GOING TO DISNEYLAND
Aug. 19, 1999

We are taking the Grandkids, two 2 year olds and a 4 year old to Disneyland on Wends. and we are staying at Disneyland Hotel for 3 days. We went a couple of years ago with just the 4 year old, who was then 2years old. We are going to go insane, I just know it. My son and his wife and my daughter and her husband and I are all going. Not too happy about going on a plane tho. But sudden death may look good after 3 days in Disneyland with these kids. Oh sure, we all are saying "It's not going to be that bad", but I bet the tune changes after the first day. I am sure I will have enough to write a story about it when I get back. I've already started thinking up the names of these stories:

• My Life before My Mental Affliction
• Life Before Grandchildren
• Where's the Baby?
• A mental Breakdown at Two miles Up
• Who's insane?
  
  or newspaper headlines:
• Woman Drown's After Being Pushed Off Pirates of the Carribean Ship By Small Children
• Grandmother Loses It at Disneyland
• 3 Toddlers Run Away from Grandmother as Parents Ride "Splash Mountain"
• Woman chasing Children Run over by "Electric Light Parade"
• Grandmother Searching for Lost Toddlers Finds "It's NOT a small world After All"

BACK FROM DISNEYLAND
August 24, 1999

Well, we are back from Disneyland. Me, my son Rick his wife and their two children ages 2 and 5 and my daughter Jill, her husband and their 2 year old all managed to survive the trip. All went well going to L.A. the kids all had a seat and kept their belts on, that was the first miracle. We had to get up at 3a.m to catch the plane at 6 a.m.

Got to Disneyland about 9:30a.m.. Seems like we walked forever the first day, saw lots of Disneyland but not all. Got up early the next day so we could get an early entrance and made it in the park around 7:30 a.m. No crowds , got to see all the things that had horrible lines the day before. The zipper police busted son in law Russell. He had his daughter Alix on his shoulders and lifted her up to hand her to me, and this policeman comes running over to him, we turned around just in time to see Russell zip up his zipper. ( we told him it gave a whole new meaning to "It's a small world after all". He did not see the humor in it.) The kids weren't that bad, some things we wanted all of them to see together, was hard to do, when one was asleep, the others were awake, when that one would wake up, the other one would be asleep. The 2 year olds were afraid of the characters and wanted nothing to do with them. The 5 year old granddaughter, wanted to shop in every shop there was. We couldn't pass a shop without her saying "I just want to look at one thing for a minute" We took her on some of the bigger rides and she didn't care for them. The mono rail was only running one way, because they had half of it torn down so they could work on putting more park in. The wait was terrible. It ran every 20 minutes or so. Have you ever had to wait at the monorail station with 3 kids, 3 strollers that had to be folded up to get on the mono rail? It's not pretty. 2 year old Jace got a light sword like Darth Vaders, and if he wasn't sticking it in someone butt, he was swinging it around and whacking everyone with it. When he pushed it at someone's butt, it telescoped in, and when he took it off it telescoped out. It was pretty funny to me, but then again, (I have been told) I do have a sort of sick side to my humor His dad threatened to throw it in the lagoon by the monorail if he didn't leave it folded up, Bought them some neon necklaces to wear in the dark during the Mulan Parade and they took them apart and wanted to eat them. (I wonder if they would glow in the dark if they did?) There was simply no place you could take 3 strollers and 3 kids and grab a bite to eat so you could continue your travels. Mostly everything was sit down restaurant style. Except one place where they threw a piece of hamburger on a bun and called it a hamburger, no fixings or anything, you had to squeeze mayo and mustard from little packets to put on it, needless to say that we all seemed to squirt this all over our selves. There was only one corn dog wagon, and every time we went to it, it was closed. Room service at the hotel was cheaper than taking the kids to a restaurant and a lot less stress.

The last day there, we had to catch the bus at the Disneyland Hotel at 7 p.m. to take us to the airport, we were planning on catching the monorail back at 6 p.m., but we were waiting for a picture of the kids with pooh to be developed, so we sent Jill and Russell and Alix back to the Hotel to get the luggage and meet us at the bus stop. By the time we got to the monorail, it had just left and would be 20 minutes before the next one. We finally got on at 10 minutes to 7 and got to the monorail station on the other side of the park at 4 minutes to 7. Taylor (5) was taking pictures on the mono rail and said she wanted to save a picture so she could take one of Alix (2), I said, "You may never see her again, we will probably be living in Southern Calif. the rest of our life!" We told the 5 year granddaughter to run to the elevator and push the button, while we ran beside her holding a 2 year old and 2 strollers folded up and hands full of packages. We practically jumped the turnstiles, felt like O.J. doing commercials, ran all the way to the hotel, through the hotel out to the bus parking area, and just as we got there, the bus came. Jill and Russell were having heart attacks, wondering if we would make it, and what to do if we didn't. The bus driver said it would be and hour and a half before we would get to the airport. Our plane was leaving at 9.pm. When we got to the airport, we did the same run we did at the monorail station, except now we had 3 kids, luggage, strollers, packages and 5 people acting like we were a sandwich short of a picnic.. Finally got the luggage tagged and got to the gate, and we were all starved, but no time to eat. Then a miracle happened, the plane was delayed for 10 minutes, so we ran to the McDonalds in the airport and got hamburgers. Thank god it's over.

Can't wait for next time.!! Never once lost the kids!!!!