California~ The End

On Thursday, the morning after our three day Disney adventure, some of us went to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping. After we found our souvenirs, the Master and I sat outside in the shade drinking frozen pink lemonades and soaking it all in. We knew that cold weather and rain waited for us back home. You know me, I love a palm tree, so I was just dreaming of living in a sunnier place!

Our "selfie". Not bad for a couple of Baby Boomers!

Nick & Di hamming it up.

The next day was Nick's big day.

After two years of late night study groups, paper writing,

Internships, and plain old work he was receiving his Master's of Social Work 

from

 the University of Southern California.

Diana  made a little cap and gown for Lucas, no pattern!

Nick wanted Lucas to walk with him to get his diploma. We were all worried he might not be a happy camper but he loved every second of it! I swiped a few photos from Diana here.

 Look really close and you can see Nick and Lucas about to get the diploma!

Louie was a big hit! He had everyone smiling. Notice the security guy taking a picture of him!

I absolutely adore this picture! Nick and Diana had been posing for us and Lucas wanted to be a part of it. This photo and the next one speak true joy to me! They did this together with lots of sacrifice and patience

It's always interesting to be in the LA area. You never know who you are going to see. We were standing there and Kareem Abdul Jabar walked by with his SoCal casual Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and straw Panama hat on. My camera was not at the ready for that!

Then we had a fun photo bomber drop by. Nobody famous,

 he just popped into the picture we were taking and congratulated Nick!

Here are the members of the Mowes family who made the trip.

From left are Jessica, Nick's sis-in-law (husband Cameron is in Afghanistan right now), brother Brandon who just graduated from the Navy's nuclear school on the east coast, father Michael, Nick, Lucas being silly, Diana, and mother Tami. Mike and Tami are back in the States after being stationed in Germany. They live in South Carolina now with sister Hanna who was not able to come because of school.

I would like to mention that Jessica is living her dream while her husband is deployed. She is a member of the San Diego City Ballet! Love her darling personality!

Here we are...the Loose gang! Britt, Rachel, Sarah, Dee, Nick, Lucas, Diana, Richard, & Moi. It was Los Angeles and we were the best dressed people there! I told my men they had better wear a tie, it's a graduation for Pete's sake! Richard quickly discarded his! Dee would like me to point out that he forgot his dress shoes at home, and I had a blister the size of a quarter on my right foot so I wore my flip flops, feeling badly about it until we got there and saw how casual the atmosphere was!

 Also present were Nick's grandparents, Gunther and Hannalore. They are so cute!

Apparently it is tradition to have your photo taken by the Tommy the Trojan statue. The line up front was quite long so we sneaked in for a back view!

The next day we headed south to beautiful Laguna Beach for an afternoon of sun and relaxing.

It was so fun to be all together!

I love my kids and it seems they are all heading in different directions geographically, so I cherished this time.

 Louie is such a little water bug! He was totally in his element having been a beach baby his whole long life!

Roxie, on the other hand, was a bit more tentative and did not appreciate the ocean. 

 We had a wonderful trip! 

The best was seeing Nick get that degree and being all together! 

Isn't family just the best blessing there is? 

California Part 2~ Lots of Parades & Disney Characters

The very first thing on the second day we walked into Disneyland and there was Goofy! Lucas wasn't so sure at first but soon gave him a high five. I haven't mentioned yet that Nick's family came to be at the graduation (of course they did!), this is Nick's father Michael or "Pops".

Next it as our turn to pose with he big guy!

If you head over to Tomorowland and to the House of Tomorrow you can see the great Marvel Comics exhibit. We stood in line for awhile to meet Thor...are you kidding?

I swooned!

I had to resist the urge to push my single daughter toward him!

We also met Captain America! It was very exciting! Lucas has little Thor and Cap' action figures. One day after they had watched the movie He picked up his little Captain America figure and said, "Steeeeve!"

You know of course, that his real name is Steve Rogers...you don't?

Where have you been?!

Steeeve! You're a swell guy!!

One morning the girls and Richard broke off from the group to go meet some characters.

 When we heard Merida was in the park we went over to Fantasyland to meet her.

She was adorable! Her Scottish accent was perfect and she had my heart for standing there in that velvet dress in the 100+ heat!

I also think she switched herself out in the 20 minutes between the two photos!

I'd like a double to stand in for me when it got too hot!

They met a random fairy that I thought was Tiana...but no, she has wings.

Tinkerbell is adorable!

Dee and I ran into Alice and the Mad Hatter behind the Matterhorn. So fun!

We took a ride on King Arthur's Carousel too. Here are Rachel & Lucas with his Uncle Brandon. We walked right onto this ride as we did most of them! May is an awesome time to visit, especially the middle of the week. Hardly any waits at all!

We were in California Adventure for the Toy Story Parade one evening which was so fun!

 I love the life-sized army guys!

