Are you ready to roll? Monster Jam returns to Angel Stadium for two nights: Jan. 28 and Feb. 11. Watch OC Family TV’s video spotlighting all the rugged action and family fun.
The Lowdown:
Monster Jam will be at Angel Stadium Jan. 28 and Feb. 11
For general information on Monster Jam and to order tickets go to their web site.
Did you know that you can still ice skate at the Irvine Spectrum? The rink is up until February 20 and the weather is perfect! So bundle up and have a blast gliding on the ice with your family. I have a 4-pack of tickets to giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment below. I’ll pick a winner on January 26, via Random.org.
Before my visit to Aulani, A Disney Resort and Spa, in Ko Olina, Hawaii, I would have said I loved the Hawaiian culture. Though I readily admit, most of what I knew about it I learned from the cursed tiki Brady Bunch Hawaii special or from my one-week honeymoon in Maui. The picture of tiki torches, hula skirts and umbrella-ed drinks is probably typical of most mainlanders’ impression of Hawaii, and it’s exactly the clichéd archetype that Disney had no interest in recreating at Aulani.
“We wanted to tell Hawaii’s true story,” a relaxed, tanned, and sandaled Bob Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, told me as we sat in one of the 481 cozy Disney Vacation Club villas, overlooking the sparkling lagoon at Aulani. “The best way we thought to do that was to let children engage in what Hawaii really is, not what we’ve all been told it is.” To help the resort provide that kind of unique experience—that was both fun for kids and educational—Disney harnessed the artistic visions of local artists to create a place that reflects a true representation of the Hawaiian culture. The resort houses one of the world’s largest collections of Hawaiian contemporary and Disney reached out to locals to create the mosaics seen on the side of each hotel tower, design the guest room quilts, and paint the murals for the restaurants.
The new Aulani Resort is Disney’s first venture into a full stand-alone resort; there’s no theme park attached to the 21-acre oceanfront resort to keep guests busy. Sure, you’ll still get to mingle with Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, and Goofy, but no attractions, snazzy stage shows, or booming fireworks. So, with none of the usual “Disney” activities to keep your family busy, Aulani gives kids and adults alike new ways to experience a Hawaiian vacation.
The resort, from the magnificent open-air lobby to the protected lagoon, has been designed with families in mind. Here is a quick hit of just some of the many family activities available at the Aulani, A Disney Resort and Spa. You’ll notice in almost every one the seam of interactive learning that was so important to Disney when creating the resort:
Aunty’s Beach House: Kids, ages 3–12 years, old are securely checked in and brought into Aunty and Uncle’s house to play dress-up, do crafts in Uncle’s garage, romp outside on the expansive green grass lawn or in treehouses, and listen to Aunty tell stories—a cherished Hawaiian tradition—and sing songs. They can stay and eat a meal at Aunty’s with their new friends for a small fee ($12), but a stay at Aunty’s Beach House is complimentary, included in your stay at Aulani. Painted
Sky Teen Spa: Don’t let the label “spa” steer you away for this teen club at Aulani. The idea is to dedicate 1,500 square feet to young guests as a place all their own. The spa indeed offers massages, facials, and manicures, but also computer stations, a yogurt bar, and daily “teen-only” events. Waikolohe Stream: The stream winds through Waikolohe Valley and is likely the most beautiful and creative “lazy river” you’ll ever experience. Not only do you feel like you’re floating through a lush tropical garden, but Walt Disney Imagineers thought to carve animals in the lava rock along the way. Every trip through the stream will surprise and delight.
Menehune Bridge: The Menehune are Hawaiian mythical creatures who come to life at night to create mischief. Aunty describes them as “Hawaiian elves.” Even though they’re rascals, they are industrious little guys and one night they built the Menehune Bridge inside the Waikolohe Valley. Think of it as a mini-water park, right in the middle of the pool area.
Pools: The pool area offers a beach-like area for little kids, then scrolls throughout the Waikolohe Valley with lots of twists and turns, giving it a feel of a natural lagoon. Here you’ll find Hawaiian shaved ice, the Lava Shack for snacks and refills on soda, and two of the resort’s jacuzzis.
Rainbow Reef: For a small additional fee, kids and adults can snorkel in 3,800 square feet of water wonderland. I never snorkeled in my life and took to it like…dare I say, a fish to water (sorry!), and spent a good half hour splashing around with tropical fish and a few undersea Menehune. Perfect for family to experience snorkeling together and learn about undersea life in a safe and controlled environment.
