Who Wore it Best Nelson Addition.

Haha.  The thrift store zebra is doing the rounds.  Jia needs pj's for the school Christmas play.  She doesn't wear jammies anymore.  

Poppy and Eric

Mom and I tried to cut Poppy's nails earlier today and she was having none of that.  Even trying to bite.  So Eric held her this afternoon and she sat good as gold for him with a bit of admiration thrown in.  

Boys Finally Booked

I just got the invite to book vaccines for the boys.  The first day was Friday but we're hoping for a family photo that night.  The big girls are coming home. We don't have an actual plan for the photo part yet though. So I booked the boys for day 2.  Saturday morning.  Wish us luck.  They won't be thrilled about the jab part.  I see treats coming their way this weekend.  Haha.

Encanto

I took Jia, Luk and Kai to see this one yesterday. It's OK.  Silly story that is 1000% unrealistic. Very much done just like Coco.  It's pretty and the music is good.  Not scary.  All three kids were blasé about it.  No raving or complaining.  

This is what going to movie looks like with Kai. He is afraid of the dark, understandable since he has night blindness.  He yells all the way to his chair that he can't see. I suspect that Kai only comes for the popcorn and the pop.  We endure some pretty extreme weirdness from him in movie theaters in general and always have.  It definitely triggers him in the dark theater.  But this time he asked to go to this movie so we were basically there for just him. Right off Luk jostled for position to sit next to me.  Jia and I knew it was a mistake to have Kai out of arms reach but he's 10 and he 'wanted' to see this one.  Mistake.  I couldn't shush him quietly or tap his arm to get him to stop.  He was squeaking his chair by rocking.  Kicking the chair in front of him.  Talking.  A lot.  When Luk tried to stop him he yelled at Luk. And cried. And then the funny part, eating pretend popcorn after his was gone including slurping and smacking mouth noises.  Oy.  Also imaginary drinking by sucking air in the straw and squeaking the straw in and out of the cup.  Luk, Jia and I were shushing him like crazy.  Honestly, I don't know what would have been more annoying to the other theater guests, his antics or our shushing.  In the past he has reacted badly to me removing his kid pack box but I did it and he cried.  Then he sneezed a loud outrageous wet sneeze and then another.  The lady in front of him flinched.  I handed him a napkin and he cried again. He doesn't know how to blow his nose so then he snuffled for the last 10 minutes.  The first credit rolled and I had him up and running out of there.  It was pretty distressing for Jia, Luk and I.  For the next movie we're going to test the popcorn/pop theory and offer him that at home and see if he'd rather stay home with Eric and treats.  This feels a bit like telling on Kai.  However, I assure you Kai makes zero effort to hide his antics and could care less what anyone thinks.  It is a tiny glimpse into life with a special needs kid.  None of this story means we adore him any less.  We are in a constant state of trying to make Kai happy and comfortable.  I'm guessing the movies isn't his happiest of places.  Even when it's one he wants to see.

Never a dull moment. 

Oh, and yes, I'm aware Jia and I can't travel to China right now.  At 87% off the trip cost I'm just really hoping there are changes by next October that favor us going.  The trip includes the ability to change dates. Technically, Jia can travel back now as an ex national visiting home but it isn't open to me yet.  

Appreciation

I may have spent too much time dealing in logistics, time and the trip being too peopoly to really appreciate what we were getting to do.  It really was beautiful and a little bit magical.  

Today I've spent over two hours on the phone trying to cancel and move our cruise.  AGAIN.  The boys vaccinations just won't be done in time for our Feb cruise. Our schedule is now dictated by the big girls University calendar.  Which means Christmas and summer.  I hate the upcharge of Christmas travel. But I swallowed and did it.  Booked our first Christmas cruise for Dec 24/2022.  Nice credit down from the canceled cruise but still a hefty amount owing.  Can anyone tell me if a Christmas cruise is at least worth it?  If anyone wants to join us on a super overpriced cruise we'd love some company.  We're all disappointed about not getting our trip this winter.  

We got a surprise visit from Fei.  No reason.  She was just missing the dogs. 

A China trip.

