Psycho

Or otherwise known as Fall Break at Disneyland with little kids.

And we didn't even take the three year old. It should have been a breeze with only three kids, right? Disneyland was festively decorated. From the giant candy corns, to the fall colors lining Main Street.

Even the big letters that spell California outside of California Adventure were the colors of candy corn. Which reminds me of the quirky catch phrase Kirk conjured up:

"The Candy Corn Colored California is Kinda Cool!"

Clever.

The second day, we had VIP seats courtesy of one of his MBA classmates for the parade. We had big bench seats right in front of the Railroad Train ride and had a great view!

These were our seats:

And this was our view!Heck, even our hotel went all out for Halloween! Not really, but they were painting the hotel these candy corn colors while we were there and will probably feel pretty cool every October!

The Haunted Mansion was completely redone to the theme of A Nightmare Before Christmas. While it wasn't worth the 1 hour waits, we did get some fast passes and did it a few times. It was pretty cool..............

I have to confess that of all the times I've gone to Disneyland over the years, I have never once stepped foot into the Innoventions Building. It turned out to be one of the kids ( adults included ) funnest places to go. Lauren loved the karaoke stage and rocked out to High School Musical and Lion King songs. Jack loved putting together a virtual skeleton.

Aside from not sleeping in his stroller or napping for a whole week, Ian's favorite rides were the Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear.

Guess what else we saw? All over Disneyland? The whole week?That's right! Arizonans, Mormons and sometimes both Arizona Mormons. E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.! The pictures I took were just the ones I spotted as we were leaving the park. Pretty much every one in line we talked to was from Gilbert or Utah. Even Jessie from Toy Story was LDS. Seriously. We were at the Toy Story Halloween show and afterwards, Jessie gestured to a family next to us asking where they were from. They said, "Utah". ( shocker! ) She then started clapping the rhythm to the BYU fight song. They of course didn't get it until she started using her fingers and writing the letters CTR on her hand. You know, the secret code word for "I'm a Mormon too!" The even funnier thing is the day school started after fall break, Lauren told a friend of hers that Jessie from Toy Story was a Mormon. BWAhahahaha!

And in keeping with our Disneyland tradition, we always run in to a person we knew from our past. This time was no exception. Kirk went on the Rapids ride and ended up sitting in the same raft as an old friend, Ron. What are the odds? Even funnier odds? He's from Arizona ( notice the Arizona shirt ) but he lives in Utah. I know.......shocker again! He fell into a separate category from the Arizona/BYU/Utah/Mormon groups walking around Disneyland to a new subgroup called the former Arizona but now Utah/Mormon.
After five gloriously long days at Disneyland, we headed down to Escondido to meet up with my parents and Erik who they so graciously offered to watch for us. We spent a few hours at the beach in Carlsbad. Just long enough for me to realize a beach and an 18 month old isn't a super fun combination. Unless, you like sand in your sodas and food.....which I don't.

While on the beach, we saw a bunch of dolphins swimming around. See the black speck on the right side of the picture? That's a tail. Fascinating picture, eh?

We spent another day at the Wild Animal Park. Lauren liked to pet the dear.

And Ian tested my nerves.

I honestly don't know how we managed flying cross country with 4 kids one being 7 months old to DisneyWorld last fall break. We made it home safely. Kirk and I realized that it has been almost 5 years since we've taken a trip together............alone............sans kids. I'm looking forward to celebrating our 10th anniversary in a few months........going, you guessed it............back to Disneyland!