Starlit Hui: Steeped in Hawaiian tradition, this hui is like nothing you’ve seen in Hawaii. Kids are invited to join local artisans in making Hawaiian crafts, learning about the culture in a natural and creative experience. The show (the Hui) includes sweeping, magnificent music and both traditional and contemporary hulas along with the ukulele duet act of, “Heart and Soul.” These two guys will change the way you think of the ukulele FOREVER. The evening ends with a Character Dance party. (Think: Mickey and Minnie grooving on the beach with the kids.)
Lagoon and Beach: Guests at Aulani can enjoy the benefits of the protected lagoon that sits at the far end of the resort. Families will love that there are no waves—thanks to the natural rock breakers—so little ones can splash away at the shoreline while older kids enjoy paddleboarding and swimming out to the rafts dotting the middle of the bay.
Aunty’s Breakfast Celebration (Character Breakfast): Offered a few times a week at the Makahiki restaurant, Aunty hosts the interactive fun, inviting kids to join in the dance line and sing along to Hawaiian songs. Served buffet-style, breakfast offers what you’d expect from a Disney kitchen—Mickey Mouse waffles—but also has some Hawaiian specialties liked baked fish and fresh tropical fruit.
Menehune Adventure Trail: Pick up your Adventure Trail iTouch at the Pau Hana Room. Aunty will show kids where to go using maps and clues. Young explorers will make rocks move, drums play, and trees light up when they follow Aunty’s directions. Every adventure is different and highly interactive, so kids can explore the trail several times during their stay—all while learning about the Hawaiian Islands and its culture as they go.
Disney has packed Aulani with family activities, keeping in mind that all families are different. While some like to just kick it on the beach all day, others like adventure and lots of activity. At Aulani, you’ll find the trusted Disney standard of quality service and craftsmanship, as well as the usual cast of familiar characters, but the real star of the resort is the Hawaiian culture.
“We really wanted to get it right,” Iger said about the way Disney approached their first resort outside of its parks. After four days at Aulani Resort, I can vehemently agree, they have done it right. Mixing the service, magic, and quality of Disney with the warm and vibrant culture of Hawaii makes a visit to Aulani like no other Hawaiian vacation.
Aloha!
**** Read this article in this month’s OC Family Magazine ***
***See more of my photos from my trip to Aulani on my Flickr stream***
***Read more Disney news from me at , Disneyland Locals***
Me with Bob Iger after our interview.
Watch my video segment detailing all of the family activities at Aulani
It was a magazine much like this month’s Big Baby Issue of OC Family. I remember it had a baby on the cover. I casually picked it up in a doctor’s office and flipped through the pages. It was brimming with parenting advice and big colorful pictures of strollers, bounce houses and meticulously coiffed mothers holding clean, happy, perfectly round-headed babies. It was then that it hit me – I wanted a baby of my own!
Ticktock. Ticktock. It was that biological clock I’d heard about for years. My clock.
I was 28 years old. My husband and I were recently married. We lived in a 100-year-old house (which I’m sure was coated ceiling to floor with lead paint) in the heart of San Francisco with two big dogs, no garage and two ambitious career paths. Not the ideal launching pad for a family. It was the furthest thing from our minds. But now, because of one stroll through the pages of a parenting magazine, it was all I could think about.
That night we started the conversation of “having a baby” that lasted over a year. Then once we decided it was time, we made our plans, laid out the schedule and got to the work of “having a baby.” But, something unexpected happened, we weren’t expecting at all. In fact, months and months went by and no double line. No nausea. No baby coming.
We had unwittingly entered the world of infertility. Oh, and what a wacky and bizarre world it is; filled with unwanted winks and nudges from good-intended friends who say things like “it sure is fun trying” when you tell them you’re latest undertaking. And then there’s the seemly endless tests and exams. Next up, hormone shots given to you by your spouse – who had once promised to honor and protect you, and now has to stick you with a goo-filled syringe twice a day – all in an attempt to get yourself one of those warm and cuddly babies you saw in the pages of that stupid parenting magazine.
Because I lived through it, I know the struggle with infertility is a weepy, painful yet ultimately fulfilling process. Actually, it proved to be the perfect preparation for parenthood, which is also a weepy, painful and ultimately fulfilling process
We now have two healthy, relatively happy kids – one provided to us through the means of infertility treatment and one the old-fashioned way. And now we are, what parents in our position like to say: “Done.”
