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Tyrian moved out this summer, so when he comes to visit, he's fair game for a pile-on!
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Matt, Kathie, James, Devin and Clara Engelbrecht visited from North Carolina during Thanksgiving Week. Matt wanted to make sure his kids had exposure to the Big Game during their formative years.
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It was a gorgeous day in the stands...
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...not-so-gorgeous on the field with Stanford losing for the first time in 9 years.
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We drowned our sorrows in mochi at Kane Sushi.
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We all got together at Grammie's house for an early Thanksgiving dinner because nine of the clan were heading to Southern California for the rest of the week.
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We used part of our SoCal trip to visit colleges. Matt showed off Loyola Marymount.
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LMU's rooftop garden of California native plants was the perfect place to soak up some rays after the comprehensive admissions tour.
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Evya's quote of the day: "This is where I live now."
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We reunited with the North Carolina Engelbrechts at Downtown Disney for dinner.
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The next morning, we headed straight to the brand new Galaxy's Edge.
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That afternoon, Matt, Christina and Allyndreth popped over to Cal State Long Beach for another terrific tour.
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Evya spent the rest of the day with the Engelbrechts while we were touring CSU Long Beach.
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A beautiful night in the park for the end of what turned out to be our only dry day.
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Look at them, so comfy and dry...
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...the next day, less dry.
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It poured throughout day 2.
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We took this picture for Tyrian to say, "Wish you were here." Surprisingly, he didn't wish he was there.
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Evya braved the Incredicoaster for the first time and had a blast!
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The high-speed Incredicoaster was a whole other level of "fun" with rain bullets pelleting us in the face as we swooped and swooshed when the rain got harder.
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These kiddos decided to sit out the rain bullets while Allyndreth and Uncle Matt faced further exfoliation.
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Disneyland lived up to the "Happiest Place on Earth" reputation when the rain stopped that evening and the holiday decorations shimmered and sparkled.
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It stayed dry for the World of Color show at California Adventure later that night.
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And then we woke up on Thanksgiving morning to learn that we hadn't seen the worst Mother Nature had to offer.
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We gravitated toward all the rides that were under cover.
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The Engelbrechts had their own agenda for their final day in the park so we headed back to Galaxy's Edge to try the blue and green milk. Blue was the winning flavor in our family, 3-1.
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Although we didn't have a reservation, the bouncer let us in to The Cantina for some Tatooine breakfast.
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The food was tasty, the drinks were warm, the service was top-notch, the DJ was smokin' and the atmosphere was exhilarating. It was definitely the high point of Galaxy's Edge for us. Oh, and it was dry.
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There is a time limit for The Cantina and we had to contemplate going back out in the rain.
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Quick, take a picture. It's under an overhang so you'll be dry for a few moments.
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As we arrived early at the restaurant for our holiday meal reservation, we finally concluded that Disney is completely ill-equipped to handle a rainy day. We sat on the patio of the restaurant under a single sunbrella to have some drinks while the parade of umbrellas passed by.
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Before heading home on Thanksgiving night, we toolk advantage of the park's low rainy-day attendance to jump on some of the most popular rides one last time. And besides, most of Space Mountain's line is either under cover or inside.
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