Update on the last couple of weeks

Wow, the time flies. Since my last post we have had some fun family events, but let me go back and recap everything chronologically. (warning, this is going to be pretty long as I am documenting the events for the family album in addition to reporting it all to all of you)

*Friday the 13th I was working my butt off to get ready for our trip when someone comes pounding on my front door. "Your yard is on FIRE!!!!" Sure enough someone (probably one of the delinquent high school kids walking by as school had just let out) had lit my 12 foot tall ornamental grass on fire as well as the grass in the yard, and my neighbors yard too. I hurried to hook up the hose and started spraying to extinguish the flames. I could not reach my neighbor's yard though and the fire department arrived quickly and put hers out too. I spent about 3 hours in the yard between that, talking to the fire dept and police, and then cleaning up my yard and cutting down the other ornamentals to avoid further temptation. So much for packing and cleaning. Fortunately, they tell me the fire will actually make the grass grow in greener this year. Here's looking for the silver lining. Here is a picture of the yard.

*On the 14th we headed out at about 8 am for our 12 hour drive to Las Vegas. The ride was long but the kids did pretty well. It was great to get to Vegas and spend some time with my dad and Kay and my 3 brothers, my sister in law, and my 5 nephews. For the most part we just hung out. On Sunday we joined Kevin and his family for cake and ice cream to celebrate my nephew's birthday. It was nice to visit and to see Deb and Tut (Cass' mom and step dad) again.

*On Monday, we went to the park, played some baseball(with Steve and Z) and then went to Red Rock Canyon(with Jeff and Z). We had a great time climbing on the rocks and hiking around.

*On Tuesday, we took the kids (Kayden and Jeff came too) to the strip to see some of the traditional things my kids love to see. For some reason they always want to go to Caesar's Palace and go to FAO Schwartz. There is just something about a 3 story toy store with a giant trojan horse in the entrance that gets them all excited. So we spent some time walking around and trying out some toys.

*Did I mention that Mike had to work on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday he spent the day checking on the projects he has going in Vegas and on Tuesday he drove 5 hours each way to go to a meeting in Yuma Arizona. We were so happy that he would be off work the rest of the week though.

*On Wednesday, we hopped in the car bright and early and headed off for Disney Land. We arrived at out hotel about 11:30 am grabbed some lunch and headed off for a day of fun. We had a great day and stayed in the park til 10:00(Mike, Tiff, Ryan, and Kyle) and 11:00 (Kaylee, Jacob and me) We even watched the fireworks which we have never done before. We had a full day and managed to ride a ton of rides. We rode Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, Finding Nemo, Autopia, The Disney Railroad, Roger Rabbit, Gadget Go Coaster, Pooh Bear, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribbean, Haunted Mansion, Matterhorn, and Kaylee, Jake and I squeezed in Indiana Jones and Space Mountain in our last hour. The kids went right to sleep as soon as we got back to the hotel. It was great!
*On Thursday, we rose with the sun to make it for the Magical Morning at Disney. This allows early entry to the park (1 hour before it really opens) to some guests. After a wonderful continental breakfast in our hotel, we headed straight to Fantasy Land and rode Snow White, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio all with almost no wait. Then we headed to Space Mountain and Astro Orbitor. Next we decided to go over to California Adventures to catch some rides. We rode Soaring over California, the Golden Zephyr, Mulholland Madness, some rode the Orange Stinger and Kaylee rode the Maliboomer, Then some of us heade to Toy Story Mania, and Mike and Kaylee went to ride California Screamin'. Next we rode the Grizzly River run in turns since Kyle wasn't quite tall enough to ride and then we left the park to go to McDonalds for Lunch. Yes we did all of that before a semi late lunch. After lunch we went back to CA and rode Monster's Inc. and then Mike took the smaller kids to the Bugs Life kiddie area and Kaylee and I rode the Tower of Terror, twice! That ride is awesome!!! When we were done, Kaylee took Mike back to ride the T O T also while I stayed with the kids in Bug Land. While there they rode, the Heimlich Choo choo train, the bumper cars, and Flik's Flyers. Next we took turns riding Indiana Jones in groups since Kyle was also too short for that one. But while we waited we rode the Jungle cruise since the line was so short. This brought us to about 4:00 and we decided to take a break from Disney and go see the ocean. So we headed back to the hotel and got in the car and headed to the beach. We went to HUntington beach and by the time we got there the sun was already going down. But it was fun to walk in the sand and along the pier. We even got to watch some guys surfing. Too Cool!!!

