M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Any of you who have read any of my posts in the last year stand a good chance of having read a post about Disneyland. Why? Because we love it...and because we're well-connected :) Well, we still love it, but we aren't so well-connected anymore. So in May we said goodbye to Mickey & all his friends with the entire Richards clan. It was one heck of a farewell...First, I should warn you that there are 24 us (and counting). Give that a second to sink in. 12 adults and 12 children under 10. At Disneyland. We took up the better part of a bus on the way there and back......not to mention the hotel elevators. That's a whole lotta Richards! In hindsight, we probably should have elected one couple to take the stairs in the event that an elevator catastrophe occurred and wiped out the whole family, but the worst that happened was a little hand caught briefly in the door - with all that humanity in one small place it was bound to happen, right? In an effort to reduce the chaos (by a fraction) a representative from each of the 6 families attended nightly strategy sessions intending to map out the following day to maximize our Ride & Activity Time and minimize the Standing Around Debating What We Should Do Next Time. Buddy & I were considered the resident experts since we've been so many times recently (we're lucky, I know!) so as the days went on I actually wrote up schedules to follow as best we could to squeeze in all of the shows & parades we could and keep little ones entertained while big kids went on big kid rides. Initially, we had intended these "meetings" to double as fun grown-up time while children were in bed, but we all ended up so exhausted that we just planned, laughed a little bit and promptly went to bed.

With so many kids at different heights and with different thresholds for scariness, we did what we could as a clan for most of the week and eventually broke up into two groups: The Big Kids Group and The Little Kids Plus Big Kids Who Don't Necessarily Care for Some of the Big Kid Rides And That's Okay Group. Pirates was one we all enjoyed together - and took up an entire boat. What with my condition, I stuck with the smaller crowd and enjoyed classics such as Pirates, Dumbo, the Tea Cups and Small World multiple times. Some were thrilled at the prospect of riding Small World over and over again...
...others, not so much.
We did get to laugh and point at the older/taller crowd as they screamed their guts out on thrillers like California Screamin' and the Tower of Terror - that was fun.
One ride that no one could seem to get enough of was the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Taking different children over and over again worked out in Buddy's favour, helping him achieve...

...TOP 10 STATUS! The Big Man's initials were displayed on the leaderboard for everyone to see that day and he couldn't have been more excited. Upon seeing his enthusiasm, his older brother Shawn couldn't wait to overthrow him and dethroned him shortly afterward. Ah, older siblings :)It was so much fun to see all of our nieces and nephews having such a great time and seeing Disneyland for the first time. Of course, the smaller ones could only handle so much magic in one day...nothing like a good stroller nap.
Buddy & I got to meet more characters than we ever have before - mostly because he is vehemently opposed to wasting good ride time waiting in line to take a picture. But when you're with the kiddies, there's really no helping it. Besides, who could resist a picture with little ol' Eeyore? Certainly not us.
And a picture with Pooh was a dream come true! Next time you're talking to my Mum or Grandma, ask them how obsessed I was with this tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff. Before I was three I had the entire movie Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day memorized and wouldn't allow my poor Grandma (who had come all the way from across the sea to visit me) to turn it off a moment before its conclusion. Wasn't I a treat?

The Rescue Rangers were out and about for a while and took some time out of their busy mystery-solving schedules to take a picture with us.

Donald Duck was in great spirits when we crossed his path and sensed that I needed a hug. Yes, that's a hug - although I think I may have just caught him as he was falling over. We'll call it a hug. Buddy thought he was gettin' fresh with me, and promptly hopped in for a picture.

Donald was hilarious! He actually talked to us in the way that only Donald Duck can and even ventured a joke at Buddy's girth and the size of our brother-in-law Mat's feet (keeping in mind he's 6'6"). I'm more than disappointed that we didn't catch his tap dancing routine on his way out, but you'll have to take my word for it that it was a sight to see. Give that duck a raise!You may say to yourself, "I think I've seen pictures of Michelle with Minnie before!" and you'd be right. BUT, I've taken pictures with Minnie in her safari gear (read: Hawaiian shirt and grandma shorts) and a fancy Christmas dress. This being our last hurrah, I thought it a propos to snap one with classic Minnie in all her polka-dot glory. Mission accomplished. Some other characters we came across were less friendly. All six (miracle of miracles!) of our Jedi-age nephews were chosen by the force for Jedi training and actually got to battle Darth Vader and Darth Maul!
I thought Maul was pretty scary, but Ty didn't bat an eye crossing light sabers with the dude.
The Jedi Master opened the training by asking "Does anyone know why we duck?" The answer came back that you duck so as not to get your head cut off. Well, Zac took the instruction very seriously and successfully kept his cute little self intact.
His twin brother Caleb was equally impressive in his preventing Vader from discombobulating him. Their parents were so proud.Meanwhile, Uncle Brandon waged his own battle with the Sith Lord at the Lego Store.
Speaking of waging battles, the Battle of the Bulge took a nasty turn when the Richards men weighed in at the pier in California Adventure.
Perhaps it's because of our discovery at the hotel: On a less greasy note, we scored front seats at the Pixar Parade and got to interact with some of the Disney/Pixar characters along the way. My timing on this picture was unfortunate, catching Nemo's eyes rolling back into his head, but you get the idea of how close we got! The original Richards Kids visited Disneyland in 2000, and had the chance to recreate a picture taken on that trip - adding Shawn, who was away on a mission at the time.
The Next Generation takes it away in this one... By the way, we've spoken to Meg's parents about where she learned to pole dance like that, and the credit was given to her Auntie Michelle - who lives in Las Vegas, after all. What? You didn't think I was only working non-profit, did you? Someone has to earn the money somehow, and with Buddy registering "Blah" on the Guide to Romance scale, it certainly wasn't going to be him. It should be mentioned that Meg, our cute little pole dancer registered "Uncontrollable" on the same scale. Coincidence? I think not. Look out!As the parents of four, Tara & Eric don't get too many opportunities to be alone and romantic. Buddy made certain they didn't try to sneak in any alone time this trip. What a good brother. As exhausted as we all were by Friday, a group of us committed to staying until the park closed at midnight. And stay we did. You can say it - we're Hard Core.
Of course, this is what we looked like at 12:01!Since Buddy doesn't have any more Furry Februarys left at UNLV, he decided to extend a facial hair challenge to his brethren that week. It seems he isn't alone in his inability to grow what some would call an impressive beard. So, I gave them a little help...
In case it wasn't made clear in this post, WE LOVE DISNEY (and family)! Thank you so much Ma & Pa Richards for the magical trip. It was an absolute blast! We will miss our trips to Disneyland, but hope to return soon to pass the love on to the next generation.

♫ Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company. M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E! ♫