Pictures!!!

I finally got some of our Disney trip photos back!

On some of these, I wanted to tell the "Princesses" to pull their gown up before they lost them! Yikes!!! I didn't include the photo with Ariel. There wasn't much to see. :-) One thing about the Princesses, though, was that you could tell their genuineness with the little ones. They were totally focused on the one they were talking to. I don't know how they do it, hour after hour, day after day, photo after photo!! I was talking to a cast member one day that told me the characters are chosen not only for their resemblence but for their body size and shape. The person has to fit the costume, not the other way around.

Brandon was constantly pulling weird faces. Ugh. Teenagers. :-)

We had an absolute blast! Enjoy the photos!!

DISNEYLAND!!!! (and more)

What a *great* trip!!! We drove to Salt Lake City and flew out to Long Beach airport. I've never flown in there and it was nice. Not many people. This was the first time flying for 3 of the kids (Jonah, Ronan and Isabeau). Ronan was pretty worried about it. I told him before we left home that if he didn't like flying, we would drive home. I knew I could say that because I knew he would like it and he did!!

The hotel we stayed at was wonderful. We got a 2 bedroom suite at Staybridge Inn & Suites. What a life saver it was to have seperate bedrooms!! It had a small but fully stocked kitchen and small living room. They have a shuttle directly to the Parks so staying a mile away wasn't a problem. That first day we got settled into the hotel, went to the bbq the hotel hosts on Wednesdays and went swimming. Brian wasn't feeling well (motion-sickness from the plane ride) so we put off going grocery shopping.

Day 2- we walked and walked and walked some more!!! hehehe

We had a character breakfast with Lilo & Stitch. That was so much fun!! We also got to see Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. We hadn't been into the parks yet so we didn't have autograph books but we got photos with everyone. The bill was a bit of a shock (and that is the understatement of the year!). We weren't aware of the cost before. After starting my heart and lungs again, we decided it was worth it, we had the money and the kids really loved seeing the characters. That's why we took the trip so the money wasn't an issue.

We went into Disneyland first. It's just as wonderful as we thought it would be!! I don't remember much from my trip in the '80's so most everything was a discovery. We rode the monorail, Finding Nemo submarine ride, Autopia, and Space Mountain before the 2 youngest were ready for a nap. Fruzsi, Brandon, Jonah and I headed off to more rides while Brian took the other 2 to Main Street to rest in the shade. We went on the Matterhorn (twice, short line!!), Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventure and the Tea Cups!!

By then, Brian, Ronan and Isabeau were ready to rejoin us. We went into ToonTown and went on Roger Rabbit ride, had some dinner and the kids went on the Gadget rollercoaster. It had been a long day by then so we headed for the hotel.

We had gotten the stroller turned in and were out the gates when we realized Ronan wasn't with us. We tried to get back in the exit and wow, that caused a fuss!! The ticket lady was okay with it when we explained our child was missing but some dork of a security guard wouldn't back off ("why'd you come in the exit?" our son is missing "why'd you come in the exit?" to find our son "why'd you come in the exit?" ad nauseum). A man noticed our panic and asked if we were looking for our son. He and his friends had found Ronan roaming around near the stroller rental area (where we had been before going out the gate). Thank heaven!!!!! After that, Ronan and Isabeau had their name and our cell phone numbers on a paper in their lanyard around their neck at all times!!

As if that weren't enough, when we got back to the hotel, Brian realized he was missing his wallet. The last time we remembered having it was at dinner in ToonTown. I wasn't functioning by that time because of a massive headache/migraine. So I took some medication and Brian headed back to the Park. He didn't find it so he turned in a report at lost and found. He cancelled all his cards (okay there was only 2 or 3 work ones but saying all his cards sounds like more work!). Our business partner, Ken, was able to transfer the money from one bank to our other bank the next day so we didn't have any problems. Several days later, Brian got a call from lost and found. His wallet had been turned in and everything was still there!!!! My trust in human kind is still intact! I'm really grateful we were using our debit cards with cash in the bank and not relying on credit cards. Vacation could have taken an ugly turn without money to get food with.

Day 2- After eating breakfast at the hotel's buffet (free is good), we headed to California Adventure for the day. None of us have been there before (it was a big parking lot last time I was in the area!) so it was fun!! We went to A Bug's Life first for the little one's. We were going down into the 3-D movie "It's Tough To Be A Bug" when we were stopped by 2 Cast Members who said "Congratulations!! You've Won!!!" They gave each of us a Dream FastPass!!!!!!! All of you familiar with the fast pass will know you have to get a ticket and then go back at the designated time. With a Dream Fastpass, you don't have a return time. You just get in the fastpass lane and go!!!!! We were so excited!! The rest of the day was spent running to the rides with fastpasses and riding them. The passes were for both parks so we went on Soarin' Over California, Grizzly River Run (where we saw people from our local high school orchestra who were also in the parks to perform), Muholland Madness, California Screamin' (my favorite!!!). We were all hungry by then so we went back to the hotel for lunch and a rest.

We were going to go on Tower of Terror but the Electrical Parade was going to start soon so we decided to watch that. My neice, Amy and her boyfriend (both in the orchestra) came and found us and sat with us through the parade. The park closes early so we headed over to Disneyland after the parade. We headed for the fast pass rides and got onto Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones (which broke down 3/4 of the way through for about 10 minutes. They let us go again without waiting in line), Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blast. Brian had headed back to the hotel with Ronan and Isabeau by then. The rest of us got to the shuttle stop and visited with a family while waiting. They are LDS, too. I was really amazed at how many LDS families we met through the week. We even met friends of the people who owned the house we used to live in (did that make sense?).

