The Other OC

Here in this OC we are having a snow day of considerable proportions.  Just last week Thursday at this hour in the day we were in stand-by passenger h-e-double-hockey-sticks en route to LAX via Philadelphia.  The longest six hour flight EV-AH! Was the trip out to Cali worth it? Yup. We had a mighty fine, although, very short, time.

Of course, we had to do Disneyland.  Not being much of a theme park person myself, we felt strangely compelled to make sure the girls were given this experience.  Odd, huh?  No offense to Mr. Disney or any of that, but it costs a bit of money, it was crowded, and Maren mildly freaked after the last drop on Splash Mountain and we were hard pressed to get her on another ride after that.  Oh, and it costs a lot of money.

But, I will have to say the look on the girls faces during the fireworks was pretty priceless.  The minute Maren spotted Tinkerbell swooping by on her way to the castle, she was enthralled.  Even Marissa in her middle school disdain for just about anything, was utterly fascinated.  And so was I. Beautiful, beautiful fireworks.

So here's a few pics just to make things legit:

I think I saw Marissa visibly cringe when we headed into ToonTown.

Gotta get an airplane pic for the Captain!

It truly is a Small World when there are that many people out and about.

Awww!  Nothing brings two sisters together like a good ride and some centrifugal force.

Did I mention the weather was just gorgeous?

Maren rockin' the ears. Had to do the ears.

Another reason we headed out Cali was to see the Captain's brother and his family.  The Captain had seen them at various weddings and birthdays and such, but our whole family and not seen their whole family for about three years.  Which, as kids seem to grow up in the blink of an eye these day, was way too long.

Madisen's the movie star in the fam.  Maren was pretty star struck.  She has already informed me that our next vacation should most definitely include Madisen, Rylie and Declan.  Pretty sure the feeling was mutual for Marissa.  We hung out at Huntington Beach with them on Saturday afternoon.

Maren loving the sunshine and sea breeze.

Obviously it was a bit too cold take a dip sans wetsuit, but Marissa informed me that she "would so jump in the ocean" if we weren't there watching.  She was in water up past her knees before we knew it.

Christmas card for next year?

What a good looking group!!

The kids had a good time together.  Even Declan seemed to tolerate all those girls pretty well.  We made them take a "nice" shot.

But really most of the shots looked something like this.

Yeah, they got along just fine.

As I look out the window at our 6 (and counting) inches of snow, it all seems like a dream.  A California dream.  Yes, that pun was very much intended. We'll be baaaack. Arnold voice.  Get it? Yeah, I'll stop now.