Summer Nightastic

Okay… So I didn’t do so well with keeping up with the blog the last couple of weeks… Last week I actually had some fun! I was able to get my work schedule to have two days off in a row, so I decided to take advantage of the time and take 1 last trip to Disney as a Cast Member. (For those of you who don’t know, I am no longer a campus rep. When I went full time at Kohl’s, I had to make a decision on what to take off of my plate. Taking some school, working full time, being a campus rep and trying to have a life was just too much to take on. So, something had to go, and that was the easiest one to drop.) I was going to go by myself, then I found out that a friend of mine was going with 100 other EFY counselors, so I was going to meet up with them for a while… Then I found out that a friend from work had never been to Disneyland! Shocking, I know… I was actually able to convince her to come down for the first day! I was really excited. Laura, my friend from work, and I took the early JetBlue flight into Long Beach Tuesday morning. We had quite the interesting take off… Apparently we were having a medical emergency, but the people didn’t know how to communicate it correctly. When the flight attendant went to check on them, they just asked for water, not explaining what had happened. They just kept ringing the flight attendant button. I’m not going to lie; I laughed when the frustrated flight attendant finally came over the speaker and said, “If you are bleeding, if you are having a heart attack, if you cannot breathe, push your flight attendant button again. Otherwise, you must wait until we are in the air and it is safe for us to move about the cabin.” I’m evil; I was happy that they didn’t push the button and make all sorts of delays to our flight since the clock was ticking on our first day of Disneyland. So, after all of the drama, we landed in Long Beach. We found out near the end of flight, the medical emergency was a kid passed out. An ambulance met our plane and took him out on a backboard.

So, we were finally on our way to Disneyland! I took Laura to Disney’s California Adventure first. The very first ride I took her on was Soarin’ Over California. I made sure that we were sitting on the very top row of the hang glider. I was so happy that I had talked Laura into coming when I looked over on Soarin’ and Laura was tearing up and turned to me and said, “Thank you!” That was probably one of my favoring moments of the trip. After spending a couple of hours in DCA doing different attractions, walking around, taking lots of character pictures, of Laura, not me believe it or not, we headed over to Disneyland!First, I want to tell everyone that they are working on bringing back the Disney Gallery! I’m so excited! Russell and I have both missed it so… It’s going to be on Main Street now, next to Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which is also working on its return. We got some fast passes for Indiana Jones, looked in some stores for some Shag art I was trying to find for Russell, and then headed to lunch. Okay, if you’ve ever been to Disneyland with me, you know where I took Laura to lunch, Pizza Port of course! For some reason, that darn pasta is my absolute favorite! We had a great lunch, and headed to some nice relaxing/classic rides… It’s a Small World! I absolutely love this ride. I know everyone thinks I’m crazy for it, but I love that ride. I am so happy that they put the Disney movie characters in as well… After that, we went on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. :o) What can I say? It’s an original and always fun! We also did something that was MY first time to do in Disneyland… The castle walk through has re-opened. I really enjoyed it. It was fun to go through the story of Sleeping Beauty again. Then I took her on some more of the classics… We got some Dole Whips and enjoyed the Tiki Room, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean, and Haunted Mansion.

After those, we headed to the monorail to take us to Downtown Disney. We looked through some stores, and then headed to Goofy’s Kitchen for dinner. Laura loved taking pictures with the characters, so I decided to book us at Goofy’s Kitchen for dinner. I admit, I like breakfast better there, but then again, I’m a breakfast person. We still had some great food, and got some fun pictures with the characters, as well as had quite a show from a few! Goofy started a sword fight with Prince Phillip. It was quite hilarious. We also got to do the twist with Goofy and Phillip. Chip was HILARIOUS when he came to visit us… I love the ‘munks. After a little more shopping at Downtown Disney, we headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.
The next morning, I woke up early to take Laura back to the airport. After that, I came back to the hotel to crash and get a little more sleep… I was on vacation! I was going to live it up. After I finally woke up and got ready, I headed to Company D to check out what they had. I got a few things and headed to In-n-Out. I have to get it once on each trip! It’s such a happy memory for the family. After that, I went and picked up Michael and took him to Company D to share my discount. We both got a couple of good things. After that, we headed to Disneyland together. We got fast passes for later that night, walked around a bit… We also got some popcorn, which is always fun! We did a little more shopping, I had to get some Nightmare Before Christmas baby stuff for Amanda, and I got Michael a NBC shirt with my discount. After that, we headed back to Michael’s hotel to meet up with all of the other EFY counselors for pizza dinner. It was really fun. We were by their hotel pool… so you can imagine how much fun is there. Michael and I got out just in time before people started to get thrown in the pool.