Day 3- Fruzsi, Brandon and Jonah went off together for the day. Brian and I took Ronan and Isabeau to Critter Country where we saw Winnie-the-Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. Brian forgot his phone so he headed back to the hotel to get it in case the kids needed to contact us. I took Ronan and Isabeau to Fantasyland. We stopped at the pier and went on the ship "Columbia". Ronan loved that!!!! Then we stopped at the petting zoo. We finally made it to the Princess Faire where we got in line to meet the Princesses. Brian got back before we got to the front of the line. We got to meet Cinderella, Snow White and Pocahontas.

After our afternoon rest at the hotel, Brian and I took Jonah, Ronan and Isabeau and let Brandon and Fruzsi go out alone. We went to Cal. Adv. and watched the Muppet's 3-D show. Ronan freaked out but we're not sure why. He didn't have his 3-D glasses on so it wasn't that. It might have been the sound level. He seems to be very sensitive to volume. We made it through and went over to Turtle Talk with Crush (from Finding Nemo). That was really cool!

After Cal. Adv. closed at 9pm, we went to Disneyland and went on Pirates of the Carribean. I don't remember ever being on that ride so I didn't know what to expect. It was really fascinating that it's all indoors. It was hard to tell that the "sky" was really the roof.

We also went to the Tiki Room!!!! It was fun to see the show behind the songs.

Day 4- BEACH DAY!!!!!!! Brian lived on the Southern California coast several times as a boy and a teen. So it was fun for him to go back down there and look around. We went to Mission San Juan Capistrano and toured that. It was very interesting to see. We found out that there was a Hungarian priest involved in its' founding. Then we headed for the beach in San Clemente where Brian used to hang out. He said nothing has changed much! The boys had a great time playing in the surf. Brandon went out quite a ways with Brian to learn how to boogie-board. He did pretty well! Isabeau was too scared after being knocked down once so we sat on the sand and she played there. Ronan played in the water but then fell asleep on his towel. I think I fell asleep for awhile, too. Thank heaven for sunscreen!!!

On our way back to the hotel, we drove up Highway 1 through Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and other towns I've only heard of. It was a very relaxing day!

Day 5- Fruzsi, Isabeau and I headed into the park earlier than everyone else. We went to Fantasyland and saw more Princesses. We got to see Belle, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Jasmine. We were back at the hotel by noon because Fruzsi and Isabeau were so tired.

The whole family went to Cal. Adv. that evening until it closed and then spent more time in Disneyland. I was incredibly tired that evening so I didn't write a whole lot of detail in my journal. The photos will have to make up for what I didn't write.

Day 6- BRANDON'S 15TH AND FRUZSI'S 18TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all got up really late and missed breakfast at the hotel. There is an IHOP across the street from the entrance to the parks so we went there for a birthday breakfast/lunch. We didn't get into the parks until after noon! Our goal for that day was to do everything we really loved one more time and then do some shopping for souveniers. We got fast passes to Tower of Terror. That was quite a ride!! I had no idea what it did so it was quite a trip!! It drops and rises unexpectedly. Brian would hate it. I loved it!! :-) Brandon, Fruzsi and Jonah got single rider passes to Soarin' Over California because the fast passes were all gone. The crowds were insane that day! More than on Saturday. We got fast passes for other rides but ended up not using them all. Brian had had enough of the crowds so he went back to the hotel with Ronan and Isabeau. The rest of us went to Disneyland to get more fast passes. The only we could get was for Thunder Mountain because the others were out already. We did a bit of shopping in Frontierland and then headed to the hotel. In the evening, we went back to Disneyland to use the fast passes and then went shopping. I got mouse ears for everyone. They have such a variety now!! It's not just black anymore. I also had them personalized so there was no question as to whose was whose! We went shopping in Downtown Disney. We thought the shops were open until 11pm so we weren't in any hurry. They closed at 10pm. :-( Brian took the 2 youngest back to the hotel while the rest of us took the monorail back to Tomorrowland and went on Autopia, Honey I shrunk the Audience and Astro Blasters. We were going to go on the Matterhorn as our last ride but it broke down and we couldn't wait. So we went on the tea cups instead.

It was weird walking out of the park that night knowing it was our last time. The week flew by so fast!!!!! There were so many things that we didn't get to do and see (Fantasmic, Aladin, 50 years of Disney w/ Steve Martin, and so much more!). I needed another week! Alas, it was not to be this time.

We flew out the next day in the afternoon. We got into SLC around 6:30pm and decided we didn't want to drive home because we were so tired. We found a motel in Bountiful. We were also able to visit our friends who live in Bountiful that evening.

On our drive home the next day, we stopped at Hill AFB and toured the Aerospace Museum. The boys loved that!!!! Brandon really likes anything to do with the military and flying. He knew so many of the planes at the museum from his time volunteering at our local flight museum.

And now it's time to get back into our normal routine! Jonah and Ronan have summer school for the next two weeks. Then we have a 4th of July fireworks show to go to that Brian is doing somewhere West of here (we're not sure which one he is doing yet). He also has to go to Telluride sometime this summer so we might all go. I have convention in Dallas for Mary Kay at the end of July. Then the family reunion in August and then school starts again! It's looking like a great, busy summer!

Thanks for reading my book! I'll post pictures later. We downloaded photos from the memory card to Brian's computer each night so they're still on there. He has to burn a cd for me so I can get them printed.

One really amazing thing was that no one got sunburned the whole trip!!! We were very vigilant with the sunscreen because most of us have incredibly fair skin. My face got a bit pink one day but it was gone the next morning so I don't count that. :-)