Birthday Weekend Warriors

For Mom's birthday Karis and I bought airplane tickets to California to celebrate with her.  It was about a month after her birthed, but we partied like it was that weekend.  We fly in from Phoenix to Orange County in our Ariel shirts.  Karis and I kinda forgot we were wearing them and a lot of people were staring at us.  Then we would remember we kinda look super dorky.  Mom picked us up and we headed straight to Disneyland!  I was actually feeling way sick so I had to leave and go to the hotel room for a few hours.  Luckily mom booked the California Grand Hotel which happens to be connected to the park.  That made it easy to come and go.  After my nap I started feeling better and we went back out to the crowds.  We had a blast on Thunder Mountain and watched the Christmas Firework show.  I love Disneyland through the holiday season.  The hotel was decked out too.  A giant Christmas Tree in the center and a Giant Gingerbread House too.  In the Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion the Disney Bakers make a new Gingerbread creation every year.  They made this house for the hotel.  The ingredients were nuts!  The next day we met Jarond in Santa Ana and ate at Baja Fish Tacos and drove around looking at homes and schools and sharing funny childhood stories.  We hit up OG Target in Santa Ana and did a little shopping.  Then we headed to Balboa Island to go on a harbor cruise and see all the houses decked out in Christmas lights.  It was such a fun thing to do.  After living in California for so long we had never done that.  I loved it.  We walked around the boardwalk and got a treat.  After we went to Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  Mom ordered the Meat Lover's Treat aka MLT and when it came out we were all taken back by the arrangement of the food.  I may have arranged it for her a little :)  We were laughing so hard.  Later Jarond said, that was the closest he got to being cut off, and we weren't even drinking.  Haha  Good times.  Jarond headed home and we stayed in Dana Point right by the water.  We had a very pleasant stay and Fernando the owner was so amazing.  He even made us waffles in the morning!  We drove around and did some sightseeing.  We stopped at the Ritz Carlton to see the Gingerbread House display.  Our car was a wreck.  Totally trashed and smelled like McDonald's french fries.  Then the guy said he would just park it for us.  I was mortified.  AAAhhh so embarrassing.  The house display was pretty cool, it wasn't the traditional house.  It was a Gingerbread wave.  Everything was edible.  After we walked around and enjoyed the scenery.  We all decided we wouldn't even like to stay there or eat there.  Waaaay too stuffy for us.  Not knowing what to do next we of course did what we do best and went back to Disneyland for more fun.  What an amazing weekend.  Happy Birthday Mom!