Disneyland

We had one day to take on two parks. In the words of Clark Grizzwald, this was no longer a vacation....it was a quest. Alex was not interested in stopping to take pictures, meet Mickey, or spend time on rides like this...




In fact, I stopped for two seconds to take a picture and sing "It's A Small World" and he was moving on without me. He wanted to ride the thrill rides and the only time I really did get pictures is when we were standing in line for a ride, or with a good bribe.

Downtown Disney













Can you tell I loved Toontown? I thought it was so adorable..





We also ate in Toontown which is why there are so many pictures from that area of the park. Unless you've been to Disneyland, you have no idea how incredibly big it really is. Like I said, the only thing Alex was interested in was the rides. We saw Goofy and he was like "yeah, that's great mom....look, Space Mountain".

Back To Our Vacation...

We left Phoenix on Thursday, but not without causing a little drama first.

I had a difficult time saying goodbye to Michael and it turned out to be a very teary one. Michael wanted his car brought back to South Dakota to sell so I was going to drive it from California for him. He checked the tires...checked the oil...and then Alex and I were on our way. I had been crying and just wanted to get on the road - so one last hug - I sat down in the car, threw it in gear and hit the road. About a block into our trip, I looked at the stick shift and went "hmmm". I knew it could be driven as an manual or an automatic, but which one of the gears does it belong in to drive automatic...D1, D2, D3, D4, or D5? (you can see this going south already, huh) Better safe then sorry! I called Michael and risked sounding like a moron to ask which gear I need to put it in - D5 he replied.

K! We're good to go, right? It's in D5 and we're heading down the freeway. Hmmmm - the RPM gage says it's running at like 6000RPM's. Is that normal?

I send Michael a text to tell him the car is running at 6000 RPM's - is the gage broken?

No answer and I take the silence as him saying "yes, it's fine hon...keep driving and thank you for taking care of this for me. You're the most wonderful woman on earth!!"

Couple of miles down the road, no air conditioning. I think it was 107 degrees in Phoenix that afternoon - you notice when the air conditioning goes out. So this time, I call Michael to ask why the A/C is out. He claims it's working and I tell him that I'll work with it for awhile. A few minutes later he calls. Apparently he just saw the text message regarding the RPM's and asks when is it ever normal for a car to run at 6000 RPM's. Like I'm a mechanic...

We were back on the freeway by this point and he asks "where is the temperature gage" "it says it's 108 degrees" I replied. "NO, not the outside temperature....the heat gage"

Oh...that's in the red zone.

Apparently, even though I had shifted the car into D5, it was in the manual position and was running in 2nd gear.

After all of that chaos, we were on our way to Anaheim. It's about a 4.5 hour drive from Phoenix and it's just beautiful country to drive through. We arrived in LA and I wanted to take Alex to see the ocean. Alex loved the ocean. We walked on the beach collecting sea shells for awhile and then Alex went for a swim. Want to know a little secret? I never learned how to swim and water (especially lake or oceans) have always given me panic attacks. I managed to stick my feet in for a few minutes to appease Alex, but then watched from the beach.

Twins

I'll post more about our trip later, but really....

Dear Minnesota Twins:

You know I love you. I've been a fan since I was in dippers watching the games with my dad.

But how do you blow a 10-run lead? Morneau goes 11 for 14 and 12rbi, and you loose? Mike Muchlinski obviously blew the call at home and Cuddyer was safe...but beyond that... FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, can we find someone who can pitch the ball?

Please? I can't endure this sort of disappointment, especially considering the Vikings season hasn't even started.

Vacation - Part 1

The first part of our vacation was spent in Phoenix. This was Alex's first flight and he was so worried the airline would loose our luggage and he tried desperately to fit everything into a carry-on, but no luck. I swear the kid is a sixty year old man trapped in a little boys’ body. Really…what eight-year old worries about his luggage getting lost. He watch very closely as our luggage entered the security check point and after we passed through security, he patiently watched as the luggage was loaded.


