5 days left ...

yep, 5 days left until summer vacation ...

every year, Erica and I take the family down to the beach at San Clemente ... it's an hour from San Diego and an hour from Disneyland ... it's perfect ... the beach ... hot tubs ... margaritas (of course, virgin margaritas just in case my dad reads this blog, or anyone who struggles with hard core alcohol) ... and skunks ... our kids love skunks ... one year, one of the skunks attacked Ava ... so I stabbed it with a shovel ...

I can't wait to take the kids to Disneyland ... I get to 'relive' it all over again ... star tours and space mountain and the Tiki Tiki Room and the people mover ... Disneyland is the greatest place on earth, besides Maui and Switzerland and of course, the Bethel Prayer Chapel ...

my favorite ride has always been the Pirates of the Caribbean ... when I was a kid, we would go on the pirates ride again and again ... my dad and jeremy and benji and I ... just pretending we were pirates ...

in fact, I taught the pirate song to my daughters and we sing it at night ... yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me ... Ava and Adiah are excited to go on Pirates of the Caribbean, but I can tell they are a bit terrified ... they keep asking me, "are the pirates real?" ... to which I reply, "of course they're real! It's Disneyland" ... and I can see the excitement/terror in their eyes ...

so, I was thinking that I could play a little joke on them ... half way through the pirates ride, I'll begin screaming ... and I'll throw myself out of the boat into the water ... and I'll pretend that the Pirates are dragging me away to their ship ... and as the Pirates drag me away, I'll yell back to my daugthers, "take care of your mother and never forget how much I love you!" ...

disneyland story ...

this summer, we're taking our family to Disneyland ... we can't wait ... every night, the girls ask me questions about Disneyland ... about the Pirates of the Caribbean ... Tinkerbell flying from the mountain ... the Magical Disney Castle ... Disneyland is a drug and I'm addicted ...

when we were young, my father would take us 3 boys to Disneyland ... we'd wake up early and be the first ones in the park ... we'd wait on Main Street for the rope cutting where they let us into the park ... and everyone makes a mad dash for their favorite ride ...

for us, it's all about Star Tours ... and so we'd wait at the front of that line for an hour until that magical moment when they cut the rope ... I'm standing there with my father and Jeremy and Benji ... my heart pounding ...

and then it happens, someone cuts the rope and music plays ... and we're off ... a mad dash toward Fantasy Land ...

but this particular year, my brother Jeremy accidentally stepped on the back of my father's flip flop ... and snapped it right off his foot ... ripped the plastic right off the soul ... two seconds into our mad dash for Star Tours ...

my father was furious ... holding that flip flop in one hand ... dancing around ... shouting words I cannot repeat ... now Jeremy's crying ... everyone's running past us ... disaster ... definitely not the happiest place on earth ...

let's hear your Disneyland story ... I know everyone has one ...