maxpass 2.0 + rope drop = awesome

it had been awhile since we'd done rope drop with the old lady and her special friend, and so we decided to get up early on sunday morning and go for it.  we managed to get out of the house by 6:45, and we pulled into the mickey & friends parking lot about half an hour later.

they're in full swing on getting that extension of the structure done.  this will add so many more parking spaces for all of those star wars land fans coming next year.  yikes.

because the bean and i had had such a great day the last time using the new maxpass system, we decided to do it again for this trip.  this meant that we had space mountain fastpasses all booked without having to elbow our way through the crowds, and instead got to ride big thunder while the wait was still just 5 minutes.

on an impulse, we jumped into the very short line for this ride - after learning that the old lady's special friend had never been on it.  i mean, who doesn't want to ride on a train in the monkey cage?

and while we waited for the ride to start, i noticed something i've never seen before - there's a little pirate ship at the top of the queue area for the peter pan ride!

and from there it was a natural progression to the storybook land boat ride.

time for space mountain!

and then for the first snack of the day.

when we headed over to the castle for our obligatory selfie, we spied some folks who were definitely posing for the 'gram.  and so everyone had to do it too:

 okay okay, here's our actual castle selfie.

and a couple more, for good measure.

we headed over to indiana jones to use our fastpass, and all was well until the ride conked out on us.  it came to a screeching halt, and then a couple of seconds later the lights came on and a cast member was announcing that there were some technical difficulties (duh) and to sit tight and wait for further instructions.  womp womp.

we sat there for probably a good ten minutes before the announcement came that the ride would be back on at full speed, which it was...except that all the lights were still on.

luckily, they had us stay seated at the end and then let us go through the ride again, this time with no interruptions.

we headed over to california adventure after that to redeem our fastpass for the guardians of the galaxy ride, where the old lady caught sight of someone she recognized from "orange is the new black" - actress samira wiley and her wife, show writer lauren morelli.

everyone was hungry by then, so we hit up the food & wine festival.  this was the fried artichoke carbonara:

another pork belly banh mi because it's delicious:

this was something called "spiced oomph" on pita, with avocado hummus and garlic sauce.

the salmon poke with cucumber-lime salad was good, but spicy.

jalapeño-bacon mac & cheese:

and the watermelon lemonade was really tasty.

like our new ears?  mine are coco-inspired, while the bean's are the new style with interchangeable bows.

she swapped them out for this hat that they were handing out at the entrance.

we decided to head back to the disneyland side and ride the train around for the grand circle tour.  a few of us may or may not have taken a little catnap here.

at the new orleans square station, the train paused for a water fill-up to power that steam engine.

and the old lady spied chef graham elliott entering the park, accompanied by a plaid.

we got off in toontown, where we rode roger rabbit's car toon spin ride.  i don't think any of us had been on it in years.

on our way to grab some frozen yogurt we caught a glimpse of pluto coming out to say hello.

 "mickey and the magical map" is our favorite disney stage show.

and then it was time to go.

rope drop days are the best disney days, like ever.

celebrating easter with the girl scouts

our first year of being junior girl scouts is winding down to an end, which is kind of hard to believe.  actually, this whole school year has really flown by like crazy and it just seems to go faster and faster every year.  yikes.

because we only have use of our meeting space at the church on the first and third weekends of the month, we decided to take the girls on a fun outing for last week's meeting.  with easter coming up, a trip to a local craft venue called the sawdust factory seemed like a great idea.

the bean has been here a couple of times before - once for a field trip with summer camp and another for a birthday party.  it's one of those places where the kids get to make a fun craft using wood products and paint and accessories, and they always have a great time with activities like this.

their reserved tables were all set up with the supplies for their craft - an easter treat box with their choice of either a bunny or a chick.  there were samples of each so that the girls could see what their finished product might look like.

we were the first ones to arrive, so the bean grabbed an apron and we sat down to wait for everyone else.

we only had 7 out of our 9 girls there for this meeting, and we took a few group photos before getting down to business.  this is my favorite one...i'm sure you can guess why.

before they sat down to start painting, our hostess took us to the wood shop in an adjacent building to give the girls an overview of what they do, learn a little about different kinds of wood and see some of the equipment in action.

they cut out all of the pieces that are used in the workshop, and they're all neatly organized and labeled.

the birthday parties are done on this side of the room:

the girls were excited to get started on painting and decorating their boxes.  i love outings like this, because they're completely occupied and i can sit on my tired bum and relax a little.  heh.

i'd stopped at target before the meeting to grab some easter grass and a few candy-filled eggs for each basket, which our hostess happily filled the finished boxes with while the girls enjoyed a snack and chatted for a while.  look how cute they turned out:

and one more group photo with their creations was a requirement.

i think we only have about 3 or 4 meetings left before we break for the year, and then when we start scouting again next year we'll need to start getting serious.  it'll be our second and final year of junior level and we want to earn our bronze award.  i hope we can come up with a cool project to work on!