Gimme head with hair
Long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming,
Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there hair
Shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there mama
Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair

Oh! Sorry, got caught up in that The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical! Isn’t this a clever new addition for Disneyland? Meeting a new Disneyland character always makes my day. Now to get caught up on adding these photos to my Disney scrapbook…..

Isn’t Rapunzul’s boyfriend Flynn Ryder a cute catch? Can’t wait to see this movie!

Halloween is coming into full swing at both parks, in fact Haunted Mansion and for the first time ever Space Mountain (my favorite ride at Disneyland) both were closed due to Halloween additions being added to the rides. I can’t wait to see what they will do with Space Mountain. Should be so exciting!

I headed over to California Adventure First, which was practically empty. I was going to ride Screamin’ when I saw Jessie and being a typical photo fiend and Disney fanatic I couldn’t pass up a photo op with her!

I just can’t get enough of Screamin, which when you take single rider the wait is non existent. Today there were very few people at the park though and the wait was under 7 minutes through the normal entrance line.

Next I hit Soarin’, again the wait was minimal, especially for single rider. This ride is so calming, especially with the wonderful scents that are added during the different scenes you fly over. It gives you a good time to rest if you’re tired at the park too!

The Mickey face at Disneyland is always so cleverly designed and perfectly planted. It’s fun to see what the designers have come up with and how the blossoming of the plants changes the look as the plants blooms and grows!

I’ve also learned that even though there isn’t a single rider entrance on the Matterhorn, they will allow handicap people to enter through the exit, which makes for a very quick wait and my knees and hips very happy! Thanks Disney!

I haven’t been on the Jungle Cruise in a long time and decided to do so just to see if I remembered the whole ride. Turns out I didn’t, and the boat captain was hilarious! And he was really young. I love that show of confidence!

I ended up not taking very many photos because a) I was on the wrong side of the boat, and b) the person I was sitting next to wasn’t real friendly to sharing “our” space. I’ve decided I will go back and see what photos I can get. Hmm….sounds like a return trip is definately in the works!

Using Picassa I made a collage photo for my facebook page. Pretty fun thing to do! Enjoy!

It must have been meant for me to have a good time, something I usually have at Disneyland anyway. While the crowds looked heavy from the outside and the parking looked ominious while I was I was waiting, once I got into the park the amount of people actually there was less than expected. Characters were out in abundance so I got to pick and choose with whom I would have a photo snapped with, single rider options made entering rides a snap, and cast members greeted me right and left cheerfully with “Happy Birthday Pat” which only aided in my good mood. I decided to do exactly as I desired and went on rides at random, rested as needed and basically wore myself out. A hot epsom salts bath was drawn once I arrived home, a coconut rum and coke joined me as company and I looked forward to viewing my photos once I dried my weary body off. Later that evening my sweet hubby took us out to eat at Fuddruckers where I was a birthday girl once again and ate exactly what I wanted, a fat juicy hamburger, onion rings and yes Patricia (our favorite employee at Lake Forest Fuddruckers) a vanilla shake. I may be a “plain girl” girl on the outside but on the inside I’m anything but plain. I’m 56 and bound and determined to enjoy my life!

The date finally arrived when I was no longer blocked at Disneyland and California Adventure when using my passport again so I headed up to Anaheim with 2 good girlfriends in tow, Jill and Karen. We left around 2, arrived about 3, and set out to have a great time. Despite the fact that the park was really crowded we still did just that, enjoyed ourselves immensely! Say Cheese everyone!

Jill just celebrated her birthday in July while Karen won’t be jumping for joy about hers until December, and mine, well yes once again it’s just around the corner. Another neat fact is that Jill and I are the same age basically, which is probably why she suggested once we were in California Adventure to that I get myself a birthday button. That led to Karen and Jill getting “We’re celebrating” buttons and then low and behold a suprise, I got to pick out my favorite ride in this park and the cast member gave me a fast pass for the entire party! How cool was that? way cool….though from the looks of the photo Jill might not think it’s as cool as I did! I love Hollywood Tower Hotel!

