Happy Birthday, Jakey!

A word from the author:

I have been working on this post for almost a week. For some reason Blogger has taken on a life of it's own and will not use the spacing I want. I have worked on it and saved it and corrected it dozens of times and this is the final result. I'm sorry the spacing is so awful but I couldn't make it look any nicer. (stupid Blogger.)


Last Saturday my favorite little boy in the whole wide world, my nephew Jake, turned 4. We have been telling him for months that he would get to go to Disneyland for his birthday so imagine our disappointment when we woke up Saturday morning and discovered that it was raining. We hoped that the rain would burn off and we would have a lovely day. At the very least we figured that there wouldn't be many people there when the weather was so precarious.

Paul didn't want to go to Disneyland because this was the day that his "Best Buddies" program was having their event where they match up the handicapped students with their mentor/buddies. Paul's buddy, Kenny, wasn't going to be at the event so there was really no reason for Paul to go. Paul adores Kenny and couldn't stand the idea of not getting to see him. Tori had to really convince Paul that a day at Disneyland would be much more fun than eating $30.00 rubber chicken at the Cask & Cleaver. He remained unconvinced.

There were already approximately 8 billion people at Disneyland when we got there and it was still very blustery and misty. Fortunately it didn't take long for the rain to burn off and we were able to have a fabulous day. (I'm happy that the rain went away for all of the obvious reasons but I am especially happy that it wasn't raining when we left the park because just after we pulled in to the parking structure one of my windshield wipers flew off of my car leaving a bare metal bar to scrape across my windshield.)

Our day at Disneyland was extra special because we had family guest stars, cousin Matthew and cousin Katie and big brother Andrew. ( Andrew's childhood nick name is Boo Boo. When Jake was learning how to talk the best he could say was "Doo Doo"!)

Jake wore his Buzz Lightyear costume and Matthew wore his Woody costume and they looked as cute as buttons. Matthew was a good sport about this because he had a really bad cold and he doesn't like wearing costumes.



Right after we got there the kids got to participate in the Pumpkin Parade
I don't know why they look so dour...they really were having fun!

This is Hannah saying "OOOOOH" real scary like.

Jake, Bek and Paul marched around in the Pumpkin Parade. I think this would be Jake's first parade so it was good that Bek jumped in to guide him. I was very delighted to see Paul participate. He is usually shy in situations like this so to see him having fun by putting himself in the spot light was wonderful. (For those who don't read this blog regularly and don't know the facts, Paul is 21 years old and was diagnosed as such when he was 6 years old: "mild mental retardation with autistic tendencies and extreme ADHD." So, he's allowed to march in Pumpkin Parades.) When the parade was over Paul said, "Ok, let's go home. Take me to my "Best Buddies" party."

The very first ride we went on was the Matterhorn. I LOVE the Matterhorn! How we convinced Tori to go on it is beyond me. She is not a roller coaster fan at all, but here is proof that she actually rode on it:
She took this picture by holding the camera up, backward, over her head and hoped for the best. I think it looks like she planed and set up the shot. Anyone who's been to Disneyland knows that they don't hold the ride up so you can set up a nice picture. Paul wouldn't go on this ride with us so when we were finished with the ride and got our group back together Paul said, "Ok, let's go home."

We went to an autumn themed area where the kids got to meet Jesse & Woody from "Toy Story". My photos of the meeting between our Woody and their Woody didn't turn out very well. When ever a Disney character is out and about for picture taking purposes there is always a mob scene and more often than not even though you and your children have waited patiently in line for their turn some errant child will inevitably just horn in on your picture time and attach their self to the characters leg. Usually the parents of the errant child think that their child is much cuter and completely more important than your child and they wouldn't dream of telling their deary darling to get out of the picture and wait their turn. And it is because of such rudeness that there are no pictures of Woody.

Since this area was all dressed up for the holidays we took the opportunity to take some family pictures.

Big Brother and Little Brother


Hannah

ALL OF THE PENDELL GRANDCHILDREN PLUS ONE GREAT GRANDSON

Here are my two favorite photos of the day...
The Lamoofus brothers in their matching hats. The one up top is Jethro and down below is Buzz Bodine.



Here is where we reach the grievous personal injury portion of the day. After having gone on a couple of rip snorting roller coasters one would think that I was all warmed up and ready to tackle the merry-go-round, however...I chose to jump on a gorgeous caballo blanco, (that's "white horse" for all of you gringos), and when I flung my leg up over my trusty steed I could feel the searing pain of my unprepared muscles burning from the base of my spine all the way down to my toes. When the ride was over I gingerly got off of my one man equine crippling system and was very happy to see that I could still walk.

