I'm Back!!

There's nothing like going on vacation to make you appreciate home.

No, really. I had a wonderful time in California with my family: Three days in Disneyland, two days at the beach, and a whole lot of sitting in a cramped car for hours on end. But I was SOOOOO glad to get home for SOOOOO many reasons, not the least of which is that for some reason the whole time I was on vacation I kept having vivid dreams of going on fantastic adventures with my friends, then waking up to remember that they were all two states away. But I'm back now! So we should totally party, guys!

But, back to my little excursion into VacationLand...

We never failed to return to the hotel completely exhausted from the day's activites. I never knew that having fun took so much energy!

Disneyland was wonderful and magical and fantastic, of course. My brother and sisters didn't remember much about it (the last time we went, they were all under 7 years old) so it was a lot of fun to watch them experience everything for the first time. Hannah (pictured above), for example, was completely terrified of the Indiana Jones ride. She told every Disneyland worker we passed in line that she was being forced to go on the ride, she made me sit next to her and let her squeeze my hand off, and she screamed like crazy when the jeep took off. By the end of the ride, though, she was laughing and begging to get right back on the ride.

We ate a Denny's many times. But only at lunchtime. We rarely ate breakfast and we were usually too tired at night to find dinner anywhere, so Denny's was usually our only sustenance for the day. Oh, and on the topic of sustenance, I would like to point out that California water tastes like it was just drained from a dirty bathtub. I couldn't stomach it.

We found this adorable little girl in Bug's Land, which is in California Adventure. Bug's Land was one of many things I had never tried at Disneyland that my family forced me to check out. I loved it! Bug's Land, Nemo's Submarine, Storybookland, they were all loads of fun. But none of them were as much fun as this girl. You see, in Bug's Land, they have a giant overturned sprinkler head with a whole bunch of water-squirting-goodness. We were waiting for some of our family members when we spotted this little kid trying to chase the water around. She was so cute! Having a shortage of toddlers around lately, my family couldn't tear itself away, and we giggled and laughed right along with her own parents. No lie, we watched her chase that water for at least fifteen minutes.Long car rides tend to make their passengers . . . unpredictable.

We were all very good at applying sunscreen regularly for all three days in Disneyland, and then naturally forgot to put on any sunscreen at all the day we went to the beach. That's a picture of Hannah's sunburn, but we're all of us just as red. I'll be avoiding leaning against anything for the next few days...

And that's it! It was a splendid vacation with all the wonderful and terrible things associated with leaving one's house. I am very glad we went, I had a very good time, and I am very happy to be home again. (Especially since I still haven't prepared my Primary lesson for tomorrow. *guilty grin*) I hope to be seeing all of you soon, since it's summer and we always say that we'll hang out all the time during the summer. (And then subsequently fail to do so. But this summer's going to be different, right?) After all, next week is Art City Days, and there's all sorts of fun things to be getting up to!