We took our annual Disney trip for the Mickey Halloween party.
Step 1, as always, was praying we'd actually get enough seats for the whole family to fly standby.
Actually, I guess step 1 was surviving the airport with a busy toddler. Sometimes you have to resort to extreme measures to get him to stay still for 5 seconds.
Our success on both counts was worthy of a Rander thumbs up.
We went as a a pirate gypsy weirdo (me), an English gentleman (Caulder), Elvis (Tukk), Maleficent (Yaya), a lamo poo head who wouldn't dress up (Cole), and a belligerent toddler who refused to wear his adorable He-Man costume (Rand).
I guess since Cole still had his mustache back then I should give him credit for dressing up as an almost-40-year-old pervert. Because let's be honest, that's what he looked like.
Check out the Elvis hair. It was amazing.
Did we spend 1 BILLION dollars on churros? Yes. Yes we did.
Double fisting churros can be exhausting.
We looOOOOoove Disney at Halloween. It's da best.
Look how scared we were!
We also got crazy this time and went to Universal Studios so we could check out Harry Potter World.
It was magical.
Out of all the cool things to see there, the phone booth had my kids the most mesmerized. What is this magical thing with a cord hooked to it? AN ACTUAL PHONE. They couldn't believe it.
I don't even know what's happening in this picture, or where we were, but Tukk's face is amazing.
But, if we're honest, Harry Potter California can't even hold a candle to Harry Potter Florida (I know, we're so obnoxiously spoiled that I kind of hate us, too), so we just did one day at Universal and then bounced back to Disney.
And now it's time for some truth serum: I was completely disgusted with Disney when I heard they were changing the Tower of Terror. I loved the Twilight Zone, I loved the old version of the tower, and I thought it was too iconic to change. I was like "oh no you di-unt disney" and I may have actually snapped my fingers at them. Oh yes, I did.
So when we went to ride it for the first time, I was grumbling internally the entire 2 1/2 hours that we waited our turn. TWO AND A HALF HOURS, PEOPLE.
See us trying to pretend like we're excited even though we've been in line for an eternity?
But then we finally got to the doors to go inside the main room, and it was pretty cool.
And then we got inside, and it was even cooler.
And then - after seeing all the awesome space-related magic - Tukk turned to me with this face and said, "Mom... just imagine the souvenir shop!"
It was so epic that I made him recreate the face for posterity. (Tukk basically goes to Disney JUST for the souvenir shops. He would spend all day in them if we'd let him.)
And then we finally got to go on the ride... AND IT WAS FANTASTIC.
I ate all my words, and took back everything bad I'd ever said about Disney changing it, and snapped my fingers at myself for ever doubting the Imaginears. They killed it. I loved it, so much. And we giggled and scared laughed so hard. It's worth a trip to Disney just for that ride.
Rand and I also spent some quality time on the carousel ride over by California Screamin. I think the boys, Cole, and Yaya went on the coaster about 5 times.
We now take a break from our usual blogging for this emergency fashion tip: Perv staches pair perfectly with Chuck Norris shirts. Dayamn. That's a good look.
And now back to our regularly scheduled Mickey Mouse Adventures.
This Mickey mummy cookie was almost too cute to eat. Almost.
But eventually we had to head back home. Boo!
Still, it was nice to soak up some sunshine and hang together without having to worry about emails and copywriting and homework.
PS - When you're on vacation this is how you should ALWAYS eat your waffles. Make a note of it.