One of his many wonderful attributes, Alex has the ability to start a conversation with almost anyone and everyone. I sometimes think he’s destined for a career in politics because he connects with people without great effort. The woman in the seat next to us was no exception to Alex's charm. She was kind and amused Alex by being so intrigued in his stories of the community center, baseball, his dog Chewy…you name it, Alex was an open book. The landing was a little jerky and Alex threw me under the bus once again. He looked at the woman in the seat next to us and calmly said “well, it’s still not as bad as my moms’ stops in the car”. She thought it was cute and even rewarded him by buying him a bag of M&M’s. Like the kid needed anymore rewards for throwing me under the bus.



I was really nervous about this part of the trip. Alex was meeting Michael – the guy I’ve dated for two years. I didn’t know how Alex would react and my stomach was doing somersaults throughout the flight thinking about this step in our relationship. The last thing Alex really needs is another guy being a disappointment so I've really kept him very separate from my dating life. Alex was very well behaved and made me very proud as I knew he would. I was never worried about how he would behave, I'm just worried about Michael bailing and having to explain to Alex (again) that he won't be seeing or hearing from Michael again. The first night was a little difficult as Alex started crying because “chewy was all alone”. Chewy was not alone, he was with a family in Sioux Falls, but Alex was upset. Michael is very busy and doesn’t eat at home often, so he stepped out to get groceries while Alex and I settled into our rooms. I tucked Alex into bed and scratched his back to calm him down – soon, I was out as well. Michael returned to find both Alex and myself snoring in the bedroom. What a nice way for me to show how much I missed Michael, huh.

Alex and I spent the entire afternoon at the pool on Wednesday. It was about 110 degrees during the daytime, so the pool was really the only thing one could enjoy that day. Later that evening, we went out for supper and then saw the new Transformers movie which is dumb dumb dumb. I don’t know what Alex’s intention was, but he insisted to sit between Michael and me. I wondered if it was a territorial thing – this is MY mom and she’ll sit here and Michael…you’ll sit here. Alex and Michael really got along great which was a relief.





Alex was snoring within a few minutes after we returned to Michael’s house leaving Michael and I to spend a little alone time. I’m still smitten over this guy. He took the Thursday off from work to see us off. I was driving his car to Anaheim and then back to South Dakota and we were starting this little adventure the next day….which I will write about tomorrow.

Fathers Day

Lets start at the beginning...

For fathers day, Alex suggested we take Grandpa to the Twins game. The Twins were playing Houston (zzzzz) but we thought it would be fun anyway. I told my dad A MONTH in advance to keep father's day open. He said "ok"

However, the Wednesday before the game, he said that he had booked a gig for the weekend. My dad is a musician and has been playing in bands since he was in his early 20's. Music has always been a HUGE part of his life and for most of my life, it's just been a fact that he was gone most weekends. He and I have always been close and when I was 16, I started playing gigs with the band and we spent allot of time together. It was frustrating, however, when the band took president over anything else in our lives. This time, I was putting my foot down. I told him that there is NO WAY he was missing the game - you're spending father's day with us and you're going to like it! I probably wouldn't have cared so much if Alex wasn't looking forward to the game with Grandpa - he made him a card and it was his idea to take grandpa to the Twins game. I wasn't allowing Alex to take the back seat because of a group of smelly musicians. If I had to knock my father unconscious and drag him to the game, I was prepared to do so. Fortunately (for him) he found someone to take his place on Sunday.

I joined the band on stage Saturday and then we drove to Minneapolis after the gig. Nothing like a 3-hour car ride to smooth things over!!

By Sunday, we were getting along just fine again and Alex was having a ball since he was able to bring a friend to the game.

Guerrier warming up



My boyfriend - Joe Nathan.



Alex giving me a look that says "mom, I'm trying to watch a baseball game...can you put the camera away"



Note the one eyebrow raised...the kid hates pictures



Ayala and Young were warming up and when they were done, he threw the baseball to Alex. This picture is Alex and his friend Josh.



My dad and Alex. Can you tell my dad also hates it when I get the camera out? Alex is looking at him and saying "I feel your pain Grandpa"



Alex on the field after the game. I did get a slight smile on this one - probably because he knows next season = outdoor baseball in Minnesota!!!!