Solo day and family trip... two, two, two reports in ONE!

[bumbershoot]

kaoden, I hope you get a trip, too!

When I lived in San Jose, I went to Disneyland ONCE with my mom and ONCE with my dad (maybe twice but I don't think so). It seemed years and years away, absolutely impossible. And of course flying was impossible because airfare was SO much more expensive than it is today. I remember our 8th grade trip to Washington DC in '82'ish cost $800 for the plane ticket! Getting to LA wasn't cheap either.

So maybe you should move to WA, and you'll go more often?

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh gracious...I was just going through "landscape" sort of pictures for a photobook, and got to last December 1st, when we were up in Edmonds, WA at the Rick Steves store/travel place. While we were there, on a very cold day (as today was), Eamon looked outside and informed us that it was snowing. We didn't believe him at first, but then remembered "dude, E is almost always right" and goodness gracious there was the snow!

That was a loooooong drive home, let me tell you (western WA+snow+driving=ACK and rightly so!).

Anyway, I just realized that it could very well happen before this trip, too! Our trip is starting on the same date as last year, which was not on purpose or even thought of until I was making MIL's photobook.

It would be weird if it did snow on the same date!

 

[bumbershoot]

We now have two bags being slowly packed. For DS it's a place to put his toys that he wants to take (NO playmobil, YES lightsabers, for instance). For me it's clothes and lanyards and such.

Started thinking of dropping the idea for the MM on our checkin day at PPH, but we would still want to be at the park well before opening, and we don't want to have to go over to Motel 6 (HoJo now has availability but their lowest "best available rate" is still a total of almost 180 which doesn't make me happy at all) to check out later on. So we would still be doing early checkin at PPH, and we'd want to be at the gates early....so we might as well just do it all an hour earlier and have that good hour before the public gets there, LOL.

Since we don't also want to take the time for a cab to the store, I think we're giving up our carryon-only idea, and will pack one bag with simple food. Eamon seems to be in a growth spurt right now (he's almost 43 inches now, per our wall chart, so that's looking good for Grizzly if our chart is correct!!!!!), needing bedtime snacks of sandwiches, and I would hate for him to be hungry and have to run out to the store at midnight or something. Last night he was so hungry that he even ate the broccoli I offered him along with his sandwich!

I was just going to say "oh but we don't have a hard-sided suitcase for that", but we do, it's just not what we normally carry with us.

It also saves me the trouble of needing to contact the cake people to snag some Eamon-safe frosting so he can have fun decorating the expensive cookies in Big Thunder Ranch, b/c I can just pack powdered sugar and I can snag milk from the restaurant or the coffee bar or something, and whip up some quick icing, so if he wants to decorate he can do so without dealing with the HFCS and corn syrup in their official frosting. Whew.

Instead of granola bars, we're getting Clif MoJo bars, b/c they are deeeelicious. And low glycemic which is better for, well, all of us. And we don't snarf them like we do granola bars, b/c they are so substantial in taste and stomach-feel.

Gotta get the discount APs for the guys...



While we're gone, of course it's Ikea's Yule/Christmas Tree weekend. So we have a friend who will buy us one. We like the decorated trees, but HATE spending tons of money on them when they're just going to fall apart before the end of December anyway, so the Ikea trees work well. Do Ikeas all over do the tree thing?

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I can't believe you've already started some packing. I usually do my packing the night before I leave, maybe 2 nights before.

 

[bumbershoot]

I can't believe you've already started some packing. I usually do my packing the night before I leave, maybe 2 nights before.

IT's more a place to keep things, and put them back after use, so nothing is forgotten.

Goes along with the 18 notebooks with lists of things to pack.

Also, I pack for everyone, b/c they seem to be incapable. While that would be expected of the 4 year old, it's NOT expected of the 36 year old, and it's taken me some time to just deal with the fact that he doesn't really think about what he's packing, and ends up missing important items if he does it himself, and to just do it. I don't like that though!



I forgot to mention that I managed to buy batteries for the three lightsaber key chains. Most places wanted so much for the 3 batteries needed for each that it would actually be more cost effective to just buy a new lightsaber keychain.

But I found a seller on amazon with off brand (Tian Qui or something like that) batteries...100 batteries for under 10 bucks. I'm totally sure some of them are dead already, and I'm sure they won't all last until I've used them all, but hey, the 9 of them I put in the keychains work right now, and that makes the 10 bucks worth it! I had forgotten how BRIGHT the red one was until I replaced those batteries!

