Pumpkins, and candy, and Mickey, oh my! (TR complete!)

[mommaU4]

Love the graveyard and your kids are cute! Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks!

I haven't been to the Animation Studio for a loooooooooooong time. Probably for a reason!

Well we are dragging your booty in there in March.

I'm posting again, cuz you are leading us astray.

I just realized that your title says lots of pics. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo where are the pics woman?? From your broken camera??

You are right. My bad. I better change that to say "Lots of sketches!"

 

[wendylady36]

Well we are dragging your booty in there in March.

Heck yeah we are! Especially if your not good at drawing. Come on, there has to be somebody worse then me out there, right?

Maybe I'll take an art class or something before the trip and make all of you look bad.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

hey girls..tiff and i decided to come down a night early...I called hojo to see if they had availability for tonight and guess what they did so we packed up and headed out about 11am ...man did we luck out with the traffic...we hit it on the 210E about halfway to the 57S...and once we got on the 57 it was smooth sailing for us because we could do carpool lane all the way down those poor people going north though were in for it the entire time we were on the 57 it was back to back traffic jam all the way going North...I was glad we werent going in that direction....anyways just waiting for tiff to get ready and we are off to cheesecake factory and will call it an early night...First thing in the morning I will be heading over to DLH and meeting up with my very good friend Andrea (Matterhorn on the boards) and her kiddos...they love tiff and have no idea she is even here hehehe...I am super excited to see them tomorrow but had to stop by and read the start of the TR...everybody have a good week and I hope to have lots to read when I come back....

I had been prepared to make the trip without the A/C on and as it turns out, I almost needed the heat on! It was only in the low 50's when we left.

only 50 yeah beth you live in NV and you expect us to believe that it was ONLY 50 degrees to you?

OMG! You did the Animation Studio too! I did it for the first time this trip. Apparently I took the class with a bunch of professionals, I wish someone would've warned me beforehand! I was SO embarrassed when they told everyone to hold up their picture!

You actually held yours up???

what an amateur...maybe if you had been reading up on the boards instead of talking smack about my mouse vs your churros then you would have known something wouldnt ya?????

 

[mommaU4]

only 50 yeah beth you live in NV and you expect us to believe that it was ONLY 50 degrees to you?

Hey! I was just thinking about you!! Sounds like things are going great.

Oh, and don't forget I lived in Northern Michigan for a while. 50 degrees felt heavenly! I am so over the heat I can't stand it. And of course it's warmed back up since we've been back.

 

[travelmel]

Sorry I'm late! I've been making
H A L L O W E E N ​

P A R T Y​

​

invitations all night!

Ok, I'm in now!!

Subbing!

Yes, I made that popcorn and put it in that bucket JUST for this picture.

I love that pic of the kids in the grave sites! Classic!!

 

[mommaU4]

Sorry I'm late! I've been making
H A L L O W E E N ​

P A R T Y​

​

invitations all night!

Ok, I'm in now!!

Subbing!

Yes, I made that popcorn and put it in that bucket JUST for this picture.

I love that pic of the kids in the grave sites! Classic!!

Mmmm, popcorn in a really cool bucket! It was worth the wait. Glad your here now though.

 

[pixleyyy]

OMG ... a broken camera is my huge Disney fear. Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[mommaU4]

OMG ... a broken camera is my huge Disney fear. Can't wait to read more!!!

I know! Other then catching some sort of stomach flu, a broken camera has also always been my biggest fear!

 

[mommaU4]

Monday morning I woke up and the first thing on my mind was the camera. I didn't care what else we did but I was not going to Disney without a camera! Ruben had spent some time on it the day before trying to figure out why it wasn't working, and he thought he had gotten it to start working again. But I was still leery. What if it decided to shut down on us again??

Then we had an idea. My MIL had a camera that was fairly new that she almost never used so we asked her if we could borrow it for the trip and she said yes! Yay! We'd bring ours AND hers so between the two cameras we'd be covered.

Our plans for the day were just to hang out with my in-laws for awhile and then head to Disney. The kids wanted to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua, so off we went to a near by shopping area in Westlake Village.

Ruben and I decided to walk around the outdoor shopping area and skip the movie since we weren't really interested in seeing it. We had our camera with us and we decided to take some test shots to make sure it was working ok.
Some pics from the shopping area:

I thought I'd peek over this guy's shoulder and see what he was reading.

Actually he was looking up at something and I'm pretty sure it was all the smoke in the air from the fires that had been burning. The air was pretty nasty and I could see bits of ash falling. Probably not the best time to be doing outdoor shopping.

The smoke was drifting in front of the sun making it an eerie orange glow.

