honor choir

little sister was invited to join the district-wide, 80-member honor choir this month.  she started weekly practices on january 7th, with a performance for parents today.  she practiced 3 hours last night, and had another 5-hour practice this morning before the performance at 2pm.  we are very proud of her dedication and hard work.

they sang 5 songs:

all things bright and beautiful

the moon

firefly

velvet shoes

yonder come day (her favorite)

 

happy birthday to me!

 

as if a surprise trip to california wasn't enough, daddy again surprised me with take-out thai food waiting when i got home from work.  and big sister learned the happy birthday song on her clarinet.  i am truly blessed with an amazing husband and family.  what better way to embrace the big 4-0??

 

zoo day

today started off with breakfast away from the hotel.  then we loaded up our provisions and headed to our destination:

it was another gorgeous day, partly cloudy low 49/high 64.  while waiting in line to buy tickets, an annual passholder offered us some coupons for "buy one, get one half off" admission.  we gladly accepted, and ended up saving $50!  around 10:00am, we began our exploration of the zoo.  daddy was navigator with the map, so we started on one path that would lead up and around the perimeter of the zoo.

our first stop was the flamingo exhibit.  

then we found a quiet garden with a koi pond.

in the outback, we saw koalas.  fresh leaves were being hoisted up to their tree posts, so the animals were quite active.

we saw countless animals, both live and statue replicas.

we ate lunch around 2:00pm, then headed back towards the front of the zoo.  we rode the skyfari across the zoo and back.

by 3:00pm, we had seen most everything we wanted to see.  we bought some things at the gift shop, then headed back to the hotel.

the girls went swimming, then we went out for our last dinner of the weekend.  it was nice to just sit and be waited on.

today's tally: 18,021 steps

ocean day

our adventures today began with a trip to downtown disney for some souvenir shopping.  i was the only one who hadn't bought anything yet, and i really wanted a t-shirt.  simple request, right?  well, getting to the free parking area of downtown disney proved to be a challenge, thanks to the star wars half marathon weekend that had us detouring all over.  the free lots were also closed, so we were pointed in the direction of the mickey & friends parking structure.  after a 10-minute wait to approach the manned payment booth, we discovered parking would be $16.  daddy explained our situation and the nice disney worker took pity and let us park for free. ($16 savings - yay!)

after parking, we walked to downtown disney and commenced shopping.  about 2 hours later, we had our spoils:  2 tees for me, a set of mickey silverware for daddy, and a churro for the girls.

we hit the freeway to start our journey south toward san diego.  traffic was heavy in spots, and the girls were cranky, so around 12:30pm, we turned off and took a break on the beach in carlsbad.  it was sunny, breezy, and an awesome sight to see the ocean.  we ran around barefoot in the sand.

we picked out a few souvenir rocks, washed off the sand, and turned back to the freeway and made it to our destination at 1:30pm:

it was a small aquarium, but full of interesting creatures.  we saw a dive show at 2:00pm that was neat to watch.

we left the aquarium around 3:00pm, and headed to the hotel in san diego.  for some reason, i was craving seafood - must have been all the sea life!  so after we got checked into the room & washed up, we headed out to a seafood dinner.  

total for today:  10,145 steps

best birthday ever!

our day started way too early given the time zone, but who can blame us?

we're going to disneyland!!!

once breakfast at the hotel opened, we ate and bought passes for the bus that would take us from the hotel to disney.  ($2 savings from the disney garage)  we even had time to run and buy some provisions for the day - bottled water & snacks.  

we were looking forward to less crowds, and the cooler temperatures were awesome!  with a forecast of mostly cloudy skies and temps from 50-65 degrees, you couldn't ask for more perfect weather.

our first character sighting (8:57am) was dale on main street.  we didn't bring autograph books this trip, but the girls were all smiles and posed for a quick picture.

we had fun just taking in all of the sights.  here we are posing at the "partners" statue (9:00am).  the plaque directly below the statue quotes walt disney as saying, "i think most of all what i want disneyland to be is a happy place...where parents and children can have fun...together."

