Disneyland

         Disneyland did not offer the cooling stations that Universal had.  But I think Disneyland park was less crowded than Universal had been. We took the tram from downtown Disneyland to the park.  

        It seems like the very first ride we went on was Jungle Cruise.  Jai had pulled up phrazel so that we could play while we were in line.  There was no line.  Jaime and Sam rode ten rides in less than two hours.  How awesome is that? 

       Richard and I took it easy and rode tame rides such as the Mark Twain and the train.  I didn’t want to be in Fantasy Land or Tomorrow Land.  I think Toon Town was closed as it wasn’t highlighted on the map.  Toon Town is cute, but I have already seen it.  Thankfully it wasn’t a destination. 

       I hadn’t cared about New Orleans either.  I can no longer do the Pirates of Carrabin as squatting down just to sit in the boat is uncomfortable.  Nor did I have the desire for the haunted mansion – which is the only outside line that I had seen.  But we must have ended up there as Richard and I had ordered food.  He got jambalaya – which I was totally NOT in the mood for.  I ended up with a corn chowder in a bread bowl.  It was delicious.  Unfortunately my choice of lunch and the 107 degree heat (still cooler than Universal by eight degrees – but somehow felt warmer) was not a good combination.  We rode the train around three times I believe before I decided I could stand without being queasy about it.

       We did not have the option of taking the Monorail back to downtown as the heat was too drastic for it to run.  Go figure.  It’s a different monorail than the one offered several decades ago – a different monorail that ran the length of the park. There were tracks running through the hotel – I remember seeing that when I was a kid.  How cool would that be? 

for monorail history see this post 

       The hotel is not even the same as what I had seen as a kid – not that we ever stayed there.  It is now a resort made up of at least three different buildings for lodging and a plaza (where we had done laundry) and restaurants maybe?  I think there were six buildings in all – though I know I did not take the time to go inside of all of them.    Even downtown is not the same.  Not a disappointment exactly, but definitely not what I had imagined.

       The pool is awesomely large – the largest I have ever seen.  We never took advantage of it though as there were always more people than water.  Guests trying to cool off.  Too many people in my opinion. 

       Once again I was so grateful that Sam had come with us.  This may be the last year of Disneyland for me.  What a whimp I have turned out to be.      

Discover a Reason

        I just read my brother’s latest post in which he mentions paying fees towards a park that he never uses.  It is annoying paying fees for something in which you don’t feel a part.  For example there are many paying taxes for schools when they have no children.  Those who reside in Myrtle Creek pay taxes on a small airport.  I remember a man complaining about it. At the time I didn’t even realize there was an airport in Myrtle Creek.  And though it’s true that no commercial planes will ever land here, and I will never personally train to fly, I do reap benefits of having an airport so close to my house as I had mentioned in this post.

        My brother took a picture of himself at the park – I don’t know from the photo how big the park is or if there is a playground or walking trail available.  If so, I would think that it has the potential of being a good source of giving children or walkers a place away from traffic – more importantly a place away from mischief.  If the park didn’t exist, what would become of those who attend?  I have been to Las Vegas.  There is no way on God’s green earth that I would ever think of driving there!  I might not even feel safe as a pedestrian.  But I would be willing to take a stroll in the park.

        There are still a handful of children who can have fun without electronics.  I would rather have them playing at a designated playground than wandering in my yard out of curiosity.  I’m not saying having the park there will protect them from acts of crime, but think about it.  There is a reason.  Perhaps it isn’t as popular as it was when it was initially proposed . . . but still . . . just a thought really.

        Some drivers have complained about traffic lights and sharing the road with buses or trains or trolleys or whatever.  And yet, what if we didn’t have them?  How much heavier the traffic or more accidents as suggested in this post?

        If we didn’t have an airport in Myrtle Creek, where would the helicopters park during fire season? The heat gets unreal in the summertime – but not as bad as Las Vegas.  I have suggested to Steven several times that he and Isaias should move to Ashland.  I am certain that both could get jobs there and he would be more comfortable than in Vegas – though I don’t know if Isaias would feel the same way.  He would rather do the city driving than the country.  I’m sure he’d find his niche though.

West Coast (specifically Myrtle Creek) Painted Rocks

Last year I found this rock out by the mailbox. 

Jenna has kept it in her collection all this time. 

On the back of the rock are instructions to post #WCPR (west coast painted rocks) which and has been on a mission to paint and hide rocks herself.  We had placed a quarter (coin) in the picture to show the size of the rocks. These are the ones which we plan to hide today after church

But first, she decided to put her "Alien" painted rock next to the mailbox where we had found the first

As Jenna grabbed each rock, she thought about places she could hide them that would be unique to the area. 

            She'd like to hide the candy corn near a business as Halloween is coming up and would be a reminder to all businesses to buy their candy.

