i may be the only one

[ducking tomatoes]

who doesn't really understand the mystique that is disneyland... i mean it was a well-planned community and had some really interesting architecture, but there were just too many people for my liking. maybe had the kids been younger, it might have been more magical. believe me, i'm trying to figure out why i wasn't entranced, i think there may be something wrong with me. maybe it's because i didn't go as a kid, and i don't blame my parents for that at all, they took us on many wonderful vacations all over the country, we just never made it to disneyland. happily, kelly felt the same way, so at least i'm not totally alone. it was fun and all, but not all that i'd hoped for.

because i always have grand intentions of giving a day by day account of our trips, then somehow manage to get sidetracked about day 3, i decided to just post highlights all at once.

now with the admittance that i'm not a life long disneyland fan, i will say that i am starting to get the whole california thing. it's a pretty state. and it has beaches, which i'm all for.

we did the 16 hour drive in 2 days, stopping on the way down in st. george, utah.
the stop was a nice surprise for our family. our church has a temple in st. george, it's the oldest operating temple we have. we spent sunday attending one of the st. george wards then toured the visitors center next to the temple. ethan had a special experience where he really started to understand what faith and testimony is to him.


we toured the jacob hamblin home as well, he was a pioneer to the area and a trusted friend to the indians during the early days of our church history.


southern utah is GORGEOUS. we did something spontaneous and stopped at all the viewing areas along the way (ethan now completely understands the meaning of the word spontaneous). here are a couple of pictures from the stops. the first is at a place called ghost rock, isn't that canyon amazing?


this was just along the side of the road, it looks like a cow's head to me :)


we stayed in newport, a very ritzy part of town apparently. kelly enjoyed seeing a few astin martins, lambourghinis and ferraris. lexus, mercedes, bmw, land rover are more common stock apparently. we were out of the ordinary in our little VW jetta. despite feeling a little out of place, the beach just down from our place was gorgeous. we went to two different ones, it was cold and windy one day then very nice and windy another. i could definitely live on the beach. too bad everyone else feels the same way. some of these are taken at newport beach and others at crystal cove state park.












welcome to disneyland...


we started our experience on the jungle boat ride in adventure land, i know you should go to the back of the park first, we made a rookie mistake. it just wasn't fun, the tour guide was bitter and made very bad jokes. he must have been bitter because he hadn't gotten "a-head" in life (bah dump bum!). i don't think he should have been working at disneyland. maybe that's what flavored the experience for me...


ok, had fun here. first ride of the day that i actually enjoyed. my kids like to go fast. i happily joined in.


i had to take this picture, it's a parent law or something like that.


this was pretty funny. the jedi training camp or some such... the jedi was hilarious, well worth sitting through the show just to hear his quips.


kelly and the kids on big thunder mountain. i didn't get to ride any of the roller coasters because of my heart condition. that COULD have flavored the experienc i suppose. see, i went to high school in cleveland, home of cedar point, only one of the best roller coaster parks in the world. i was spoiled. i LOVE roller coasters. every time i go to my heart doctor appointment, i ask, every time he says no. wah. poor me.


stood in line for this one because it's a SMALL WORLD! had that idea reiterated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. i think i should have just enjoyed the experience from the line. i really wanted to go on this ride, it's something from my childhood impressions of disneyland. by the time we got to switzerland, i was really hoping it would end soon. i took way too many pictures inside. i could definitely see james bond chasing some deranged character around the interior of this ride. i'll spare you the interior shots, this is from before, when i wanted to go on the ride. see, i had a little cock-eyed optimism in me...


toontown was another place i wanted to see, the buildings and such were delightful in every way. i almost felt like a kid again...


someone was tired.


last stop on our way out of california, not super impressed by the fries, but the burgers were very good. annie got the 2x4:


we drove back and spent the next day in cedar city, utah, but it was so cold and we were dressed for california weather, so we spent the day in our hotel, watching too much tv. we don't have cable here at home so when we go on vacation, we tend to watch a little too much. we all agreed we'd had our fill by the end of the trip.

so to wrap it all up, it was a great time, we slept in, ate in (our villa had a kitchen so we got to go to trader joe's and buy food for dinners and breakfasts! i love trader joe's, we don't have them here in CO.), i did my wii fit (yes, i'm a nerd), went to the pool, and took it easy. it really was a vacation from life. that's something you need every so often.

thank you for reading my blog :)