Disneyland Part 1

Doesn't the word vacation just sound lovely? I love that word, especially when it is followed by Disneyland! I really do hate to make you all read a play by play, but if I don't write about our trip that way, I will forget the special moments. Sorry, skip all this if you want!

We started our trip early Friday morning. Jared had to do some work in St. George, so we hung out in the van and started homework while he worked. Then it was off to Vegas! Me and the kids have never spent time there. We made the kids all promise to not look at the ground, and then we took them to the strip. We started off at the Flamingo, walked through Caesar's Palace and then wandered the Bellagio. The garden room inside there is spectacular!!!! We went outside to watch the fountains. What a sight! We had to stay through two songs.

During this Tyler tried to fight off the Joker for Batman.

Also during this whole time, Ainsley was sick! She had a horrible cold and couldn't stop coughing. I am sure we had several people wonder about us and swine flu. The next morning we were off to Anaheim. Disneyland's special right now is 5 days for the price of 3. I didn't feel like we were wasting any precious time by arriving there at 4:00 pm after everyone had a nap instead of 9 am. Just for the record, I didn't cry at the ticket window. I cried when we got into the gate and found out the electric parade isn't running until summer. That's what I get for planning a trip during the off season! Our first anticipated ride was to be Pirates, but unfortunately it was temporarily closed. It was being renovated three years ago when we went, so we all crossed our fingers it would open back up soon. Instead we went to Haunted Mansion. Ainsley was nervous about ghosts, so she became Wendy Wu the kung-fu champion to fight the ghosts for us. (Throughout the ride she kept whispering "It's all pretend right mommy?)

Our next ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I wasn't sure how Ainsley would do on this one. She is a daredevil, but has never been on anything like this before. She is too short for the fun rides at Lagoon. After we got off she asked if we could ride it again!

We spent the rest of the night riding and having fun. I think we rode Autopia three times that night. Jared and I decided that none of our kids are ever getting driver's licenses.

Pirates did open that night, and I must truly love my family because I sacrificed part of the fireworks to ride it with them.

The next morning we started in California Adventures. It was so crowded here that we barely rode any rides. We waited over an hour to ride a ride similar to Wild Mouse (but much calmer). We were all disappointed in it. When we were over in the Hollywood Backlot we watched an Aladdin play that was awesome. A big auditorium with air conditioning! One of my favorite trip moments happened this day. We were standing around near the Animation Station when Cinderella walked in. Ainsley and Jared noticed her right away and walked up to her. Cinderella (Ainsley's favorite princess) grabbed onto Ainsley's hand and walked with her to where she was going to stand. Meanwhile, I am trying to find my camera and crying. Ainsley was grinning from ear to ear. I finally found my camera, but by that time I had to wait in line to see Cinderella again. I don't care-----Ainsley got her wish!

Just as a side note....my brother Kelly offered to bet my girls that I would cry while we were at Disneyland. Neither of the girls would bet against him because they knew I would cry. Last time I burst into tears at the ticket window because I was so excited to be there!

While in California Adventures we rode Tower of Terror.

Tyler and Jared were the only ones who had been on it before. Emily was too frightened so she stayed off while the rest of us rode it, including Ainsley. When Tyler rode it before he said he felt like he lost his stomach. This time he felt the same way, and he did look a little green after. Ainsley didn't like it, "her legs flew up." However, when we rode it a few days later she rode it again. Lizzie held one of her legs down, I had too much of a death grip on the hand rests! Thank goodness for my brave daughters!

We watched the High School Musical 3 show...don't waste your time on this one. Pretty lame. Emily did get picked to go dance, with a little push from mom.

We headed over to Disneyland where the crowds were much smaller, but more entertaining. Can anyone explain what "Bat Day" is? There were some interesting people there that day. It was like they were part goth and part punk. I have never seen so many platform shoes, fishnet stockings, short skirts, and fluorescent hair. Many of the boys were carrying parasols. WEIRD!!!!!

This picture is to prove to Jared, again!

We were a little late to get a great seat for fireworks due to the long line on Space Mountain. And wouldn't you know it, Ainsley fell asleep 5 minutes before they were supposed to start. What a mean mom, I woke her up! She had to see Tinkerbell fly through the sky!!! (No, I didn't cry at this) We stumbled on a short line for Nemo and loved it. I wouldn't ever wait an hour to ride it, but five minutes made the ride wonderful. We had to squish into a submarine and look out port holes to see fish and the cast of Finding Nemo!

What a wonderful first few days!

Rain

Sometimes the rain is OK. Such as on Tuesdays, when sports practices get cancelled.

Unfortunately, the rain forced me to make dinner this Tuesday.

And yes, Ainsley's homemade chocolate chips were delicious!

Tuesdays!

I hate Tuesdays!

3:30 The kids get home.
4:00-4:30 Emily's piano lesson
4:45-5:15 Lizzie's piano lesson
5:00-6:30 Emily's soccer practice
6:30-7:30 Tyler's baseball practice
7:00-9:00 Young Women's for me (and soon to be Emily)
7:00-8:00 Activity Days for Lizzie and Emily
Don't forget homework, school reading, and YW reminder calls during all this too!


UGH! At least I don't have to fix dinner on Tuesdays....everyone eats cereal on the go!

For Nichole

Just to make it official:

I AM TIRED OF DRIVING IN SNOW!!!!!!!

I am also tired of the cold.

I am ready for warm sunny days and flowers.

I just wanted to let you all know that.

No School

So what is one supposed to do when your school is the only one out in the middle of March and you are bored?

I guess you should "style" and dye your hair with your friend....

-OR-

float the lazy river in your basement while talking on your cell phone.

I LOVE KIDS AND THEIR IMAGINATIONS!