Are you going to have any other kids, I’m asked often? “No, we’re DONE.” Like reproductive whiplash I’ve gone from obsessing about getting pregnant to figuring out the best way to not get pregnant: Ever again. Though this sounds like it would be difficult, it was a natural transition and only occasionally makes me feel completely insane.
I still love to hold babies, other people’s babies. I play peek-a-boo with them at restaurants while their parents try, just once, to eat their food while its still hot. I sneak looks at them as they sleep quietly in their strollers. I like reading my fellow OC Family columnist, Kedric’s tales of being a new father. Babies are wonderful, but I’m “done” having any of my own; maybe you’re like me. Or perhaps you’re still considering having just one more. But maybe you’re reading this and you’re where I was all those years ago in San Francisco, just casually picking up this parenting magazine … wait … do you hear that? Ticktock…ticktock…tic
**** This column appears in this month’s OC Family magazine ***
To read past columns, please go here.
During the holidays everyone is in the mood for giving. Why not lend a hand to an amazing local organization that daily feeds a hot healthy meal to over 400 of Orange County’s poor, mentally challenged, senior citizens, homeless families and unemployed? Someone Cares Soup Kitchen has been quietly doing just that for over 25 years.
I’ve spent a few days at Someone Cares during lunch service and I was struck by the precision in which the facility operates. All the donations–ninety percent of the food is donated by Trader Joe’s–are used in meals or given away as “take aways” to the needy. Nothing goes to waste, they use everything they receive.
I was also blown away by the number of senior citizens who line up daily for a free hot meal. In all honesty, I was expecting most of the people to look like a cliched homeless person–ragged clothes, unshaven, dirty. But that’s not the case with at Someone Cares. A majority of the regulars are senior citizens who have outlived their savings. “They just can’t afford to live on what they have due to high medical expenses, illness or loss of a partner,” Corey Donaldson, who leads the holiday campaigns for Someone Cares Soup Kitchen.
Further changing my idea of what I’d find at a Someone Cares was the overall cheerful and gracious attitude of people not only working there, but even the folks there for help. “I’ve never had a bad meal here, it’s always good,” said one older gentleman. Meatloaf, pasta with vegetables, all kinds of soups, the variety of food and the level of culinary quality is extraordinary.
Someone Cares Soup Kitchen is a safe place for Orange County’s most needy to come for help in respectful and warm atmosphere. You can find out more by checking their web site, here.
How can I help?
Food donations are always welcome, but their biggest need is spices and disposable serving ware.
You can donate in amounts as small as $40, which will supply about 30 healthy meals. Click here for details.
You can come down to the kitchen and see for yourself how wonderful their program is, click here for volunteer information.
Donate warm coats and gently used clothes, click here for details.
They are in desperate need of donated white socks, you can drop off socks to this location OR buy $50 pairs for $35 here.
For the holidays, the Soup Kitchen fills hundreds of backpacks and distributes to the needy in our community. To help spread holiday joy, you can make a donation here.
If you’d like more information you can email the Soup Kitchen at: INFO@OCSOUPKITCHEN.ORG
What are you doin’ New Year’s Eve? How about going to one of OC’s hottest parties? I have two tickets to giveaway to OC Fair’s New Year’s Eve Block Party.
Not a stuffy affair, this celebration will include food trucks galore, tribute bands spanning the ’60 to the ’90s, carnival rides, fireworks and new this year, casino games! If you’re looking for an event that will keep you close to home, I think this is a solid choice. Just leave a comment below to enter to win two tickets to the OC Fair’s New Year’s Eve Block Party. I’ll pick a winner via Random.org on Wednesday, Dec. 14.
The lowdown:
December 31, from 7:30 pm to 1:30 am.
The OC Fairgrounds
List of bands: Rio–a Tribute to Duran Duran, Joshua Tree — A tribute to U2, Britain’s Finest — The Complete Beatles Experience; The Cured; Flashback Heart Attack — Ultimate New Wave ’80s Show; The Who Revue, and more!
List of food trucks: Flying Pig Truck; Crepes Bonaparte; Piaggio On Wheels; Brats Berlin; Chomp Chomp Nation; The Burnt Truck; The Grilled Cheese Truck and more.
General admission is $40, plus parking will be $10
To order tickets go to OCFair.com.
For more information head on over to the official web site for the NYE Block Party.
The winner chosen via Random.org is Fed Ex Bob! Thanks for entering everyone!
Little Michael points excitedly from his stroller at King Arthur’s Carousel at Disneyland. His mom and I are chatting when she breaks away and says, “Yes, I see it! We’ll go on that later.”
