California Adventure Disneyland day 3

Today we decided to go over to California Adventure for day number three.  This park has a lot of things for the big kids so we let them loose to run from ride to ride while the adults and little kids went in search of fun.  Here are the pictures of our very fun day.

Here we are will Sully from Monsters Inc.  We just got off the
ride that took us through the movie in taxi cabs.

Here is one of the taxi cabs we rode on the Monsters Inc. ride.  The
kids loved climbing on it after we saw Sully.

This is a vending machine just outside the "scare floor" of Monsters Inc. 
Click the picture to read what is available .  funny!

The Tower of Terror.  An elevator ride that falls.  We got there at a good
time of the morning and went on 3 times (the older kids went 5).  Cami went on it once,
but said it was nothing like the hotels' elevator. 

Our picture at the top of the tower before we fell again.  It was so fun!
In the back is Chet, Wyat, Tagert and Vicki from our group.  The
front row is me, Cami, Cody, Dalyon, Eric, Kora and Mady.  Mady is
such a joker.

Next we went into a Bugs Life and rode some calmer rides.  This is Heimlich and his
train. He loves to eat, and burp on this ride.  When we got off he said he missed us already. 

The kids and Chet on the Lady Bug ride.  He (the ladybug) said
over and over that he is NOT a lady.

Tagert and Cami on a used Popsicle stick bench.  I love how Disneyland thinks
of everything!

Dalyon, me, Cami and Grandma in the Bugs Life 3-D movie,
with our bug eyes on. 

A character shot with Chip and Dale.

Here we are with the Cars characters Mater and Lightening McQueen.  They
will be opening up a whole new section dedicated to them in 2012 and it looks like it
is going to be amazingly fun!  They are some of our favorite characters.

Eric, Mady, Dalyon, Cami, MICKEY MOUSE, me, Cody and Grandma Ellen.
Mickey was on the Paradise Peer on our way to California Screamin'. 

Cami, Mady, Dalyon, Eric, Wyat, and Cody in front of the Paradise
Peer Ferris wheel and California Screemin'.  We rode the roller coaster as much as we could.
It is one of the best rides in the park.  We discovered that if we used every ones fast passes,
and only a few of us went, then we could go twice, so we did.  Vickie and I got off the last time
and walked like drunk women because we had had enough of the circles and upside down motions. 

Another great ride was Grizzly Mountain.  It is a water rapid ride that
gets you wet!  Everyone was drenched except me, until I got to the old
Faithful Geyser which went off as I went under it.  I ended up being the wettest
of us all.

Here we are in front of the Grizzly Rapids store with my new
towel.  I was so cold! 



Across from the rapids is a serene place that you can sit
and listen to guitar music while the kids do obstacle courses
and climb on rocks.  This is Eric taking a minute here.



Uncle Chet taking advantage of the bench,
the serene music, and the time. 

Later we went over to the Muppet's 3-D movie, then rode the Monsters Inc. ride again because we were there and liked it before.  Along the Hollywood backstage there are stores and places to learn about how they make the films for Disney.   There are a lot of Characters there and we got to explore through some of the rooms made up to appear like the different movies.  All of the rooms were interactive.  We even got to sing for Ursula the sea witch from The Little Mermaid.  She told us our voices were "interesting" and that she wouldn't be taking them from us. 

Here is the library from Beauty and the Beast.  The picture of
the prince/beast changes.  Cody is answering some questions
to see what Disney character he is most like.  He was Aladdin, I was
Cinderella

The final ride we enjoyed was Soaring Over California, which was a really good ending to our day.  We were all sunburned this time, probably a combination of not any sunscreen and the water ride, and we were exhausted.   Cami and Tagert fell asleep while we were eating our dinner at Denny's.  It was good to go to bed because tomorrow the girls perform!

Disneyland Day 2

Here we go!! 

Today's story will be told in pictures, and lots of them. I will try not to include EVERY picture, because there were over 100 for today, but I'm sure you will get a good idea of what we did today in the Happiest Place on Earth!

Our first ride, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! 
Cami cried through the whole thing. 

The Tarzan tree house.

Cami and Grandma in the tree house.

The first of the waiting game, all are being patient @ 10 am . 

In line for the Jungle Safari

Our captains name is Dave, unless we have a poor experience,
then his name is Shannon, that is what he told us.  It was a
really fun ride because of him.

A fuzzy picture on Pirates of the Caribbean.

A tomb stone at the Haunted Mansion.

Frontier Island, we found gold.

Say cheese!  On frontier island.

The roller coaster wasn't running in Frontierville.  Darn.

Eric framing Grandma and Mady.

Cami hugging Cinderella.  She told Cami that
she looked like they could be sisters. 

Cami and Sleeping Beauty.

Cami trying to pull out the Sword in the Stone.
It was loose this year. 

Taking a break while waiting to meet Rapunzel.

Cami and Rapunzel.  Her hair is sooooooo long!

My nephew Taggart is in love with Rapunzel.  He was shy and
funny as she talked to her.  He finally gave her a hug.  Sooo cute.

