Warner Brothers Studio

 One of the coolest things Ben and I did on our trip to southern California was visit the Warner Brothers Studio.

We got to go on a VIP tour with about 8 other people and a crazy tour guide.  It rocked our socks off.

There was a museum full of costumes and props from movies and TV shows like Harry Potter, Batman and Friends that we couldn't take our camera because the sheer awesomeness couldn't be contained on our piddly little non-professional cameras.

But we took in quite a bit of awesome all over the lot.

The Walton's House

The Nerd Herd car from Chuck (NBC)

The exterior of the orphanage from Annie

The place is so huge it has their own fire department, hospital, hair salon, restaurants, water supply, gas station and zip code.  We got to drive around on a cart through streets and sets from shows, movies and commercials  beloved as Friends, Gilmore Girls (SQUEAL), The Waltons, Annie, Ellen, The Mentalist, Hart of Dixie and the list goes on.

Ben and the Batmobile

Ben and the Batman

Me, hanging with Harry Potter and Ron's flying car.

And now, the thing I was OVER THE TOP excited for.  The tour guide was so cool.  He told us if we wanted to be in the pictures of the places we've seen and love to just holler and he'd stop the tram and snap a shot.  I was off the tram more than on when we hit GILMORE GIRLS.  Cue the la la's, people.

That would be me.  On the porch of Rory and Lorelai's house.

Miss Patty's Dance Studio

Striking a pose in front of Miss Patty's dance studio.

In front of the gazebo in the town square.

Luke's Diner kind of.  They use the street for other shows so it's also part of Pretty Little Liars right now., 

I love this one. In the garage, in one episode, Michel stencils this.  Even though they use the garage for so many show, the stencil is still there.  If this makes me a crazy fan I do not care. 

But, quite possibly the most incredible thing we've done on any of our vacations, short of following Billy Joel across the country, was visiting the Friends set.

It was struck from it's original location and reconstructed in a less used sound stage.  It. Was. Unbelievable.  We got pictures of the set up close.  It was much smaller in person.

The coffee menu

In front of the set of Friends

In front of the couch

And then, don't tell anyone, we got to go ON the set of Friends.  We got to sit ON the couch.  We got to touch Phoebe's guitar.

Smelly cat, smelly cat.

Grinning like idiots

Disneyland!

A few months ago, Ben and I dropped Felix off at his grandparents house for a week and we went to Disneyland.  We're cool like that.  For his entire childhood we will be able to say, "Hey, remember that time you didn't go to Disneyland and we did?"  

We were a little excited.  Disneyland is awesome.  Especially when you are a grown up.  And it's decorated for CHRISTMAS.  Having never been to Disneyland during Christmas, I was sure that it could not get any more magical than it usually was.  

I was wrong.

Disneyland at Christmas is happiness on steroids.  It was incredible.  Beautiful and festive, lights and ornaments everywhere.  Even the staff seemed extra excited.  Granted, we went like, the DAY after they decorated, so, the "I can't believe I have to sing the Christmas parade song again." mentality hadn't set in yet.  

If Felix were a snowman...

Main Street Tree

Waiting for the parade to start

We had the amazing opportunity to visit one of the Disney secrets, Club 33.  It's the place Walt Disney created for his family and friends to hang out in the French Quarter of the park.  He died before it opened.  It was crazy cool.  There were artifacts and pictures of celebrities hanging out and eating.  Being in a place not everyone knows about or could get into while the park was open and rocking outside was awesome.  The food was incredible too.

First course - Seafood buffet

Entree.  I thought "a choice of three pastas" meant, you know, "one of each pastas" not "a huge serving of each".  SO GOOD.

I made myself absolutely sick on dessert.  Don't care.  Worth it.

But the BEST part of Club 33 was the, uh, ahem, escorts we saw with the gentleman in the corner.  They had high heels and short skirts and faces that said "I am SO too cool to be at Disneyland unless I'm at a table with four bottles of champagne that each cost more than my first car and also here, let me feed you the cherry from my drink with my mouth, over and over and over again so Christi was sure she saw what she saw."  Excellent.

Club 33 Door, just hanging out by Pirates entrance.

 We did all the rides, which meant we walked fast.  We walked from our (AWESOME) hotel, The Anabella which was across the street from the resort, through Downtown Disney, where we spent a ridiculous amount of cash on shirts, souvenirs and cookies shaped like Mickey's head.  We walked through the Disney hotels which blew my mind how pretty they were, into the park.  

Big pimpin' in like at Star Tours.  (Ben is the rebel spy, just FYI)

Ben as Chewie.

Helping defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg

I love water rides.  I love them so much that Ben goes on them with me, sometimes over and over, even though he inevitably gets the brunt of the water splashage and hates it.  

Run, Christi, just run.

I got SOAKED on Splash Mountain.  "I wanna sit in the front.  I wanna sit in the front."  Idiot.

Met the mouse.

 Everyone was like "We saw Mickey!"  They were totes wrong.  WE saw mickey.  He was at his house in ToonTown.  THAT's the real Mickey.  Don't be fooled.

Then, I ate his face.

Met my favorites, Chip and Dale. 

I was surprised and not at the same time about the lack of characters walking around.  We went the week before Thanksgiving to avoid the crowds and abundance of sticky children but the sightings were sparse as the trade off.  We saw Pooh and Tigger, Mereda from Brave, Goofy, Mickey and several princesses.  We saw EVERYONE at the parade but they frown on running out to hug them at that point.

Oh shit, here we go.

 When I went to Disneyland, and heck, Disneyworld last time I REFUSED to go on the Tower of Terror.  And for good reason, I found out.  That ride is bullshit.  We got to California Adventure when it opened and hightailed it for the tower.  If I was going to do it I needed to get in line first and not wait.  

You'll notice Ben is LOVING IT.  Me, not so much.

There was a girl in our elevator that FREE FALLS who was talking so much crap in line and being super obnoxious about how awesome she was. I really kind of hoped peed herself or dropped her churro later in the day. 

We had an incredible two days at Disney.  It was so much fun to be there with Ben, taking the park in the way we wanted, just kind of being kids again.  But, I have to admit, I did miss Felix sometimes.  There were families there with their babies who were younger than Felix and, while part of me wanted to ask them if they knew the three-month-old couldn't ride any of the rides, the other part of me wanted to chase them down and ask to hold their almost-as-cute-as-my baby.  

Me and the Trees

Felix at Eight Months

 

Sits by himself.
Went out in his first snow.
Pulls himself to standing.
First Christmas present.
Waves.
First Christmas eve and day.
Has ridiculous giggle fits.
Reaches for us.
Still has never worn pants.
Hates green beans.
Holds his bottle by himself.
First New Year's Eve.

We made it to midnight on New Year's Eve!

First Christmas present.

First Snow

Forget crawling.

"No!  No swing!"

Met his newest BFF

 Peace, I'm out.