Sorry it took me so long to get this post up. I've spent the past few days editing photos. I have uploaded a few pictures from CHA to my flickr account. Check them out
here. Also, if you want to see a funny Discover commercial, check it out on you tube
here.
I arrived in Anaheim Thursday evening and dropped off my luggage at Eva's hotel room at
Paradise Pier Resort. I met Eva, Josiah, and Elizabeth for dinner at the
Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney and then we did a little bit of window shopping.
We woke up incredibly early because we were excited about going to Disneyland. We got early entrance into Disneyland for out Minnie & Friends breakfast. We took a ton of pictures with my polaroid camera with all of the characters. Here is my favorite photo of Josiah & Eva.
We spent most of our time in Fantasyland but Elizabeth wanted to ride the rockets first. Eva took this fun photo for us! We also went on the Buzz Lightyear ride and I loved it!
Josh arrived in the afternoon so Eva and I went on Splash Mountain. We had two young guys in the front of the log. They rocked us the whole time and we managed to get pretty wet. My whole right shoe was completely soaked as well as my legs. I had a nice long walk back to meet Heather at the Annabella hotel (where I stayed for the remaining 4 days). By the time I arrived I was completely dry.
Heather and I had dinner at a cute little ice cream parlor next to the hotel and crashed pretty early. We went to our Prima class in the am and then I hung out by the pool while reading Life Artist by Ali Edwards. My cousin Dominique goes to school at LMU so we got together Saturday afternoon and went back to Disneyland. We did all the adult rides and ran through the park. We had such a blast talking and just hanging out.
I had never stayed at Disneyland until after closing and I have to say it was my favorite to be at the park until 11:30. That's when we got off of Space Mountain. I loved taking night photos there!
I hung out at CHA on Monday morning until my friend John from SFSU Animation could meet me. He is studying animation at USC now. We got to Disneyland around 2:30ish and I played tour guide Barbie since John hadn't been in 18 years.
John was constantly taking pictures which forced me to stop and look around. Since this was my third day being there I was happy to slow down and see things and not just go on rides. we happened to be at the Castle during the perfect lighting!
We were lucky to see Tinker bell fly along the zip line during fireworks that night. It was so special!
Tuesday was my fourth day in Disneyland. I was incredibly lucky to go there 4 days! I sent out emails to all the people I knew down in the Los Angeles area and several people wanted to go to Disneyland but on different days. Heather and I got to the gates at 8:30am to find out that Disneyland didn't open until 10am.
While we were waiting in line for the gates to open, we met a wonderful girl from India named Sangeetha. My friend Jason studies animation at UCLA (went to SFSU together) and he met us at the gates too. I went to City Hall and got him a Happy Birthday pin because he was celebrating his birthday the following day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Every Disneyland ride operator wished him a Happy Birthday.
We went on several rides but got pretty wet on Splash Mountain. It was great that we had Sangeetha with us because she got pictures and we got pictures and it made us 4 which was great for all the rides. We laughed so hard on Indiana Jones, it was great. I nearly lost my voice from screaming so much.
Jason & I left Heather and Sangeetha to go to California Adventure before I had to leave for my flight. We went on California Screamin' twice and on Soarin' Over California. Of course we spent a decent amount of time at the Animation Academy and the animation store called Off the Page. Here's Jason in front of the incredible store front.
My trip home was safe and thankfully uneventful. My Dad was waiting for me and I was so happy to see him. I really missed my Mom, Dad, Jenna, and Dan while I was on my trip.
If you've read to the end of this post, I'm impressed! I will have pictures of the freebies and catalogs that I got from CHA, as well as the two mini books I made while I was there.
Jenna joined me on Wednesday to visit our Grandma. We had a really difficult game of scrabble. I think our grandma beat us by about 100 points! I kept getting all the U's! We did enjoy the time together. Her arm is slowly continuing to heal so that is good news.
Wednesday night I went to Amy's crafting night at Laurel's house. It was fun seeing all the different crafts that people do! I brought a bunch of my felt collection and donated it to Amy and her evening. I haven't played with felt in a long time and I'm still working on simplifying my life. I started making my mom a felt owl. I'll post pictures when its done.
Thursday was such a busy day! I met Eva & kids for lunch at a yummy Chinese restaurant and then we spent 3+ hours wandering around the SF zoo. We had fun riding the carousel and we were so lucky the weather was decent while we were visiting.
I brought a ton of rain gear thinking it was going to rain, the clouds were really dark. Josiah's stroller ended up looking like some kind of pack mule.
Have a great weekend. :D
