The Bradley Family Blog: California Trip

OK, so one time we went on a trip. It was a good trip. It was a trip to California. There was a beach there. There were also Mickey and his pals there. We had fun. OK, love you, bye bye.

For those that have not have the good fortune to acquaint yourselves with the Bellamy family, here they are. Brian and Claudia Bellamy are the heads of the clan, with their children Natalie (my personal favorite), Hilary, Adam, and Zach, along with spouses for all the kids other than Zach (who is working on it) and a small gaggle of grandkids including the three monkeys we keep in our little Bradley zoo.

Here is the Bellamy fam minus the pater and mater familias.

And here's the whole clan all together in front of the Disney Castle. Did I mention we went to Mickey's House? Yeah, we were on vacation.

So, we flew out on Friday morning, that was an adventure mostly because we had to get up at dark o' clock to make sure we had all the kids ready to go in time to drive to the airport, park in the long term lot, take the bus to the terminal and lug our bags to the check-in. The flight went pretty well, largely due to the efforts of Grammy and Poppa to keep the munchkins entertained. When we got in we grabbed a minivan from the rental and headed South to Newport Beach where we had a beach house for a week.

The place was stellar, spacious, and stylish with a porch that was about six feet from the sand. We spent the first day making sure that the ocean still had the right salt content (you have to get it right in your nose to make sure that's right), jumping on all the beds, and checking to see if sand still tasted gritty when kids shake themselves off just upwind of you (yeah, still does). The second day passed pretty much the same way, but with donuts and a shopping trip to stock up on snacks and lunch stuff.

Day three was the start of the Disney adventure. For those of you who have taken kids to Disneyland, I don't need to tell you that it's a little bit of a different experience than going when you're a kid or a teenager or even an adult with no children. You don't get to play on the rolly coasters very much, and you end up spending a lot of time standing in line wondering why a child would care about getting an animal's autograph. I think the transition was a little rough on Natalie, who has historically been Mickey's biggest fan but is now taking a few years off to reconsider the relationship. Anyway, three days of Disney was about all we could take, but we did get a few good pictures.

Eve was really excited to wait in line for half an hour to see Tink, but then developed an acute fairy-phobia.

The teacups actually get more fun when you're the dad.

Dogs can sign autograph books. It's true, I saw him do it.

We waited a while for the parade, but then we decided we'd catch it later.

The girls like Minnie more than Mickey, I think.

Eve and her cousin Lu had some dress-up action going on.

James liked Lightning McQueen from Cars a lot. It was pretty much the only time he got near a Disney character, all the other ones scared him. Can't blame him, seven foot tall rodents are kinda spooky.

James did not win against Natalie at the Buzz ride. He also didn't beat me at the Woody ride.

Buzz had the misfortune to appear right after we got off of Star Tours, and since he looked like he was from space, Eve decided she didn't like him either.

The bus in to Disneyland from the parking lot got hit by a car. We were all fine, but we did have to sit there for a while. More time for taking pictures I guess.

So the last couple days of the vacation were spent much like the first couple, lots of fun in the sand and splashing on the edge of the water.

The kids pretty much spent the legal limit of time on the sand.

James especially like jumping across it.

Eve and Lu opted for a shared burial.

Laine got hers solo.

The beach house had a pool, which was lots of fun since it held still long enough for the kids to paddle around in it without getting knocked over and getting sand in their diaper.