Disneyland - Day 4

Today was our "early in" day. We got to go in 1 hour early, with about 2,000 other people, so it wasn't really a early in day, if you ask me. We headed to ride the Submarine Nemo ride first, then headed to Fantasyland for the all the activities there.

Of course, we had to stop and try to get the "Sword in the Stone" out. Both kids tried and tried to get it out, but we weren't the lucky ones today.

The kids wanted to ride the Tea cups, Deni and I watched. I'm not a Tea cup fan.

We walked by the Princess line and it was "short" only a 30 minute wait now. Sydney got to see Belle, Cinderella and Ariel. I love this picture I caught with Sydney and Ariel. It's a very cute picture.




At the end of the day, we headed towards the coast to see the ocean. We drove to Newport Beach but drove up the coast until we got to Huntington Beach.

I made sure everyone had jackets, except for myself. We got there at sun down and with the wind, it was chili.

As we got there, Sydney was fearless and ran to the edge of the water, not understanding the tides. It wasn't more than 45 seconds that a large wave came and caught Ryan and Sydney and got them wet almost waist deep. I was videoing at the time and about 5 feet away. I quickly stepped in front of Ryan and grabbed Sydney's arm. I wish the video would have been still running, as it would have been fun to watch, but I somehow turned it off, right as the wave hit.

Running with Sydney on the beach.



The sunset was beautiful as was the beach. Growing up in Texas, we didn't have "real" beaches like this. The ocean smell and the waves made me want to move to the coast.

Standing on the west coast- Ryan, Brett and Sydney.

Disneyland Day 3 - Day of the puke

Back to California Adventure today. We got there about 10:30 and waited for the High School Musical parade at 11:30am. Our whole reason for going to Califonia Adventure today was to see th HSM parade.

Another attempt to put me in the picture (from the reflection.)



While waiting for the Parade, Ryan found a keychain Stitch, which he bought with his hard earned money. $5.95 + tax for the little keychain. Both kids brought their own money to spend on things they really (REALLY) wanted. Ryan has really struggled with spending his own money. He would always want to know how much he'd have left after a purchase. Deni and I concluded that unless the amount he was subtracting was $0.00, then he really didn't want to spend "his" money. Having the kids bring their own money to spend was probably the smartest thing I've ever done in my life. However after finding this Stitch, he found a way to part with his beloved money.

On queue, the HSM 3 parade came through at 11:30am. Sydney was shy (not sure why) but Ryan got to go out and dance in the parade. I got a lot of good video for Sydney to watch over and over. She was disappointed to see it wasn't the REAL HSM3 actors.



After HSM parade, we went back to Soarin' over California. On Day 1 we were on the first row. Today we were on the 3rd row. By far, the 1st row is 100% better, as there is no one above you. Today we saw peoples feet dangling down. It's almost like watching a movie where you see the microphone at the top of the screen occasionally. It's irritating. Next we headed to to South Side of California Adventure.

We rode the new Toy Story ride, where you shoot targets. It's a great ride and game. Fun for all ages. Next we went to California Screaming. It's the largest Roller coaster ride at California Adventure. We had fast passes, but found out that Sydney was about an inch too short to ride. So I sent Ryan and Deni on it first, I was going to get some video of them, but my battery died. They both came of the ride smiling, so I asked Ryan if he wanted to go back on it with me. He did, we were back on the ride within about 5 minutes. After the first loop-de-doo, I looked over and he was dry heaving. This isn't good. By the time we stopped, he had thrown up multiple times, and me with my overactive gag reflex, I almost lost it too, but didn't. As we pulled in, I left the attendant know, and we exited as quickly as possible. They took the cart off to get it cleaned. It took a while to get Ryan back to feeling better. I took him into the bathroom and cleaned up the puke on his shirt and shorts. (a great benefit of being a dad). After about 30 minutes of sitting in the shade, he was able to eat his lunch and was back to his normal self. Poor kid. It was a hot day, and his clothes had just about dried by that time too.

We headed toward "A Bug's Life" and Ryan forgot all about having puked. He wanted to play in the water and ride all the rides. Ryan about to catch some water.






Sydney surprised at the water fountain at A bugs life.




We kept him off the rides that we thought might make him puke, but let him ride the bumper cars. He got on to the bumper car, set his little keychain Stitch next to him and forgot all about it as he exited the bumper car. He remembered about 2 minutes later and we ran back to recover him, but found no stitch. This was a tragic experience for him. Not only did he lose his most favorite possession, it was a possession he had paid for. The attendant had us look and then had us wait for a few minutes while someone came to talk to us. The lady, Kristy, came and wrote Ryan a "no strings attached" replacement ticket for the lost Stitch, which could be used at any store in the park. She also asked Ryan his favorite ride - we ended up with Nemo, although we haven't ridden it yet. Kristy then gave us a "Attraction Readmission Pass" which puts us at the front of the line on the one ride. It was written out for the new Nemo ride, which has the longest line we've seen to date. It's a one time use pass, but it was very kind of her to give that to us. She said she was giving it to us because we had to wait for her to come talk to Ryan and give him the replacement ticket. Wow, now that's a great company. Not only do you replace a lost toy free of charge, but you go the extra mile. Way to go Disney. Ryan went from tears to extreme satisfaction.

