Let the Chronicles of Disneylandia Begin ... (Day 1)

So our trip was over a month ago ... who's counting? I was all excited to get posting about everything, but that first week back was spent getting my daughters caught up on school work, and then I had a fun little incident with a GIANT kidney stone ... and I'll tell - I just haven't quite got my mojo back, but I can't stand it any longer - these events must be chronicled before I forget any of those insane little details like the debate I had with myself in the bathroom by It's a Small World, or the insane coincidence of the one day the hotel closed the pool! Yes, these little details all need to be recorded, or they will just disappear into some void of the untold - think of all the great material that is just floating around out there - forgotten by those who experienced them and left it at that. Oh, not me, I am a woman of many, many, sometimes way too many, words.

Let's start on Thing 2's birthday. (March 5)

We were supposed to be in San Diego, at the zoo on that day. However, we were in Utah just going about our daily routine. We had been planning a trip to SoCal since Christmas, and our departure date was completely dependent on the schedule provided to us by the IRS. So, when I got online to check our balance and start making all the reservations on Feb. 25, instead of seeing that wonderful sum of money back in my bank account, I instead found a little email from the IRS stating that my return was delayed.

Sheeeeese -

No money - no trip - I am trying to avoid credit like the plague right now.

So, we were told that the money would be in by March 8. I wasn't going to believe it 'til I saw it. So, there would be no definitive planning until the money was actually IN THE BANK. We did, however, try to work out which dates in later March would be best, and unfortunately, none of them were really working with all the other obligations we had. But, we were determined to make it work.

Okay - back to Thing 2's birthday (March 5). It was a Saturday and I was planning on making a Key Lime Pie (per her request) and having a fun b-day dinner that night. However, that morning, while checking up some on-line bill paying, I noticed that the money was there!!! It was in our account - totally and completely OURS! I called Bert (at work) to let him know and asked him what he thought about taking off that very afternoon.

He was game!!!

So the next few hours were spent purchasing Passes and lining up hotels and a dog sitter and calling neighbors and family and the school and anything else I could think of. My brain was completely jumbled ... and I did all this without letting on to the kids that I was doing any of that. So, the house was in a state of disorder, as was my mind, but our trip was magically, and wonderfully ON!

Bert arrived home, we gathered the kids and told them to gather some clothes, a swim suit and shoes to last for a few days and that we were going to Disneyland. Just like that. They were a little bewildered, but the excitement set in pretty quick and they started buzzing around getting their stuff together.

As I was busy packing, I noticed a bit of a pop in my neck that was followed by some pretty intense pain, the kind of pain you have with a crick in your neck - where you can't turn it one way or the other without crying. Yep - that kind of pain. But I just stiffened it up and kept going. I knew that once we were in the car I could whine about it to Bert for the next four hours uninterrupted, if I could just get us packed and in the vehicle.

And, by 4 pm, (thanks to a great deal of help from my sister who stopped by, and the presence of her two wonderful, darling step-daughters) we were on the road.

And sadly, this ended up being one of 2 pictures I got of Thing 2 on her 9th birthday:

(And she isn't even in focus - dah!!!)

Anyhow, we hopped in the car and booked it to St. George where we were going to stay overnight - it is almost half-way. Definitely a great place to take a breather on such a long drive.

We checked in and, just like they always do, the kids went straight to the beds and starting jumping for joy. We told them to get in their suits, we were going swimming, the pool was open for one more hour and heck if we weren't going to get our money's worth!!! ha ha  They willingly obliged us and we took an hour long dip in the pool, and it was lovely. Afterward, we rinsed off and got in our jammies and I was able to sneak in one more photo of the birthday girl:

However, it would not be a true family vacation if it didn't get off to a bit of a rocky start. As we were unloading the minivan, we unfortunately locked our keys in the vehicle. We knew (from previous experience) that it couldn't be broken into by law enforcement, so we looked up a lock smith ... he was there in 20 minutes and had our car open in 30 seconds - seriously! Love that!

So, with key issues resolved, we laid our little heads to rest and got to bed shortly before midnight.

Hey, we're on vacation!!!