This is crazy.  The black Friday price was too good to ignore.  Jia missed her homeland trip that was supposed to be two summers ago, thanks to covid.  This trip isn't adoption related but a homeland visit none the less.  I like the idea of being in a group.  I haven't even told Jia yet.  The two of us are booked to leave for 10 days from Seattle in Oct 2022.  We'll see what covid does to these plans. Scary and exciting all at once. The price seems too good to be true.  A real adventure.  Update. Jia is very excited.  Giant grin.  Apprehension about the flight.  Fair enough.  It's a brutal flight!

Travel Day

We ubered to LAX. Our driver was fun, we chatted the whole way.  He has tons of covid theories and tons of ways to insult Disney.  Mostly because it's too costly.  Anyways.  He dropped us at the covid testing site.  That was SUPER easy.  Then we wondered a bit before giving up on shuttles stopping and walked to our terminal.  Two farthest points of course. Only about a 15 minute walk after staff show you the shortcut. Security was a breeze for both of us. No FRISKING this time!! Then we waited forever to shuttle on a standing bus to our gate building.  We sat down for a couple minutes and they started loading our plane. We were there 3 full hours early for a domestic flight!  LAX is not quite ready for the return of traveller's.  Their Thanksgiving is the 25th so peeps are on the move.  We ate a late lunch in the Bellingham airport, filled out our arrivecan app and paid for our parking.  The visa card worked which was good because the machine didn't have a tap/Google Pay option.  

We scooted to the border and this was the line.  Should have been quick. Nope 85 minutes!  We sailed through once it was our turn. The app worked mostly great.  A wee problem with the app regarding Jia, it sees her as unvaccinated because she's 11. So we were being handed tests to do at home but I was able to show her federal code to prove vaccination but the border lady wasn't able to override the app. We'll be getting a call and apparently I just have to explain then.  

We made it to the ferry booth at 5:42 and drove right on the ferry.  It was a ferry miracle.  So we'll be home around 8:45.  The boys will be in bed.  I can't wait to cuddle those puppies.  Jia has really missed her Dad so she's annoyed with me about missing dogs.  

Overall we did pretty good.  The world of travel isn't what it was.  Lots and lots of confusion out there.  

Last Day Disney

There was no virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance today so we got up early to do rope drop.

It was a massive undertaking to deal with the crowd to get into the line. Dumb luck got us in the right place. The wait was 90 minutes. From Thunder Mountain, through Galaxies Edge and all the way to the Hungry Bear restaurant and back!!  At least we were constantly moving versus standing.  

Left over chocolate chip cookies for breakfast while in the line.

Once inside it gets interesting.

Lined up for inspection and interrogation by the First Order. 

Told not to move, face forward  hands at your side.  It's a bit scary having 1st order army giving orders with storm troopers everywhere. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to take photos and it would have been impossible through the ride part.  It's really impressive.  Totally worth the effort and wait. Kylo Ren was insisting we tell him where the rebel base was and I was yelling NEVER!  Haha.  So fun. Spoilers here. Finn rescued us! So that was a cool bit to the story. My children are lacking in story line history.  No where near enough Star Wars information and explaining Jessica Rabbit and 'Dip' to a kid that hasn't seen 'Who Framed Rodger Rabbit'. Sigh.

After the new ride we weren't too sure what to do.  Everything seemed boring afterwards.  We did the Snow White ride because it was refurbished to be less scary.  It's still way too scary for little kids. The imagineers need to do the ride with crying/screaming little kids to figure out the scary parts. 

We did the castle, made our wishes and wandered around.

Lunch, Star Tours, Space Mountain, Astro Blasters and finally Autotopia. Jia drove and controlled the gas pedal ;)

Frozen lemonade and a circle train tour to rest.  I could have napped on the train.  Lili texted while we were on the train suggesting I get the Google Pay app and use that for tap pay instead of the defunct card. Brilliant. 3 days too late but brilliant none the less. I set it up but haven't tried it yet. Then checked into our flight and got boarding passes. We were out of things to do and debated leaving the park but figured a bit of time in Toontown would be ok.

Some classic silliness.

Jia did the little roller coaster on her own.  Big step for our shy girl. Oh, and yesterday she did the single rider line for Cars and rode with strangers. We talked about travel being a good time to work on real life issues.  We set goals. To be by herself in public while I was in the bathroom, picking up food or poking in a store. To talk to strangers, so she had to order food, tell people we were a party of two and answer questions from people I was chatting with. To ride alone, which she did at cars and again today. The other goal was for her to ask a question to a stranger. We haven't met that one yet.

