Guess what! It’s July. That’s stinkin’ nuts. Tomorrow will be October and then the next
day Matthew will be graduating from high school. It just all goes way too fast! But we’re doing our best enjoying every
moment – especially of summer vacation!
June 25th, we awoke at the butt-crack
of dawn (no, really, 3:45am!!!) and – along with my brother and mother – headed
to SeaTac Airport where we caught our plane to San Diego. I started our vacation with an inhumanly
horrendous sore throat and worries that I’d feel like dooty for our entire
trip, however, miraculously said throat-pain-of-Satan only stuck around for a
couple of days. Thank goodness!
On Friday, June 26th, we – all of
us, along with Mike’s dad Jim who joined in (and eventually Mike’s sister
Kathy) – went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Highlights: the bird show (seeing the ginormous California condors fly
right over head!), riding the tram around the park (and feeling like you’re suddenly
on the Savannah plains of Africa) and watching the cheetah sprint – reaching 60
miles per hour (0-40 in three steps alone!) and covering 100 meters in 5.24
seconds. It was a hot but enjoyable
day! We went back to our hotel where
Mom, Chris and the kids hung out and rested while Mike and I attended the first
night of our Engaged Encounter Convention.
Saturday, June 27th – Mike dropped
Mom, Chris and the kids off at SeaWorld for the day. Now, my dear mother, had managed to hurt her
leg just a couple of weeks pre-California departure and has been on a
cane/crutch and in pain ever since. With
threats and bribes we stressed good behavior to the children. I even said, “Pretend she’s not Grandma. Just a nice lady who you are to help for the
day.” A Disneyland souvenir hung in the
balance. Kayli – apparently- repeatedly
asked mom, “Am I on my best behavior?...Am I still being so good?” Thankfully, threats and bribery are the key to
parenthood and the kids were - supposedly, as far as we were informed - well-behaved and they had a great time at
SeaWorld.
Meanwhile, Mike and I attended our Convention
and that night partied at the Luau and Dance. Super fun!
Sunday, June 28th – we all
attended Mass at the end of the Convention and then drove up to Anaheim. The 1.5 hour long trip took 3.5 hours thanks
to the infamous So-Cal traffic. We
managed to arrive at our hotel in time to drop stuff and then head to Bubba
Gump for dinner with Mike’s sister, her hubby and cute grandson (who was Kayli’s
age. We were ALL happy that Kayli found
a captive audience to whom she could talk through all of dinner). We got to bed as early as we could for our
big day at Disneyland.
Now, if you’ll recall, we went to Disneyland
in February 2014. It was a difficult
trip. Just 6 weeks after dad died, I was
(obviously) miserable (and sick, since I was sick like 9 times in the first
three months of 2014). We also had a
frustrating time at the Parks – tons of rides closed and several breaking down
on us. I wrote a letter, (“Dear
Disneyland…”) and, in response, they gave us tickets to come back for two days!!
So, Monday, June 29th, we woke up
early and I ran to the park (literally…started the hot day with a jog) and went
to Guest Services to retrieve our tickets and then wheelchair rental to score a
rolling seat for mom. There’s no way we (she)
could’ve done all that walking. And, as
I’ve heard, Disneyland is amazingly accommodating to those in wheelchairs. We were able to cut a lot of lines. (The boys were maybe a little TOO happy about
it and even said, “Thanks for hurting your leg, Grandma, this is awesome!” They even turned into whiney butts when we
had to occasionally wait in a little bit of a line – NOTHING compared to the
waiting we would’ve done without the wheelchair).
Disneyland got off to a bit of a rough start
though. The ride we’d most been looking
forward to on the last trip (Thunder Mountain Railroad) had been closed, so we
were determined to do that one first.
Well, it’d been a LONG time since I’d done that ride and didn’t entirely
remember it. Despite his hesitation, I
encouraged my brother Chris to give it a go thinking it wouldn’t be TOO
much. BIG mistake. He was NOT a fan (to say the least) and I
felt awful. Thankfully, he rallied
fairly quickly and as Mike said, maybe if we hadn’t started with that (and
gotten ‘the worst’ out of the way), Chris would’ve been more overwhelmed by
everything else. After that it was
smooth sailing.
We did Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted
Mansion (which Zach sat out and Chris declared was his favorite ride), Jungle
Cruise, Tiki Room, It’s a Small World, Finding Nemo, Star Tours, Buzz, etc.,
etc. Basically, we got to do ALL the
rides that we weren’t able to do last time and in record time! In the evening, we found a great spot to
watch the special 60th Diamond Anniversary night parade. (Kayli screamed at Mickey like a psycho-super
fan…when he was still a block away). And
we watched the spectacular fireworks display.
Seriously the best, most amazing fireworks I’ve ever seen.
We dragged our tired butts back to the hotel
to bed….and did California Adventure the next day.
Tuesday, June 30th Overview: Started
with the cars ride – Radiator Spring Racers - (Chris sat that one out. Mom
LOVED it – we all did!). Mike took
Matthew on the rollercoaster California Screamin’. Then he took Zach on the Tower of Terror
(which terrorized Zach despite wanting to do it). We all watched the Aladdin stage production
(like a mini-Broadway show – it was awesome).
Kayli’s fatigue started to kick in and we dealt with a couple of
required amusement park meltdowns. We
all loved Soarin’ Over California (Chris didn’t want to do that one…and we’d
obviously learned not to push him). Then
in the afternoon, all of sudden, it clouded up and got really cool. There were a couple of claps of thunder and
then huge raindrops began to fall. They
closed rides and I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to enjoy our dinner at Ariel’s
Grotto and special viewing for World of Color.
Thankfully, it all worked out – the crowds cleared out a bit, the sun
came back out and we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our evening and our last
night at the Park. We were even able to
watch the fireworks again as we departed the park and went to return the
wheelchair.
Wednesday, July 1st, my mom’s
brother Phil (aka “Uncle Phuzzy”) and his wife Helen drove a couple of hours to
see us at the hotel. We played a game
that Zachary had created called “Fantasy Storybook Fun” – you create a story
using different cards that you draw from a pile. Not to brag, just speaking the truth, but
that kid is a creative genius. We had a
ton of fun! We had lunch with them at
the Cheesecake Factory before we began our 2 hour drive back to San Diego.
We’d almost made it. We were nearly in the clear. Off the freeway and just five minutes from
returning the rental car when Zach said that thing that parents dread hearing most (while in a car…or nearly anywhere),
“I’m going to throw up!!” I wasn’t able
to get him a receptacle in time and he proceeded to fill the back of the van –
cup holder and console area. Oye. Yup.
As mom said, “Well, it’s not a family
vacation without someone throwing up.”
Mike argued that that is NOT, in fact, a requirement of the Martin
family…but alas, it’s a Buckley tradition (that I frequently upheld as a child)
and that sometimes rears its ugly head.
Despite the pukey end, we had a really,
really great trip! J
On the way to the airport & family vacation - people are still happy! So far, so good.
Getting up at 4am to fly to San Diego was a tad exhausting.
Matthew working those famous shades of his!
At the Safari Park
3 Little Lemurs
SeaWorld!
Engaged Encounter Convention Luau
We made it!!!