Living the Vida Loca

I haven't blogged lately so here is an update as to everything going on in our lives......

Our fence fell down in a windstorm. Our redneck neighbor decided to fix the fence. This is his solution:

I am not sure if the new fence is there to keep his 120 pound Labrador inside his yard, or my energetic son out of his yard. Jared was frustrated with me one day because I want a wood fence and he wants vinyl. This was how he took out his frustrations. What a dork!



Emily finished up her play last week....HALLELUJAH! The students did an awesome job! They performed "Cinderella's Glass Slipper" downtown at the Rose Wagner Theatre. They rehearsed or performed every day in March except Sundays. Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were their performances. Emily's hair had to be curled and styled and full make-up and be downtown at 6:00 (4:00 on Monday).




The costume designer kept changing her mind about Emily's costume so I kept having to resew things. Lucky for me, Emily's good friend Savanna, our neighbor, was in the play too. It made things easier to have a buddy to walk home from rehearsal with so I didn't have to pick her up every night. Plus, Jenny, (Vanna's stepmom), me and the girls had several fun hours spent together in the bathroom to get the girls all beautiful for dress rehearsals and performances. A funny story: on opening night Emily saw her cousin right before the play started and took off running to hug her. She didn't notice the metal bench in front of her. She tripped over it and landed right on her face. All I could envision was a broken bone that would prevent her from being in the play.... all that practicing for nothing. Luckily after a short sit down to make sure she didn't pass out, she was OK. The show must go on!
For some reason I don't have a picture of her in her ball gown (Jenny, can I borrow your SD card?), but this is her and Vanna in their peasant costumes.

Ainsley fell flat on her face last week also. She bumped her one front tooth that was already injured from a fall last May that knocked one tooth out. The dentist made us come in for x-rays, and luckily the tooth looks OK for now. Hopefully it doesn't turn black!


Jared stepped on something one night. He was sure it was an earring post. We both spent a long time digging in his heel to get the splinter out. We tried everything, but all we could get were little chunks of what looked like lead out of his foot. The next day (my birthday) we still couldn't get the splinter out. He ended up going to an urgent care doctor who basically performed surgery to get out a 1/4 inch piece of mechanical pencil lead. Mechanical pencil lead breaks so easily...how could it get into Jared's tough foot skin? He has stitches and an antibiotic. CRAZY!! This is something that could only happen to Jared.


Yesterday at the Draper Temple Dedication, just as President Monson started talking, Emily got a bloody nose. All we had with us were our white hankies. Of course she couldn't use one of these. She ran out to the bathroom, cleaned up, and made it back in time for the actual dedication.


We painted a kitchen wall red several years ago, but have never been pleased with the finish on the wall. Jared got a wild hair to repaint the wall, and have it retextured because of the damage from previous home owners. He called me from the paint store to get the color code for the same red. Somehow he misunderstood a letter and came home with fuchsia paint! Not a color I want in the kitchen! A friend of ours was able to sell the fuchsia paint to someone who wanted some purple in their basement. Good for them. After a week of mess and chaos in the kitchen, the wall is the right shade of red and looks lovely!

One night last week I woke up at 4am to hear a cat meowing outside our window. I thought it was calling our cat Herbie, so I found Herbie and put him on the windowsill. The stray cat kept meowing like crazy. Finally Jared went out to scare the stray. Instead of scaring it, it ran towards him and the back door. Herbie and the stray hissed at each other through the sliding glass door for quite some time. Everytime Jared tried to open the door the stray tried to get in. We locked Herbie up to see if the cat would go away. By this time, the stray is clawing at our door and meowing to come in. Finally Jared was able to open the door enough to throw some water at it. It took off running, but we heard it meowing for awhile longer. Herbie spent all of the next day at all the windows looking for his new friend.

This week still to do (by Thursday): Get the van inspected and registered, frantically help Emily finish a queen size quilt and a fleece blanket to take to the Hopis on Thursday, plan an activity for Young Women's tomorrow, go visiting teaching, grocery shop so we can eat, etc....
And you wonder why our blog is called the Funny Farm!

School "Incident"

Monday at noon I get a phone call. Noticing it was from the school I figured one of the kids must be out of lunch money. Instead of one of my kids, it is one of the school secretaries. She starts by telling me there was an incident in the lunch line at school. My first reaction (sorry Tyler), is what did he do? The secretary has never called before, the kids usually call when they are sick. She then proceeded to tell me that Emily passed out, and then quickly told me that they caught her, but she had been out cold. Anyway, she was pretty woozy, and could I come get her? When I asked why she passed out the secretary said that another girl had a seizure while in the lunch line.

When I got to the school Emily was sitting on the couch surrounded by teachers and a paramedic. They had got her a juice to drink and she was still white as a sheet.

Emily was serving lunch that day when somebody yelled "She is having a seizure." Emily looked right in front of her, saw it, and promptly felt yucky so she sat down with her head between her knees. After a few minutes she felt OK so she got up to go back to her class. She didn't make it out of the kitchen. Luckily the secretary saw her falling and caught her.(The secretary was in the lunch room to tell the kids they could go out to recess because the school had just got off a semi-lockdown status). Then the secretary found out about the girl with the seizure. 911 was called, and the students were sent back to class until they got both girls to the office. The seizure stopped (the girl has epilepsy), and Emily nearly passed out again while walking to the office. The poor girls!

Emily has passed out before at the sight of something yucky. She knows that if she cuts herself to instantly sit down. This hasn't happened for a year, so we were hoping she had outgrown the whole passing out stage, but obviously not. Luckily she is aware of this, and can usually avoid passing out. I guess the seizure was a little more traumatic to Emily. What a way to get attention at school!