Since I love gardening it’s no stretch to understand why I love the gardens at Disneyland all created and maintained by their awesome master gardeners. I love seeing how everything changes and blooms with each season when I go to both parks. It’s always such an inspiration!

Always in character are Disneyland and California Adventure’s Disney Characters! You can try and stump them if you want with a thousand different variations on any given question and you will be guaranteed an answer that keeps them in whatever character they are dressed up for on that day! But make a pirate cross and he may chase you up, down and throughout the Tarzan Treehouse before he settles on how to behead….I mean how to behave once he catches you!

Val’s dad John flew out at the end of Val’s week here so that they could drive back home to Illinois together. While here, John needed to run a teleconference meeting. Jerry and John worked a couple hours on getting that set up, but were unsuccessful. Jerry and Patty enjoyed seeing John again, especially since he is a camera enthusiast just as Jerry and Patty are. So much so in fact, John has the same camera Jerry has, a Nikon D90!

Valerie’s packing of her car turned into something of a Nintendo’s Tetris session, but she did make it all fit. Yeah! You can see Val here in the guest room closet going through her things. Here’s to Val and Roni getting a place that has a huge walk in closet when they move out to OC!

At the last minute Patty and Valerie decided to take a trip to Disneyland today, Tuesday March 24th. The weather was spectacular even if the park was full. We got a late start but still had a fun day. Val lucked out and found Pluto just as we entered the park, so we waited in line to get her photo taken for her sweetheart, Roni. And was it worth it! Such an adorable photo! Of course it’s not hard when you start out with such an adorable girl!

We also got lucky and got if not a somewhat obnoxious cast member at least one who had a great suggestion, and that was to get our photo taken with Tink, in front of the castle! Yeah Tink! I always love to play with Tink. All in all, a great day.

I’m late posting photos, but as the saying goes, better late than never.

I had just gotten home after taking our houseguest Valerie to the airport (she went home to Illinois for the holidays) when I saw Jerry’s car in the driveway. I was so excited to see him home for lunch! I was sure he had come home to see me so I rushed in the front door to say “hi sweetie”. When he walked out of his study and I saw the look on his face I knew there was a different reason for him being home in the middle of the day. You know the rest of the story, another job lay off with the holidays right around the corner. This short story line leads up the photo of me with a very special person in my arms, baby Jack L. Hord. Carol’s daughter Teresa, husband Jeremy, and daugher Emily welcomed Jack into the world a few days after Thanksgiving this year. Jerry had gone back to work after telling me about the job lay off news, and I was on the phone with my girlfriend Pauline boo-hooing about it. I was in no mood to break away from my conversation with Pauline, despite Carol’s persistance. She called my cell several times, then the home phone. I finally gave in and took her call. She didn’t tell me that Teresa and Jack were with her, she didn’t know about Jerry’s recent job status. She just knew how much I loved her girls and T’s kids. I hung up with Pauline and waited for Carol to come over like she said she was going to do. When I answered the door I was so tickled. I also knew that I needed a baby’s love at that very moment to lift my heart. Thank you baby Jack, Teresa and Carol.

We started our festivities by having good friends Terry and Karen over to enjoy the Christmas vibe. Karen brought over hot chocolate and we enjoyed that while we opened our gifts.
It was Jerry’s year for all things Coke related. Maybe next year we’ll put up a small tree in his study to show off his Coke ornaments.It was the year of the fairy for me. I was blessed to receive Tink in many different forms this year and loved it. This was a Mary Cicely Barker calendar, another favorite artist of mine who illustrates exquisite fairies.

Terry’s gifts came in the form of Disney. Not too big of a surprise because that’s his mantra, his main thing, what makes his heart go thumpedy-thump. Karen and I went to an estate sale this last year that had a awesome amount of Disney items for sale. We found out as we were purchasing our items that the estate sale was due to a foreclosure which made it very sad. But in the end Terry got this shirt and a cool Disney blanket, so I was thankful for those gifts.

