Which means that yes, I am still sick. Not bad. Tylenol and Aleve got me through Disneyland and the wedding surprisingly well. And Nate, who has been sick since the beginning of July, is coming down with what I had. Joy. Honestly, at this point I think I’d rather be sick again myself than have him sick. He takes 5 times as long to get over things than I do.

So, the trip. It was tremendously fun. We went down for a wedding in the family, so my husband and 5 of his 7 siblings (minus the one that just had their first baby, and the one that is just about to), plus my in-laws all converged on California. There were 18 kids, Abby being the oldest, and 13 adults. Most of us flew down together on the same plane.

This picture shows half of the kiddos, and the little boys so excited by the airplanes!

We filled an entire Alamo shuttle. The looks we got were hilarious.

Just imagine the number of strollers and carseats 18 kids under the age of 10 would require…

At Disneyland, we broke off from the group and spent most of the first day as a family. We did the Winnie the Pooh ride first thing.

I discovered a few things right off. First of all, Clark does not like rides. At all. In any form. Liv is a close second, in that she doesn’t like anything that might be scary. Roller coasters are absolutely out of the question, while Abby and Veronica LOVE them.

I also discovered that despite the fact that I went to Disneyland most summers as a kid, I really had no idea what was actually there. Which means that either I have the worst memory imaginable, or my mom wasn’t very adventurous with us kids. Most everything we went on this trip, I’d never been on, and didn’t even know about. Like Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, the Storybook Land cruise, the Jungle Cruise, the Tea Cups, Thunder Mountain…

Ah, Thunder Mountain. I have distinct memories of wanting to go on Thunder Mountain as a kid, and not being allowed to. While we were standing in a brief line (there were almost no lines the whole two days on most everything) to ride it for the 6th or so time, Abby and Veronica, my roller coaster buddies on this trip, wanted to know why my mom wouldn’t let me ride it. So I texted her to ask. She texted back and said that she doesn’t remember keeping me away from it. Having now been to Disneyland as the adult with many, many children, I can understand that she was possibly too tired to go on one more thing. However, I think that she isn’t much of a roller coaster goer, herself. I’d never been on Space Mountain ’til Nate and I went 6 years ago. I didn’t know it was there. We did, admittedly do Matterhorn when I was young. I thought it was my favorite ride at Disneyland. Not anymore. Ah, Thunder Mountain.

All I remember riding as a kid was Pirates, Matterhorn, Small World, Haunted Mansion, Autotopia, a slow, touring train… maybe the Tiki Room… help me out, mom. What did we ride?

So the first half of the first day, poor Liv stayed out with Clark and an alternating parent as Abby, Veronica, and the other parent rode rides. Then we did the carousel and tea cups. So I guess I overstated earlier. Clark LOVES the tea cups and likes the carousel pretty well.

I tried so hard to get a picture of Clark’s face on the tea cups. He had the most exuberant smile when the tea cup would get a good spin. It was pure joy. So amazingly sweet.

The first half of the second day, we were at California Adventure. Nate loves Soaring over California. We did the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Veronica did it twice, even though she thought it was too scary, the hype and narration more than the plummeting elevator.

She was extremely ticked that she was too short for California Screamin’ and the Maliboomer.

Once back at Disneyland, we did Space Mountain twice. I think I rode it 6 times over the two days. Veronica wasn’t with us at the end of the first day, so she heard about it and couldn’t talk of much else ’til she got to ride it herself. I’m wishing I would have bought some of the pictures they take on the rides. Their faces… so cute. Especially the time I made Liv come on Splash Mountain with Abby and Veronica and I. I’d promised her I wouldn’t let go of her the whole ride, and told her she could close her eyes, so Abby was in the front, huge smile, Veronica was behind her, huge smile, Liv was next, with her eyes slammed shut and my hands on her shoulders, and I was in the back. It was great.

At around 5 on the second day, after playing in the fountain in Toontown

…Nate was all tuckered out, so he took Clark and Liv back to the hotel, and Abby, Veronica and I stayed ’til it closed at 11,

shopped for another 45 minutes on Main Street, and got back to the hotel around midnight.

It was great. We hit Thunder Mountain (again) twice, then got Pirates (again) on the way to Splash Mountain (again) twice (seriously soaked that second time). Then the lines started picking up, so we stopped for dinner in Tomorrowland around 8. Rode the Teacups (again)

saw the amazing fireworks and light show (really, holy freakin’ cow),

waited in a long line so Abby could do Matterhorn again, FINALLY got to do Alice in Wonderland (which I’d been wanting to do since the previous morning tho’ we never did make it to Peter Pan. There was ALWAYS a long line on that one. Is it cool? I haven’t done it), and squeezed in the Storybook Land cruise for Veronica, who was dying to ride a boat into the mouth of the big whale. Should’ve got a picture of that.

Funny story, the actor they had dress up as Jack Sparrow on Thursday was shockingly good. He looked just like him. The amazing facial structure that Johnny Depp has and everything. He was also not stopping for pictures, which was lame. The Jack Sparrow wandering around the streets on Friday was hilarious. He came running down the walkway in front of the Tiki room, arms and legs flailing like in the movie. I leaned over to Nate to say that it was a different actor than the one on Thursday, when all the sudden he was behind us, his hands on our shoulders, hiding from whoever was chasing him. Then he swings around, eyes Nate’s pineapple juice (completely in character) and takes it, like he’s going to drink it. He stops, sniffs it, then scoffs at the lack of booze no doubt and hands it back, waves his hand dismissively, and takes off again. Nate shouts after him, “but why is the rum gone?”

So much fun. All I want to say, aside from a HUGE Thank You to my father-in-law for taking us all down there and arranging everything, is I WANT TO GO BAAAAACK!

To the happiest place on earth.