tomorrowland drew us in, and with no wait, we made our way onto one of our favorite rides from wdw - buzz lightyear astro blasters (9:08am).

around 9:44am, after a short wait, we enjoyed the finding nemo submarine voyage.  it was a primitive ride but still reminded us of all our favorite moments from finding nemo.

then we decided to tackle the matterhorn.  piece of cake, right??

around 10:15am, we boarded "it's a small world."  it was still decked out for christmas, so it was truly a new & different experience from wdw.

next, we headed over to mickey's toontown to explore the silly architecture and gags.  we walked thru mickey's house and even met the mouse himself (10:55am).

after toontown, we headed to fantasyland and rode the storybook land canal boats (11:20am).  it was a simple ride but neat to see all of the miniature scenes set up on the bank beside the water.

after a quick lunch at village haus restaurant, i took little sister to ride the teacups at the mad tea party while daddy and big sister tried to pull the sword from the stone.

we rounded out our time in fantasyland with some character meetings.  we happened across alice and the mad hatter on the street, then waited in line to meet silvermist & tinkerbell.

by 1:00pm, we headed back to tomorrowland to superhero hq.  now this was daddy's kind of place!  we spent about 30 minutes in there looking around, and waiting to meet spiderman.

at 2:00pm, little sister decided that she wanted to ride the astro orbiter, so while she and daddy waited in line there, big sister and i went exploring the parts of the park we hadn't seen yet.  in frontierland, we explored the sailing ship columbia; in new orleans square, we were disappointed to learn that the disneyland railroad was closed for enhancements.  we climbed to the top of tarzan's treehouse in adventureland, which is where daddy & little sister met up with us again.

with little to do on this end of the park, we browsed around a gift shop, and then splurged on a special treat we can't get at home: mickey ice cream bars and sandwiches!

at 3:00pm, disneyland started to get very crowded, so we decided to cash in our park hopper tickets and head over to where we'd spend the rest of the day:

we were greeted by oswald as soon as we entered the park.  what a welcome!

there were far fewer people at this park, which renewed our spirits and gave us a second wind.  we got up close with the "storytellers" statue of walt and mickey.

we headed into the animation building in hollywood land and almost immediately met anna & elsa.  (this same act took over 2 hours at wdw!!)  and then we walked across the street and immediately met olaf.  so, in a span of 5 minutes, we met all 3 main characters from frozen!  i was blown away, to say the least.

we stopped for a quick photo op in "a bug's land."

by 3:40pm, we were riding monsters, inc. mike & sulley to the rescue.  then we headed to cars land and were transported inside the town of radiator springs.  it. was. amazing.

by 4:30pm, we were enjoying mater's junkyard jamboree.

at 4:40pm, we crossed the bridge into paradise pier.

there was so much to see here.  we started by riding king triton's carousel.

then we watched the brave people zipping by on the california screamin' roller coaster.  we opted for a fun photo instead of the thrilling ride.

up next was mickey's fun wheel.  this was probably the longest line we had all day.  around 5:30pm, we finally boarded the ride.  we chose a fixed gondola over a sliding one for the ride that took us 160-feet into the air.  two times around was plenty to get our thrill.  the views from the top were pretty awesome.

we saw the start of the pixar play parade from the fun wheel, so we rushed over towards the end of the route and were able to catch the parade.

by 6:00pm, we had made it around to the world of color stage, and took in the beautiful sights with paradise lake in the foreground.  the sky was dark and all of the colors and lights were very mesmerizing & magical.

by 7:00pm, we were beyond ready for dinner.  we exited the park, and despite sore feet (especially big sister), we decided to persevere, and walked over to downtown disney in hopes of finding dinner.  but all of the food places seemed remote, which meant more walking, and undoubtedly a long wait for a table, so we turned back and headed to the bus.  it was a long, great, amazing day.  i turned off my phone due to low battery sometime around mickey's fun wheel, but not before logging a personal best step count:  21,242 steps.

after waiting an extra 20 minutes for our bus (shift change), we made it back to the hotel,  grabbing some fast food to-go as we walked to our room - to eat, shower, and collapse into our beds, with visions of pure disney magic dancing in our dreams.