Jack-Jack Attack: A Million Pictures

So I have been procrastinating like crazy getting pictures up here. Mostly that's because we have the most heavily documented child in the world and the sheer amount of work involved in getting these photos into shape and uploaded appropriately has become overwhelming. You know how it is. It's one of those tasks that keeps getting bigger and harder to do the more you put it off.

Well one of my resolutions this year is to get much better at regularly clearing my picture folder of pending blog photos. To do that I have a lot of catching up to do -- so without much further ado, here is a round of pictures from our DL trip on my birthday, 11/17/2006. I've so much to post that sometimes my comments will be sparse, so bear with me.

Our first stop on 11/17 was for a big breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, Storytellers Cafe in the Grand Californian, the insanely beautiful arts and crafts/Greene & Greene-inspired hotel adjoining California Adventure. As usual Chip, Dale, Koda and, um, that other bear from Brother Bear were there.

Jack performs his patented "funny face" routine for Dale.

And kisses Koda. Awwwww. It's always the lower lip sticking out, by the way, for the kisses.

Then it was on to the parks. Jack, as many of you know, has a growing fondness for (bordering on obsession with) choo-choos. Well, of course the Disney parks have some of the coolest choo-choos in the world -- antique real steam engines, rescued and restored and running around the park all year long. The trains were Walt's babies, and in the lobby of Main Street's train station is a replica of the Lilly Belle, the train he had in his backyard (the original is on display, with many other trains, in a holiday display at the Nixon Library up in Yorba Linda pending its permanent relocation to a Disney Family Museum at the Presidio in San Francisco in 2009. This is literally the only thing that would ever get me to the Nixon Library and I don't intend to stray out of the train exhibit except to use the rest room).

Anyway, if you're lucky, on any given day you can ask for, and receive, the opportunity to take a ride around Disneyland sitting in the tender of some of the trains. It depends on a few things -- whether someone is training, which means they are sitting on the tender riding with the crew, or if they will need to take on water. And I may be wrong but I think it's only the CK Holliday and the Ripley that you can ride the tender on. But if you ask the conductor at Main Street and it's OK with the engineers they will let you ride practically right up in the cab of the train.

Well, it is awesome. Jack and I got to ride the tender on my birthday. Jack was overwhelmed. We had to wait at the station until the right train came along and that alone was worth the whole day as far as Jack was concerened -- running about the station, looking at all the cool train stuff, and watching trains arrive and depart, all to lusty cries of "OooooOOOOOhhhhh! Choo-choo!!" It's really something. The engineer and fireman explain all the ins and outs of the engine, the fire (fueled by diesel) that boils the water and how they maintain the mix of air and aerosolled (is that a word?) fuel to keep it at the appropriate temperature, the pressure gauges. It's really remarkable. Jack was really in awe. He just kind of sat there and took it all in. I mean it's one thing to wave at a passing choo-choo but to actually sit up front with the driver? Amazing.