I took this past Monday off of work to go to
Disneyland with one of my longest-known (note I did not say oldest, cuz technically I'm four months older than her ;) friends Jenny Z, her hubby Ken and their "five-going-on-14-year-old" daughter Ruthie. It was a beautiful day to be in the park and was a lot of fun with a five-year-old, albeit exhausting ;)
Ruthie and I did two things I'd never done before: climbed to the top of
Tarzan's Treehouse and raced the new
Autopia... well, we tried to -- Jen and Ken kept stalling in front of us and since there is a strict "Do not bump the car in front of you" policy, we had to slow down. But it was still fun. Ruthie took her first trip through the holiday version of
It's A Small World, and then right after the fireworks, all the Z's got their first trip through
Storybook Land, one of my all time favorite rides dating back to when I was a little kid riding it for the first time. We also got the extra bonus of seeing a lot of sleeping ducks up close on the island in the middle ;)
, (also known as Harry, Ron and Hermione go camping in really dark and spooky woods for a reeeeeeally loooong time), is dark and kinda slow, as it's leading up to the multiple battles and ultimate climax at the end of the series. And the place they chose to end Part 1 -- while it made sense as a cliffhanger -- was really depressing. The end of Part 2 is much better :) Plus Part 2 has (at least in the book.... it better be in the film!) my favorite line of the whole book, when sweet, calm, motherly Mrs. Weasley goes all psycho protective mama-bear on Bellatrix, after Bellatrix barely misses killing Ginny with a spell, and then fights her to the death. Goooooo Mrs. Weasley! :)