            She wants to put the jack-o-lantern near a house because Halloween is coming up and will remind homeowner to decorate

           She wants to put the footprint on the trail

            And the gingerbread house (which she has decided to give up)

leaning against a tree because it reminds her of a "fairy garden" we used to visit near a tree. The eggplant

near a men's restroom as a joke as because guys "plant their seeds in the egg" in order to grow a child.  She thought it fitting to have something outside the women's restroom as well and chose one of only three rocks which I painted

Thought hard about where to place the thumb or toe (however you look at it)

before deciding on the children's playground as a reminder for the "thumbkin" song we had both learned as children.

She has also decided to hide what I thought looked like a whale, but she says it is the yin of the yin-yang circle.

She says she'd like to hide it on a white background.

December 31st and New Year

         Roland had come home early on Wednesday.  He probably shouldn’t have even gone in.  He slept most of the day.  He needed to.

         I took Jenna to the library for the afternoon countdown.  I have been to the library on December 31^st before.  But the last day of 2014 was different.  The library was overly quiet – except for children in the library.

         It wasn’t crowded.  Less crowded than I have seen the WV library – EVER. Roland had told us to leave early in order to get a good parking spot.  I honestly don’t think it would have mattered what time we left.  The turn-out wasn’t as good as it had been the last time we had gone for the New Year/afternoon countdown.

Jenna decorated a hat and asked me to finish her noise maker while she went to participate in games.  I wished Anna had been with us as I think she would have enjoyed the parachute game.  I don’t know if the library near where she lived had offered a New Years celebration or not.

 I left Jenna in the auditorium while I went to the teenage section to read.  It felt like the library was closed. It was actually kind of awesome just to feel peace and enjoy my reading. 

I returned for the countdown.  Two years ago I could have just stayed put.  The children were loud enough that you could hear them no matter where you were in the library.  There was a lot less children on December 31, 2014.  Even from the auditorium they didn’t sound even half as loud as they had two years prior.

As we passed the park, Jenna expressed her desires to go there.  It was cold.  But the air was clean still and not filled with the pollution that’s come with the New Year thus far.  We went home to get Highness and returned to the park.  I walked the dog while Jenna played.  I also took a fair amount of pictures.

Jenna always wants to stay up for the New Years countdown.  When I was growing up, my family had always played games on New Years.  I was willing to play games with Jenna, but she wanted to watch Aliens in the Attic. So we watched that followed by Little Shop of Horrors before we shuffled and dealt cards to play Go Fish.  We were playing cards when we heard the fireworks and the clock marking the New Year. 

We finished our game and played another – though I don’t recall what it is we played.  Cranium, I think.  And then we went to bed.  Not a typical New Years celebration.  But typical that someone was sick.  This year it just happened to be Roland.

        

         I am surprised that he was feeling well enough to donate blood the next day.  He had an appointment on New Years’ Day.  One had to have an appointment in order to donate.  They weren’t taking walk-ins yesterday.  That was my first time ever not being able to get in without an appointment.  But because it was New Years’ day, Red Cross didn’t have a full staff.

         We were at Red Cross for a long time before Roland was hooked up and producing blood.  It took him less time to bleed than to wait and be checked in.  I read four chapters, I think.

         We did get our game playing in – only a couple of hours though.  We went to Bill and Kayla’s and played a couple of games.  One was called Mad Gab – which we’ve never played together before.  And one was called Whatzit – which is puzzle solving which I’m not terribly good at.  Jenna played that one with us, and she is good.

         I’m in awe at all the birds I’ve seen – even on December 30th which was an extremely windy day.  What surprises me more than the birds are the fall leaves that have continued to cling to the trees.  Those are some major STRONG leaves!  January 2^nd and they are still there.  Nature is puzzling lately.

Spending Time With My Nephew and Niece

I have mentioned in earlier posts that my sister, Kayla, is expecting her third child.  Her eldest, Anna, will be four in the first week of July.  Garrett turned two in February and B.J. will be born in August. As a result, Jenna and I have been going out to assist at least a few hours each day.  

This past Wednesday and Thursday we had made arrangements to meet the kids at the park nearest Jenna’s school.  There is a park closer to where they live, but the bus doesn’t go by the park, and I don’t particularly wish to cross the street with the two children in order to get to the park.  So Bill has dropped them off at the other park.  We can make the return trip on the bus without crossing the street.

So on Wednesday, Bill stood in line with them to get their lunch and then he took off.  After Jenna, Anna and Gary played for a while, we got on the bus to take my niece and nephew back to their mom.  The kids were delighted with being able to ride the bus. 

We made our first transfer at the college.  There are two buses that we can transfer to and so will take whichever one comes first.  We waited for only two or three minutes.  With our last transfer we did not have to wait at all.  A ski bus is used for that particular route – though it makes me wonder what bus is used during the ski season?

