Wow, what a whirlwind of a week it’s been. I’m having a hard time winding down and getting back into work mode, so I thought I’d update here about our adventures.

It started last Thursday, when I woke up at 3:00am to photograph a Nightmare Before Christmas Wedding. I didn’t need to wake up until 4:00, but I woke up early and began to mentally plan things out, and couldn’t get back to sleep. When I made it to the wedding, the bride was incredibly thoughtful and friendly. It was one of those weddings where I was sad when it was over. I think we had a lot in common with the Nightmare theme:

I was tired from waking up so early, but fortunately I had called in my assistant Marc to help, because I knew we were in for a long day. I wish I could have gotten a picture of us asleep in the lobby of the Grand Californian at 1:00 in the morning~but more on that later…:p

When the wedding was over, we checked into the room for my family at the Grand Californian. We only had a few hours before our next event was scheduled to begin, so we snacked and had dinner and looked through our photos. At the next wedding, we were actually photographing for the venue, so we weren’t technically there for the couple and needed to get photos of the decor. It was a fun change of pace. While we were getting our equipment ready and waiting, I was calling my family who was on there way to the hotel for our own family vacation. We weren’t going to see each other until the next morning, so I wanted to make sure everything was set up for them to arrive.

Big T and Little T met up with us at the hotel, and we handed Little T off to our friend Jackie who was going to babysit for us until our family got there. Jackie and Little T walked around Downtown Disney and went to dinner while they waited for everyone to arrive. Big T, Marc, and I went over to the wedding and began taking photos of everything. I can’t even begin to tell you how beautiful this wedding was! Hopefully their photog posts some photos soon. 🙂

There was one point where we had a three hour break, before we had to go back at 1:00am for more photos. The three of us snuck back into the hotel room where my family was sleeping, grabbed my computer, and started downloading the photos in the lobby. Big T was done for the night, so he went to sleep a little more, while Marc and I sat in the lobby. We were exhausted and terrible at staying awake. Fortunately, we were both dozing off at different times, so one of us was always awake and ready to shake the other person into coherency.

We went back to the wedding around 1:00am, and finished up around 2:30. I waved goodbye to a tired Marc and went back to the hotel where I slept for about 3 and a half hours. I woke up to what my husband called, the opening scene from Home Alone. The babies were running and jumping and excited to be together, and everyone else was scrambling to get ready for Magic Morning. It was probably the best trip to Disneyland I’ve ever had, even if I was a walking zombie for it. Here’s a few photos:

Later that night, we all drove to Oak Glen to stay at Serendipity Ranch Bed and Breakfast. We were greeted at 10:00PM by Nina, who was kind enough to show us where the coffee, tea, and hot chocolate was located. It was a nice end to a long day. And yes, I finally got some sleep!

The next day, we woke up to a delicious breakfast that Nina had made, and then helped the babies feed the animals on the farm and the fish in the pond. After this, we drove over to Los Rios Farm to pick apples.

These two couldn’t stop eating apples:

Once we finished picking apples, we went to have lunch at Riley’s Farm. It was really crowded, but luckily we found a table to relax at while a few unlucky adults (ahem, as in-me) stood in line to get food. Then we went back to the ranch to give the babies a nap, while the rest of us sat on the porch and relaxed with wine and crackers.

Once the kiddos woke up, we got ready to go see The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Riley’s Farm.

We took hay rides, where we rode by the Sleepy Hollow Grave Yard:

And saw Ichabob being chased around the woods:

Then we listened to music and had dinner, and watched the play.

When it was time for the party scene, the room was cleared and we all danced and played games and participated in contests. Little T got a special kick out of the seed spitting contest. My favorite game though, was this one:

Heh heh.

The night ended by watching the headless horseman chase Ichabob down the road with a pumpkin that was on fire. It was an amazing way to end the night. The next morning, we had pumpkin waffles and cinnamon rolls that were made by Nina, then said our goodbyes and stopped to by some apple cider on the way out. Little T was crying for the rest of the day because he was sad it was over. I couldn’t really blame him, it was a great vacation.