Grim, Grinning Ghosts

Well, we and ALL the rest of Utah (and maybe the world) visited Disneyland last week. The crowds were crazy as they always are at this time of the year, but everyone loves a crowd, right? You’d think we’d have exhausted all our of Disney-first’s, but nope. This was, in fact, our first time doing Mickey’s Halloween Party. It’s an event that requires a special wristband, that allows ONLY you and the rest of the wristbanders into the park (all other guests get kicked out). It also allows you to dress up (grown-ups included), see exclusive parades and firework shows, trick-or-treat, ride rides with little or no wait time, meet and greet characters, see the park turn spooky, watch live bands, and stay up way later than you or your kids should ever do (like we did).

So Dave and I were lame and couldn’t get ourselves in costume, but Kate sported the Merida look, which she rocked with a big, red wig. And Cole, sweet Cole, was Buzz Lightyear for like 5 seconds of the night before ripping the costume off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is one of the trick-or-treat stations. There were probably like 10 of them throughout the park. Each station is really a trail of of like 3 booths that you wind through filling your bags with candy. There’s no limit to how many times you can go through so some people came out that night with garbage bags full of candy. We didn’t make it to all the stations, but still came out like bandits with way too many treats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The firework show, Dave and I agreed, was the best part. They had this giant ball that they projected Jack Skellington’s head onto (who narrated the show), as well as multiple other villians’ faces. It was a really great way to end the night, or technically morning…

Other fun memories of Disneyland included:

• Me with a gimpy, broken foot, making for short waits on the rides
• Cole claiming, “Monsters Inc. Car” as his favorite ride, and Kate having “5 favorite rides”
• Kate, walking on all twos, for the first trip ever! We were so proud
• Seeing the new Cars Land, and “LightningTween” as Cole calls him
• Cole suppressing his appetite at every meal, until we were back in our hotel room where he rummaged freely on junkfood

While we were in Sunny SoCal, we seized the opportunity to hit up some other LA landmarks. Huntington Beach is one of our favorite places or maybe just mine. I (not-so-secretly) despise all those who get to LIVE near it, and can’t believe I used to be one of those people!!! Anyway, that’s the past. It’s fun, though, to walk the pier and shop all the beach shops. It was rainy the day we visited, but beautiful.

The Griffith Observatory is a place we had always wanted to see, but was closed the whole 4 years that we lived there. So after going to our old East Pasadena ward’s stake conference, we were able to finally see it. It’s perched on the top of a mountain, adjacent to the Hollywood sign. Apparently, Mr. Griffith J. Griffith (quite the name) was passionate about astronomy. He donated 3,015 acres for Griffith Park, as well as funds for construction of the observatory in his will. It’s now the most visited observatory in the world. Kinda cool there. We got to find out our weights on other planets, and look through telescopes and such. Not amazing, but fun to see and free.

And what would a trip to California be without a drive past the old Blackhurst Love Shack (which still stands, BTW), as well as a stop at Mom’s favorite restaurant, Houston’s?! Sad that my crabcakes were NOT on the menu that day, but I was still able to fill that little void in my heart just being there. And I think Kate and the dad enjoyed their ribs too.

And that, friends, wraps up our trip. We had a good one.