Eric flying on Dumbo.  he loves it!

Can Dumbo fly us all?  YUP!

Bryer Fox and the kids after Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain.  Cami screamed and cried for the
rest of the ride it scared her so much.   The rest of us had a
great ride.

Such a fun shot of Vickie and her family.  I think Grandma
is going to lay an egg. 

On a final note, we had quite a scare today.  We split up for a ride because some us wanted to ride the train and others wanted to go through the Haunted Mansion.  While we were waiting for the other group to come, Cami wasn't watched and got lost.  It scared me to death. . . . .and everyone else too.  She was missing for about a half an hour, until Chet found her with a good lady and her son who was staying with her until we found her.  She was very brave until she saw me, then started crying, and me too.  I may have appeared calm, but inside I was praying and eliciting all of my angels to help us find her.  It seems Father-in-Heaven sent two, the lady that kept her safe, and Chet who found her, for whom I am so grateful!  I'm also grateful we were all safe today, and had a great time too. 

The Joy is in the Journey Disneyland Day 1

Today we began our vacation to Disneyland!!  It is Memorial Day 2011 and me and five kids loaded up the car and headed to Southern California for a great time, and because Mady and Cami are clogging there on Thursday.  I'm going to try and post something everyday so you can share in our experience.  Today was the journey there.  We THOUGHT that if we left early that we would avoid all of the Memorial Day traffic, but we were wrong.  Immediately when we crossed the CA border the road became a parking lot and we traveled 30 miles an hour until we had to take a break in Baker, CA.  It was then that I found out I had no brake lights, so the stop and go was dangerous because the people behind me didn't know that I was stopping.  Talk about stressfull!!!!  The final ride was slow, long, congested, long, and very stressful for the driver.  Everyone else had a good time.  I had a bag full of games that we played on the way there, and I'm extremely grateful to my friend Maria for preparing a lot of it for me, and for giving me the ideas.   We traveled with my sister Vickie and her family so they kept my back so that no one ran into the back of me.  Chet (Vickie's husband) is a sheriffs deputy so he was a great help, AND, he plans on helping me fix the problem  later tomorrow.  (It is a brake light switch that is going bad).   For the games, I gave everyone in our cars an envelope with a prize in it that they had to rotate around every mile post, then when we got to the CA line we could open the envelopes and see what they won.  That got monotonous after about the first 10 miles, but we had a good laugh about it.  The prizes were silly ones, like Billy Bob teeth, $1,  sing a primary song, candy, etc.  Everyone liked it when they got their prizes though.  We also played a bubble gum contest between cars to see who had the biggest wad of chewed bubblegum when we got to Disneyland.  That was fun blowing bubbles (Cody won our bubble blowing contest) and the wad of gum at the end were even, and became footballs.  ewwwww!   I am now grateful to be at our destination and looking forward to going to Disneyland tomorrow!!!!  Here are a few pictures of our journey:

Cami attempting a bubble.

Mady and a good bubble.

Grandma gets in on the action too!

I blew a bubble and it covered my glasses, not a good idea when driving.

Cody's winning bubble.

They are saying:  WE ARE SO SICK OF BUBBLEGUM!!   
We chewed 18 packs of it to build our football size
gum wad.

A failed bubble. 

A rest in Barstow.  We brought Eric with us to keep us
laughing.  So far he is doing a good job.

Chet and Vickie keeping my back.

My sister Vickie  and her husband Chet.

Dalyon, Taggart, and Wyat riding together.

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!! 9 HOURS LATER!!!!

We are staying at the Best Western across the street from the
park. This is what the mess looks like.  Mess=fun. 

Call me "Mr. President"

Congratulations Austin!!!

Austin was elected to FFA president for the 2011-2012 year a couple of weeks ago and we are so proud of him!  He had to fill out an application, which was 4 pages long, give a speech about what FFA has done for him, and go through an interview, then wait.  His friend McCarty Amy was the president last year and wouldn't tell him the outcome for a few days, until their closing social when the new officer team was announced.  It was painful being patient, but worth it.  He wrote on his face book page "you can call me Mr. President".  He loves the FFA and has made a lot of really great friends.  We are excited to see what he does with it.

McCarty decorated his hat when they were on a FFA outing.

A few of the 2010-2011 officer team, Austin, McCarty, someone I don't know,
and Kris Wilson.  Kris is the new vice president along with Summer Stout.

Go Hurricane FFA!

 When we were in high school it wasn't common for girls to be in the FFA, but now there are a lot of girls participating.  Doug was the FFA president in his chapter in Dayton, ID when he was a senior,and his brothers were also active in that chapter.  My brother Troy was also president in Preston the same year, and my nephew Bracken and niece Heather (Troys kids) are VERY active in the Preston chapter now, as well as my niece Kora is active in the Dixie chapter in St. George.  Years ago, my Dad was in the FFA and my mom put his jacket and awards into a shadow box for him a few Christmases ago.  Now that I have typed all of that, I realize just what a tradition FFA is for our families.  I'm glad Austin is continuing the tradition.