Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, Part the Boookie

(Dictated by Boookie, typed by a faithful and long-suffering secretary.)

 

After Daddy finished a 1,000 page report at work, the meerkat-hobbit family decided to take some time off and go on vacation to California and stay there for a week.  The first part was interesting.  We went to Seatac Airport and got on a Southwest aircraft.  We were going to fly to Ontario airport, then go to Huntington Beach to stay there.  (Once we stopped in Oakland but didn't get off the plane.)  When we got to Ontario, we rented a very high tech minivan and went to Huntington Beach.  It was an hour drive so it was quite hilarious once everyone had fallen asleep except Mommy, Daddy and me.  We rented a room at the Regency Inn. 

 

The first morning was a "down day" after the long trip to Huntington Beach.  The breakfast was amazing because they had almost the opposite of the healthy breakfast we usually have; everything from cold cereal to pancakes that came out of a completely complicated pancake machine.  The "down days" throughout the rest of the vacation were quite exciting because we always managed to get some time in the pool.

 

The next day was at Disneyland.  Below is a picture of General Boookie next to his cavalry cannon!  (I said to Daddy, "Go ahead and put the pictures in the order that they were taken."  And, as you know, this is not at the very beginning of Disneyland, but it is the earliest picture we have of me in Disneyland.  P.S. I'm not really like Ela or Seimi - I don't really include pictures of the others unless I have to get the good parts out of it.)

And here is the first part from we went to Frontierland.  It's quite 19th century, from wooden ships to Indiana Jones.  Here is a picture of me at the Frontierland shooting range.  I think it's pretty cool that they're like Sharps rifles.

 

Here is me enjoying my new bolt action rifle and my new Indiana Jones hat.  Though, before, on the first day of Disneyland - (which, I forgot to mention, we went two times) - I had gotten my first gun, a Colt Navy revolver with holster.  By the time we got back from vacation, pretty much all I did was play Indiana Jones with my Legos and decide to be him for Halloween.

Here is me and the other two bolt-action-sniping on fake moose on the island.

Here is me and the other two with our discovered treasure.  We are not really pirates, we are just treasure hunters.

This picture and the one above are both on an island in Frontierland.  Here is me climbing on what happens to be the inside of a cannibal cage.

Anchors Aweigh!  Here is a picture of me on the Frontierland ship "Columbia." The ship was amazing because later my mom mentioned that it actually runs on tracks in the water.  Another reason why it was so awesome is because it had cannons, and you could go below deck.

Here is a picture of me and Ela on the helm of the "Columbia."

 Here is the second time that we went to the Frontierland shooting range.

Here is me getting ready for the Autopia driver's test through which I earned my Autopia driver's license.

Here is me at the wheel with Ela on what was hoped to be our camouflage, jeep-like Autopia car.

And here is the fourth and youngest child in the family, who is nicknamed Eejee the Monkey/Meerkat little baby.  He is enjoying the fun by one of his most hypnotizing stares - it's so cute it will hypnotize you!

Here the last big part in Disneyland for the rest of our vacation.  Here is the Iron Man mansion and all his suits.

Here's me as the first-born next to the Mark I suit.

Here is another one of the suits, which we have clearly forgotten which Mark it is. 

 Here is me next to one of the Iron Man suits with my Iron Man laser gloves pointed at the camera.

Here was one of the most exciting parts of Disneyland - going to get a picture with Captain America!  Here is the suit from his first mission.

 And here are the four of us who got a picture with Captain America, the Steve Rogers!

We have skipped ahead to the last big visit of our vacation, going to Legoland.  Here are me and Ela on what happens to be some safari jeep cruise in our giraffe-spotted jeep.

This is what happens to be me being eaten by a confounded lion-ish African beast.

Here is me on the ride that I went on when I was six, last time I went to either Legoland or California.

Here is me, Indiana Jones-ishly relaxing in California sun, with my Indiana Jones hat pulled down over my eyes, sipping root beer at the pizza and pasta restaurant in Legoland.

Here is us on the Lego Hydronaut speedboat ride.

Here is the last part of the last visit, at the Legoland water playground.

