~*~ The Reynolds Family ~*~: October 2008

This weekend our neighborhood, Woodhaven, celebrated Halloween with a fun little party! The girls were excited to have the opportunity to wear their costumes several days before trick-or-treating!

I volunteered to set up and run the Smartie Suck-Up Game. Little did I know, this was one of the most popular games... so at times it became a bit overwhelming to both run the game and gives the girls the attention they were demanding! Wayne did not attend so luckily a fellow neighbor relieved me for a while so I could walk around with the girls and enjoy the party.

The kids got to show off their costumes in the Parade!

Pin the Wart on the Witch!

Cute Photo Ops!

Tattoo Table!

Cookie Decorating!

Emily with her tennis buddy and neighbor, Cameron!

As we were wrapping up the party, we were trying to get rid of all the candy... that's when the girls jumped in to save the day!

Treat Walk

The kids wouldn't let the Treat Walk end until all the treats had been won... so it was still going on after everything else had been cleaned up! :)

My fabulous sister-in-law/friend is a flight attendant for Southwest and was kind enough to invite me on an great little vacation to Los Angeles! We've made a couple other trips together in the past to San Antonio and Sandusky, OH... our mission is always to conquer the best roller coasters!

On Day 1 we hoped to catch a Jay Leno taping... but sadly we weren't able to get tickets. Instead, we took a tour of the Warner Brother's Studios. It was amazing to see where a few memorable movie and TV scenes where shot... and even more amazing to see how small everything actually is! I don't have too many pictures to share... they would only let us photograph certain areas. Here is the entrance to the hospital on ER. We didn't get to see anything, but they were taping an episode while we were there. We saw Sam Grimes, in scrubs, riding around on a bike.

Just a few places that were off limits to the camera were, Ellen Degeneres' studio, where they shot the "upside down kiss scene" in Spiderman, the enormous sound studio that they filled with water to film The Perfect Storm, the set for the new TV show Chuck and a museum with some really neat costumes and movie artifacts.

This church has been in several movies and TV shows... I don't watch Gilmore Girls, but they say most people recognize it from that show.

Gotta love The Duke's of Hazzard! I'm standing in front of the Batmobile... it was pretty cool to see... sorry I'm blocking it. Here's Rachel and Monica... Oh, I mean Kerrie and Lisa at Central Perk!
You wouldn't believe how tiny this set is! They told us to watch how it only takes Ross about 3 steps to get from the sofa to the door... I'll be watching carefully next time Friends is on.

I met a couple handsome characters outside!

After the WB Tour we went to Universal City Walk outside of Universal Studios.

We had a really yummy dinner on the patio at Wolfgang Puck's Restaurant.

Universal City Walk had lots of fun shops and restaurants... it was fun to walk around... especially at night...

On Day 2 we got up early and visited "The Happiest Place on Earth"... aka Disneyland!

It was fun to see their elaborate Halloween decorations everywhere you turn.

I was most excited to see Woody...

and Jesse!

Our day was amazing! The weather was absolutely perfect and we only stood in one long line (1 hour) the entire day... most lines were 15 to 20 minutes long!

Kerrie's brother, Trey, lives in Costa Mesa and was kind enough to meet us in Downtown Disney for dinner. He treated us to a fabulous meal at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen.

The great food and live music made for a fun evening!

After dinner we walked back to the park just in time for the incredible firework show! Then we ran off to ride Space Mountain for the 3rd time!

On Day 3 we headed out to Six Flags Magic Mountain! Hey wait... are you sure this isn't Wally World?!?!

My favorite ride out there (and Kerrie's least favorite) was Tatsu. It was flying by, so it's difficult to see in the picture, but you are actually facing downward with your back to the track. This ride was incredibly smooth and I felt like I was flying... soooo fun!

On Day 4 we met up with Trey again in Laguna for lunch. He suggested a restaurant called Las Brisas... it had a beautiful view of the ocean. One of my "to do's" while in Cali was to eat great fish tacos... and while at Las Brisas I was able to check that off my list!

My other "to do's" were to eat an In-N-Out burger (which I didn't do because the drive-thru line was 30 cars long) and shop at Trader Joe's (which we did 3 times in 3 different cities!)