After the movie was over it was around 1:30 and we decided it was time to hit the road for Disney before the smoke and fires got any worse. They had already shut down the 118 freeway at this point, so we hopped on the 101 and headed out of the area.

Some smoke from the freeway:

It didn't take long at all to make it to Disney, after a quick stop along the way to visit more family in the area. Traffic was pretty light being a holiday for some (Columbus Day) so I'm sure that helped. We pulled up at HoJo a little after 4 and I was sooooo excited to finally be there.

Check in was quick and hassle free and soon we were up in the room, the kids changing to go swimming while I unpacked. Our passes weren't blocked out that day, and we could have gone to the parks, but I just wanted to take it easy that first night. Plus the kids were itching to try the new Castaway Cove area. They LOVED it!!! The whole pirate ship theming is so cute. What a wonderful addition to the HoJo.
Some pics of them having fun!

Waiting for the bucket to fall:

Look out below!!

The kiddie pool is perfect for little kids. Even the twins, who are 8, had fun playing in it.

Ready, set, GO!

How fun is that??

Go ahead, make my day.

Yo ho, Yo ho, a pirate's life for me!

Sun's going down. Time to head in for dinner.

Day Two to be continued...................

 

[Yakety76]

We have stayed at the DLH for our last two visits. One of the reasons being for the fun kiddie pool. I have to say that the HOJO pool looks like even more fun than the DLH pool. It looks like you all had a blast!

 

[kaoden39]

Wow that smoke was nasty. I am loving your trip report like normal.

 

[mommaU4]

We have stayed at the DLH for our last two visits. One of the reasons being for the fun kiddie pool. I have to say that the HOJO pool looks like even more fun than the DLH pool. It looks like you all had a blast!

Hi! Thanks for reading!
It is great. The kids loved it and the only problem was they wanted to be out there almost every day! That is the main pool area, it has spray guns, slides, the pirate ship, a kiddie pool, water fountains that shoot up, and a hot tub. Then they have the garden pool area which is also nice, but is just a regular pool for those with older kids, or who want to escape the kids play area.

We were able to get the entertainment rate of $59 a night, plus a roll away for another $7. So our total was $66 a night plus tax of course. An unbeatable deal for us! And we were still able to walk to and from Disney each day so we didn't have to hassle with our van and parking.

I'll post some pics of our room next. I just reached my image limit so I had to break up the post. LOL

Try it next time. See what you think!

 

[mommaU4]

Wow that smoke was nasty. I am loving your trip report like normal.

Yes, it was bad. Every year though it's the same deal with the fires, especially when those Santa Ana winds kick up. Yikes.
Thanks for the comment! I'm glad your here reading along.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Beth! It's like my FEAR to go to DLR without a camera. I have nightmares about it, haha seriously!

Wonderful TR! I can't wait to read more! Your kids look like they had a blast at the Hojo pool!!

 

[kaoden39]

Yes, it was bad. Every year though it's the same deal with the fires, especially when those Santa Ana winds kick up. Yikes.
Thanks for the comment! I'm glad your here reading along.

You know I was thinking the same thing about the smoke. I don't know about the Las Vegas area but it seems to me every year in California we go through the fires and the smoke. I sure hope we have a better year as far as rain goes this year.

 

[mommaU4]

Beth! It's like my FEAR to go to DLR without a camera. I have nightmares about it, haha seriously!

Wonderful TR! I can't wait to read more! Your kids look like they had a blast at the Hojo pool!!

Thanks! I'm glad your here.

I was still paranoid about the camera which is why I was glad we had our MIL's just in case. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of the camera drama. But I'll save that for later.

You know I was thinking the same thing about the smoke. I don't know about the Las Vegas area but it seems to me every year in California we go through the fires and the smoke. I sure hope we have a better year as far as rain goes this year.

I don't think we get many fires here. I don't know. We haven't been here that long, but there's nothing to burn. LOL
I also hope you all get more rain this year. It seems like that's an issue every now and then too. The lack of rain.

 

[kaoden39]

I have done a lot of research on California because I wanted to write a ficitional story about my part of the state and we ar eprone to drought here. I also have lived in this wonderful state my whold life and believe me that is a long time too.

 

[toocherie]

Beth--the pictures of the play area by the pool were fantastic! Lorealle should co-opt them for advertising for Hojo!

 

[MA pigletfan]

wow...those fires were really burning it up when you were there! We left that sunday, late night, so we were not effected at all..scary stuff!
HoJo's looks so fun!!!!!!!!!! You cannot beat that rate wow!

 

[JaneJetson]

Love that photo!

My video camera broke right before our honeymoon. So my mom and dad let me borrow their camera. We barely took any video but it was nice that we had it.

Luckily we always bring two cameras with us on trips so if one breaks, we're covered.

Love the report so far!