Family trip to Knotts!!!

 Soooooo my new thing has been designing pic collages on my phone of events, i have quite a few more to do before I get through the Christmas season and I plan to do this for our NYC trip this past October, buuuuut I managed to finishthis past weekend, we planned a last minute trip with my youngest brother (Abie Babie or Abe, or Uncle Abe, Or Uncle Dude OR according to Odin UNCLE GRACE)...bahahaha! and his wife Grace!!!

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The original plan had been for my brother to bring his wife Grace to the LAX airport so she could go to the Philippines and bring her mom back her to live. (My brother refers to her as Mamma Bella) But last minute my sister was like, WHY don't we go with you and do a Disneyland trip?! I know its hard for Odin to do a lot of things and I'm sure there will be some meltdowns but I really want to take him somewhere. Being the brilliant person that I am, I suggested KNOTTS...its CHEAPER and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less crowded, shorter lines and lets face it, HAS WAAAAAAAY better rides than Disneyland unless you go to CA Adventure!!! Plus I feel like Knotts is slightly more conservative than Disneyland...have you ever noticed that, EVERY DISNEY STORY involves magic and evil and weird forces??? I mean, I'm NOT boycotting them...I'm jus SAYIN!!! LOL Knotts seems SLIGHTLY more wholesome!!! (Emphasis on SLIGHTLY!!! LOL)

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Sooooooooo anyways, KNOTTS it was annnnnnnd Saturday afternoon we were OFF to begin our adventure!!! Btw: I seriously, LOOOOOVE road trips!!! Audio stories, books, and designing collages on my phone the whole ride and exploring Loves and Flying J truck shops...I LOOOOVE IT!!!

I put on the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre of At Home in Mitford...I'm really into this book series right now!!! They are soooooo good!!! I just started the 3rd book and HIGHLY recommend them!!!!

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So when we got there I was put in charge of finding a place for us to eat...I decided on Claim Jumper because they were a minute away and its been YEARS since I've eaten there and WEEEEELLLLL my main reason for choosing that resturaunt is because they have FREE ROOTBEER BARRELS...I looooove those...and I LOVE FREE!!! LOL So we went buuuut with it being New Years EVE the wait was soooooooooooo LONG...Odin doesn't do good with waits sooooooo...YEAH...LOL Buuuuuuuuuut I still got two handfuls of rootbeer barrels...Hee, hee!!! My sister was like, HOW did you remember they have those??? I'm like, HOW could I forget...ROOTBEER BARRELS????

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MJ wanted Olive Garden but I was like, NOOOOO that's BORING, we have Olive Garden in AZ, lets do something FUNNNN and NEW and DIFFERENT. We were driving by this place called Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour and I was like OMW you guys look, HOW CUUUUUUUTE!!!

.It really was such a fun, cutesy and happy place...three things I LOVE!!!

I had to take a selfie in our cute little circle booth...OF COURSE!!!

Annnnnnnd since I caught them doing a crazy happy birthday song for some kid, I felt the definite need to inform them that we were there to celebrate my brother's birthday. Now you have to understand that the whole time of service, our waiter was super awkward...NICE but just awkward and pretty on the quiet and reserved side, buuuuuuuuut when it was time to do the birthday song...HE WENT CRAZY WILD!!! Like imagine Joe Velez or Stultz as your waiter (Minus the awkward part) quiet and reserved and then its time to sing Happy Birthday to you and they break out into this wild-crazy-Hawaiian-hula-African-war-dance...NO JOKE!!! BAHAHAHAHA!!! The only one that wasn't completely freaked out was Odin, he thought it was GREAT annnnd our waiter was pretty much his hero in life!!! My brother was like, OK I think that must be what they hired him for!!!! BAHAHA!!!

You can enlarge the picture to see better...bahahaha...and don't worry I recorded it too!!!!

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Annnnnnnnnnnd when we walked out of Farrell's I saw this and had to get a picture!!!

Totally looks like this dog is driving!!! AHAHAHA!!!

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It took a little while to fall asleep, there were a few tears before the kids managed to fall asleep, everyone was almost asleep and then my portable bed folded up and I flipped over annnnnd my scream woke everyone back up buuuuut we DID all manage to fall asleep before midnight...I just heard fireworks going off in my sleep!!!!