Here are me and Daddy, soaked after I went down a wet waterslide.

Here are some views of the water cannons at the water playground.

And here is Boookie, soaked and exhausted at the water playground. 

Here is me shaking hands with Han Solo, whose character also plays Indiana Jones.

Here, you can have your hat back!

As we were exiting Miniland, we happened to come upon what happened to be a remote-controlled Lego R2-D2.

Here is the last Lego shot in Legoland, with us and Darth Vader.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are coming to the end of our tour of me in California (maybe with some of my family).  Here is a picture of all the guns that we bought: 2 bolt-action rifles, 2 black powder pistols, and 1 Colt Navy revolver with holster.  As well as our TSA inspection card.

The End.

Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, Part the Ela

I was just thinking about being a princess.  ::giggle::  Being up next to the castle made me feel like a princess.  If this was my castle, I would even keep it the same color.  I would live up in the very top, where I have the best view.



This isn't actually a pirate flag.  It's stone.  And it's not real money, either, or else people would take it out.  If I could make this real, I would make the treasure real so I could take it.  I'm not posing as anything, just a girl with a gun who's been on a hunt.  Hunting treasure, of course.  You know how voyages are, you have to bring weapons. 

This is at Disneyland.  I don't remember what part.  I'm just being me, not imagining anything.  What else would I be?  I'm just shooting objects.  I actually didn't get many hits, but that's OK, because they're not real guns or real targets. 

Same as the first picture.  I'm standing with Merida.  I was nervous waiting for the picture, but I think I look like Merida in the picture, with my hair and my eyes and my smile.  Seimi is just shy.  Whenever he's introduced to people, he just acts shy and tries to be cute.  He was laying down and crawling right before this picture.

Actually, I don't know why I got this picture.  I liked this picture, but I don't know why I got it.  Jasmine was nice, mostly because she works there and it's her job to be nice.  Seimi was being weird again.  I still feel like a princess in this picture. 

I like this picture because it's pink and it's a castle.  I think my bedroom would actually be in the room with the tall windows.  We actually went inside that part, and we could see parts of the story.

 

This is me making a wish, just as the well turned pink because God made it pink for me.  It was blue right before this picture.  I was wishing all my life would be a fairy tale, but actually, it already is.

This is just me being at Disneyland.  Kind of being fairy tale-ish.  I don't mean "ish," just being fairy tale. 

Me posing as nature in the Pixie Forest.  I'm sitting on a sunflower.  Wouldn't it be funny if there was a wedding and the bluebells were actual bells?  But only if you got married in the Pixie Forest.  I would love to marry somebody with the last name of Pink, because then I could be Ela Pink.

 I don't know why I'm not looking at the camera.  A pink flower probably caught my attention.

I like this picture because I like his wide eyes and fat baby cheeks.

This is at Legoland.  We didn't even have to steer because it was on tracks.  We just sat back and steered with our feet.

This is me waving at Daddy.  This is very similar to Alice's Magic Teacup ride.  We got a red color because Jesus picked it for me because it's closest to pink.  Last time we went to Legoland I was too short to ride this.  I asked Daddy if we could go away and not watch Boookie ride because it made me too sad.

I'm not sure why these rides aren't more Lego-ish.  Me having fun. 

This is me having fun at the pool.  I don't know why I slid down the waterslide so many times.  I think it was because I wished there was a pool and this was the deepest water.  Probably at least 13 times.  I like how I'm not smiling, like with my teeth, but I'm just having fun.

And here I'm being Princess Leia, giving the message to R2D2.

Here's me giving the message to R2D2 the last time we were at Legoland, when I was 4.

Legoland was mostly boy-ish.

Disneyland is mostly known for its princesses because it's a romantic club.

 

Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, Part the Seimi

Following are Seimi's highlights from the adventure (commentary in italics):

 

You mean in the airport?  The big planes.  Big planes.  The large planes, you know.  Yeah, yeah, the large planes.

Seimi's brother and sister played on the iPad during the flight, but Seimi just wanted to read the great comic book in the seatback pocket and decide which boat he would get in when the plane crashed (octagonal boat on the left side of the front exit, in case you wondered).  He also diligently studied the safety card and told the Mayor he would tell everyone when the number changed from 737.

