Birthday Trip 2016!

Hey guys! As some of you probably know, Patrick took me to Disneyland for my 24th birthday this year and both of us got some great photos that I wanted to share with you all, as well as a little about the weekend itself (even if this post is super belated)!

Normally in February southern California isn't particularly warm-- in fact, we thought that my birthday weekend would be a great time to go to Disneyland because the parks are usually dead during the cold, rainy winter. However, apparently we booked our trip for the hottest weekend of the winter. It was in the low to mid 80's the entire time we were there, which brought the people out and also made us both grumpy (to those of you who said we'd hate the cold, rainy Portland weather-- HA. WE LOVE IT. THE WARM IS TERRIBLE GIVE ME THE COLD AND WET), but we still really enjoyed the trip!

We flew in on Friday morning and went straight to the parks to wander around for a bit. By 1pm we were both tired, cranky, and really hot, so we headed to the hotel for an early check-in, a shower, and a nap. For dinner we went to my favorite restaurant in Anaheim (outside of Disneyland)-- Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.! We even got to see our favorite waiter, Gabe, who unexpectedly picked up a shift for someone else!

We were super excited to see that the 60th Anniversary decorations are still up! I really hope that they keep the shiny castle shingles :)

It's A Small World

Where we got engaged! I don't think I'll ever be able to eat there again because nothing can top that day

 

On Saturday we expected the park to be moderately busy because of the weather... But not nearly as busy as it was (apparently there was some sort of Annual Passholder Event). I was already struggling to wake up and no amount of caffeine in the world was helping, so a busy park probably would have given me a panic attack. We rode the shuttle bus into the park, saw how long the lines for bag check were, and decided to stay put on the bus so that it could drop us right back off at the parking lot. Instead, we ended up going to San Clemente to walk the beach trails a bit, then we stopped at the Mission Viejo mall to wander around, and finally we stopped at In-N-Out for lunch before heading back to the hotel so that I could nap and try to get my energy level up. Saturday was a bit of a bust, since I woke up with a strange fever and felt miserable for hours (which may have been related to my inability to "wake up"), but we did go out to a nice dinner at McCormick & Schmick's after I was feeling better!

Our view from North Beach in San Clemente

It was gorgeous! We spent most of the time watching the surfers.

Our delicious lunch. I've been craving In-N-Out for months and insisted on it when we went down for this trip.

Animal style everything.

Before dinner

On Sunday we got a lazy start to the day. I woke up to two birthday cards from Patrick and a card from our cats, then we got ready and spent most of the day in the parks! We ended up leaving midday to go back to the hotel so that we could check in for our flights and get ready for dinner because jeans and a t shirt won't cut it for Carthay Circle! We had a fabulous dinner at Carthay out on the second floor patio, which we had mostly to ourselves during our entire meal! Afterwards we wandered around a bit and found our darling friends Lena and Victoria who we haven't seen since we moved.

I have to say that the best part about the trip for me is how much I missed Oregon. Did you read that correctly? You sure did. Being there reinforced how much I love Oregon and how much I truly disliked living in California. I know that it seems to be a dream of a lot of people to move there but it was definitely not a good fit for me. I like nice people and decent drivers and decently priced gas (or, well, decently priced everything) and weather that changes-- that is not what you get in California! Oregon, I love you!

I can't wear the regular Mickey head earrings because they're made of metal that I'm allergic to so I finally gave in got a pair of the more expensive ones for my birthday.

We happened to be in DCA at just the right time so we got to watch the Pixar Parade!

Patrick and I went on a wild goose chase to find this damn BB-8 sipper but I have to admit, it is pretty cute.

Our view from our table at Carthay!

My button, dress, and nails all glowed in the black light on the Monster's Inc. ride! 

Lena and Victoria! We were so excited to see them!

Before the night ended we waited to watch World of Color but it was cancelled due to high winds, so instead we ran to The Little Mermaid ride and ended the night on that note :)

I think that the most exciting thing about being 24 is that for the last year (being 23), I was the same age as my Babcia (great-grandmother), whose birthday is on leap year so she has only had 23 "real" birthdays. For the next 20 days I will be older than her, then we will be the same age again for just under a year because she has another "real" birthday this year, and then I will be older than her for the rest of my life! It's amusing to me, at least!

I have to say that overall I had an incredible birthday, spending it with the man I love and taking full advantage of "birthday rules". Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!

More Disneyland!

Hey guys! I promised a second post and here it is! We've been home unwinding for a few days now, which have honestly flew by.

So we last left off on Monday after we had spent Sunday in Disneyland. Patrick had work in Pasadena and I got to go with him, so I spent my days hanging out in the hotel, reading and people watching. Then, when he would come back from work we'd head out to dinner and walk around for a bit. We tried to pick places that were nearby because I definitely didn't plan for a whole lot of walking, but some of them were definitely further than we had originally planned. I swear I walked more during the week than I've ever walked in my life!

We had dinner at a lot of fun places, including a Lebanese place called Carousel and an old school Tiki Steak House called Damon's!

