Things I learned

Some things I learned on this vacation….

1-If you go to Disneyland’s City Hall and tell them it’s your birthday (or close to your birthday, or that you are celebrating your birthday–they don’t ask for ID), they will give you a sticker that says Happy Birthday and they write in your name. Then, when you go around the park, all the Disney people tell you happy Birthday, and call you by name, or call you princess. We learned this from our friends Kristi and Kelly, who live in California and go to Disneyland for EVERYONE’s birthdays. If you go into the Tortilla factory in California Adventure, they will give you a dozen fresh tortillas if you have your birthday sticker. Who knew? Since Natalie and Ryan’s birthdays are both in October, they both got stickers. Not so many people told Ryan happy Birthday, but lots of them mentioned Natalie. The most fun was the green army guy who was hosting the block party bash at California Adventure, who said “Happy Birthday, Natalie” or “It’s your birthday, Natalie, get up and dance!” or things like that 9 or 10 times during the parade. FUN!

2-If you go to Disneyland over UEA, expect it to be crowded, and expect to see friends and neighbors from Utah.

3-When you are going down the escalators, make sure you pick up your feet. We learned this when we saw Natalie’s friend sobbing at the bottom of the parking garage escalator, with her little styrafoam shoes shredded and her toe munched and bleeding. We saw her later in the day in her wheelchair and she seemed to be in good spirits, though, so I guess her injuries weren’t too bad.

4-If you dress your kids up like Disney characters, expect strangers to want to take their picture with you.

5-It is well worth the $$ to get a suite, even if it just has a little glass door separating the “kid room” from the “parent room”. the kids need their own space, their own tv, and the parents need to be able to shut the door to the noise every once in a while.

6-The Gentoo penguin is the world’s 3rd largest penguin. And since Ryan knew this, and told Cole, and Cole answered the guy’s question correctly at the Penguin Encounter at Sea World, we got to go behind the scenes, meet the penguin feeder, and actually touch an emperor penguin and meet the feeder/trainer guy. WOW! That was really exciting and fun.

7-Free Continental Breakfast rocks (of course, we all knew that already).

8-Just because the sign says “puppet show today” doesn’t mean you have to go to the puppet show at Balboa Park. Sorry, Big Joe, but your so called puppet show was about 25 minutes of torture. It now tops my list of the dumbest plays I have seen (and that one in Vernal was really bad–it’s now moved to number 2). Somehow, though, the kids thought the “Polka Dot Ghost” with it’s whiny star Tommy the Ghost was so much fun. It’s obviously geared for the younger viewer.

9-Sand and Water–always a big hit, no matter how young or old you are.

10-Always look for the barf bag when you first sit down on the plane. Don’t wait until you think you might need it on the bumpy rough landing, because then it’s too late.