This last weekend was awesome, in an, is this really my job?-kind of way.

We had an early morning castle shoot on Saturday that began at the Fairy Tale Suite at the Disneyland Hotel. Our start time was 3:45 A.M., so we stayed overnight at the DLH with Little T, Big T, and Grandma K. As we pulled up to the hotel, Little T said, “Minnie?” It freaked us out that he knows the words Minnie and Mickey. I can only guess that he learned it from daycare, but it’s crazy to think that Disney is such a big part of our culture that it’s a word little kids just know. 0_o

We got adjusted in our rooms and decided to go to Trader Sam’s for dinner and a cocktail. We ordered a fruit plate and a vegan salad and some sweet potato fries. Little T didn’t want anything to do with the fries. He can be such a health snob sometimes. 😉

After dinner, we walked around the hotel a bit. I was excited because I saw Hope, who told me they were helping with a friend’s wedding. Because of Wendy’s wedding, we saw a lot of friends walking around. Big T met up with us after having dinner with one of his buddies, and then we tried to go to sleep early so we wouldn’t be tired for the shoot.

I woke up around 2:00AM because my mind was excited and I couldn’t rest. I had made up a storyboard for this shoot and was going over it again and again in my head, thinking of the photos I wanted to try and capture and wondering what the Suite would look like. Around 3:00, I finally got up and met with my new intern, Marc. Big T met us downstairs with the equipment, and we made our way up to the Fairy Tale Suite. Across the hall from the Fairy Suite Suite was the Pirates Suite (!!!) I hope I get to see it someday.

When they opened the door to the Fairy Tale Suite, pixie dust music played and an animated Tinkerbell flew across the wall and lit up a beautiful crystal statue of the castle. No joke! 0_0 Fairy Tale Suite, indeed! We thought this was amazing, but after we had to go in and out of the room about 20 times in a row, the magic wore off just a little bit. 😉

Tara from Fairytale Hair and Makeup was there getting Tina ready. We talked about how early it was, and how amazing this was, and all three of us kept pinching ourselves. Tina was absolutely stunning, inside and out:

Around 6:45, we were taken over to the castle and had an hour to take photos. It was fun having the castle to ourselves. There are so many photos from the shoot, but I posted this on my facebook page because I had to pay a little tribute to the Walt Statue and the Disney gods. Heh heh.After the shoot, we were exhausted! Little T, Big T, and Grandma K sat by the pool while I packed things up and got ready to go home.

Little T had a giddy screaming match at the pool with another little boy. He was excited to meet someone who loves and appreciates the art of screaming. When it was finally time to drive home, I made it almost all the way there, but at the last turn to our house when I stopped at a stop sign, I closed my eyes for a second and fell asleep. Grandma K gave me a nudge and I was able to make it the rest of the way home. Of course, instead of going to sleep I wanted to see my photos from the shoot, so I attempted to look through them but fell asleep at the computer instead.

Around 6:00PM, we got ready to go and meet some friends at Disneyland again to see the Mad Tea Party. Little T read his favorite book on the tram. I just bought it from Amazon, it’s about *dun dun dun* basketball.

The first thing we did was go on the Little Mermaid with one of my best friend’s Jackie and her significant other (and Big T’s bro-mance partner), Randy:

Then we stopped by the new Ghirardelli Shop. An ice cream shop that doesn’t carry any soy ice cream. *grumbles*

Next stop was the Mad Tea Party. I wished I could have stayed longer, but I was exhausted and my foot was aching from the sprain. We stayed about 30 minutes before calling it a night. I did manage to grab some fun photos though:

All in all, a great day. And according to my body bugg, a busy one.

• I burned 2943 calories
• Walked 18229 steps
• Was active for 4 hours and 57 minutes

I think that calls for a soy milkshake.

I was in need of a mini break, so we took an overnight trip to the Highland Springs Resort in Cherry Valley. It’s kind of a cool place. The whole resort is surrounded by lavender fields and it smells amazing and relaxing. The resort itself was established in the late 1800’s. It’s pretty run down now, but it’s easy to walk by the old tennis courts and pool area and imagine what it was like in it’s prime. It’s a really neat place to wander around, I’ve never been anywhere like it.

But our favorite thing was the lavender fields and the large olive trees. We had a nice dinner at their restaurant and then wandered around as the sun set.

It seems like I’m hardly ever in pictures because I always have the camera, so Big T sat me down and took this picture of me.

Little T liked watching the dust go in the air. He was so dirty after this walk, but much fun was had! He’s such a little boy. :p

And here’s Little T and Big T the next morning playing hide and go seek. He’s such a ham.

Right after this picture he ran into the bathroom and locked himself inside and we had to call security to get him out. I was totally panicked about it, but when we got the door open, he looked at me and said “geez mom, I was just brushing my teeth”. I told him not to put hand soap on my toothbrush next time.

*side note: Sometimes I forget we’re a multi-cultural family, but I was reminded when the security guys opened the door and were surprised to see Little T in there, lol.

We had a great time! We went hiking the next morning and then drove home, making a lunch stop at the Loving Hut and the Last Drop Cafe on the way, because you can’t end a good trip without a vegan banana chocolate chip cookie. That’s the law.