THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!

We left 13 inches of snow falling for the crowds, characters and 80 degree weather of Disneyland. We thought we were so smart. Going the two days before UEA weekend actually started, and one day after Columbus day that California had off of school. We weren't really that smart. I've never seen Disneyland so crowded! We found out later that Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho all had their own UEA type vacations going on. We got to the front of most of the lines with Emma's wheelchair, so at least we didn't have to do a lot of waiting.
You can guess that the highlight of the trip for Aiden was seeing real live droids in Star Tours, and even riding in a real space cruiser. He went on Star Tours a total of four times, and loved every minute of it. In the starwars shop at the exit of the ride, he even made his own light saber which he is very proud of. He is now an offical JEDI after Bub surprised him with attending the jedi training academy. Darth Vader said he could "sense that the force was very strong" in Aiden. At the top of his list also was the Lego store in downtown Disney. He is tall enough now that he can go on most of the rides. That doesn't mean he actually enjoyed Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, or the Tower of Terror.
Emma's big thrill was of course meeting "LELLA!"(Cinderella) We were so excited to see the kids so excited at meeting their favorite characters. Bub and I had worked it out before hand that he would get to take Aiden on Star Tours, and I would get to take Emma to see Cinderella. It seemed fair. But, as luck would have it, Emma and I couldn't find the princesses while Bub and Aiden were on Star Tours. And when I took Aiden on Star Tours for his second time, Bub and Emma found the princesses straight away. Bub got to witness both events and I missed both of them. I'm still sad about that, and I'll never let Bub live it down. I was told that Aiden kept talking to R2 and C3PO saying: "Hi, It's me Aiden!" and that Emma "flipped out" when she saw the princesses. The first one she saw was Snow White who was so sweet with her and spent extra time talking with her. She said she wasn't supposed to, but she kissed Emma on the hand and left a red lipstick print on her hand. Emma was very proud of it and showed her hand to anyone who would look. Cinderella was very nice too. Later when we saw her again, she remembered Emma and called her by name. Emma gave kisses to every character she saw. All the characters were so good to both kids. The queen of hearts, surrounded by a crowd of people immediately threw her arms back to 'halt' everything and walked across the street to come to Emma and Aiden. (we had met her earlier that day) And everywhere we went all the workers said to Emma "Hi Princess." The kids had a wonderful time. Disney really knows how to make magic.
The next few days, we went down to San Diego. Bub and I each have sisters who live there. Bub's Mom stayed with his sister, and we stayed with mine. It was fascinating to visit my sister's house. The california wildfires last year passed through her neighborhood, and destroyed many of her neighbors houses. She had 5 out buildings (sheds/barns) on her property that were all destroyed. Luckily her house was built to be 'fire proof' with double paned windows and enclosed eves. There were scorch marks on her front doorstep where a pair of shoes had melted and black holes in parts of the wooden fence around the yard. It was amazing to hear her story of evacuating and using their 72 hour kits. They found that food is a most important item as all the stores and restaurants were closed down and evacuated too.
All in all, it was a great vacation. But next time, we won't go over UEA.