He and I headed to catch a couple of rides at DCA that I hadn’t done yet before we were going to meet up with the group for the Monster’s Inc ride and fireworks. We went to another one of my absolute favorite areas, the animation studio! I could just sit in there for hours… I hadn’t done Toy Story Mania yet, so I had to hit that one. I had so much fun! I, of course, won. After that, we got fast passes for Tower of Terror, and went to meet up with everyone for Monster’s Inc. It was really fun! There was like 12 of us who went on it. Edna is hilarious at the end. I love that she interacts with the people. After that, we went to hit Dad’s favorite ride, Tower of Terror. After that, we headed back to Disneyland for the fireworks! I had to stop and buy a blanket, of course… We just hung out as a big group and waited for the fireworks to start… If you’ve ever been to EFY, you can imagine the energy that the group bought. We were there early to make sure that we could get a good place to see the fireworks from, so while we were waiting for them to start, we were singing Disney songs and just having a great time.

This summer, Disneyland had Summer Nightastic going, so there were new fireworks, as well as some extra fireworks and blasts during Fantasmic! At first, I was a little sad that I wasn’t going to be able to see Remember… Dreams Come True, it’s been one of my favorite firework shows for a long time… But I was surprised and absolutely LOVED Imagine! I just about cried when Dumbo came out and started flying!! I was also incredibly happy when they announced that they were adding another Fantasmic! show! I wanted to see it, but I wanted to see the fireworks a little more. After the fireworks, we went to hit some of my favorites before we had to head to catch Fantasmic. We started with Star Tours, then headed so I could do Small World again. Yup! I had to do it another time before I left. After Small World, we used our fast passes for Indiana Jones that we had gotten earlier in the day. After Indiana Jones, we went to get our place for Fantasmic! I love Fantasmic! I’ve loved it since when I first saw it. It’s such a fun show. Michael was laughing at me because I knew all of the movements, the music, everything for the show. After we finished watching that, we turned around and ran into Pirates to catch one last ride before the park closed. Pirates was a wonderful way to finish the night. After that, I went back to the hotel and pack and all of that blah blah blah… headed back to the real world and work the next morning… and that was the end of my whirlwind fun trip. It was a great way to finish out my life as a campus rep. This week, work was crazy! We did inventory, and last night I did an overnight at wok, which is my lesser favorite thing. So, that’s the end of my catch up blog… again… Hopefully next week I’ll be able to keep up a little better!

Am I alone?