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Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd here we are at KNOTTS waiting for it to open!!!!

I think this pic pretty much explains itself buuuuuut Odin adored SNOOPY!!! I kept telling him that he was going to see him but he was sooooo excitedwhen he actually saw him...it was so cuuuuute!!!

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soooooooooo I started the day off by going on THE GHOST RIDER!!!

I was superrrr scared to go on this ride, NOT because of it being scary, buuuuut WOULD I FIT???? I was like, You know what, I want to do this, NO ONE in my family was willing to go with me, I'm like, I'm like, I've lost 63 pounds I"M JUST GOING TO TRY...if NOT...I'll just walk away and never see any of these people again anyway!!! I got even more nervous when a lady a little up in the line didn't fit...I'm like, OMW, I know I have to weigh more than her...I'm trying to measure her body and mine with my eyes buuuuut couldn't tell...LOL Buuuuuuuut when I got up there my seat belt fit and everything clicked...YES!!! I was soooooooooo HAPPY AND THRILLED AND EXCITED!!! Fitting on rides was definitely one of the things I was looking forward to with losing weight and this was ONE ride I had accomplished!!!

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We were about to take off when some guy from England came running up at the last minute and asked if he could ride with me...I was like...SURE...buuuut in my head I was thinking, this is TOTALLY going to ruin my picture, cuz like, I'm really NOT gonna wanna buy one with YOU in it...AHAHAHAHA!!! Anywayz, he was pretty cool, extremely talkative...I'm thinking like, REALLY dude??? we're like doing a fifty thousand drop at like 100 miles an hr, you could stop talking to me and asking questions... til the rides over...I mean, I LIKE TALKING buuuut...I'm having a little difficulty responding to you at the moment...Multi-tasking has never been one of my strengths...JUST SAYIN...BAHAHAHA!!!

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We went and saw Snoopy On Ice, free admission with the purchase of your Knotts Ticket, it was GREAT!!! I'm not going to lie, I started whooping for Snoopy when he stepped onto the stage!!! There was rumors that the Cartoonist of Peanuts was atheist buuuuut according to this article written in April of 2016, by The Atlantic Times, he was NOT!!!

The coolest part of their little production was that when Linus came out and quoted the scripture"For Unto you...and that's what Christmas is all about!" Tons of people in the audience started clapping and cheering and I thought that was PRETTY AWESOME!!! I couldn't help but think, "THAT AWKWARD MOMENT WHEN... Knottsberry Farm puts on a MORE SPIRITUAL Christmas production than Phoenix First Assembly or The Dream Center...I'm telling you those creepy-seductive dancers they have during the 5-second nativity scene of a two hour Christmas production are just messed up!!! LOL

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Annnnnnnnnnd all around we had a blast, a very fun way to start the New Year!!!!

I got MJ and I snoopy puppy ears OR Belle ears...

 Btw: Belle is NOT Snoopy's girlfriend but his sister!!!

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MJ informed me they were brother and sister and NOT boyfriend and girlfriend, I looked it up and sure enough she's right!!! So I asked her how she knew this and she said BECAUSE MARY, THEY LOOK LIKE EACH OTHER so they MUST be RELATED!! AHAHA...I was like, Weeeeelll when you put it like that, it kind of makes sense!!! LOL

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We had sooooo much funnn doing this ride, it was SQUISHED, VERY SQUISHED, buuuuut soooooo much funnnnn!!! My brother spun us so fast we were all hysterical the whole time...it took us  a while to figure out how to UNsquish ourselves enough to actually get out...and then I tripped quite a few times on the way to the exit cuz I still couldn't walk straight!!!

 Soooooooo it was FREEZING cold at night!!! I had gone thinking like an Arizonan...I hope this hoody doesn't make me to warm during the afternoon...It did NOT...and was NOT enough to keep my warm at night...I was sooooooooo COLD!!!

 I LOOOOOOVED the pony express!!! It was such a blast...I had ALWAYS wanted to ride it cuz it looks like fun, buuuut i'd always been like, Oh no, what IF I don't fit...that's gonna be embarrassing!!! buuuuut I was like, weeeeeelllll I'm way smaller so i'm just gonna try it...and I fit NO PROBLEM!!!  I ended up on it like 5 times altogether...arms in the air the whole time!!! My sister even liked this ride, weeeeellll she had to keep her eyes shut the whole time buuuut other than that...BAHAHAHA!!!

