have a jacket with me! Oh well, I ran across the street and hopped on the bus to come home. I got SOAKED as I sprinted one block from the bus to the house. Then, it started to thunder & lighten! It was crazy. That never happens here.

Despite the rain, we had plans to go out & celebrate our friend Kelsey's birthday! First stop was Medjool in the Mission. Then, we went next door to Lazlo.

Kelsey & her husband, Sean

Me, Betsy, & Erik

Erik & the birthday girl!

Betsy, Kelsey, Tiffany, & Me

Getting Excited...

I'm getting so excited for next week. Erik's family is coming to down & we are going to spend the week in Long Beach, CA! We rented a house down there, near the beach. We are going to relax, explore, and try to go to DisneyLand and San Diego!

I'm super excited for Disney. I can't wait to see everyone dressed up for Thanksgiving!!


This will be our fourth Thanksgiving out here. Our first year, we had been here about two weeks and spent it together in our apartment. The 2nd year, Kimmy came out and we tried to cook a turkey but cooked it UPSIDE DOWN. Last year, My Dad came out to spend the holiday with us.

Doesn't it feel like Thanksgiving came really quickly this year? And Christmas is really quickly after Thankgiving!? When we get back from LB, it will almost be December!

Book Review: Harry Potter 3

I finished Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban yesterday. This book was just OK for me. I felt there were a lot of unanswered questions throughout the whole book (like Hermione's schedule!) and it sort of dragged. Then, everything wrapped up in a few pages. It was a long story for a quick payoff.

I thought it was pretty cool when we figured out what was going on with Hermione and how it helped everyone in the end. I like the books because in each one, we learn more about Harry's parents & what happened to them.

I'm going to watch the movie of this one today. I also have Book 4 to read! I couldn't believe all of the people that were dressed up the other day for the premiere of Harry Potter 7. I knew people dressed up as the characters but I also saw grown men dressed in clothes that were subtely HP. A guy had on a soccer jacket that said Hogwarts on the back!

I do think it is really cool how this series of books has brought, basically, The entire world together. I was reading on the bus & a girl asked me what book I was on, if I had read these before, etc. It's something that millions of people have read & can connect through. That theme park at Disney has to be awesome, as well. Out of all of the make believe stuff out there, theme parks like that rarely get made. That has to be so fun for people to go to. And yes, Im sure I will end up there one day, too. (Kimmy, TL - Trip to Disney???) :-)

Singin' In The Rain

Caught up on GLEE last night & totally loved it! Singing in the Rain/Umbrella is my favorite song & dance of the season so far!



I really love Gwyneth Paltrow. I think she's so pretty plus, she's a Mom & a successful actress. I also love Reese Witherspoon for the same reasons.