We headed out over to the Pirates of the Caribbean because the kids wanted to share a turkey leg for an afternoon snack. As we were standing in line I took the opportunity to tell everyone in our group that I was still suffering from hearing loss and ear pain from my stunt of standing too close to the speakers at the Todd Rundgren concert so if they said something to me and it appeared that I was ignoring them...it was more that I couldn't hear them and they needed to speak louder or get closer to me when they addressed me. A couple of minutes later Paul snuck up behind me and put his face right next to my ear and screamed, "BOO!" Grievous personal injury part 2. I stood there with my eyeballs spinning around in circles and yelled at Paul..."PAUL!! WHY DID YOU DO THAT??" It took a couple of minutes for me to regain my senses and we all kind of giggled about Paul's amazing sense of timing and irony. Just as I was starting to feel really bad about yelling at him he snuck up behind me again and said, "BOO!" I have to admit that this 2nd attack was much milder than the first attack but it still hurt. I can only imagine that he did it again on a much quieter basis because he was still hoping to get the "AHH...you scared me!!!", reaction that he didn't get the first time. Instead I yelled at him again and this time it made him cry. Now I felt like a total weenie. (A deaf weenie, but a weenie, nonetheless.) I tried to talk to Paul and was going to explain why it really wasn't a good idea to shout in any one's ears, but all Paul could tell me was, "It wasn't my fault, Auntie." I told him, "yeah, buddy, it really kind of was your fault...you were the one that did the yelling...", but these words fell upon autistic ears. I told him that it was ok and that I forgave him and then we were able to resume our family fun day in the land of Mickey. Of course now Paul really wanted to go to his "Best Buddies" party.

We wandered around the park and the two little ones fell asleep. As we approached Fantasy Land, eagle eye Katie spotted the Buzz Lightyear character. Jake was sound asleep. We rousted him from his stroller and put the rest of his costume on him. "Wake up, Jakey, don't you want to see Buzz Lightyear?" Poor Jakey could hardly hold his head up or focus his eyes and we were stuffing his limbs in to costume parts. By the time we got him up to Buzz...Buzz was walking away with many children in his wake. Apparently they are on a tight schedule and when it is time to move they move. They don't care that you just snatched your child from his nap in order to see Buzz. They have places to go. Period. The End. The Disney employee who was escorting Buzz told us that Buzz would be back out in about 45 minutes and if we were still there she'd make sure that we got to take pictures with Buzz.

Since we were right next to one of the less expensive eating establishments we decided to sit down and eat an early dinner. I had one slice of cheese pizza, a side salad, a diet coke and a banana and it cost me just under $20.00. How crazy is that? We all sat down to eat and as usual Paul immediately had to go to the bathroom. We were sitting close enough to the restroom that he was allowed to go by himself. Imagine his delight and our surprise when Paul came back to the table with his "Best Buddy", Kenny. Paul was so excited it was as though God had brought Kenny to Disneyland just as a special treat for Paul. (I have no idea how many thousands of people were at Disneyland but what are the odds of running into someone you know at a place that big?) Kenny looked kind of sheepish and we couldn't decide if it was because we had "caught" him doing something fun when he should have been at the "Best Buddies" banquet or if he was afraid that we were going to pawn Paul off on him and his girlfriend for the rest of the day. We let Kenny off the hook and let him and his girlfriend eat in peace. Or as much peace as one can have when Paul finds at least 3 excuses to go over to Kenny's table and talk to him.

After the amazing Kenny sighting we went back outside and the Buzz Lightyear character was out again. This time we held our ground and our Little Buzz got to meet Big Buzz and tell him, "To INFIBITY and beyond...!"

I am so thankful that Jake was awake for this meeting. It went much better than the previous attempt.

Since we were in fantasy land we got to ride on Space Mountain, (which ROCKS!), and then we got to shoot some aliens.
I was so happy to see Bek and Andrew with guns in their hands and not shooting each other or hitting each other with them.

With the help of his big brother Jake took a little flight around Fantasy
Land....

Apparently space flight is very serious business...

We ended our day at Disneyland in New Orleans Square. I must have taken 40 shots at this sight and this was as good as it got:
Uh, Jakey...look over HERE!



Apparently it's easier for the little ones to listen to a kind stranger who offered to snap our picture.

Bek and Andrew

Bek and cousin Emmy.


Thus ends our trip to Disneyland. I would love to say that we all went home and got to sleep for a week, but I would be telling a lie. Jakey's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese was the very next day. I'll write about that next time.