*On Friday, Disney Land opened at 8 am so we headed out after our breakfast. The night before I had asked all the ids what they wanted to ride on Friday and so we made out way through that list. We rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Alice in Wonderland, Storyland Canal Boats, Matterhorn, Finding Nemo, and Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear. Then we went over to California Adventures to watch the Aladdin Show. we followed that with a second trip to Soaring Over California while Kaylee and Mike rode California Screaming and Toy Story Mania. After riding our rides, we did some souvenier shopping and then it was time to say goodbye to Disney Land and head back to Vegas. We left around 3:00. That night we hung out with Jeff, Steve and Z.

*Saturday morning we got up and got ready to go. We headed off to Utah. Along the way we stopped in Provo to visit our Nephew who is at BYU. We had lunch at one of our favorite old hangouts, The Malt Shoppe, and had some of the biggest and best shakes ever. Next we were off to visit our friend Tina and her family. We had a nice visit, the kids played and Mike and I enjoyed the chance to get to know Joey (Tina's fiance) a bit. We are so excited to see their happiness. The kids had a blast. Our next stop was to see Mike's sister Teresa in Salt Lake. we enjoyed a brief visit there to catch up a bit then headed off to Ogden to stay with my grandparents. It was a nice evening and great to see Grandma and Grandpa again. My Aunt Tami and my cousin Monica(and her family) came to visit. Also while we were there we had a brief visit from my cousin Emilee and my other cousin Shandy. It was so good to see all of them again and to catch up a little on our lives.

*Sunday morning we took a more realxed approach and let ourselves sleep in a bit. But at 11:00 we were off on the road for home. It is amazing how quickly a weeklong vacation can pass.

I also want to mention a little bit about how great our family trip was overall. It is so much nicer traveling with kids that are a little bigger. Disney Land was so much more fun this time around because the kids were almost all willing to try everything. Kaylee rode them all. She is a thrill seeker through and through and can go all day and night just like her mother. She loves the biggest of roller coasters and enjoys the smaller rides too. Her favorite ride was California Screaming. Tiffany found that she actually kind of likes roller coasters. She never has before, but this time her favorite rides were Space Mountain and Matterhorn. I was so proud of her for trying some new rides this trip. There were a couple of rides that Ryan didn't ride, but he tried almost everything. I was very proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone and tring some new things this time too. His favorite ride this trip was Soaring Over California. Jacob loves it all. He couldn't get enough of the big rides. His favorite rides were Matterhorn, Space Mountain, and Indiana Jones. Kyle tried everything. He may not have liked everything, but he tried anything he was big enough to ride. The Snow Monster on Matterhorn scared him, he didn't like Space Mountain because it was dark, and Splash Mountain made him come out of his seat. His favorite rides were Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland, and Toy Story Mania.

If you ask Mike, he will tell you that I ran the family ragged trying to get everything in, but if you ask the kids, even though they got tired by the end of the day, they loved that we got to do so much. Have I told you how much I LOVE DisneyLand!! I can't wait to go back.

I was so happy to spend some tim e with my dad and my brothers. It is always great to see them, but it also makes me miss my mom even more than I already do. By the way thank you to dad and Kay for putting us up for a few days and putting up with us.

I have put a few pictures here in this blog, but if you would like to see more of the pics from our trip just hop on over to my photo site.