Disneyland has always been one of my favorite places to go. Last year for Spring Break the family took me to Disney World with them and that was amazing but Disneyland will always be my Disney of choice. It just holds so many memories for me and I know it like I know the back of my hand. We had so much fun and I can't wait to go back sometime with my own family, hopefully before Brandon leaves on his mission.
Disneyland during the holidays is so much fun. I haven't been there during Christmas since '91 and I was only 6 so I don't remember a lot of it. I liked it because the Cast Members are all dressed up for the holidays, the castle is lit up with probably thousands of white lights to make it look like icicles, you get to see Santa, and the best part was even though I was with a family who doesn't celebrate Christmas I feel like I still got to celebrate the holiday with everyone else at Disney. We were at Disneyland December 22-24.
Below are some pictures from Disneyland...
Mickey & Minnie in their holiday/jungle outfits. I don't know how else to describe it.
The Train pulling into the Main Street Train Station. I love that ride! Yes to me that is a ride.
One night Henry and I stayed at the park late and on our way back to the hotel we stopped at the California sign to take some pictures. It looked great at night and there was nobody around to get in the way of the picture.
Me and Mickey Mouse with the big "C"
We had a lot of fun. I was laughing during this picture, surprise surprise.
R is for RUDD
It was raining and I didn't want to take my hood off for the picture but now that I see this picture I realized I should have taken it off.
Main Street USA all decorated for Christmas. 
The castle was gorgeous all lit up. It was probably my favorite part. 
This was outside of It's A Small World. As you can see nobody saw the sign (neither did I)
It's A Small World-Holiday style
The Nightmare Before Christmas at the Haunted Mansion
The Christmas Parade
The Grinch and all the Whos in Whoville for Christmas 
This is where they had the fire last year. They have already started building new sets. 
Waterworld-a live show from the movie. It was great but it was raining during the whole show. My favorite part of the show is when the plane comes over and lands in the water. Will loved it too. 
The cast of Waterworld. These are all real actors who work on real TV shows. Usually from TV shows that film in the back lots 
This one reminded me of my other home (it was the New York City skyline) 
Albert Einstein 
Mount Rushmore-I have always wanted to go, hopefully this isn't this closest I ever get to it. 
Will with Santa Claus and his reindeer made out of legos.
Oh I forgot to mention earlier. Before we went to Legoland Will got this horrible rash that started on his stomach. It spread over the rest of his body. We gave him a benedryl and it helped but he had to stay on a benedryl the rest of the trip. It makes him a little drowsy so some of Legoland and Sea World weren't that great because he was so sleepy. The night after Legoland it was a little scary. It basically covered his whole body from head to toe. We called his doctor in New York and send them pictures. Will was itchy and a little uncomfortable because of the rash but other than that he felt fine. We still don't know what it was but it is scary not knowing. I have never seen anything like it before and I hope we never have to experience that again.
On Christmas Eve we left Disneyland for Los Angeles. We had a car pick us up at our hotel and on our way we had lunch at McDonalds. Our driver thought it was pretty funny that we would request McDonalds, he said this is a first for him. Since I have moved to New York I have McDonalds way too much, because of Will's allergies it is always safe for him to eat there.
In LA we stayed at The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Probably the nicest hotel I have ever been too. It was amazing. The people there would not let you do anything, towards the end I was like just let me do something. I am really not used to letting everyone do things for me but I guess for a few days I could do it. Dr. B, Will's dad, and oldest brother, Charles were flying into LA that day and met us at the hotel. The night we went out to dinner to this really fancy restaurant that was just okay. I probably would not go back but it was fun to be with the whole family.
Christmas morning I really wasn't expecting anything but when I woke up my boss and Will came into my room and gave me a gift. It was a brown hat and gloves from J Crew and a gift certificate to Wollman Rink for 3 private skating lessons. In my earlier post I said my parents got me ice skates for Christmas and my boss knew that and decided to get me something to go along with it. It meant so much to me. I am always wearing brown so the hat and gloves are perfect for me. It was my first Christmas Day that I was not with my family but I was with my other family and they made it as perfect as they could. The kids, Charles, Henry, Will and I all went to Universal Studios for the day. It was raining so it was a little gloomy but I wasn't going to let anything make this a bad day.
Here are the pictures from Universal...