  
                                             

         

I did a crazy thing. Nick was trying to talk Richard into going to the Hollywood Tower of Terror. He was dead set against it. Nick, in his typical enthusiasm said,
 "Come on Richard!! Your Mom is going to go with us!"

WHAT?

"If she does it you have to go!"

Gulp.

I thought I'd go support my son. Never again.
I got so, SO sick!
I thought it was one of those 'drop-from-the-top" rides. Oh no. It's a "drop-you-then-bounce-you-back-up-and jiggle-you-around-and-drop-you-again-over-and-over" kind of ride!

The last evening was spent on Paradise Pier

seeing the "World of Color" water show.

It's a colorful fountain show set to favorite songs from Disney movies.

They have a "screen" of mist on which  the scenes are projected.

Most of my photos were blurry so I borrowed the first three from the internet.

 Pocahontas' "Colors of the Wind" is where I started to cry. SO beautiful!!

I caught Captain Jack during that awesome Pirates movie theme.

His scene ended with flames so hot we felt them from our spot on the boardwalk!

After the show we all walked to the exit. It's always a melancholy feeling to know

 you are going back to the real world...

...but not quite!

Next time:

Graduation and the beach!

California... Part 1

Waaay back in May we took a little trip. Our son-in-law Nick was graduating with his Master's degree from U.S.C. He attended U.S.C. San Diego but the graduation ceremony was to be held on the main campus in Los Angeles. We decided to make it a family reunion, everyone meeting in Anaheim and spending a few days at Disneyland as well. We generally only see Sarah once a year at the holidays, sometimes twice if she can swing a trip in the spring. She saved her money and came from Toronto. It was so wonderful to spend time with her! The rest of us drove over from Utah. We had a little fun arriving ten hours earlier than expected. Sarah flew in a few days early and spent some time with Diana, Nick, and the boy. They were going to drive up and meet us at the hotel in Anaheim on Monday evening. We got a little anxious and thought we would have some fun surprising them so we piled into the car after everything was packed on Sunday night and drove all night. I must say, Nevada is less ugly in the dark! We drove all the way down to the San Diego area and pulled up in front of the Mowes' apartment just as Nick was returning from his morning run. The look on his face was awesome!

Brittany & Roxie check out the California sunrise

 somewhere between LA and San Diego, just waking up after a long night

 We took Britt's new VW Passat on the trip. Our two vehicles are up over 100K miles and besides, she wanted to try out her new baby on the road. It is a very nice car. The three people in the back had great leg and head room. We just rubbed shoulders a lot!

She and Dee were our drivers for the long night. They crashed pretty fast at Diana's place.

Umm...Roxie crashed too, although I don't know why! She slept most of the way anyway!

Later, at the hotel in Anaheim she checked out the sun and palm trees for the first time through the sun roof. We had left dreary, rainy weather and cold temps behind in Utah. This was going to be amazing!!

We stayed at the Residence Inn Main Gate Hotel. It is a very nice, family and pet friendly place!

We had a townhouse suite that slept 8. The best part for Louie was the stairway!

We checked out the hotel pool right away. It was record breaking heat in the LA area that week. Of course it was! 104 the next day! I was in heaven but my family nearly died! There was just something so familiar about that heat hitting my bare legs in waves rising off of the pavement...it felt like home!

  Lucas has always been a little fishie. He is not afraid of the water at all. This, of course, thrills our family full of swimmers, coaches, life guards, and swim lesson instructors!

Ladies and gentlemen...

Here are all five of my children in the same place and the same time!!

I was very happy!

This is the next morning after we arrived, getting ready to go to the park. 

Here are the original Loose's, Nick and Lucas were still in the hotel room.

Richard, Me, Britt, Sarah, Rachel, Diana, Dee

Day One at the park we went to California Adventure first. Since out last visit in 2007 there were four new attractions we wanted to ride. Nick hot-footed it over the the Fast Pass line for the Radiator Springs Racers while the rest of us went to A Bug's Land (which we had been to before, just not with Lucas!)

 Our first big ride was Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. I love this sweet little train! Love going through the slice of watermelon and being squirted by it's juice, and smelling the candy corn as you go by, and going through the animal crackers box!

 Aunt Sarah, Pa, & Gram rode Flik's Fliers with Lucas. We got to sit in the raisin box! When we were done Lucas made the ASL sign for "more". So cute!!

Ariel's Under the Sea Adventure was new to us as well. I must say, if it's a hot day, this attraction has the best A/C in the park!

 I  loved being under the sea and seeing all of the colors. The music from the movie is so cheerful! We came out cooled off and ready for more!

 Cars Land is so awesome! It is like all of our family road trips from my childhood combined! Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, California...they did a great job! 

 With all of the neon, red rock, art deco buildings, it has a real Route 66 feel.

The racer ride was SO FUN!!

I got to sit in the driver's seat...Look! No hands!

I managed to hold on to my sunglasses though!

Feeling bombarded with photos? 

I'm not done yet! See you next time!