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Also, I pack for everyone, b/c they seem to be incapable. While that would be expected of the 4 year old, it's NOT expected of the 36 year old, and it's taken me some time to just deal with the fact that he doesn't really think about what he's packing, and ends up missing important items if he does it himself, and to just do it. I don't like that though!

Sounds just like my Mom and Dad! Exactly!

 

[bumbershoot]

If you and Jesus are serious about a future, don't fall into that trap! Make sure he knows how to pack, and work on keeping that skill!!!!

Although it's fun to be the person to pull unexpected but suddenly needed items out of a bag, it's NOT fun to be the one who forgets other peoples' things, or to just worry that you have.


By the way, does he say his name the American way, or with a Hay instead of a Gee? My first from-afar love (2nd grade to graduation) was a Jesus Jr, and just went by Jess to save the hassle of dealing with those who didn't say it properly. And amazingly, there were people in San Jose who didn't know how to say it! LOL, speaking of one of them, an old friend was "facebook"ing about having to communicate with some employees of hers, and she was *seriously* regretting the GERMAN she took while in school, and was asking for the Spanish speakers in her facebook group to help her out. Poor girl...I always thought it was strange for her to take German while living in CA!

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

I know! He packs himself now, but because we don't live together. But he's picky and if I were to pack for him, he would complain that I didn't pack the right clothes or something.

He pronounces it Hay-sus. He's a jr. too. Well, kind of. His Dad's name is Jesus, but they have different middle names, so technically that doesn't make him a jr., I guess?

When we went to Disneyland last year, on his birthday button he had the CM write Jesse on it. Some people still call him Jesus (geezus) and then are all confused why someone's name would be Jesus. Even when we had PS's at Cafe Orleans, the CM was confused when he called his name that our table was ready, he didn't know to call him Hay-sus or Geezus.

That's funny about your friend! We live in a highly Hispanic populated area (isn't most of Southern California though?) and we still had Italian offered to us as a foreign language in high school. I took Spanish, but as much as I wanted to take Italian, I knew it wouldn't help me much. German is strange though to take in CA!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I took German in high school up here in NorCal, by and large because just about everyone else was taking Spanish. And although the two languages are very different, taking German was useful in helping me learn Russian when I served a two year mission for my church in Moscow.

 

[toocherie]

LOL--I grew up in Montebello--just east of Los Angeles--and I took FRENCH! I wanted to be "different." Some of my friends took Latin; some took German--the vast majority took Spanish (which I thought was cheating since most of them came from homes where Spanish was spoken pretty regularly). Anyway, French wasn't so bad because a lot of the words are similar in Spanish and French--so sometimes I can "read" Spanish even though I didn't take classes--I think that works for Italian too--all those "romance" languages are similar.

German? That's another country entirely!!! LOL

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

That's funny, Toocherie!

When we went to Italy, my Mom started speaking Spanish to our waitress, I was like "What!? What country are we in, Mother!?!" But the funny this is the lady understood her!!!!! My Mom asked her for our bill, and I guess the Italian word for bill is the similiar in Spanish? Who knows, but I was floored. I still laugh about it.

I wish I was all wordly and knew all these different languages. I still struggle with Spanish, and my Mom speaks it, so does Jesus at home. I want to learn Tagalog. And Japanese.

 

[bumbershoot]

For the record, I think that taking ANY language outside of your country's language is a good thing. Learning one makes learning more easier. It's just...when you live in CA, it just seems a good idea to be fluent in Spanish first, before moving on to other languages.

I started taking Spanish in 8th grade, as did many of my friends, while those crazy German speakers were over on the other side of the accordion wall. Got interesting when everyone was feisty, as those "walls" aren't that soundproof.

My mom took German in HS, though, so if I had chosen to take it she could have finally helped me with my schoolwork! (she could help with English homework but nothing else)

Oh Cheryl, you're one of those French people? Shoulda known, with "Cherie" in your username and all. I kid, I kid.



Crazy thing! So I took 4 years of Spanish, 8th through 11th. Then our school became a Magnet school in language and communication (we had a drama program, one of the very few high school radio stations in the country, and offered languages). Once that happened, they added, get this, LATIN (at 7am!!!!), and also offered Japanese. I had been obsessed with that language and culture since Shogun came out, so I dumped Spanish and went to Japanese.

Crazy part....they are very similiar to me. You say the vowel sounds the same, the sentences are structured the same, and so on. I took it senior year of HS and then two semesters in college, and in that short time got to the point where I was dreaming in Japanese, but then I hated the teacher and stopped taking it.

So anyway, PPB, maybe you should start with Japanese, and if you have the same experience as I did, maybe it would help you with your Spanish!

