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!

The Music of Tim Burton's Films Plus Danny Elfman Concert

I spent my Halloween with Kyle in downtown Los Angeles watching an orchestral performance of the music of Danny Elfman from Tim Burton's films. No costumes for us, but we sure were excited to be doing something other than a Halloween party…not that there's anything at all wrong with that. It's just nice to switch things up a bit.

We were rushed to the Nokia Theater after checking into our hotel, but were very kindly given a parking pass on our way in to the parking lot by the gentleman in the car next to us. Saved us thirty big ones! How nice.

The downtown district where the theater is located was so busy! The concert drew a large crowd, plus it was Halloween and there were all kinds of people running around in costumes, eating dinner, and going to the clubs. There was also a mini carnival in the middle of the square, but of course we didn't have time to check it out. We barely managed to inhale some food and rush to our seats in the nick of time.

Downtown LA district where the Nokia Theater is located. So many lights and billboards, but I'm sure it's still nothing compared to Times Square (which I have never been to…yet!).

The marquis outside the theater.

The mini carnival in the promenade celebrating Halloween and Day of the Dead.

LA is covered in billboards and advertisements. I thought it was funny to see four of the same ads for the same movie with the same picture and everything in one spot. You think they're pushing this movie hard enough?? Haha.

It was pretty much a sold out event. The concert was done last year as well, and we had wanted to go to that one but the tickets sold out instantly. We were lucky to get the seats we did this year. I imagine this will be a yearly occurrence based on how great the turnout was.

The orchestra played all the best Burton movie songs - Beetlejuice, Batman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow - and of course rounded out the evening with pretty much all the songs from The Nighmare Before Christmas. Danny Elfman made an appearance and of course sang all the vocal parts he does in the film, including Oogie Boogie's song, which was an interesting version. All of the songs featured snippets from the movies to accompany the music, so it was a fun dose of Elfman's memorable compositions.

The program for the evening.

PeeWee's Big Adventure! Did you know there's a sequel coming out??

Intermission selfie

Frankenweenie, which is one of my favorite stop-motion flicks.

There's Mr. Elfman belting away. 

I think he's singing "Oogie Boogie's Song" here.

Screen right before the show stared and the musicians were all taking their seats.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" with Elfman there in the center.

I took lots of videos, however I don't want to upload them because you're not supposed to video at the theater and out of respect to the artists, I'm using them for memories only.

We booked the cheapest, crappiest, two-star hotel on Priceline through "name your own price," and I do NOT recommend this service for big cities like LA or San Francisco. The two star hotels in big cities must be held to a different standard or something because our hotel SUCKED. Neither of the table lamps worked, the light was on a timer and kept turning itself off, the TV was practically an antique, and the outlets were so loose we had to prop something against the power cord of our phones to make sure they stayed in the stupid hole. But the worst part was that Halloween turned out to be a stormy night and the windows on the eighth story were not caulked or sealed shut in any way. You opened them up and there wasn't even a screen to keep you from falling out. The wind whistled through relentlessly and made the loudest racket all night not to mention we were freezing since there was no heater or good blankets on the bed. Such a terrible experience and we both slept awful. And to top it all off we were charged for off-site parking. Don't stay at the Hacienda Inn near the airport - it's ghetto as heck.

The following day was a ton of fun however, no matter how tired we were from not sleeping.

Stay tuned for my post on Comikaze (my first comic convention!) and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.