Thanksgiving 2010 - Carol-Diane's visit

As promised last week, we head to Disneyland the day before Thanksgiving to celebrate Henry's birthday! Unfortunately the nasty Salt Lake weather delayed Carol-Diane's arrival in CA, and she is coming in this morning instead of last night.  Henry and Pete head to the airport to pick her up while the rest of us get an early start at California Adventure.

Starting to look a lot like Christmas 

we are here before the crowds - Heimlich's Chew Chew train - twice in a row!

Flea bumper cars - what aspect of California culture is this supposed reflect? 

meeting the bears in the Redwood adventure challenge

Riding the giant Ferris wheel - you can either opt for a car that swings

on a track as the wheel goes around, or for a non-swinging car.

We went with the swinging car and it was a bit of a wild ride -

here Jed shows us where the motion sickness bags are kept 

Kids and CD in line for Soarin' Over California -

one of our favorite attractions here 

They don't call it California Screamin' for nothing....

Every visit to Disneyland must include a trip to the Mad Hatter store 

to try on the hats. Here's Jack in the newest version of the store's namesake hat. 

a no-brainer for Jed 

posing in the photo-op tea cup -

the real tea cups make me sick to my stomach

a winter's night at Disneyland, ready for the holiday season -

Christmas tree and Jack Skellington balloon heads 

THANKSGIVING DAY

We've had Thanksgiving dinner at the beach for the past several years that we've been in town,

and this year we continued the tradition.  Grandpa heads down early in the day to save a table,

and after cooking up a feast at the house up the hill, we all come down to our favorite picnic spot

at Heisler Park to enjoy our turkey dinner with all the trimmings. 

As in years past, today was a beautiful, beautiful Thanksgiving day in Laguna. 

kids with their plates lined up at the buffet 

stuffing, green bean casserole, potatoes and gravy, cranberries and turkey -

 Sue's homemade cornbread in the tupper was divine! 

Earlier in the week Harriet had given herself the assignment to make place cards

for everyone.  Each had a unique picture relevant to the holiday, and she

labeled each one with the person's name in it's own unique font. 

the kids holding their place cards

(it was too breezy to set them up properly on the tables,

they kept blowing over and away) 

Carol-Diane's 

Kenzie (home from BYU-I to visit!) 

Aunt Sue's 

Porter's pilgrim hat (or, capotain) 

Pete and me with our place cards 

(also on my plate are Sue's stuffed mushrooms which

I didn't mention earlier - they were YUM!) 

Pete strolling on the beach post-feast 

Pete and me - Thanksgiving 2010 

CD on the beach - low tide definitely makes for the best photo ops 

Harriet and her sisters 

cousins - there's space behind Jack for the

four we are missing down under! 

sunset over Catalina - I never tire of this photo op 

Friday night, after a day of shopping for Pete and me

while CD entertained the kids, us sisters get some time together.

We head up to L.A. to see the newly opened, fresh-from-Broadway

Pulitzer and Tony award winning musical Next to Normal at the Ahmanson Theater.

Great seats, enthusiastic audience, awesome soundtrack and amazing players,

especially the lead Alice Ripley who won the Tony award as well 

and came from NY with the show.  We used to see her in The Who's Tommy

in my good old NYC days, as well as walking around the streets near my apartment.

Saturday night we take CD to Farrell's to celebrate Henry's birthday one last time -

"mountain of fries"

cool birthday sticker badge and hat

free birthday sundae with candle in it

and a hearty rendition of "We will Rock You" by the staff,

sung to Henry and accompanied by the big drum 

Sunday morning CD comes to church with us and gets to hear

Jack give his first youth speaker talk in Sacrament meeting. 

Harriet had her turn last week and they both did an awesome job.

Sunday afternoon before we drop CD off at the airport, we go on a

last outing, this time to Huntington Beach to walk the pier. 

The wind was BLOWING off the ocean today -

good for the flags, not great for the poor palm trees! 

Taking shelter from the monsoonal winds behind

a shop along the pier. 

This is as far as we make it - it's too windy and scary for the kids.

(okay, for me too.  I told them not to go near the edge of the pier 

so many times they decided it wasn't worth it to even get out over the water!)

Instead we stroll along the beachfront and main street, enjoying all the surf shops and interesting beach front
culture.








This little shop was only as wide as the doorway.

                                    Beachfront rent ain't cheap.