It's been a long time comin'

Whew! I went on vacation for a couple of weeks, and right after I got back to Mexico, our internet went out for a few days. My Google Reader is backed up to 103 unread blog entries (even though I read a few things over the two weeks), and I've got some major catching up to do in the blogging department.

I'm going to just do highlights of the trips. What this actually means is that I'm going to write about the things I have pictures for. That's right - the only things that matter are the things that can be shown with pictures.

My brother, sister in law, and (smart, beautiful, wonderful) nieces, my parents, and I all drove up to Anaheim a couple weeks ago. We stopped in San Diego to pick up a very important person: Manfriend. That's right. Let's all stop and give a round of applause to Manfriend for saying "yes!" to meeting my brother and his family and "yes!" to hanging out with all of us at Disneyland. He is a good manfriend.

So we went to Disneyland! We all went for one whole day together, but my brother's family stayed for a couple more days. We had a nice, relaxed day doing whatever we wanted. A few big rides were closed down, but we didn't let that dampen our day.... especially because Splash Mountain was closed (ba-da-ching!)

On the tram to Disneyland!

 Me, my brother, Mom, Dad (in front of the Haunted Mansion)

 Manfriend, Rinda, Joel, Dad, Mom, Dana, Hannah

 She likes it when my double chin attacks her head.

 Two bad chicks await their Riverboat Cruise

 I guess we are just this cool.

At one point Manfriend and I ran over to Space Mountain to see if they had opened it yet (they hadn't). Instead of going straight back to wait for the kids to get off a ride, we ran into watch Captain EO. Yeah. Michael Jackson in 3D? With weird side characters, an evil witch woman, and choreographed dance? Yes, please!



Have I mentioned how wonderful my nieces are? Their parents are doing something right because they are the most well-behaved kids I know, along with being incredibly smart and hilarious. While we waited in a very long line I invented a game for Hannah (8) to play with me. "What's a 5 letter word for a piece of clothing?" "Shirt!". "What's a four letter name of a President?" And yes - she got it.

The weather was great, the company was even better, and we were all exhausted by the end of the day.