I got nothin' about the Tagalog, though...



Oh...pronunciation of Jesus...my pretend boyfriend had a last name that was said in one certain way, if you were pronouncing it right. I never even thought it had another way of saying it. ONe day we had a sub in "state requirements" (driver's ed, sex ed, don't drink, etc, all those things rolled up in ONE class) and when he got to the Ms for rollcall he said a last name like "messiahs". Said it again, then "Gee-sus Messiahs", which FINALLY caused us all to realize who exactly he was talking about.. Jess was cool about it, though embarrassed as heck (he was a shy one just like me). But omg, what a way to mis-pronounce a name!!!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Woohoo, ordered E and R's $30-off-APs!

That website was giving me fits, but I got it worked out.

 

[toocherie]

Woohoo, ordered E and R's $30-off-APs!

That website was giving me fits, but I got it worked out.

Yay! Just 7 more days! Weather is beautiful today=--not too hot, not too cold!

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Geezus Messiah! What a name!!! At least the poor kid was used to it!

I've heard that before about Japanese and Spanish. Actually Tagalog too! I know the name for bathroom in Spanish and Tagalog is similar. Both my Uncle's speak fluent Tagalog. I should ask them for help, huh?

Molly! Your trip is almost here!! Wooohooo!!

 

[bumbershoot]

We've recently realized that we could actually rent a car. It will involve bringing DS's carseat, which will be a pain, but it might be easier for us. Could get to the hotel Friday night quicker, maybe, or at least without the possible annoyance of stopping at the DLH, maybe having to switch buses, just to get to Motel6. Could go to the store. Don't have to get a cab in the morning for the one with the bags.

Can "use" services that we're paying for in the resort fee Sat and Sun. That's my favorite one.

And then we can just get out of town on OUR schedule.



The only downside is having to drive in southern CA.


So I gotta check hotwire again in a little bit, and if the deal I saw is gone, gotta priceline it, or if that fails, I saw another deal elsewhere. Interesting idea, to be able to rent a car; haven't done that in years!

 

[kaoden39]

I don't know if you realize it but you can get a car seat from a rental car company and not have to bring yours. That makes it a little easier. I am all for having a car to get around in southern California. Allthough once we get to the resort the only time I get in the car again is to go see Richard Simmons and go home.

 

[bumbershoot]

Things I need to do today. Making a checklist so I can cross them off.

As usual, I'll start with things I've done.



Get list of pressed penny locations. done

Mark off which ones you think hubby and son will want. done

Designate doohickey to keep paperwork in. done

Turn the printer on so I can print various things. done

Hook printer up to computer. done

*********

Whew, that was hard work!

*********

Print AP vouchers and receipt. receipt, check! vouchers done!

Print hotels.com info. done

Make sure PPH invoice is with everything. done

Print hotwire info. done

Print LAX rental car procedure info from their website. done

Print airline info and see when I can print boarding passes. VA= 24 hours, might just do it at airport so should print confirmation number... Alaska= same, it seems.

Print more fun pages for DS, and make sure I have the ones already printed in the right spot.

Print out Muppet/AP hunt thing. done




That's good for now, will be back to edit when I've done things.

 

[toocherie]

We've recently realized that we could actually rent a car. It will involve bringing DS's carseat, which will be a pain, but it might be easier for us. Could get to the hotel Friday night quicker, maybe, or at least without the possible annoyance of stopping at the DLH, maybe having to switch buses, just to get to Motel6. Could go to the store. Don't have to get a cab in the morning for the one with the bags.

Can "use" services that we're paying for in the resort fee Sat and Sun. That's my favorite one.

And then we can just get out of town on OUR schedule.



The only downside is having to drive in southern CA.


So I gotta check hotwire again in a little bit, and if the deal I saw is gone, gotta priceline it, or if that fails, I saw another deal elsewhere. Interesting idea, to be able to rent a car; haven't done that in years!

I think renting a car makes a LOT of sense! I would go and "check-in" at PPH early and just leave your luggage in the car . . . . and then hotfoot it to MM. Worry about the luggage in the car later--you can park at PPH. So no parking charges. Then you can go out, do some food shopping if need be and bring your luggage up all at the same time! (and, at that point people will probably have left/checked out, so there will probably be closer parking spaces than first thing in the a.m.!)

 

[wendylady36]

How exciting that it's almost time for you trip! You'll have to let me know how the Muppet's hunt is. I just signed up for it yesterday, but marked that I wasn't going to be in the parks. I'm interested to know what it includes at the park.