All Good Things Must Come To An End....

( Looking at the Matterhorn from the teacups) Day number 3 at Disney. My feet were hurting, it was cold and rainy but whatya going to do....you are at the happiest place on earth...right...so we bucked up, bundled up and headed to the park. It wasn't to busy to begin with at the park because of the weather so we hit a lot rides all at once.

C'mon when you are at Disney you have to do the flying Dumbo ride. Can I admit that I cry every time I watch Dumbo, you know the part. The part where the mom is holding and rocking Dumbo with her trunk through her cage where she is chained down ...see I am tearing up just typing it....sniff........

Makenzie repeatedly requested seeing the castle so we made it a point to head over and do the tour of the castle. She also found this girly priness store beside the castle...they do princess makeovers in there....I think this was Shangri-la for Kenzie.

It was awful chilly so nothing sounded better then getting some warm beignets over in New Orleans square

We took a quick visit to critter country which has all the Winnie Pooh stuff. We got to see Winnie, Eeyore, and Tigger.

Because we had park hopper passes we headed over to California Adventure in the afternoon. We did that on purpose because it started to raining heavily and most of the stuff we wanted to do over in California Adventure was inside. The above pic is a picture I took from google to show the ride Soaring California...It is a movie screen with an optical illusion that makes it look like you are flying over landscapes of California. It is an awesome ride!

We saw a Muppets 3-D movie and then headed over to an interactive Monsters Inc. ride...can I say Babblin Boo is one of my favorite Pixar characters.

There it is, the last ride of the day. The rain was coming down hard and it was getting colder. I was not to sure what Kenzie would think of this ride. You walk into a creepy hotel lobby that has been abandoned since the 40's. A bell hops takes you to a staging room where you watch a twilight zone movie and then they load you on an elevator that takes you on a ride that feels like you are on a runaway elevator. The elevator drops so fast that you are floating midair a few times. GREAT ride! All the girls loved the ride!

That was it, our last day :(.......I don't think my feet could have taken another day of walking though. We had so much fun and what amazing gift we were given by some amazing people. The kids want to go again and hopefully financially we are in a place in the next couple years that we can do it again. The next day we headed back to Vegas for one last night...to be continued!

P.S........I forgot to mention that in a lot of the pictures you see all the kids wearing lanyards with Disney themed pins all over them. We bought them on e-bay for a much cheaper cost than what you can purchase in the park. Most of the Disney employees wear pins and they are required to trade with you. The kids had so much trading pins with the workers, they came home with some fun pins and if go we back again they still have some they want to trade.

Not A Better Way To Spend Your Anniversary

(Hollywood lot at California Adventure)

So lets be honest, we drug ourselves out of bed the next day, it was a long day walking the park the day before. We had early admission tickets for Disneyland for Saturday morning (we could be in the park at 7am...ughh)! We got to the park around 7:45, which is fine because as soon as we walked in the park they had just opened a few rides so we walked right on. We then headed for Pirates of the Caribbean ride (the kids now FAVORITE ride). Then we took the twins on the Indiana Jones ride, the one of two rides Makenzie was to little for. Indiana, my favorite ride, they put you in a jeep and it is a roller coaster that makes you feel like you are four wheeling through all the different movie scenario's.

( Entrance to California Adventure)

After some more rides we headed over to California Adventure, it does not open till 10 in the morning. California Adventure is right across from Disneyland and is a blast. It does not have as many rides, and definitely not as big, and a lot of it is under construction but we spent a lot of time in this park.

(Kaitlynn and Adrian on the Ferris Wheel)

They have an area that is called the pier and it is done like a 1920's boardwalk. Lots of Midway type games, a huge rollercoaster and ferris wheel. They also have a Toy Story ride that is incredible ( the line is incredible for this ride also....looooonnnggg). They have a Hollywood studio lot that has movies and interactive things for the kids to do. We stumbled upon an area that kids can watch an interactive movie with Crush from Finding Nemo. They also a have a sorcerers workshop that has a Beauty and the Beast castle and Urusala's grotto that have several interactive things adults and kids can do. Oh and by the way the pin that Adrian has on his shirt in the above pic says, happy anniversary. It was our 17 year anniversary and Disney has a pin they give you for that. Everywhere we went people would say congrats and give us a big smile.

