Thursday was my birthday and I now 38 years old.  Getting up there, aren't I?  ;-)

I had a relaxing mid-week celebration.  Ben worked from home so I could have "time off work."  He made the kids their meals and took them to school and parent-teacher conferences.   First we opened presents; I got many thoughtful things.  Ben got me this tortilla blanket that has become a family favorite.  (And a Le Creuset pot and Kate Spade earrings, and many other lovely things.)

I had a massage at a nearby spa, followed by a lunch date with Ben at Hops and Pie.  Love that place.  Every meal I've had there is delicious.

Mom and Dad were planning to come up this weekend, but alas, another snowstorm has blown through.  They made the safe and reasonable choice to stay home.

My penpal Steffi also had her birthday this month.  I asked her what sort of cake she had, and she said she made a "Donauwelle" cake.  Despite my years watching Food Network and GBBO and collecting cookbooks, I have never heard of this cake that she claims is very popular in her country.  Intrigued, she linked me a recipe and I made my own!

Delicious!  I found "Morello cherries" imported from Germany at Trader Joe's (Thanks, Amanda!) that looked like the ones I saw used by German youtubers making the cake.  My chocolate layer is not very dark, and the sponge was a bit dry.  Maybe I overbaked it or added too much flour (for high altitude).  But Ben and my friends, who came to share, all loved it.  Unlike American cakes, it was only mildly sweet.  I loved the pudding buttercream layer.  I'll have to try this one again someday.  I sent a picture to Steffi to see if she approves :-)

After a fairly dry January, we had a string of snowstorms blow through Colorado.  One week had a delayed start Tuesday and then a snow day Friday.  The kids gleefully got up earlier than usual to watch Star Wars in their jammies.

Later that day we put them to work, helping Ben shovel out the walkways.  I think Ben shoveled 4 times on Friday - the snow just kept coming!

Saturday was warm, helping to thaw out the ice a bit.  The Sunday we had another storm big enough to cancel church and my Oscars party.

We had a few more flurries during this past week, but not too much more.  Here's the kids in the yard on Valentine's Day showing off the accumulation that came up to their knees.

I fulfilled my last room parent party duty by organizing and hosting the 4th grade Valentine's party on Thursday, Friday the 14th being a teacher work-day. Tomorrow is also off school for President's Day.   Between this four day weekend, the previous week's snow days, and extra volunteer time in the school, I'm pretty sick of my kids.  Love em to bits, but man, can't wait for them to go away.

Sadly, Jack has been fighting a cold all weekend.  He's got a productive cough and had a fever of 101 this afternoon.  Feeling better tonight after some ibuprofen and a hot bath.  I hope after his day off tomorrow he's ready to go back to school on Tuesday.

As I said earlier, part of our welcome package included a free lanyard and starter pin.  Jack was IN.

He proudly wore his swag, but quickly brewed some jealousy when he saw the many other park goers with their weighty bands of enamel proudly on display.  We discussed that if he wanted to forgo other souvenirs, he could focus on collecting pins from his most favorite attractions.  I think it was a great choice for him.  He carefully weighed whether he "earned" or loved a ride enough to merit a pin.  Then he hunted the gift shops to find the best ones.  It was funny that he ended up picking pins for all the attractions we rode twice!  Didn't do that on purpose, but I think it shows his good judgement.  He also got a t-shirt :-)

Sam was, predictably, into the stuffies. This shop in Galaxy's Edge had an animatronic of this cat-like creature.  He wanted its toy version, but decided it wasn't cuddly enough.

He picked a mini porg instead.  They came with a magnetic base so he can perch on your shoulder.

But the connection was a bit weak, so he cradled the porg in his hoodie for most of the day.

Sam also picked out a big stuffy of Stitch on that last day of shopping.  I don't have a picture, but he'll probably come visit you with Sam's next trip.  He's already been to school on an approved toy day.

I decided early on that I wanted old-fashioned paper cut silhouettes of the boys for my souvenir.

The kids patiently posed.  These wonderful ladies were a hoot and snipped them up in a jiffy!

 

The kids were adamant that they do NOT care about characters.  They said they were a little creepy even.  So I didn't reserve a character dining meal or plan to attend any meet-and-greets.  I still enthusiastically pointed out all the characters we passed by (Sleeping Beauty! Goofy! Mickey! Alice and the Mad Hatter! Fairy Godmother! Zootopia dudes I couldn't remember their names!)

We were in Galaxy's Edge and crossed paths with Chewie.  He stopped his entourage to tell Ben how great his Ramen Kitty T-shirt looked ("very yummy" he mimed!).