The front seats are designated for wheel chairs (should said passengers come aboard).  I told Anna to continue to the back of the bus and climb the stairs.  Jenna taught Anna to flirt with the passenger seated across from them.  Gary fell asleep.  I was so beat by the time we got to Kayla’s.  Jenna and I waited for an hour and a half before we got back on the bus.

Roland stayed home yesterday.  I braved it and drove the car.  Bill arrived at the park earlier than expected.  He decided that he would eat lunch with his children.  After transferring his car seats to my car, he got in line with the three kids and purchased himself a lunch as well. 

He thought his two children would be very disappointed that we were not taking the bus, but they didn’t seem to notice.  None of us seemed to be hungry and didn’t eat as much – except for Bill who wolfed down two hot dogs and juice and left to go to work.

Jenna and the other two played in the sand before Anna started wandering and started acting tired.  I took them all back to Kayla’s house and told Kayla that we wouldn’t be able to do lunch today, but that maybe I could collect them and we could ride the bus and train just to give them an adventure.

Flawed Features and Pink Explosion

                  When I was very young (like in first and second grade) my cousins lived not far from Highland High School and Sugarhouse Park.  Aunt Fern and mom would often take us to Sugarhouse Park as it was so near by.  Problem was that the trees were not mature (as they were not much larger than us kids) and thus the park did not provide much (if any) in the way of shade. 

         Sugar House seemed to be an older area overall, but it seemed the park was fairly new.  I vaguely remember a playground.  My cousins and I must have spent time rolling down the hill – although I haven’t run across any photos of us at that particular park. 

         I wonder if the main objective for our moms was to take us to the park was to wear us down.  I wonder if it backfired as I am guessing that we must have worn our mothers out.  We must have run them ragged as they tried to keep an eye on us  or just keep up.  I wish I had more details about just what we did.

         Neither my cousins nor my brother made fun of my feet, but I was teased by other kids from school because of my “pigeon toes” .  Mom had taken me to the doctor and had been told that my knee bones turned in one way and either my pelvic bone or ankle bone turned another.  He could correct one or the other, but the only way he could correct both was to break my bones and reset them.  The procedure would have been a rather expensive one and I would have to learn to walk all over again.  Needless to say, I still have the same bone structure and problems.

         To help me to be less pigeon toed, mom took me to stride rite for corrective shoes.  I HATED having only three pairs to choose from.  All saddle shoes – which reminded me of bowling shoes.  I wasn’t happy with having to wear what I considered very dorky looking shoes.  On top of the dorky saddle shoes, I had to have inserts called “cookies” which would lift my foot at one side in order to straighten the problem.

         When my sister Kayla started walking, mom expressed her concern with her pigeon toes and explained my condition.  Kayla’s doctor prescribed a brace that attached to the shoes.  She would have to sleep with it during the night.  I always felt bad for her, but realized it would be better to deal with it as a baby (who’s not even going to remember)  rather than have to deal with the hurtful peer pressure at school. 

         When Jenna started walking, I noticed that her right foot turned.  I mentioned it to her doctor but her doctor dismissed it believing it was something she ‘d outgrow.  I then related my concerns that I had experienced myself and the solution we had used on Kayla.  I don’t know why I didn’t bother searching for a second opinion – probably my financial situation – or lack of it rather. 

         I guess after a while I had stopped noticing.  I had forgotten that she had once walked with her right foot turned in until just the other day.  She was wearing flip flops and though her right flip flop appeared to be moving straight ahead, her right foot hung over the left side.  I believe she has tripped over her own foot as I probably had in my youth.

         Jenna was told by her dentist that she had perfect teeth.  I don’t think I ever received the same compliment when I was her age.  I had an overbite among other problems.

I look through old photos, I have never seen a perfect mouth.  I don’t know how old I was when I had my accident on the monkey bars or exactly how it happened.  Must have let go or something.  My mouth came down hard over one of the bars.  I chipped my two front teeth.  My right tooth was chipped more noticeably than my left.  I was embarrassed by it and would smile with my mouth closed so as not to reveal my ugliness.

         My grandma Helen offered to pay for braces for my mouth.  Almost three years of humiliating pain.  Every time I would finally develop a toleration to having each tooth surrounded by medal , I would have to return to the orthodontist to have the braces tightened.

         In addition to the braces I was supposed to wear a dorky headgear – at least at night while I slept.  Oh, yes.  That was fun.

         I don’t know how much time had passed between my braces and capped teeth to porcelin repair.  My mouth does look better than it once did. Thank you mom, dad and grandma!

         When I had school picture taken, mom made me promise I would smile with my lips open – that way if my child ever needed braces I would be able to show him or her the picture to show that braces were not so bad.  Oh, right.  Each picture I had taken may send my child running and screaming.  Then again the braces today don’t seem to be so obvious as what was the only style back then.  Perhaps if Jenna did need braces she would be able to recognize that she would never look as horrible at mom did.