( Makenzie having a chat with some toy soldiers)

Like I said we were tired and had gotten tickets to a program called, World Of Color that night on the pier so we headed back to the hotel and let the kids catch some ZZZZ's because we knew it was going to be another late night.

(The Ferris wheel at the Pier)

(King Tritons' Merry-go- round)

(Night time at the pier)

So California Adventure does a show called World of Color at night, it is done with water and lights and images are projected on the water. This place is gorgeous at night, everything is lit up !
The show has different music numbers from various Disney movies and Disney themes. The kids were enthralled by it and I would highly recommend anyone that goes to these parks takes the time to go see this show.

( One of the projected images they displayed)


We did a couple of rides and then headed back to downtown Disney to get a bite to eat. We bought tickets for an extra day so whatever we had missed we knew we had Sunday to finish up...........to be continued!

Alrighty Kids it is Wally World..I Mean Disney Time!

This trip was given to us by my in-laws. They provided us a 3 night stay at Disneyland Hotel and 2 days of park hopper passes to Disneyland and California Adventure. All of Adrian's siblings and their families got to come. I think Adrian's parents were thrilled to see the excitement in the grandkids eye's, and all of us will have some great memories of this trip.

The very first ride of the morning. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Kenzie was so excited she was shaking. We had talked up this trip for a couple months and it was finally here, she finally got to experience Disneyland.

2nd ride of the morning and the very first roller coaster I rode when I was a young kid, Space Mountain. The twins were anxious to try out this roller coaster I kept talking about. This was Kenzie's first rollercoaster ride also. Out of all the rides at Disneyland there was only two Kenzie was not tall enough to ride. Kenzie loved this ride and wanted to do it over and over again and the twins wanted to do this ride over and over again also.

A picture I took on the riverboat...kinda a pretty ride around the water. It is a good ride to go on when the feet are hurting from all that walking that you do at Disney.

Grandpa Bob promised that he would take Kenzie on Small World and Mr. Toads Wild Ride or mabye I promised her ;)...anyways grandpa took her on both these rides and she loved them. However, we did get stuck on Small World for awhile...even Kenzie was plugging her ears by the end of this looooonnnggg riiidddeeee....its small world after all, its a small after all, its a small, small world!!!!

Princess Fantasy Fair story time.......Sleeping beauty did the story this day. There is an area that you can wait in line and meet some princesses, the line is long but I am sure worth the wait...we just ran out of time and ran into some bad weather Sunday so we didn't get a chance to do it...

Ahhh Jessie, One of Kenzie's favorite. I love this picture and the experience was great. Kenzie did not get a chance to hug Woody and Jessie must have seen her disappointment because Jessie came and grabbed Kenzie out of the crowd and let her come back and give both of them a hug. She gave Makenzie lots of extra attention and Makenzie was thrilled. Later she received a Jessie doll that goes everywhere with her now.

We rode a lot of rides...and still had a lot of rides we missed.The twins said that Space Mountain and The Haunted Mansion were their favorites that day. The crowds were heavy that day but we knew we had two more days to go. The kids all got their Mickey ears and then we settled in for the night to watch the fireworks show by the small wonder ride. They do a wall of memories show on the small wonder building, it is pictures taken throughout the park from Disney photographers and then shortly after they do the fireworks show. It was an exhausting first day and the kids crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel. The next day we did the adjoining park California Adventure.......to be continued..........

Goofy, Pluto, Baloo, Chip and Dale, Oh My!

We got to Anaheim around one in the afternoon, we were the first to get to the hotel, no sooner did we get in the lobby did Disney characters come out of the Goofy kitchen. Goofy's kitchen is a dining place that you can see all the characters at a hefty price. I was not prepared for taking pictures yet, I was digging for my camera, the children were disheveled from being in the car.

Once I got the camera out and ready I had to gather my road weary children. The youngest was not to sure of these furry creatures (nightmares of her previous run in with coca-cola bear just the day before seemed to cloud her judgement of these characters). So I started clicking the camera quickly, Kenzie never looked at the camera, they are a little out of focus....