I also got my brother to go on the Jaguar, he asked me if it was scary and I was like, No I think its like the same as the Pony Express! Afterwards he said it was NOT the same...I was like, OH...it was to me...I mean non-scary rides are all, NON SCARY...LOL!!! FUNNNNNN...buuuut NOT SCARY!!! I had my arms all the way up in the air for that ride the whole time too!!!

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Buuuuut apparently my brother is scarred from certain rides in life from riding with his big sis(ME) as a child...He still won't ride Ferris Wheels he said, THANKS TO ME!!! All I did was rock it whenever we were stopped...just a little something that MY MOM told me her big brother would do to her and scare her to death...I was like, OH WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!! I wasn't doing it to scare him tho...I was just doing it to make the ride MORE FUNNNN! :)))))

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HAPPY MONDY Morning SELFIE!!!

This was my outfit for Monday...I was pretty excited about it and in love with the headband from Hobby Lobby...did you know you can get some super cute stuff there for like $5 or under...Normally, anywhere else this fancy of a headband would have been AT LEAST $15!!! Anywayz, I figured I would add these selfie pics IF ONLY because the big sis saw them when I was scrolling through pics and said they were CUTE!! I was like, IF T said it, THEY MUST BE...therefore...I MUST SHARE THEM!!!

Soooooooooo I've had this extreme desire to eat at a RAMEN resturaunt...they have them all over the bay and its ON MY LIST of things to do buuuuut I thought, WHY  NOT try to find one in LA??? Soooooooooo we did!!!

Buuuuuuuuuut after looking over the menu I decided to SKIP IT!!! It was all a little TO AUTHENTICALLY Asian to me and the Ramen stuff was just Asian soups...I was looking for one of those funky places that sells ramen noodle burgers and stuff... This was NOT that!!! Plus my sis in law didn't look impressed and I say IF an Asian ain't impressed with ASIAN FOOD...I'm LEAVING!!! BAHAHAHA!!!

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Soooooooooo we ended up at...

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Old Spaghetti Factory!!!

Which was also, ON MY LIST!!!

This place was soooooooooo AWESOME!!! The food was DELICIOUS!!! And the décor...I LOOOOVE THE DECOR!!! When we were walking out I told my brother, FOLLOW ME, you have to see this AMAZING COUCH...its sooooo AWESOME!!! Green couch in the above pic, when he saw it hes like, that's REALLY UGLY!!! I was like, WHAAAAAAAAAT??? how can you say that??? the only thing that would make it MORE AMAZING is if it was HOT-PINK-VELVET!!! Then I WOULD BE IN JAIL for theft!!! Jk...that was a joke peeps...LOL Turns out we actually have two Old Spaghetti Factories here in AZ!!! We all most go sometime!!!

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Sprinkle cupcakes...my sis in law said IF I didn't go in with my brother for the cupcake we were gonna split, he would get something boring...SHE WAS RIGHT!!! BAHAHA!!

Buuuut it was a pretty delicious kind of boring if ya know what I mean!!!

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Annnnnnnnd then we saw a PEETS...I got an apple cider...buuut didn't actually finish it till 10 at night...LOL!!!

 After dropping my sis in law off at the airport we began making the trek back to AZ!!! Listening to the rest of AT HOME IN MITFORD...my family was slightly annoyed with me when It was time to put in the last CD and I was like, OH...I think I left it at home in ANOTHER CD Album...They're like, MARY!!! I'm like, OOOPS!!!

Anywayz, it was altogether an AWESOME-FUN-TRIP!!! Soooo glad we got to do this!!! Can't wait to see what all this NEW Year of 2017 unfolds!!!
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Annnnnnnnnnd I'm ALWAYS happy to come home to my room, SWEET-CLEAN-HAPPY-COMFY-COZY-CUUUUUUUUTE-BEAUTIFUL ROOM!!!

Aaaahhh I soooooooooo LOVE MY ROOM!!!

♥Mary Frances :)