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.

Trains and not that Girlie stuff...

Maren often gets the short end of the stick when it comes to having friends over.  Marissa's best bud lives two blocks away and when they get bored at one house they traipse on over to the other's house to see what they can do about that.  Maren often gets left in the dust, unfortunately.  Luckily, Mr. Eyelashes Tyeson concedes to making a visit to girlie-land every now and then.  He always lets us know quite adamantly,"I'm not gonna play with those Barbies".



So, that usually means we bust out the trains.  Now when Marissa was Maren's age, she could play with trains all the live long day, and love every minute of it.  Maren would rather stick with the girlie-girl stuff, which as previoulsy indicated, Mr. Eyelashes Tyeson, being from a family of three boys, will have nothing to do with. It makes for an interesting dialogue. 

Maren: "Let's say that Lady had a baby train and they were going to go to school."

Tyeson: "OK", as he violently crashes two trains together on the drawbridge.

Maren: "And then let's say both of the parents died." (Do you ever notice how the parents are always dead in kids' stories, or um, is that just my kids? Yikes.)

Tyeson:  "Hold that story.  I have to go take a pee."

And he runs off to the bathroom and proceeds to accomplish this ( is Maren would indicate to me later) without even closing the door.

All gender stereotypes aside, they have a great time together.  It was actually our first snow day (or should we call it ice day) here this winter.  What a nice way to spend an afternoon.  Someday I'll have to tell you their "china" story.  Oh dear.

King Harold the Great

I am King Harold. Master of all I see.

And these are my loyal subjects:  The lovely Maid Marissa and the beautiful Princess Maren.  I will uphold and protect them at any cost.

As soon as I get rid of this large booger.

Much better.  I will bark at imaginary neighbors.  I will make large amounts of yellow snow with a relatively small bladder. I will rid the world of useless Barbie fodder by chewing it to miniscule pieces. I will climb the highest snow mountain in a single about 25 bounds before I need to take a break. See?

Ugh...

Humph... almost got it....

Just. One. More. Try.

Whoosh.  Made It.  Like I said. King Harold....

oh look...a squirrel!

Snow Day!

BEFORE (DURING?)

Yes, we had a snow day today. The weather channel told us it was coming and it did. But they lied. We were supposed to be in the 4-6 inch area -hot pink on the radar(yes that is inches of snow) and ended up with 8 inches instead - electric blue area on radar (yes that would also be inches of snow) and we are in a blizzard warning for tonight, also with another potential storm coming on Sunday. I am not happy.

Snow days can be a bit deceiving. As a mom you think, whew, get to sleep in a bit, don't have to do the morning rush to school, no cold van with the AICD (automated internal cardioverter difibrillator - see previous post) - sounds good, yes? But really they aren't at all. Inevitably, the kids want to go play in the new snow - and it is enticing. It takes 20 minutes to find all the snow gear, get it properly attached, and in two seconds they are back in the house because it is just too darn cold out there. Then its hot cocoa and cartoons, and then, here it comes, those words like fingernails on a chalk board, "Mommmmm, I'm bored." Two hour late starts are really much more desirable. Leisurely morning, yet not enough time to get to the I'm bored part.

Really, we had a pretty good day. Marissa's dear friend Abby came over and saved the day. The girls built forts, painted pictures, played Barbie's, all interspersed with watching the really funny parts of Horton, and tonight we made cookies. Pretty fun really. I finished the Christmas cards, my novel , and the laundry. But what in the world are we going to do tomorrow?

AFTER