We left the park early and headed back to our Hotel. We grabbed a bite to eat at Papa Johns and then went looking for some Disney stores outside of Disneyland. We figured we could find some of the things the kids wanted for cheaper, but the stores we visited, didn't have the items.

We called it a night and headed to the hotel. I went and exercised for 30 minutes, while Ryan worked on some homework and Deni did some laundry. Then we went swimming for 30 minutes.

Ryan and I topped off the night by reading another chapter in the new Fablehaven book. Deni finished it last night and is dying to talk to me about it.

Disneyland - Day 2

First real day at Disneyland today.

We started out the day by splitting up, in an attempt to cover more ground. I took Syd to go see the Princesses. We got to the place were 3 of the Princesses were, but even at 10am, the line was already too long, we waited for a few minutes but Sydney got too impatient standing in line. So we headed to Toontown. We got there about 15 minutes before it opened and were the first ones in. We ran and ended up at Mickey's house first in line to see Mickey.



Ryan and Deni caught up to us in Toontown after seeing a Jedi training show.

The kids really enjoyed the toontown rollercoaster and were able to see a number of the Disney characters.



I tried to get creative in getting myself in pictures. Shown here in the reflection of Sydney's sunglasses.



After toontown we rode the train around to New Orleans Square and walked right into the haunted mansion with no line. Sydney didn't like the beginning of the ride and refused to get into the ride, so Sydney and Deni left, with Sydney crying. Ryan and I went ahead and rode it and had a fun time.

We stopped to watch a band play (New Orleans big band style) and the kids got Marti Gra necklaces.

Trying on hats and attempting to make a Grumpy face at Disneyland.



We walked through Tarzan tree house, rode Indiana Jones Adventure, and rode the Jungle Cruise.

We topped off the night with a visit to the Enchanted Tiki Room.

We left Disneyland get some dinner and ended up getting some authentic Chinese food that wasn't too bad. After dinner, I dropped Deni, Ryan and Sydney off at Disneyland so they could get a seat for the Parade. I drove back to the Hotel and then caught the shuttle back. The parade was new. Ryan was excited as Stitch was in the parade. The kids went out during the parade to dance twice. First the twist, and then a second time they did the conga.

After the parade, we were tired and headed back to the hotel for a little swimming. The pool was heated, almost to the extent of being a hot tub, it was nice, but you couldn't stay in too long.

Great day 2.

Disneyland Day 1 - California Adventure

It's official, Circus Circus was a horrible hotel. I didn't sleep well last night. We could hear people next door, above us, and in the hallway as clearly as those in the room. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well at all last night. We left Las Vegas round 8am (PST).

We pulled into Anahiem, CA about 11:45am and attempted to check-in at our Hotel. They told us we could check-in in about 30 minutes, so we went to the grocery store for a few things. We came back and checked-in. Talk about night and day. We are in an extremely nice hotel. We got settled in and headed to Disneyland.

Actually we went to California Adventure first, as it looked less busy. Ryan said he wanted to ride the Tower of Terror first. Deni said she would stand outside with Sydney, but for whatever reason, Sydney said she wanted to do it too. Looking back on now it was probably sibling rivalry or possibly just the pure fact that we were finally out of the car and at Disneyland and she didn't want to miss out on anything. The Tower of Terror isn't probably that appropriate for 6 and 8 year olds and especially not the first ride of the day. The ride was fun, but not a good way to start out the day with little ones.

It took all of us a little while for our stomachs to be back to normal.

From there we split for a while. I took Ryan into a really cool interactive show with Crush, the computer animated turtle from Finding Nemo. Ryan got to ask Crush a question. Ryan's question was "Have you ever surfed with Stitch" Crush said "Uhhhh What's a stitch?" Ryan explained it was Stitch from Lilo and Stitch and got a really good answer to his question. At the end of his answer, Crush talked about how Mom turtles lay their eggs and how if the Mom turtle lays her eggs in a hot place, all the eggs that hatch will be girls and if a Mom turtle lays her eggs in a cool place, all the eggs that will hatch will be boys and finally ended with "that's why girls are HOT and boys are COOL.".

Deni and Sydney went to playhouse Disney while Ryan I were in seeing Crush, so while they were in watching Crush, we went to "How to" animation workshop, were we were taught to draw Tigger. I won't quite my day job, but for a first time trying to draw Tigger, it wasn't so bad.

On to California Soarin. We got fast passes, so zoomed up to the front of the line. I was reminiscing about how I had gotten to the front of the line with Ryan 5 years ago, when he informed me that he had to go pee. We were laughing, until Sydney said the exact same thing at almost the exact same spot, however she held it for 10 minutes while we went on the ride. We now ask the kids if they have to go pee before getting in line. The joys of parenting.

Next we went to Grizzly River Rafting, were we got soaked, but had a great time.

Brother Bear park was next... they ran across rope bridges, slid down "log" slides, and swang on rope swings. This is a very cool part of the park. There were hardly any people in this attraction and the kids loved it.

