embrace the magic

I am a couple of days from turning 30 and in honour of this momentous occasion I headed down to California with a few good friends. I had never been to Disneyland and it seemed like a good idea to sprinkle a little pixie dust on the big 3-0.

We had an amazing time. The first afternoon we had a little extra time between flights so we took a look at the map from the rental company and decided to head up to Santa Monica pier for a few hours.

After walking the beach and riding the Ferris Wheel we found a guy flooding the pier with bubbles. There were bubbles everywhere -- huge ones and tiny ones -- it was beautiful. We danced.

Here's Amanda and I on the Ferris Wheel. You could see miles up the beach from up there. I kept thinking California looks just like it does in movies -- right down to the lifeguard stations.

Once the rest of the group arrived we headed to Anaheim. We stayed at The Lemon Tree and I'd recommend it. Decent sized rooms, each with a kitchen, a pool and hot tub outside and beautiful gardens. Some time on that first day Coli declared that the whole trip should be my birthday and so I got to hear "Happy Birthday!" at least twice a day the whole time we were there. Who gets to have a 5 day birthday? How cool is that?

The next morning we headed to Disneyland. Here's Monica, Amanda, Kendra, Coli, Shannon and I just inside the gates of Disneyland. It was crazy to be somewhere that I have only ever seen in pictures. Right off the bat, there was the Mouse and the Disney brand of perfectionism that we'd find throughout the park. You can just about see the Mickey made of flowers in this photo. Where do you get black flowers to do that?

The first ride of the morning was "it's a small world" (and yes, it's written all in lower case and yes that bothers me a little). We sang. Loudly. Some of us even attempted some of the other languages. Hilarious. We went on all the rides. We wore the ears. There are more stories to come but for now I think this photo of Coli best sums up the trip:

Good times, good times. Happy Birthday.