Our first year of adventures in the married life has been pretty great. COVID actually opened up a lot of travel opportunities we couldn't have afforded otherwise. After going to Disney World earlier in the year, I never imagined that I would also be able to visit Disneyland in the fall, let alone twice!
Disneyland
To start, Disneyland with my mom, Lizzie and my niece and nephew in September. This was their first time (technically my niece's second but she was an infant the first time.) And doing Disneyland with kids is just magical. Yes, they get tired and grumpy and have no patience when they're hungry but they also believe everything they see. That kind of magic is just great to witness. We walked into the park and Micky and Minnie were at the train station to greet everyone coming in. My nephew was just in awe as my niece was so excited to see Minnie and Mickey in real life. They also quickly figured out that after waiting in a line, a really cool ride was at the end of it. So they learned how to behave in line better than I even expected. It was also adorable since Lizzie's husband chose to stay behind with his family, my nephew just glued himself to Nathan as his father figure attachment.
My sister also had planned to take my niece to Bibbity Bobbity Boo and get her a dress. On our way we passed by the Princesses out to greet people (from a distance because COVID). My niece saw Aurora in her pink dress and bee-lined her way there to say hi to her. It was soooo cute. We then went to the boutique and of course, the pink Aurora dress (her favorite color) was what she picked. The instant she was dressed she said we had to go back to show Aurora her dress, so we went back and took some pictures of her standing in front of Aurora in her new dress. Aurora told Aubrey she loved her dress and Aubrey nearly clammed up she was so in awe. Talk about the cutest interaction.
Our second day at the parks started in line for the Cars ride. We waited nearly an hour (with Nathan going on twice in the same amount of time on single rider because of a bathroom break.) But the hour wait was worth it. My niece and nephew were speechless after that ride. My nephew was especially excited and it was his definite favorite. Although he was equally excited to see Spiderman and check out the Spiderman ride. We also saw Anna and Elsa (much to the pleasure of all young girls) and took my niece on Grizzly Rapids (nephew was too short.) The giggles that ensued on that ride made MY day. haha
Overall, the kids were so well behaved and keeping the day around 7-8 hours with the kids was perfect for them. They didn't even realize they were leaving early or missing things. Meanwhile we got to do the best things with them before they left for the day and the rest of us stayed until later in the evening. So fun and my niece even asked me to come next time they were planning a trip to Disneyland. AWWWWW. (That time was with my brother-in-law's family, so naturally we weren't planning on that one.)
Universal
I've been to California so many times I decided I finally needed to fit in a day at Universal! It was mine and my mom's first time at the park. Luckily Nathan had been before and could be our guide. I thought it was worth the day to finally experience what it was like but I don't feel super inclined to go back as often as I do Disneyland. I LOVED the Jurassic Park ride. By far, that was the best and my favorite. I also enjoyed the Kung Fu Panda show, and the Secret Life of Pets ride. And then the Harry Potter land was incredible and I wish there were more. The line in the castle went to quickly that I wanted to explore it more. The ride nearly made me motion sick, but it was definitely worth it! I also really enjoyed the backlot tour and knew my dad was really missing out since that's the one thing he is interested in at Universal. As a really random side note, driving the the park and back to the hotel I fell in love with my rental car, a Ford that turned off the engine when it idled. It was the perfect thing for LA traffic and saved us a lot of gas money!
I almost forgot to mention we saw an Angel's game on our first night we flew in the CA. It's nice having a rental car to take you to things like that. The Angel's lost but even my mom said she enjoyed the game more than she expected to. We bought her a ticket later on and then Nathan agreed to take it until the people by us never showed so we could sit together.
Other Activities
For some of our smaller activities, we helped a couple of times at a Haunt in Morgan County run by Nathan's friends. They run a non-profit charity for school supplies and it's their biggest fundraiser of the year. I helped in face painting while Nathan scared people as a clown in the haunt.
I tried to keep up with Inktober which mostly turned into small sketch practices, but still fun and good for me to practice art. I did a pirate theme this year trying to use most of their prompts in pirate ways.
We also had a Rausch Halloween Party. We had a small one at my mom's making doughnuts and treats and the kids went trick or treating for a minute. Lizzie dressed up as Edgar Allen Poe, which was hilarious! Nathan and I were Marc Antony and Cleopatra. I've always wanted to dress up as Cleopatra!
We saw Frozen at the Eccles, Nathan, me, Mom, Lizzie, and my niece. My niece thought they were real and kept waiving and at the beginning of the show was trying to shout hi to them. Periodically she would start dancing with them or waiving at them from our balcony. We did tell her they wouldn't waive back until the very end of the show. At the break though the guy behind us told us he was enchanted watching her waive and sing and that she had been more entertaining to him than the show! You could tell he was utterly charmed by her adorableness.
Disneyland in November!
I had always wanted to see Disneyland at Christmastime since I had been in January a lot as all the decorations disappear more and more each day and rides close to change themes. I was so tempted to buy all of the Christmas themed ears!! I did have one pair that's adorable but not name brand so-to-speak. I did wear them, but the new ears were so tempting. I ended up going online on Ebay and buying an older themed Christmas pair and I plan to wear them to my orchestra concerts where we're encouraged to have a splash of festive with our black ensemble. We also stayed at the Castle Inn since we had both been curious to try that hotel. Overall, the location is great but the hotel itself is feeling a little run down for the price. (Obviously close hotels get used very heavily.) We also did a few new things, like I've now ridden on the main street cars pulled by the horses! I had never done that for some reason. Nathan also rode the Jelly Fish in CA for the first time. We also ate at the Wine Country Trattoria and loved it there! Nathan is always partial to Italian food and it was easy for me to order something yummy too. Definitely loved visiting for the holidays but it wasn't anything terribly new or mind blowing, so if I don't see the holidays at Disneyland for a while I'll be okay. I just hope I get to go back soon.
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