Vorst Family Trip to Disneyland + Julien-K at the Viper Room

This month my nine-month-old nephew got to experience his first trip to Disneyland with the entire Vorst clan. We also had some Vorst family cousins from Oregon join us on this trip. Their family has three kids aged nine to twelve and it was also their first Disneyland trip. Lots of firsts this time around. Because Kyle and I go so frequently, it's always fun to see new people experience it for the first time.

First night's dinner was at Rainforest Cafe with the whole clan. This is the menu sign displayed on both sides, but viewed from the side, the frog becomes a weird, conjoined thing. 

A cocktail from Trader Sam's called "The Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum." 

The first shop on Main Street is decked out to celebrate the 45th anniversary of The Haunted Mansion, which is my personal favorite ride at the park. :) You bet we  bought lots of merch this trip!

The castle is decked out to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the park, but sadly, we visited just a month early of all the 60th celebrations and festivities beginning. :( But Kyle and I will be back in October, so we're not too concerned. We'll see it all then!

This bird made me laugh. He's just chilling there in all those daisies.

One of the Oregonian cousins. We're on the tea cups ride. 

SOOOO much tasty stuff!

Jack Skellington and Olaf candied apples!

Cinderella carriage candied apples.

My little nephew sleeping on his first big day at the park.

The whole clan group photo in front of the castle. We all had matching "Disney Family Trip 2015" shirts on. At least me and Kyle got to make our black. 

Kyle and his younger sister Kacy on Autopia which broke down and trapped them on it for about a half hour. They're the ones in the second yellow car waving. Oregonian cousins are in the car in front of them. 

Kyle is not paying attention.

Siblings.

The first two rows are my sisters-in-law and the Oregonian cousins and me and Kyle are in the back.

At the end of the day waiting in line for one more ride. If you can't tell, my hair has been through the ringer.

Cousins and sisters-in-law about to get on the rocket ship ride for kids. Believe it or not, it was my first time on that ride and it actually goes pretty fast!

Kacy, Kyle, and me at Trader Sams.

This was our first day at the park at the very beginning of the day so we're full of energy. Notice Kacy photo bombing in the back. 

Side view of the castle's decorations for the 60th.

Tea cups! Kyle always skips this ride because the spinning makes him sick.

Behind Big Thunder there's a lake and a cave.

Kyle and Kacy on Autopia when they got stuck. 

Nephew Nathan and his grandma.

Me, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law holding nephew, and my father-in-law. We were all waiting for everyone to get off Autopia because the ride got stuck.

On the Rockets.

Second day of the trip at CA Adventure. Kyle almost got a shot of me with no one else in it. 

My sisters-in-law and nephew meeting Elsa and Anna.

My sister-in-law Korie and I on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride.

Haunted Mansion ride crispy treat. It was delicious.

All that Haunted Mansion merch! 

More Haunted Mansion stuff.

More Haunted Mansion merch. I could've bought the entire store! It was all so neat!

After all the family Disney stuff was over with, Kyle and I checked into a nice hotel in West Hollywood. It was fairly close to the Viper Room, which is where we went to the Julien-K album release party.

Kyle and I have been to a lot of concerts at lots of different venues, including The Roxy, The Nokia Theater, and The House of Blues in L.A. area, but surprisingly not the Viper Room. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it indeed is pretty much A ROOM with two bars and an amazing sound system. Great place to see small bands or even larger bands in an intimate setting. 

Before heading to Hollywood, we grabbed food at The Gypsy Den, which is one of several restaurants Ryan of Julien-K owns. Last time we saw Julien-K we also went to the same restaurant, but at a different location. This is what I ordered for lunch - pita and hummus. 

We walked by this cool cake place on our way to dinner before the Julien-K show.

The Viper Room bathroom. I'm a dork and I took a photo of it.

The El Capitan was all decked out for the release of "The Avengers" movie. We thought about seeing it there, but decided against it because we wanted to see it with friends back home.

My favorite, Tom Hanks. :)

We briefly met up with my sister-in-law and her fiancé Jordan for lunch a brief visit to the Chinese Theater with all the hand prints. Typical (but still fun) tourist things.

That's Kyle's hand in John Goodman's print. He has huge hands!

Interesting to walk by the Scientology building to be handed a movie screening leaflet and see all the books in the various languages. Interesting to note that most religions will GIVE you their printing of the Bible for free, but you have to buy L. Ron Hubbard's literature (at least, that's my assumption).

It was a fun week-long getaway, but we were very happy to get home to our kitties!

Shopping on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood

I've already written a pretty involved post about the trip Kyle and I took to L.A. last weekend, but I haven't yet gotten around to talking about all the shopping we did on Saturday afternoon.

Unlike me, Kyle's not the biggest shopper on the planet. He does like to hit up the boutiques on Melrose Avenue for pants though. So mid-day we headed to Melrose and stopped in at Kill City. They mostly carry a variety of rocker denim, but also have some distressed tops and unique jewelry. Kyle found some badass acid-washed jeans (along with several basic black pairs) and I left with a delicate bone chain link bracelet from Beneath the Roses. I was pretty stoked about finding the bracelet because all the online stockists who carry this line of jewelry are always out of the pieces I want.

We strolled around some more and ended up at Necromance, a store full of oddities, skeletons, and other spooky dead things. The store has a very similar vibe to Loved to Death in San Francisco, but the place was a bit bigger and overall more organized. They also featured more common-place pieces as opposed to things that were rare or hard to come by.

We purchased a gift for some friends and I walked out with two bangles made of little femur bones. They pair well with the Beneath the Roses bracelet and might even be made by the same company, although I'm not sure.

There were lots of other stores we passed by on Melrose that we've been into before - Kreepsville 666, Shrine, and a really impressive boot store - but we didn't end up buying anything else…those boutique prices sure do damage to your wallet.

Until next time!