WE'RE ALL EARS

Anyone who knows Ryan knows two things. A: he doesn't like to spend money, and B: he is more than a little obsessed with Buckethead. (Buckethead? Oh, you mean the weird guitarist who wears a KFC bucket on his head for all performances!) It was interesting to me a couple of months ago to learn than these two facets of Ryan's persona can actually work together, and I even discovered, to my excitement, that one can even counteract the other.
Ryan learned that Buckethead was performing a gig in Anaheim, and since that is only a 3 hour drive away for us, he was determined that he would be there. He deduced that I wasn't likely to agree to him taking off for the weekend, and he was smart enough to realise that attending a Buckethead concert was pretty much my worst nightmare. What to do? Luckily for Ryan, the man who wears a bucket on his head had picked the perfect location, and when Ryan proposed a trip to Disneyland, where he would simply sneak away at 8 pm for the gig, who could say no to such an offer?

We actually ended up going with some really fun friends, so we had someone to take pictures with all three of us in them, which seemed like a bit of a miracle. We had such a fun day. It was fun to see Charlotte's face on the rides. She shrieked and giggled on Pirates of the Caribbean, and just seemed to take everything in. Ryan was amazed by how much he enjoyed himself and is dying to go back again; he even got talking about season passes so I think that the Disney magic made him a little delirious.

We had to watch Charlotte like a hawk. There is a woman standing just ahead of us in the line with really long hair and Charlotte grabbed it and pulled it whenever we looked away.

Ryan wasn't overly thrilled about queueing to see Goofy, and when we got there Charlotte was a little mortified at first. She closed her eyes as tightly as she could and leaned as far back as she could whenever he leaned towards her. But, good old Goofy won her over with Peek-a-boo and she managed a smile.

The babies were wiped out by the time Ryan had to leave for the concert, so the rest of us headed back to the hotel just in time to watch the fireworks from the car.



The next morning we headed to Huntington Beach to make the most of the beautiful California sunshine. I was a little wary about being on the beach with those infamous California girls. I hear they're 'fine, fresh, fierce.' It ended up being much quieter than we were expecting though. I was excited to see real life Baywatch Huts right there on the shoreline; but when Ryan and his friend Jonathon got caught up in the undercurrent and the lifeguard ventured out to check on them, it wasn't all that their Baywatch dreams were made of. It was a little surreal to be there on the beach. Locals were playing volleyball in their Bikini's, and body boarding in the waves; it just seemed like at any moment a film Director might step out and shout "Cut!" It really was just like it looks in the movies.

Of course, for us the most exciting thing was seeing Charlotte's reactions to being at the seaside for the first time. She loved the sand. She grabbed a handful and sat touching it, clapping her hands together and feeling the tiny grains. Naturally, this exploration turned into attempts to eat the sand and by the time we were walking back to the car, her face was plastered in the stuff.


Next stop, the ocean. I think at first the sound of the waves crashing scared her a little, and Charlotte held on to Ryan with a death grip. She watched curiously as the water splashed up around her feet, and curiosity turned to smiles. She happily watched the waves move in and out, and shrieked as bigger waves splashed her. It was fun to see her responses to something so new. It's amazing to me how quickly babies learn and adjust. Something that was a little scary to her at first became like a new toy to her within just a few minutes.





It was so fun to spend time together as a family. Usually, Ryan has something upcoming at school; tests and quizzes to prepare for, practice for practical exams to make time for, presentations and group work to put together. But, for the weekend, it was just us, and fun, and it was awesome!