Back lots tour-War of Worlds film site
This was a little creepy. Last time I was here they just had a cut out of a guy looking out the window but this time they had real actors doing a scene from the movie, Psycho. This guy came out looked around and went back in the hotel and came out with a lady all bloody and wrapped up and put her in the truck of the car. After he shut the trunk he looked at the tour bus and realized we were all there and started running after us with a knife in his hands. I was a little worried that Will would get freaked out but he was just laughing about the whole thing. I think it was a little much.
The Grinch and all the Whos in Whoville for Christmas 
This is what Hollywood uses as their Central Park. I just thought it was a little funny, I have the real thing two blocks from my house.
This is where they had the fire last year. They have already started building new sets. 
Waterworld-a live show from the movie. It was great but it was raining during the whole show. My favorite part of the show is when the plane comes over and lands in the water. Will loved it too. 
The cast of Waterworld. These are all real actors who work on real TV shows. Usually from TV shows that film in the back lots Christmas night we went out to Dinner to one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants. It was amazing! We all shared steak and it was probably the best steak I have ever had. I wasn't going to have dessert but since it was Christmas I had to. I got the Hot Fudge Sundae. Oh my gosh! It was so delicious. It was a wonderful dinner!
The next day we went to Hollywood and saw some of the sights. It was Henry, Will and I and we went to the El Capitan Theater. I have never been there before but it was a lot of fun. We saw Bolt in 3D and before the show they had a great little Christmas play with all the Disney Characters. It was so cute! I loved it but it was my second time to see Bolt and I think I fell asleep for a little while. After the show we walked around and saw the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theater. Henry loves all of this tourist stuff and loved it all. It was cold and windy and I was happy to go back to the hotel afterwards.
The next day we drove down to San Diego. It was a fun drive. They were all joking about having another house in this little town we drove through that had nothing in it. It was hilarious! We were staying at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort. After we checked in and got the luggage and rooms all situated. We went out to dinner. The next day Dr. B and Charles were going back to New York so it was their last night with us in California.
It was December 28th and we went to Legoland. I have never been there before and I really didn't know what to expect. It was fun, but it was no Disney. These are some of the pictures of the amazing lego creations.
This one reminded me of home. :(
This one reminded me of home. :(
This one reminded me of my other home (it was the New York City skyline) 
Albert Einstein 
Mount Rushmore-I have always wanted to go, hopefully this isn't this closest I ever get to it. 
Will with Santa Claus and his reindeer made out of legos.
Oh I forgot to mention earlier. Before we went to Legoland Will got this horrible rash that started on his stomach. It spread over the rest of his body. We gave him a benedryl and it helped but he had to stay on a benedryl the rest of the trip. It makes him a little drowsy so some of Legoland and Sea World weren't that great because he was so sleepy. The night after Legoland it was a little scary. It basically covered his whole body from head to toe. We called his doctor in New York and send them pictures. Will was itchy and a little uncomfortable because of the rash but other than that he felt fine. We still don't know what it was but it is scary not knowing. I have never seen anything like it before and I hope we never have to experience that again.The next day was Sea World. It is probably my favorite Theme Park after Disneyland. I love all the animals and seeing the shows. Because Will's rash was still pretty bad in the morning we only went to Sea World and watched the three main shows; Shamu, Clyde & Seamore, and the Dolphin show. It was great other than the sun was shining the whole time and it was so bright coming off the water. During the dolphin show it was hard to watch because it was so bright, my eyes were watering pretty much the whole time.
I don't have any pictures of the Shamu show because I left my camera in the stroller but here are pictures from the other two shows.
Clyde & Seamore...
This was the walrus that comes out at the end. It was supposed to go up on the glass and kind of just wave but it had other things in mind...
The walrus fell over the glass and landed on the ground. They had to stop the show early. Employees were running from everywhere to stop people from getting to close. The picture below is the trainers trying to get the walrus to move. It was so funny but I was a little worried about the walrus.
I think this is my favorite show at Sea World. I love dolphins and one day I hope to swim with dolphins one day.
This was taken from my balcony at the hotel in San Diego. I love sunsets and miss Arizona sunsets almost everyday.
The trip was a lot of fun and I was happy to have this experience with the family. I am so grateful to work with a family that I get along with so well. They are truly like family to me and they will always be a part of my life.
Sorry this took me so long to write but I hope to have more posted soon. It has been a crazy month with my birthday and everything going on with my job, as you have probably read by my previous post.
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