Then he noticed Ben's hat based on Boba Fett and delivered the greatest stink-eye.

 

The next day we were had triumphantly finished the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Break-out ride, high on adrenaline and accomplishment.  When we exited the gift shop we walked straight into a Groot meet-and-greet.  Ignoring the previous ban, I pulled the kids into line with me.

Groot admired the tree on Jack's hat.  I also pointed out his face on my t-shirt and he made the most delightful reaction face, pulling his human wrangler over to point out his lovely visage on my shirt (I wish I had pictures of that!).

I couldn't persuade the kids to wait in lines to meet anyone else as we walked by the future Marvel Campus.  Spider-man had the longest line.  I got a cheater pic with Cap.

On the third day, we ran into our hotel mascots, Chip and Dale, at the Wilderness Challenge trail.  To my delight, Ben encouraged Sam to say hi and got some pictures with Dale.

Chip obliged me with a selfie from afar.

 

Amanda was really sweet to say I looked good in these photos.  So nice to hear!  However I feel obligated to share this picture that Ben took shortly after we arrived:

Still sick, cold, exhausted, and craving our room to be ready, with the kids tussling in the background.  Shows how much your outward appearance expresses your inner feelings.  Shows how truly happy I was later on.

We ate so much good food on this trip!  Here’s some pics of us enjoying the SoCal theme park treats. This isn’t ALL the food we ate, but a lot of it.

Full meals:

Not pictured, the Alien Pizza buffet in Tomorrowland and Ronto Wraps in Galaxy’s Edge :-)

Ice Cream (and dairy free for me!)

Gross tongues after.

 

Walking with Treats:

 

CHURROS CHURROS CHURROS:

 

As I said before, at Disneyland Resort you have the option to purchase Maxpass. I think it was completely worth it for the ride Fastpass access alone.  So much easier using the app rather than paper kiosks or standby lines only.  Included with the cost of Maxpass are all the photos taken by Disney photographers.  That means ride photos, scenic stations around the park, and character meet and greets.

We only met one character officially (Groot) and I only stopped at the park photographers if there wasn't a line.  Still, I feel like we got a great collection of photos with all four of us in them!  I would definitely get Maxpass again.

Here's the photos from the rides:

(there aren't many - we did all the available ride photos except the Incredicoaster)

(I cropped in a close-up for each, if you want to scroll down for more detail)

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Meeting Groot!

Photos around the park:

When we last visited Disneyland I declared it my dream to stay at the Grand Californian Hotel one day.  Not only is it a beautiful luxury hotel with all the Disney theming and service you expect, but it's as close as you can get to staying IN the parks.

The Grand Californian Hotel is a the ONLY hotel that actually touches the theme parks.  All other hotels in both California and Florida require a shuttle/bus/train/skyliner/ferry or a walk across streets to enter the theme parks.  But this GCH is has its own security check point into Downtown Disney, which leads directly to the plaza for DL and DCA parks.  The GCH also has a private security AND ticketing entrance into DCA.  You really can't stay any closer to the action.

So when Ben and I dreamed up this trip in the fall, we decided to take advantage of the off-season room rates and reach for the sky.  We booked a premium view room at the GCH instead of our default choice of the nearest budget Marriott.

We were informed at check-in that we had a pool-view room, and that no theme-park views were available.  I was bummed, since I had put in a special request for a park view.  However, I was delighted that we could clearly see the tops of Pixar Pier from our balcony.  Good enough for me!

This hotel delivered.  Spacious and lovely with hidden Chip and Dale chipmunks all over.  The lobby had a roaring fire and cartoons and a live pianist all day long.  The room had lots of clever design features to make it comfortable.  Friendly housekeeping gave us extra pillows and blankets and turn-down service with chocolates on the bed.

Ben took the kids swimming Sunday after we got our room.  You can see them from our balcony (Ben is in green and red).  He had to drag them out after an hour when they couldn't talk without chattering teeth.

But really, the access to the parks was amazing.  Only on Tuesday, when every hotel guest was trying to get into the Extra Magic Morning hour at DL, did we have to wait maybe 15 minutes to get through security.  Every other time we got out with practically no wait. Here, I took a screen shot of the park map and circled our room.

And here Ben is pointing it out from inside the Wilderness Trail Challenge course in DCA.

I was so happy with the location, I even took a video of the walk from room-to-park on our last day, when I made a quick stop in the room midday.

https://youtu.be/MYEXcFAEViw

And after I passed the security and ticket turnstiles I was here: Right?!  Right?!