But nonetheless we got to see a lot of characters all at once and did not have to wait in line or pay a small fortune for a meal to see them

The only picture Kenzie posed perfectly for......it is because Alice falls in the princess category, and Kenzie loves anything that may be like a princess...........even though Alice is not a princess, she is girly, and that is good enough for Kenzie.

The girls were off talking to Goofy and Kenzie would not go near the big blue bear (once again, remember the coca-cola bear). I still had to get a pic though because I love Baloo the bear, and Jungle Book is one of my favorites.

Captain Hook is in the corner of this pic, hook and goofy were sword fighting, it was really hard to get a picture of hook, he only stayed a couple minutes and was headed out the door

Goofy stayed the longest and played with the girls a lot,......all this happened within just a half hour of us being in the hotel...the kids were thrilled! We soon checked into our hotel room which had been newly renovated and was beautiful and then had to move to a new hotel room because of the lack of air conditioning in our room. Our view from our new room allowed us to see the fireworks that Disney does every night. We got to bed early in preparation for the next day...............to be continued

The "Griswolds" head to Sin City....

See these three kiddos...their innocent eye's looking at you, well they are no longer innocent, they have been introduced to the city that we call Las Vegas! A city of decadence, extravagance, gluttony, lust, and sin, all within a few square miles.......

After checking into our hotel we took a walk down the strip to check out the Bellagio water show and to see all the lights...the very first picture I took with the Parisian casino in the background also includes a billboard with a naked women in the background, Adrian thought it was funny because he saw it as I was taking the picture...believe me that picture is conservative compared to some of the other pictures plastered around the strip. The children saw things their small town eye's have never seen but they took it all in stride and laughed at the stumbling intoxicated people celebrating St. Patty's day a little early.

The next day we took off to the Mandalay Bay Casino. It is beautiful inside, five star restaurants, entertainment, and it is beautifully decorated. This restaurant has been featured on T.V. a lot, this is a tower of different wines. The waitress uses repelling ropes to get the wines that have been ordered; resembling something out of a mission impossible movie, this picture does not do it justice, it is huge and goes from ceiling to floor

This is the pool area at Mandalay Bay, it also huge. It has sandy beaches to sit at and goes as far as the eye can see.

The aquarium was also beautiful. It has a lot sharks and some interactive things to do. The girls had fun looking at these huge overhead tanks, watching the sharks circle in and out. They have plexi glass floors so you can look below you also. A great place to take the kids when Vegas.

We then drove down to the MGM grand casino which is across from the New York, New York casino. MGM has a huge mall in the middle of it and they also have a CSI experience which I wanted to do badly but figured solving a murder crime with a four year old in tow wouldn't be the best idea. We took off to the M&M factory and saw a 3-D movie and walked around the four floors of M&M merchandise. The kids did some shopping there.....

This was taken at the Coca Cola store. The Coca-Cola Polar bear was there and Makenzie was scared to death of him. He was huge and animated, he closed his eyes, and smiled, and was very funny but Kenzie wanted nothing to do with him. Could have been the fact he kept trying to eat everyone's head. We then took off back to the hotel to meet up with incoming family and go grab something to eat.

After dinner we headed down to Freemont street to check out the light show. Freemont is in the old part of Vegas and has all the old casino's there. The light show was music from the Door's that night. It is amazing to see but even more amazing is the crowd that shows up down there. I did a lot of diverting my kids attention to other things...I really did not want to have to explain some things. But they do have fried Twinkies and Oreo's on Freemont...that makes it worth the visit right!?

Freemont attracts the impersonators...several Elvis's, Ozzy Osbourne, Showgirls, Kiss, and tons of street performers. It was fun...it was tacky.....it was crazy...it was Vegas! The next morning we took off to Disneyland...to be continued!