On Thursday we got the chance to go to dinner with Patrick's boss and his wife, Albert and Cyndi. It was really great to see them! The happy couple just had their second baby in February and it was great to get them out of the house and have a nice dinner at Steakhouse 55.

However, before dinner we had some downtime... And that day was the day that they released the Fortune Cookie Pins. Seriously, Lord help our bank account if we're ever in the parks on an LE pin release day again. I'm not even going to tell you how much Patrick dropped on these darn pins.

The way these pins work is each pin comes in its own box, and each pin is a mystery. Of the pins that we could possibly have gotten, there were regular LE pins (Simba, Cheshire Cat, Rapunzel, Belle, Elsa, Jack Skellington, Dory, or Stitch). There were 600 of each of these pins made. In addition, you could have gotten one of the chaser pins (Carl Fredricksen, Pinocchio, Ariel, or Mary Poppins). 300 of each of these pins were made. In total, there were 12 possible pins we could have gotten. We purchased ten pins and out of those ten pins we got five pins (one of them was a chaser, which are considerably more valuable since fewer of those were made) and five duplicate pins, which Patrick has already sold.

Here are the pins we ended up getting:

Rapunzel, Cheshire Cat, Stitch, Simba, Carl Fredricksen

When we were done chasing down all of these darn pins we finally sat down to dinner and had a great time. After dinner, we headed back to the parks for a nice nighttime stroll and Dole Whip for dessert!

Friday came and went and I obviously missed the Aaron Carter show. I'm super bummed but I'm trying not to think about it. I'll get there eventually.

Finally Saturday came and we got to leave the hotel for good and head to the park. Originally we had planned on driving back on Saturday night, however both of us were tired from the week and didn't want to feel like we were pressured or rushed into leaving the park at a certain time, so I had the bright idea to book a hotel in the Anaheim just for the night so that we could drive back on Sunday morning. This was definitely one of the best ideas I've had in a long time!

We met up with the lovely Lena on Saturday and got to spend most of the day with her! That is definitely one of the perks of Lena living in the LA area... I feel like we see her more now than we did when she lived in the Bay Area!

We did a lot of pin trading, rode a few rides, we saw Mickey's Magical Map, and then Patrick and I headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and rest for a bit.

Mickey's Magical Map

Mac N Cheese with Bacon in a Bread Cone-- Available in Cars Land!

We were feeling hot and tired so we went to sit in the cool air conditioning to watch Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I missed most of the 16 minutes because I was distracted, but the Mr. Lincoln animatronic was fascinating and really well done!

A shinier photo of the 60th anniversary diamond roof on Aurora's Castle!

We even saw the Fairy Godmother!

And Peter Pan!

We headed back for dinner and to check out Frozen Fun (the attraction that temporarily replaced Mad Tea in DCA) and this is when we decided to do our shopping! We decided to stop in Downtown Disney to hit the big stores so that I could get some gifts for my sisters' birthdays (May 27 and July 23), and on the way there we ran into Dan-O! Dan-O and his family heard Patrick talking and yelled after us (because who wouldn't recognize Patrick's voice?) and we stopped and chatted with them for a bit. Afterwards we parted ways with Lena and found that nothing I wanted to get my sisters was in DTD! Everything I wanted to get for them was in the parks. Go figure, right? So we headed back to Disneyland and went to the big Emporium store. I have never seen it more packed. I knew this would be our only chance to get stuff for them, so I swallowed my panic attack and scurried around like a crazy person to gather up all of the things I wanted to get for the kids. There were people EVERYWHERE.

Patrick had ice cream for dinner. Because he's an adult.

Frozen Fun was honestly really boring. I can't wait until they bring Mad Tea back!

Christina's Pooh Bear

Silly me, I just shipped out their stuff and I didn't even bother to take a photo of it. I'll probably insert photos in a later post once they get their stuff and my mother sends me pictures, but for now I'll just give you a short list.

For Christina (these are all per her request):

• A Mickey backpack with a keychain
• A Pooh Bear stuffed animal 
• A pair of headphones

For Ella:

• An Elsa Doll playset
• Frozen themed undies
• A Minnie Mouse Headband

I also got them a pack of suckers to share (we'll see how that goes) and I made them custom Frozen birthday cards!

So artistic haha!

We finally got home on Sunday and Marble was super pleased to see us (or, well, as pleased as she'll ever let us know she is). I had a great trip last week!

I also have to share my super awesome fashion find! During the week we had time to check out the local mall, and while we were there we stopped in a Tilly's (it's kind of like a Pac Sun for those who have never been in one of heard of one) and I found the coolest shoes ever. I went back and forth about purchasing the shoes, especially because they didn't have my size in the store and I would have had to order them online, so when we went to Sacramento on Monday we stopped in the mall and I found the shoes in my size. They were meant to be, I'm in love, and I had to have them. 

For those of you who don't know, I've struggled to find Converse that I like for years. I've always found that they're really strange looking on me because my feet are wide. I finally bought my first pair of low-top Converse last month in Sacramento but I knew the next step was to find a pair of high tops. 

In addition, my absolute favorite soup ever is the basic Campbell's Tomato. These shoes were made for me.

Anyway, that's what we've been up to for the past week and a half! I hope you all are doing well!