Following are Seimi's highlights.  The most important was this Baby Eejee one because "he's so cute!"

Shooting is the trains.  See, I mean bottles.  I like shooting the bottles.  Boookie always says, "What should we shoot next?"  Then we always need to shoot the train that goes, "Noo-en! noo-en!"

I got a gun at Disneyland.  Two guns!  Now I have two guns!

Where is this place?

(Mayor's response: Frontierland, in Disneyland, in California)

Oh man, it needs to be in Washington!

I like the roofs on the castle.  I wanted to make sure we had a picture of the castle.

This is the wishing well by the castle.  I wished I could see a castle, and I did!

 

 Window.  And a kind of door thing.  I like this picture because it's so weird.

 Is that only one of the Iron Man suits?  There were a whole bunch of Iron Man suits.

And this is all of us with Captain America.  I'm looking at Daddy and Ela because I like to.

 And then we went to Legoland and I got to drive!

 And here's the big bucket dumping at Legoland.

 Baby Eejee.  And Darth Vader.

 A monster is eating me!

  That's all!

iPad Baby

There will be Southern Kingdom Adventure posts very soon (tonight if the Mayor can get his act together), but first, we proudly present:

The Baby Who Must See What's On TV

Awww...

Eejee is really starting to try out his language sounds.  In the past couple days, he's picked up on "Night-night" and last night, he said "nigh-nigh da-da" three times (Ela and the Hobbit Wife were there and can attest).  He (both Hes, actually) was so proud of this.

To be fair, you should also know Eejee is convinced he can communicate with coughing, and he's been trying to teach the rest of Michael Delving the varied and deeply significant messages conveyed by his vast hacking repertoire.

Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, Part the First

Once upon a week ago, the Mayor and Hobbit Wife made a pot of coffee early in the morning, then sat down to pray about a vacation.  The Mayor, who had been working very long hours for several months, was quite unexpectedly paid for all his overtime.  The Mayor and Hobbit Wife heard a joyful, whispered invitation from the Father of All Michael Delving to ask Him for some badly needed rest and some good gifts.

The Mayor and Hobbit Wife asked their Father for an Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, then booked plane tickets.  The four wee hobbitlings were then informed that all Michael Delving residents would be departing upon the morrow for southern California, with trips planned to Disneyland and Legoland.  There was much rejoicing.  And a flurry of packing. 

The next day, the hobbit family completed their air travels, picked-up a rental van, and arrived at the hotel late Sunday night.  

And then their adventure really began! 

The hotel informed the Mayor that his debit card was declined.  The Mayor drove to a nearby ATM, which provided more illumination: "Transaction denied.  We're sorry.  Your card has been deactivated.  Please contact your financial institution."  Fortunately, the Mayor banks with a wonderful credit union.  Unfortunately, the wonderful credit union wouldn't open until Monday morning.

The hobbits of Michael Delving were facing a night without a hobbit hole. The entire family prayed together, and the best prayer of all was from Seimi:

"Dear Jesus, I just turned four.  The end."  In other words, "You need to handle this problem, Jesus - I'm too little."

The Mayor's phone suddenly rang, and it was someone from the bank's outsourced fraud protection group checking on suspicious activity.  It was revealed that, in the flurry of preparations, the Mayor had neglected to inform his bank that he would be travelling out-of-state.  Payment for the rental van had resulted in a "stolen card" flag on the account. The fraud protection guy was not immediately able to reactivate the card, but he was partially able to remove the hold on the ATM transaction, allowing the Mayor to get just enough cash for the hotel that night.  

The picture below shows the sum total of the hobbits consumable resources for that first night: a few handfuls of trail-mix from home, some left-over pretzels and peanuts from the air plane, two bottles of water from the hotel front desk, and less than $30 cash.  The hobbits were all at once very poor and very secure in the immense love of their adventure-providing Father. 

This was only the beginning of the Adventure in the Southern Kingdom, and more posts are to follow.  The Father of All Michael Delving took care of all the provision, many surprises, and much joy; and all six of the travelers from Michael Delving got to be His wee hobbitlings together.