Her words sound my parental alarm and I grab her arm; with urgency I tell her, “No, don’t EVER promise a kid you’re going to do something later, are you crazy?” It’s a rookie mistake. Michael is only two and he’s her first. Good thing she has me to guide her through this hard-fast parenting rule.
Any experienced parent knows, a kid will remember and hold you to whatever you tell them they are going to do–with the caveat that it’s something (a) fun or (b) that tastes good. No matter what transpires from the time you promise a child that you’ll take them somewhere or let them do or eat something, they will bank on it: without a doubt, it has to happen.
I’m absolutely certain that the children of the Titanic, as they were being rowed out on lifeboats, as the unsinkable ship sunk in front of them, whined to their weeping mothers, “But you said we were going to have ice cream tonight!”
This memory muscle doesn’t work as well when telling them things like, “We need to remember to stop at the bank” or “Don’t let me forget to give you your antibiotics.” You will have to remind them over and over again that “You have to brush your teeth before we go out!” But, they have an iron-clad memory for the good stuff.
It seems like a paradox that we teach our kids to commit, follow through, stand by their word—yet a smart parent will never, EVER commit themselves to a single thing. You check that luxury at the door of the hospital as you leave with your first child, along with the hope of ever appearing cool in your kids’ eyes or being able to watch the evening news without bursting into tears. Those things just aren’t going to happen anymore. Being noncommittal is really good of the entire family.
Short of handing out a legal notarized statement declaring your “promise” null and void if any of the following things occur—natural disaster, illness, there’s something better on TV than SpongeBob, or one or both parents are hospitalized—just nixing promises from your vernacular for the next 20 years is your best bet.
Back at Disneyland I try to help my friend by advising her to make the following phrases her friend: We’ll see. Let’s remember that’s here; I’m not making any promises. Okay, we’ll add that to our list. “Write them down on a piece of paper,” I tell her. “Sleep with them under your pillow. Embrace them. I promise you won’t be sorry. Well…I mean, I don’t promise, promise. I’m just throwing it out there.”
Photo borrowed from, here.
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This is from my column in OC Family Magazine this month. You can pick it up all over Orange County, but you’re certain to find it at Ruby’s Diner, Wahoo’s Fish Taco, Subway and of course, on my mom’s coffee table.
To read some of my past columns, head over here.
Maple Ballet’s The Nutcracker: The Spirit of the Season returns to Orange County’s Norhwood Performing Arts Theatre for six shows this December. Lead by Charles Maple, the 80 classically trained dancers will delight families once again with their original rendition of this holiday classic. Kids will be mesmerized by the life-size gingerbread house, giant teapot and the ’55 growing Christmas tree.
It’s sure to be fantastic and, like most years, sold out quickly. Get your tickets by calling 888-71Tickets OR by going to this website.
Northwood Performing Arts Theatre: December 17-18; 20-22 4515 Portola Parkway, Irvine 92620
General admission tickets, $22-$30. Patron seats, $50.
Ticketing fees apply.
Advance purchase is encouraged, as performances are expected to sell out.
Saturday, December 17that 2:00pm and 7:00pm
Sunday, December 18th at 3pm (complimentary on-stage children’s workshop after this performance)
Tuesday, December 20th at 7:00pm
Wednesday, December 21st at 7:00pm
Thursday, December 22nd at 6:30pm
I’m giving away a family four-pack of tickets for the Dec. 20 performance. Please leave a comment to enter to win and I’ll choose a winner via Random.org on Wednesday, Nov 30. Good luck!
This event is closed. Wendy won the tickets.
I don’t care if the book says Max came home because he was hungry, I know he really comes home because he misses his mom.
But, I’m letting him stick to his story.
We moms get it.
It’s important for boys to be wild things.
Blink! is an evening of family-friendly comedy and magic that opens on December 15th at the “Battle of the Dance” Theatre in Anaheim. Chipper Lowell has been awarded “Magician of the Year,” not once, but two times and will be performing his fresh and funny show for a limited time in Orange County.
My son is a budding magician, (read that story here), and will love the mix of comedy and magic with Chipper and a whole host of other magicians that make up the fun-filled show. Chipper masters a spectacular array of original magic tricks. Click here for more information on the show.
I’m giving a family four-pack of tickets for the Dec 18th, 4:00 pm show. Just leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner (via Random.org) on Thursday (Nov. 24)
Kelly George is the winner of this contest picked via Random.org. Congrats Kelly!