Opposites

A few months ago I moved my twins into their own bedroom. We had a playroom that was not being used anymore because my four year old does not know how to go off by herself and play,unless she is in to something, mostly she thinks she needs to be by your side at all times chattering away. Kaitlynn asked if she could move her stuff into that room and I figured why not. They are both at that pre-teen, I want my own space moodiness, so to keep the bickering down to minimal levels, having them move to separate rooms seemed like a good idea. This is taped to Kaitlynn's door.....like I said, they are pre-teens and not sure where they fit in yet. I find the littlest pet shop stickers combined with the dead flower and skull a unique combination. This was placed on the door because they thought the four year old knows how to read and would actually stay out of their room...hahahahaha

This is on Cheyenne's door, her rules are more specific, like no farting. Once again a warning to Makenzie to stay out of her room. They are not targeting Makenzie just because they are being mean, Makenzie sneaks in their room a lot. One time she snuck in and ate one of those king size symphony bars that Cheyenne had gotten as a gift from a friend. It took her all day of sneaking in and out of their room but she had it eaten by the time they got home from school.....that is only one example of Makenzie's sneakiness....I kinda understand the twins paranoia of the four year old.....she has taken off with my things also.

My biggest discovery of separating the twins is the cleanliness and orderliness of one and the sloppiness of the other. Unfortunately Cheyenne cleaned her room yesterday under strict orders from me so I could not get a side by side comparison. This is Kaitlynn's shelves, neatly organized, everything categorized and put it in its right place. She knows if something has been touched, the clothes are in the hamper and everything is well taken care of. Cheyenne had nothing put away, no clothes in the hamper, books and socks strewn across the floor. All those times of them having to clean their room, when they shared a room, and most of the mess was probably Cheyenne's.

Twins, a quirky thing. They are so much alike that when things emerge that are different they stick out. They both recently found out they need glasses, their prescriptions are exactly the same but in different eyes, one has a left eye that is bad and the other has right eye that is bad but they have the same prescription, just in different eyes. When they loose teeth they are always in the same place, days apart, just on opposite sides of the mouth.

So now I ask the question if they have these strange occurring opposites, which one is the good twin, and which one is the evil twin? MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA..........

I guess we all have a right to our opinion.

I live here in the great state of Utah home of the LDS church. We have this university in Provo called BYU, have you heard of it? With March madness around the corner BYU's exceptional basketball team has been in the spotlight because of their basketball player Brandon Davies, have you heard of him? This is the player that has been in the middle of a public media frenzy. He was kicked off the basketball team for breaking the BYU honor code. The code includes no drinking, tobacco, illegal drugs, premarital sex, and various other dress and honesty codes. Brandon Davies got his girlfriend pregnant and therefore broke the honor code which in turn released him from the team. It has not been stated whether or not he will be joining the team next year or if he in fact will be able to stay at the school.

Everyone has an opinion on the subject here so I thought why not throw my opinion into the hornets nest......

First off all Brandon grew up in Utah county, grew up in the church, knew what BYU expects of their students. The honor code is drilled into the head of incoming students and students voluntarily sign this document. BYU had to stand by the same standards as they do with all their students even if basketball championships revenues are at risk. BYU has an exceptional academic program with amazingly intelligent students graduating every year..........

With all that being said I need to throw in my...but...comment....with all the local media high fives for BYU sticking by their standards I see a sophomore "kid" who is at the end of the day a "kid" who made a mistake. I am not a graduate of BYU, but have known a lot of students of BYU. The biggest complaint and the only complaint I ever heard about BYU was the honor code committee. I see the honor committee as a very black and white judgement, yet we as humans are subject to frailties and mistakes, we can't judge situations in black and white standards.

When transgressions are made within the church there is a series of disciplinary actions that one goes through, a series of steps and repentance to try to realign one self with the doctrine of the church. I see a committee that does not allow any room for realignment, I see a set of church standards that are expected of this code as extreme. Why can't BYU students work with church leaders and others to go through a repentance process like all other members, why does there have to be a committee that is only there for judgement and punishment.

I know BYU is not the only school with honor codes and I am not admonishing the LDS church or BYU. I see a kid who made a mistake, I don't think this is the time for this "boy" to get the iron fist thrown at him. I don't see this as a time to stand before a committee who passes down punishments. I see students hiding their transgressions in fear of the punishment of the knee jerk reactions of the honor committee.

I guess I just see irony that is all. Every member of the church has a process of repentance and forgiveness but BYU students are only offered this after judgement has been passed down....and that goes against what I feel is right.