We just got back from our Disneyland trip a few days ago. We had a great time. It seems that no matter how many times we go, we still experience new thrills and have a such a great time there. This trip was no different - we had so much fun.
This year Disney was celebrating the "Year of a Million Dreams" and they have cast members that walk around and award "Dreams" to people at random. On the third day we were at Disneyland, as we got off the Jungle Cruise ride, we were surprised when a person walked up to us and asked a few questions and then told us we were going to be the Grand Marshalls of the parade that evening. She told us that we'd be riding in a fancy car at the start of the parade and they'd announce our names as we rode down the parade route.
We had to meet them at a certain time and they took us "backstage" (Disney-talk for behind the gates or doors where only cast members go) and we got in the car and they took some photos. Then after the Mayor of Main Street (the announcer) talked to us a little bit and learned our names, we took off out into the park and went down the parade route. We waved and smiled at everyone lined up to see the parade. It was really cool to see everyone waving back and cheering for us. (I've removed our name on the plaque from the photo for security - stop by the house to see it - it's way cool!)
When that was over they gave us the balloons from the back of the car and the kids handed out some of those to people watching the parade. We then watched the parade from a special spot they had reserved for us. It was a great experience.
We also met up with Kerianne's Aunt Judi and cousin Claire for part of the time there. Claire is going to college at a nearby school and met us every day we were there for a few hours. Judi flew in and spent two days with us. It was fun to have them there and we had a great time going on rides together. They are great "ride buddies" - Spencer loved riding with Judi and the girls took turns riding with Claire. I actually got to go on few rides sitting next to Kerianne which hasn't happened for a while. They have some new rides there, including the Finding Nemo Submarines and the Toy Story Midway which was so dang fun I couldn't believe it.
As the kids get taller, they are able to go on more rides. This time Keri and Spencer went on California Screamin and loved the upside-down part. Spencer was even tall enough to ride Maliboomer, so Harrison, Claire and I rode on it with him. Wow, that was fun - I've never ridden that before. Kaylee didn't do either of those, but she was no longer scared of Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, or Thunder Mountain and we rode those a ton of times.
We also spent a day in the Carlsbad (near San Diego) area and went to Legoland. They have some really cool Lego displays there - someone puts a ton of time into those. There's some fun rides and some that are probably for younger kids that we didn't go on. The kids got to drive in little cars, a little like bumper cars, but with roads and turn signals and stop signs. The goal is to learn to drive with rules. They got a "driver's license" at the end of the ride. Legoland has a great water playground where the kids got soaking wet and we just watched them play. Harrison got to spend some time at Mindstorm where he got to program a little robot to do various space-themed "missions" - that was fun for me to watch. He gave it several steps in order to accomplish a task, then would put it on the Mars site and see if it did what it was supposed to do. If not, he could go back and correct it and try again.
After Legoland, we went to the beach and played for a few hours. We all loved that. I find the ocean waves so relaxing (other than trying to keep the kids out of them and freaking out as the kids get sand in the car). Kerianne says the beach is her favorite place to be. We stayed there long enough to watch the sun set. It was so cool. We gotta do more of that.
It was a great trip. It was good to get home and rest from our vacation, but I think I'd prefer to be on vacation all the time. I gotta figure out how to make that happen ...
I'm a little camera crazy and took over 400 photos.
Click here to see some of our favorites in a slide show.
Our ward did the annual Christmas Program as a breakfast this year. It was fun and the breakfast food they served was delicious. As usual, they had a Nativity with some of the kids dressing up and playing parts. All of our kids were asked to be in it and Kerianne sewed the costumes yesterday. Keri and Kaylee were angels, Spencer was a shepherd, and Harrison was Joseph.
Here's some photos of the kids Halloween costumes. We had a great Halloween - it was so warm compared to other years. I only wish that our ward did the trunk or treat on a different night and not on Halloween. I still prefer the good old fashioned trick-or-treating.
Today I went on the 2nd Grade field trip with Keri, Spencer and Kaylee. We had a great time. They had a fun hayride with a stop in the pumpkin patch, a cow train, and an exhibit with singing chickens that taught us about chickens and eggs.
There was also a "corn box" which was a shed type building filled with dried corn kernels about 10 inches deep. We played in that for a while and took turns covering each other with corn. It was a blast. I'm quite sure I didn't have this much fun when I was in 2nd grade.
It's that time of year to pick out pumpkins to carve into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. There's this great pumpkin patch near our house where we like to go find the perfect pumpkin. It seems like the kids have to look at pretty much every pumpkin there before finding the one they want, but we had a lot of fun.
Harrison has been working very hard in scouting and has earned his First Class Scout award. In addition to the weekly scout meetings, this summer he went to a few camps and worked on the skills needed for advancement and passed the Board of Review. At the Court of Honor a couple of weeks ago, he was presented with his Tenderfoort, Second Class, and First Class at the same time.
Harrison, Spencer and I went to our ward's Fathers and Sons Camp a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time. They had great dutch oven food for dinner and breakfast. We had a lot of friends there and it was just fun to relax and enjoy being together. It got a little colder at night than we had thought - there was frost on the van windows when we woke up in the morning. After breakfast, we went to a really beautiful set of waterfalls and hiked around the area. I'm really glad we went.
I ran a half marathon this morning. It was a new course that I haven't run before. I had seen a map of the course and knew it was basically an "out and back" where you run out to a point, loop around, and come back the same route. Most out and back courses are fairly flat. However, I was surprised at the slight uphill during the first half and a couple of steep hills just before the halfway point.
