Disneyland

Have you ever noticed how much work it is having Family fun? We just got back from a trip to Disneyland. That was our family Christmas present to ourselves.
Here's how a trip like this goes; Drive, drive, drive. Fight massive crowds to get on a few rides, then drive, drive, drive to get home. Sound familiar to anyone?
Oh, and be sure to throw in a mild stomach bug that hits two members of the family while traveling.
In truth we did have a fair amount of fun and it was worth every effort to see the grandchildren.
My married daughter and her family drove from Phoenix and joined us in Anaheim. My husband and I traveled from Utah with our two unmarried kids. We stayed overnight in St. George on the way down and on the way back. We got a super deal on our hotel there.
It's interesting for me to go back to the areas that I grew up in. Every time I go down it seems to have added more cars and people. It also gets more and more ethnically diverse. Are all the white people moving out of Southern California?

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.
This first one shows how the Small World ride was lit up for Christmas.




My son stood in front of this Christmas tree which was located in the Downtown Disney area.





My children and grand children in the hotel room. Hey, where's my neat son in law? I didn't mean to leave him out. This was just an unplanned photo op.





This is outside of the Tiki Room:




Oh, there's my awesome son in law with his wife (Susan) and daughter (Becca). Emma is riding with Sarah and me. It's fun to be a grandma.




Getting a picture of my youngest daughter can only happen if she's unaware:





Little Becca on a crazy ladybug ride:



Our cute Emma:




Ben and Emma on the Dumbo ride. We waited about 45 minutes to get on this thing. Gee whiz.





Becca was too little for the kids roller coaster, so she went with her grandma and grandpa to play in Goofy's house. There was a great backyard with a slide and fun things to climb on.
Even though it was very cold for California, and it was near the end of a long day, she went up and down the slide at least 20 times (without help). What a great little girl.




Okay, I've got a video of the Dumbo ride, but it just isn't happening. I may put it on another post later on.
I want to add my Thanks to my son for driving from Barstow to Saint George. Good job. I finally took a turn at driving and brought us from Saint George to the Salt Lake area. My husband drove all the way to California, so he deserved a break.

Four pictures that were left out!

I thought I'd done pretty well making a slide show, only to discover, to late, that I'd left out four of the best pictures from today! Good grief. That just goes to show how good my computer skills are. Be sure to view the two posts before this one now.

Mom and Dads 60th wedding Anniversary!

This evening my parents had their 6oth wedding anniversary. They made arrangements for our family with the Lion House in Salt Lake City. We were treated to a nice chicken dinner, served on pretty dinnerware. We met in a really charming room upstairs. My sister, Debera, went the extra mile and made a slide show of my parents life together. That was shown on a large TV screen. Dad got up and explained to us some family genealogy facts. Dad want's us to know that we come from good people and that we have deep roots in Utah. We grew up in Southern California, so it's nice to know that we fit in here too.
It always makes me so happy to see the family. We are very scattered about with our own little families and it's hard to get everyone together. Some of the family got here by plane.
We were still missing a few of our numbers, but I know they wanted to be here. They in turn were very much in our hearts.
I just want to add that Mom and Dad deserve all the praise and respect in the world. Thanks for making us feel cared for and safe all these years. Even as adults with our own children, we draw strength from you.


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Here we go again

Some things just don't require much commentary; at least it's pretty to look at.

October 31st

You know it's Fall when....

your yard looks like this:







Front:

HAVE A HAPPY, SPOOKY HALLOWEEN NIGHT.

Mom and Dad

Today I had a very nice surprise. Mom and dad drove down from Salt Lake and took me on a drive up the canyon.
It was several degrees cooler up by the ski runs, but it was still pleasant outside with a light sweater.


Dad pointed out some of the places where he has skied.




See that rugged mountain behind him? He's come down that.



Did I mention that he's about 81! Isn't he awesome!


After our drive, we went to Wendy's for a late lunch. It was so much fun to be with them!

Our Park

If you're looking for my 'Halloween preparations' post, that would be the one before this.
This just shows our local park. We enjoy the simple life, which means we go on lots of walks and appreciate sunsets and scenery.
We go up to this park quite often for easy evening strolls.


There's a horse trail that connects to the park and it has nice views of the mountains. The first section is very easy, but if a person wants to get a good hard workout, all they have to do is follow it down into the gully.



The playground area:


It's even better in the mountains there behind the park.

Grand kids

Our daughter and our two grand-daughters visited with us this week. As a result we did more activities in a week than we've done in a whole year.
We went to the Children's Museum, the Zoo, I.K.E.A for lunch, Wheeler farm, the canyon, and to a corn maze that had many additional kids activities. Frankly, grandma is all worn out, but it was fun.
Grandma also got very carried away with taking pictures, but managed to display just a few of the favorite ones here.


A pony ride at wheeler farm; this day also included a wagon ride, a picnic and the feeding of many ducks and geese.




A day at the zoo:






My adult children hanging out together and watching little children play at Cornbellie's corn maze place:





The cow train:




Down the slide; This 18 month old girl went down several slides by herself this week.




Our little princess:



Who needs a sandbox, when you can play in a pile of corn:



A happy toddler on a bouncy critter:


This first video shows our grand-daughter jumping on a giant pillow tramp;
The second video shows some wandering through the corn maze. Two of my kids got through quickly, but the rest of us needed the help of three or four Corn Cops.

Sarah's new car

Today Our youngest daughter got her first car. Getting this car is far from frivolous. Since the Van died earlier this month three of us have been sharing one car.
With the purchase of this car, life just got a little easier. Our girl can get to work, school and other activities. Her dad can stop hitching rides to work with his co-workers.
The mom is counting on both of them to share if they want groceries to continue magically appearing in the kitchen.


Looking under the hood:
Getting behind the wheel:
Signing papers:

A matching set; Our regular car on the left and the new Used car on the right. It's a 2002 Nissan Sentra.


After picking up the car we did a caravan over to our sons student apartment which was nearby:


The kitchen he shares with some other students; pretty clean for a bunch of guys.


Our son demonstrated his skills with a shaving strap and a sharp razor blade (This made me a little uncomfortable). He also has a shaving mug and lather brush. He claims it gives him a closer shave. This is the same way my grandfather shaved.


In his living room with very bare walls. This has made his mother determined to get these guys some wall art!

Playing Wii with his sister by his side:



Here we are out in the parking lot where our son is putting on a new license plate with his dads tools. Notice that all of our cars are shades of maroon. It wasn't deliberate, but it will seem that way when they're all parked together.


There's nothing like a new car to get a teenage girl smiling.


To celebrate getting a new car and to see our starving student get a meal, we stopped at a sandwich shop.


Below are a couple of videos; The first is a thrilling demo of how to properly use a shaving strap.
The second is of bowling with Wii. We also did a four player game of Tennis with Wii. The dad was really huffing and puffing like it was real exercise; so humorous.



I want to put in a plug for the Farmers Market. My husband and I went to one this morning and it was fantastic. It was a bonus to go on a Holiday weekend (Labor day) because there were musicians and lots of interesting booths besides at least 30 vegetable and fruit stands. We got some corn, cantaloupe, green beans, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers (6 for a $1.) and some fresh basil. I have never had fresh basil in my whole life (just dried) and it was amazing. I loved it on my salad this afternoon.
We were so impressed with the Farmers market at Pioneer park in Salt Lake City, that we're going back next Saturday. I can't believe that I've never gone before!