The Orchard Team Huddle

Another successful rope drop(Disneyland this time).  Russell went on ahead and went through a no bags line so he could be first in line at one of the entrance gates.  Then we made our way to Tomorrowland so we could ride Space Mountain first. Very few people in front of us on Main Street. Front of the rope, again! Mason makes fun of the way I bend over to take pictures.  He was mocking me. I am never good at posing for the pictures but today I had the best pose ever.  I pretended like I was puking which was almost the truth.  Unfortunately, my pose was blocked by Russell.  This ride makes me sicker than any ride in the park.  I hate being flung around in the complete darkness.  It is so nauseating. We lucked into the tail end of Small World Holiday.  It was SO CUTE!  Russell and I loved this.  The little people sang It's A Small World and Jingle Bells.  So festive, so magical! Mason has to...

We started day 2 in California Adventure! Now that's how you do a rope drop! Our first task of the day was Guardians of the galaxy.  We love this ride so much!  We were the very first in line and we got to follow the Guardians dude all the way through the queue to start the day:).  Incredicoaster was awesome!  We made sure to ride it twice. A new thing for today was sharing a Num Num Cookie.  It was warm and gooey and Mason got it all over himself:). Num Num Cookie just outside of the Incredicoaster This is where I would put a picture of us riding the Radiator Springs Racers.  We usually ride this single rider and end up in different cars so we can't get a family picture.  Today we got a fast pass so we could all ride together and be in the same photo.  Well, we had a blast but our ride got stopped just as we were finishing up and by the time we could get off  and check out our pic, it had flashed past and was gone for...

I can't even count how many times we have been to Disneyland.  It is something we have been doing for the last 20 years, consistently and repeatedly.  We love it.  We are junkies and our latest trip did not disappoint.  With Douglas married and Stockton on his mission in England, Mason got to be the center of attention. Russell was already in CA for work so Mason and I flew out Tuesday evening to meet him.  He checked into our hotel, (Residence Inn Convention Center)and made a donut run before picking us up from the airport and returning his rental car.  Winchell's is a MUST for every trip.     Chocolate for me, rainbow sprinkle for Russell and colorful raised for Mason.  Yummy!  It was a perfect bedtime snack! We always start our morning early.  It is so important to get to the park  45 minutes to an hour before it opens.  That gets you through the bag check and to the gates before they let you into t...

New Year's Eve is not really our family's favorite holiday.  We don't love staying up late and we aren't crazy fun.  We tried really hard to get Mason to celebrate Eastern time which would have been 10:00 pm our time but he wasn't having it. We ate leftover side dishes from Christmas, yams and scalloped potatoes.  We have leftover pot roast from Sunday dinner and I made up some fresh artichokes.  We also had leftover Christmas snacks and treats for our party food!  It was obviously very casual. Glow sticks are a must.  And, these party hats have been in our New Years tote for 11 years now.  They came from the Target $1 section and flash.  Only one of them still flashes so we let Amelia have it.   We love passing the time playing Settlers of Catan, Cities and Knights version.  We also watched some college football and worked on puzzles. Mason spent some of his time watching Netflix and playing Fort Nite on...