By this time it was 6pm and California Adventure was closing. We didn't realize it closed so early, but just about everyone went over to Disneyland to either spend the next 2 hours until Disneyland closed, or to go to see the Parade. You can imagine the influx of people at 6pm everynight.

We followed everyone out of California Adventure and headed into Disneyland. We headed to Autotopia. Where Ryan and Sydney drove their cars, with a little assistance from mom and dad with the gas peddle. I have some funny video footage of Ryan driving. There's a part that feels like it's going "offroad". I told Ryan he had gone off road and he was quite concerned, he said "you're supposed to..." I'm glad I had the camera rolling as his facial expression was priceless.

Day one was great.

Sin City

Within 10 seconds of pulling on to the Las Vegas Strip, I had to yell at my kids to look away and close their eyes. I'm not sure how I had forgotten that Las Vegas was sin city and that porn was free on the side of the road.

We got into Las Vegas around 7pm and went straight to our hotel, Circus Circus. As we pulled into the hotel, Ryan told us that he didn't feel safe, which was the same feeling we were all having. I thought once we got into our Hotel, we'd feel different. However, that wasn't the case. We took everything we wanted to still have in the morning into the room with us and parked next to the most expensive car we could.

The only good thing about tonight, was we caught The Amazing Race an hour later than usual.

Mr Mom

I worked from home today, so I could be home when Sydney and Ryan got out of school. Deni is at Women's confernece at BYU today and tomorrow.

At 10:30am I took a bike ride and made it back just in time to throw some shorts over my spandex and run get Sydney from school. I don't mind wearing my bike shorts when I'm around others that are dressed similar, but there's something about riding my bike to pick up Sydney in my bike shorts when there are tons of mom's picking up their children.

Novell had more layoffs today. Of course the first day I work from home, they have layoffs. Today was the last day of the quarter, so I'm assuming they were attempting to meet some type of numbers. It used to be that we only had to worry about year end (Nov), but it appears that it's going to be at the end of each quater now. Great. My job is safe now... at least for another quarter, right?

Sydney said some funny things tonight.

This evening I told Sydney that I loved her. Her response was "I love you google" Not knowing for sure what she said, I asked her to repeat herself and she said "I love you google - it's more than infinity"

Dinner was.... Macaronni and Cheese, at the kids request. Maybe they just know better than to have me cook anything else.

While Sydney was saying her prayers tonight, she said "Please bless that mom will drive home safely and that she will learn how to be a better mommy." I'm sure this could be taken a number of ways, but it was a very pure and innocent statement by her. Deni is currently at Womens Conference at BYU and although I'm not certain, I'm sure that Deni told Sydney that she was going Women's conference to learn how to be a better mommy. I guess we'll see once Deni reads this and see if I'm right.

Running

I ran 2.2 miles today treadmill. Nothing spectacular, but I really don't like running, so it's an accomplishment.

The Jar

A while back, Deni challenged me to a weight loss competition. There wasn't a clear way to win, nor was there a reward, so since that time, I've gained 6 -7 pounds. I'll show her.

To be honest, it wasn't motivating either of us and with me, it was cursing me.

And then the idea came to me.

Each of has to exercise for 30 minutes a day, for at least 5 days a week, with the workout completed by 8pm, else a dollar has to go into "the Jar". With the proceeds going to some future Trip we'll take together. I proposed the idea to Deni and she thought it was a great idea. We both needed something to motivate us, and apparently $1 per missed workout does it. Deni's statement was something to the effect "you aren't going to get any of my money".

Case in point, the day we flew out to DC, Deni was sick and it was snowing... but guess what, she exercised. Me, I didn't get time to exercise before Deni "MADE" me go to the airport. Matter of fact, I was on my way to exercise when Deni and used my co-workers to "distract" me. So she said, I needed to put a $1 in the jar.

I think I could have fought that one, but went ahead and put a $1.00 in the jar, thinking it was going to be the last dollar I put in the jar. Let's just say, $2.00 is my limit. Deni gets a big smile on her face when I have to put a $1.00 in the jar.

12 years ago today

12 years ago today, it was snowing. How do I remember, well today marks our 12th year wedding anniversary. Wow - twelve years of blissful marriage.

I am truly blessed. I have (hot sexy) loving wife and two beautiful children. I am so happy to have met and married my best friend.

Deni, I'm sure glad you can still surprise me after all these years. Thanks for the DC trip, it was a wonderful 5 days.

Priceless

Pinewood Derby Kit - $4.50
Cutting, sanding, painting - 4 hours
Winning your first Pinewood Derby Race - Priceless

This was Ryan's first Pinewood Derby race. Can't get a better reaction than this.

Ready for the celebration, even before the car comes across the line.

Ryan wanted his car painted like the flag from Amazing Race. It was only fitting that he won, the "most likely resembles a Reality TV show." Every kid got an award. Yesterday, jokingly I told Deni that Ryan should get the "most likely resembles a Reality TV show" award and surprise... he got it. He was so excited to get that award. He was pretty impressed with this "Amazing Race" car.


Victory Lane.