New Year's in Disneyland!

Part II of our two week adventure in Disneyland!

This is Sleeping Beauty's Castle, still lit up for Christmas a few days after Christmas. It is really beautiful.

Where did Carmen go?

The kids...

Now the significant other's...

Lastly, the friends!

All of us on the stairs in Club 33. My mom, dad, Carmen, and Jan were missing from the photo. Mom and dad were taking pictures of us and so was Carmen, in her own unusual way.

This was Genevieve's first trip to the club. She behaved beautifully. The waiter was kind enough to bring her a bottle of smart water... room temperature of course!

Pluto was very kind and happily played on the floor with Diva. She absolutely loves Pluto and loves to get to see him! She started wagging her tail when she saw he had entered the room.

This is a really good picture of Mickey, Pluto, Diva, and I. It was hard to get Genevieve to focus with her two buddies right behind her.

Mickey alternated between scratching Pluto's belly and Genevieve's belly. Mickey was really great and took pictures with everyone. It was really nice.

This picture is funny because in the back ground you can see the door to the club and you can see a man taking his picture in front of the door. I love the view from the balcony upstairs. It's a great place to just watch the goings-on in New Orleans Square without having to be in the middle of them.

After the Club 33 luncheon we wanted to hit Splash Mountain in our very nice clothes. Again, I braved the front seat. What can I say? Bravery is not a strong point within our family genetics.

One day it was raining particularly hard at Disneyland and I decided to take a picture in the rain!

We saw the newly reopened Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I like the old show better but this one is interesting too.

On New Year's we went to Disneyland and wandered around for a while. We played card games at Pizza Port and rode a few rides. About mid-day I went back to the hotel to let the dogs rest and then left for the park again. We went to Fantasmic show, unfortunately this year they had no premium seating for the midnight showing so we took the 10:30 showing and stayed around to watch the New Year's fireworks and the midnight show. We had a lot of fun, even though it was cold.

More New Year's Eve Fireworks!!!

This is Belle and Diva's balcony. While at the hotel they survey their puppy-dom from it. They are very familiar with this hotel so are very comfortable standing and looking around out there. I usually leave the door open because my bed is right next to the door and I like fresh air. Sometimes Belle would come over and "thunk" into the door because she didn't realize it was closed.

On this trip I made Diva's bear. It is something I keep to remember her by when she goes to Advanced Training. I recorded her snorting and installed it in the bear. The person who helped us make it was very nice and Genevieve stood on the pedal to fill the bear.

One scary reason we left early (to bring the dogs home) to the hotel on New Year's Eve is because we met several very scary "service dogs". Two large Newfoundland "service dogs" and a few Labs were parked outside a bathroom in Disneyland and we (my dog and I) exited the bathroom and made the mistake of walking within eyesight of the other dogs. The Newfies shot up, moved forward, and began barking loudly. They were at least 120 lbs. each. I was in an instant panic, shoved my dog behind me and hightailed it out of there. All I could hear was their handler shouting "No! No!" at them. I have never been that afraid of a "service dog" before, or any dog, really. Later, I saw these same dogs and hid my baby to protect her. Fortunately she is very easy going and probably never noticed that she was under any threat. My mom saw this group of dogs a few days later and managed to stop and talk to one of the Lab handlers that had been with them. The Lab was "fully trained" at 5 months old!!! My dog is just reliably house trained at 5 months, much less fully-certified to be a service dog. My mom took a video to show how well "trained" they were to me. In the video you can see the two Newfies walking in the lead and behind them is the Lab, lunging all over the place, eating every piece of popcorn off the ground he could find, and actually stuck his head in someone's bag! I couldn't believe it. I am very tempted to post this video on YouTube.

Later, I saw a Min Pin that snarled and snapped at a woman who made the mistake of reaching down to pet the dog. I just had to put my dogs to bed, for their own safety and my sanity. What was I going to run into next? A service alligator?

Now don't get me wrong, I have NO problem with any well behaved dog being in a public area, service dog or not. I have seen some great dogs at Petsmart but this was just ridiculous. As long as the dog is quiet and well-behaved, a cleanly best friend should be allowed to come and join you for a cup of coffee or a run to the bookstore.