Ketchup

2 weeks ago Jeremiah headed to San Diego on Tuesday afternoon to go deep sea fishing for a day & 1/2. He'd been watching the fish count for a while & since the numbers can change daily you can't really plan a fishing trip too far in advance. He was SO glad that his brother Jason who lives in Huntington Beach was able to also go with him at the last minute! The limit was 6 tuna so Jeremiah was pleased that he ended up with 4. From the pic the fish might not seem huge, but I can't even tell you how much fish we have in our freezer, & that's after we had a bunch of friends over to eat some!

(Thanks for the pic Jas!)


Jeremiah wasn't going to be in from fishing till Thursday morning, so the kids & I and my m/d drove over to Orange County on Wednesday afternoon. My poor dad - I'd told him make sure you're ready by 11 because I wanted to leave after I picked Callie up early from school - around 12:10 (b/c my parents are notoriously late). So my dad was ready to go & pretty annoyed I think when I finally got to his house around 1:30! I don't know what went wrong since I was basically packed the night before! And of course once I'd actually left the house I had to turn around to get the stroller, beach toys, and to print out tickets! Also in getting ready Jack thought he was being helpful by taking out the Wii controlers & the Super Mario Bros disc, since I'd said we could take it to play in the car. I can't tell you how many times I've told him to not touch our dvd player in the car w/out permission! But he tried to put the game disc in, not knowing that it wouldn't even work in the dvd player, and when he met resistance since there was already a movie in there he just pushed harder! So I do have to say that another part of the delay was trying to get that dang game out when it was time to leave. I was unsuccessful & my dad was able to finally get it out, but not without the game being ruined. I figured better to ruin a $50 game than have to pay for a shop to get it out & still possibly have it ruined. Huge bummer though & Jack was in big trouble - not for ruining the game - for touching the dvd player!

We stayed at a place that had really good cook to order/continental breakfast (breakfast selection is always the deciding factor for Jeremiah in hotel choices!) & had breakfast with our friends the Porters then headed to Disneyland for the day.

The kids had a good time as always. We hung out with the Porters & in the afternoon Justin, Jamie & Katelyn (Jer's bro & fam) joined us for a few hours. Towards the end of the day my sister Tara, Ellie & I were lagging behind the group to get to a ride & happened to catch the near beginning of the line to see Mickey & Minnie. I was really surprised when Ellie actually wanted to see them & I had to tell her a few times in line to come back to wait our turn since she was scooting closer & closer to them. Because Ellie is a very shy girl! Unlike Jack & Callie who I've had to tell scary stories too b/c I think they'd go home with anybody, when strangers approach Ellie she'll stick her tongue out at them, make mean pouty faces, give dirty looks, or just turn her head (with a dirty look on her face). She doesn't like strangers. I was completely shocked to see her run with open arms up to Minnie when it was our turn! She spent a couple of minutes with Mickey & Minnie, getting lots of nose kisses from Minnie. She ate it up!

(Thanks for the pic Tara)


On Friday we went to the beach, and on Friday night we went back to Disneyland with the kids in their Halloween best for Mickey's Trick or Treat Party. Let me just say that when Jeremiah & I lived in SoCal & had annual passes (pre-family) we'd go to Dland for date night & around Halloween I'd see families w/their little trick or treaters lined up to go to this Disney Halloween party (then at DCA) & I always thought that someday I wanted to do that with our kids. It was a complete splurge to take the kids this year b/c even though we currently have annual passes, this is a special event so you have to buy separate tix to go to it. My justification (oh, I'm the freaking queen of justification - if you ever need validation for something ridiculous I'm your girl) was that a) I've wanted to do it for years! If it's not worth it we'd find out this time & I won't be longing to do it for the rest of forever (and if it is then sweet - we'll do it again in a few years); b) because of reason a, we should do it this year while Ellie's still free & before we have a 4th child to take; c) if we spend the money going to this then I'll have the kids wear their costumes from last year (gasp!).

So we went.

Totally not worth it!

Sorry Disney. I love you so very much, but this was a rip! Here's what was advertised:

Don't miss out on:
•Exclusive viewing of the boo-tiful Halloween Screams fireworks spectacular Okay, cool for a fireworks show, but would it have been super sad to see a normal Disney fireworks show instead of this one? No!
•Exclusive access to nearly all Disneyland Park attractions, including all the Halloween-themed attractions such as Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy and Haunted Mansion Holiday Exclusive b/c only the people in the park during the party can go. But you can also go during regular hours. Which were much less busy!
•Earlier access to the Park beginning at 3:00 p.m. for Tuesday 6:00 p.m. events and 4:00 p.m. for Friday and Halloween 7:00 p.m. events Who cares since we have APs. Although if you didn't have APs then maybe, just maybe this would make the cost worth it instead of a regular priced ticket. Depends on how long & how late you can handle being at Disneyland with your little kids. But like I mentioned, the normal park hours were less busy it seemed.
•Lively music so your bones can boogie Who cares? (Except Ellie, our little dancing queen)
•Even more special treat stations offering both candy and healthy goodies 7 areas around the park where they had employees in orange sweatshirts stand at a little kiosk & give you candy. Sure, the candy was the kind of stuff you wish everyone gave out at Halloween & they were very generous with it (even every adult had been given a trick or treat bag at the entrance to get candy), but for the price of one ticket you could have bought all of the candy for your family. I think. I mean, I know candy's expensive & we did get a TON...
•Creepy crafts and activities for the whole family I'm sure there were creepy crafts & activities there if it was advertised, but I didn't see them
•Plenty of costumed Characters to meet and greet When they say costumed do they mean that there are people wearing disney character costumes? Like on every other day of the year? B/C after getting in the super long line to see the princesses we heard they were just regularly dressed princesses so we got out of line. Maybe we heard wrong, but the line was insane.
•Plus, lots more entertainment for little boys and ghouls! ???

So no, I would not ever pay for Mickey's Trick or Treat Party again. But at least now I can say that I did it! :) Total bummer though that I forgot to take a camera w/us to CA & since my phone doesn't have a flash there are no pictures of our expensive evening!

On Saturday we met up w/Jason & Richelle & took the kids to McD's for lunch so they could play on the toys. Afterwards we took the kids to the beach again & then had dinner at Olive Garden w/Jas, Richelle, Justin, Jamie & Katelyn. And except for Ellie pooping her panties for the 2nd time that day dinner was awesome! So much for the same kind of potty training success & ease I experienced w/the first 2! (Although she I think it was just b/c we were on vacation b/c we're not having many mishaps now.)

On Sunday we stayed to go to our niece Katelyn's 5th birthday party. Jeremiah was whining that we were going to get home so late, but how often do we get to be there for Katelyn's birthday or much of anything? I'm really glad that we stayed! The kids LOVED being able to be at Katelyn's party! I loved that Jamie filled the pinata with awesome candy! I think it was all chocolate? Jeremiah & I have some good candy to fatten us up & get the holiday season started out right! :)

The end. Sorry for the super long travel log!