Next on our holiday festivities was spending Christmas eve with good friends the Bennets. Jill made everyone a wonderful mexican feast with delicious margarita’s, and Matt joined us for dinner that evening which was nice. In a festive mood Jill placed celebratory New Years eve crackers on each table setting which was a lot of fun.
Inside each cracker were crowns, a joke, and a prize. Each end of the cracker was tied up with twisty gold ball ties. Those ended up being the most entertaining, something akin to the box, not the contents. Patrick made “knuckle-cracking-beaters” out of his. Steve proudly shows off the paper crown. It seems to fit him just right, don’t you think? Jill bravely shows there is more than just 1 thing you can do with the New Years cracker ties thank you, while Matt tries not to notice that mom did not have her focus set right!

We had a nice treat this year with having both boys home for Christmas. Jason and his good friend Christina, better known as Chuck, made the long trek down from Arcata, Ca in his dependable blue Honda. Since it is about a 14 hour drive one way, they decided to stop over in San Fransico on their way down. It had been almost 2 years since we’d seen Jason last, so we were all very excited. Christmas morning was nice. We slept in a bit, and Matt drove down from Newport Beach to open gifts with us. Matt appreciated his gifts as did Jason, of course, yet the best part for Jerry and I was the fact that we had both the boys home for the holidays at the same time.
As part of our family tradition, we traveled down to San Diego for Christmas day dinner at Patty’s cousin’s house. Greg and Doreen make the best prime rib known to mankind and are the most gracious of hosts. Getting to see Greg’s parents, and Patty’s closest aunt Lou and uncle Jim who live a stone’s throw away, is another part of the wonderful tradition, as is seeing a whole host of other family members. It is time spent with great food and spirits, lots of wonderful stories around a long table, and best of all simply the best family a girl could ever wish for.

And no, Karen is not drunk, or at least I don’t think she was. She just has a thing for camera’s….errrrr I mean flashes. She is working on it! No worries Karen.

A little later on in the evening we had our photo taken under Disneyland’s first artifical Christmas tree. And a huge and beautiful one it is. But seriously, who cares about that, check out Karen. Her eyes are open! Karen, we are so proud of you!

We lucked out and walked right into the park when Disney’s Christmas parade was coming down Main Street. There are so many fun characters to see and photos to take and people to move around…oh my dear!

Prince Charming and Cinderella can dance the day away….oh stop my heart from pitter patting. I do love Disney so!

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle shown bright with lights and colors like you wouldn’t believe! We stood around for quite some time and stared at it in amazement, taking photos in hopes of capturing some of the magic. If you’ve never seen the fireworks display at Disneyland I certainly recommend it as it is something you will never forget. Simply spectacular!

I think my favorite colors the castle displays throughout the entire evening even during the fireworks is this gorgeous pink glow. Isn’t pink one of a girl’s favorite colors?

At the end of the fireworks show during the Christmas holidays it snows! The music and snow are piped out over the airways around the castle and the Disney magic lives on!

Another stumble and we walked into Fantasmic coming around the bend at Pirate’s Island. Way cool for words. Water jets sent up into the air and loud music may make this show too much for a lot of kids under the age of maybe 7, but for adults it is just plain impressive.

We moved on to join in the amazement and joy of It’s A Small World’s new lights display set to music. Wow! Jill took a video of it which I hope to post at some point. Disneyland also did work on the canals on this ride but this part takes the cake. So very impressive Disney!

Last but certainly never least was Andrew. A inventive young man who made this one of a kind Christmas celebratory hat. Wish I’d snapped a photo of his face, or better yet blogged about him sooner so he could have gotten his 15 minutes of fame, as he did ask what my website was when I told him I was going to blog about his cool hat! And that, my friends is what Disneyland is all about! At least on this trip!

After living with Jerry and I for almost a month while seriously pursuing a job in the interior design market, Valerie decided to purchase a Disneyland Annual Pass. It allows her to have fun during these hard economic times, and besides who doesn’t love Disneyland? Uh, for those of you who don’t? Don’t answer!

One of the cool things about Val is that this girl loves REAL rides! Like one of our favorites, Screamin’!

And she loves the holidays and is very photogenic! Our friend Terry went with us on this trip and played tour guide till our ears dropped off! I’m so tickled to have you as a Disney pal Valerie!