Goodbye Disney. It was fun.

Tomorrow we're off to LAX for covid tests and a flight to Bellingham.  If all goes well we should be home tomorrow night. 

California Adventure Park

The Web Slingers line up.  They dropped virtual ques yesterday.  Lucky us.  Two hours in blazing heat with minimal occasional shade breaks.  We talked about leaving the line many, many times.  Honestly Eric, Lili and Luk like Marvel but for Jia and I we would have skipped this but Lili's horror at that idea spurred us on. I don't know if the Avengers Campus is well done or not.  I have no point of reference. Both Jia and I will tell you that even without Spider-Man love, the ride is spectacular.  It's done in Toy Story Mania fashion for the actual ride.  The cool part is that Peter Parker accidentally gets spider bots stuck on replica mode and he needs help destroying them.  We're supposed to be in there at an open house but we get recruited to help because Peter doesn't want to call Tony Stark? So...in our little cart we are whipped around to new spots to do battle with our web slinging.  Yes.  Lili and Eric and Luk...you actually are slinging webs and destroying bots.  It's extremely exhilarating and super fun to throw your webs out.  I had a hard time remembering to put my hands in the Spider-Man position.  Jia had it down immediately.  Haha.  She also got a way higher score than me and complained her arms were hurting.  So she understood the assignment ;) 

Did I mention it was hot?  Yikes.  8:30 am.  It's supposed to be cool in the mornings. We have no clue what the actual temperatures are.  Some where around melting I imagine.  I had Nutter Butters in my purse for snacks today but they melted and I chucked them.

Spider-Man pops up now and again. People go nuts.  Jia posed for me because there was an inch of shade there.  

No idea what this is but it has it's own courtyard and people were lining up to get pictures.  I think something to do with Eternals.

Picture for Eric.

Picture for Lili.  She's disappointed in our lack of Disney food consumption.  So we purposely tried Pym's kitchen. Antman? Reviews online weren't great but we enjoyed our kids meals.  

Another new try. Mango slices with lime and Tanjin. I was too scared to try but Jia enjoyed and no hives. So she can eat mango now. I usually only let her have a taste. But another good parenting decision here to let her try when I have no Benedryl or car.  Sigh.  I've been attempting to let her lead where possible.

On our way to Grizzly River Run Jia spotted Nick Wild and ran off to see him.  I fumbled for my camera and got there in time to catch him complimenting her outfit. Ok, I was thinking getting this off her would be hard but now likely downright impossible.  Eric...no clue how you'll ever get the white shirt clean this time.  She has layed and sat on every surface here she can.  Her feet are killing her. I was evil for suggesting proper runners for the trip because Vans are the 'only' sneakers.  But they're flat and hard.  Eric...her Vans will need your stain removal super powers after these few days.

Then we found Big Al. I was thrilled. Then a long story ensued to Jia about the Country Bears Jamboree.  

Then we made a tactical error. We had to decide whether to head to the pier for Incredicoaster and Toy Story Mania or Grizzly River. It was just sooo hot so we decided getting a little wet would be ok. I didn't take the wet pictures.  It was all a little overwhelming.  We stood and watched people coming off not very wet. To the point that I thought they must have changed the ride. Ya.  Not the case.  The very first turn sent a wave over Jia that drenched her. 7 of us watched her in shock. The water was cold and she was seriously drenched. Then the next wave came and we both got it.  Head to toe.  My new runners were drenched.  Now the funny part was Jia said her mask was wet but when we all looked at her we realized the water was rolling around in her mask, she dumped it out and we all howled laughing, then she lifted her feet and water dumped out of her shoes!  We decided to end our day. It's hard to recover from that level of soaking. Fear of a chill once dark hit was very real for me. We did Soarin while we waited for our dinner on the mobile order.

Dinner at the Cozy Cone.

Mac and cheese in a cone. Jia says the creator is genius.  They were really good. Online order only.  

We were back in our room by 5:30. Wet cold clothing off.  So far no chill. We did miss a lot of the park.  We've never needed more than one day for the park before. Tomorrow is our last day. Back to Disneyland. Que dropped for the new Star Wars experience.  So we're planning to head straight there and hope for the best.