So... Last night I had a dream I was getting married. (granted it was to Lance Sweets from Bones, but I guess that's what I get for falling asleep while watching Bones...) I was so happy in my dream, I had finally found my husband. Then, I woke up and was disappointed to realize that I was all alone.
I started to think... Am I really all alone? I'm not. While my close circle of friends is smaller than it once was, everyone in that circle is amazing. I have friends who would do anything for me. Friends who would climb under my feather bed with me, curl up and watch Doogie Howser, MD for hours just to help me escape from the world for a while. A friend who would wake up really early to take a hike so they would have the right light to take a picture of the mountains because they know I miss my mountains back home. Friends who are willing and excited when I ask if I can come crash their place because I want to get away from Utah for a while. Or are willing to take a trip with me to a random place just for fun and to go somewhere new. Friends who know something is wrong when I'm lying to them and saying everything is alright, because sometimes they know me better than I know myself. Friends who call or text me just to say hi.
I'm amazingly lucky because I don't just have friends who care about me, but I also have a family who cares. I have 5 great siblings. While when we were younger, life was more fighting about who gets to control the remote or who has to drive me somewhere because I wasn't old enough to drive myself etc, we are now actually happy to spend time together instead of dreading it. We get excited when we get to plan an event or a time when we can all get together and just be silly. My siblings care about me and my future. They truly want me to be happy and enjoy my life and all that it has to offer. Not only do I have wonderful siblings, but they are all married to incredible people. I don't consider them in-laws, but 5 new siblings that I've gotten as I've gotten older. They care about me just as much as my siblings. I enjoy spending time with them and talking to them. They let me come and visit them, spend time with them, even though having in-laws visit can be stressful and obnoxious. Not only have they shared their lives with me, but they share their fantastic children. I have seven, soon to be eight, cute and loving nieces and nephews. They will always give me hugs or kisses... or say something funny to make me smile and laugh, whether they mean to or not.
I also have incredible parents. My parents are amazing. They are wonderful examples to me of how to live. They are two of the most open, loving, caring, hard working people I've ever met, and I'm not just biased. They take people in, help people out, and never ask or expect anything in return. I hope someday just to be 1/4 as amazing as they are.
Not only do I have a close and amazing immediate family, but I have a loving and caring extended family. I have aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents who love me, no matter what. I get texts and calls all the time from my aunt, just checking in on me and wanting to say hello and that she loves me. I have cousins who I am so close to, that they are more like siblings than cousins.

So, am I alone? Definitely not.

I'm back....

Okay, I admit, I’ve done some major slacking when it comes to my blog… In fact, I'm not going to lie, I was even called the worst blogger ever for not updating. I just need to keep in the habit of blogging every week, and not take a break for any reason. So… Here goes my catch up blog!

The happiest, and most recent news is… Tasha had her baby! Tuesday afternoon, we had the kids over playing and Amanda got a call that Tasha was on her way to the hospital. After mostly getting the kids to bed, Mom and Amanda went to the hospital to check on Tasha and seeing how she was doing. Calling Hans to see how things were progressing, they were surprised to find out Tasha had already had the baby! Baby Nathan and Tasha are doing fine. Nathan is a healthy, 9 pound 12 ounce baby. He’s a big baby boy! Unfortunately… I haven’t been able to see him yet.
A couple of days before Nathan was born, I started not feeling well, and by Sunday was full-blown sick. Thankfully, I started antibiotics Monday. It’s only a sinus infection, but it definitely knocked me on my butt. I’m getting better though. :o)

So… back to when I went to Arizona! Russell and Jodee were extremely kind to let me make some last minute plans and come to visit them and the boys for 6 days. It was a fantastic 6 days. Russell and Jodee are ALWAYS fantastic and extremely hospitable whenever I go to visit, and this time was no different, even though they both had a lot less sleep because of the boys, especially Jodee. I had a very relaxing week, talking with Jodee, playing with the boys, helping with feedings... I saw Nacho Libre for the first time at Russell's insistance... (my favorite part being that Russell and Jodee laid on the couch together and were both IMMEDIATELY out for the count. I watched the rest of the movie by myself and let them sleep.) Below is only one of the promised pictures of C & W. Per request, the rest will be posted on Facebook where I can make them a little more private. I love my nephews! I wished they lived closer... They have 2 such distinct personalities. C will DEFINITELY let you know when it's feeding time, and when he is hungry. He's such a good little eater, well, I should say good BIG eater... He started mush while I was there! He was so cute because he couldn't quite figure out how to eat it, but he sure wanted to try! W is definitely all about the chillaxin', once again, up until it comes to feeding time... Though he's the opposite of his brother C, for some reason, he doesn't like to eat. W and I have definitely bonded over his feeding times... With the vacuum on to soothe, he and I would work on getting his bottle all eaten. He started tying, and even beat his brother once or twice! I was so sad to leave them...

The next week was mostly back to work... Though I also got to spend some time with my cousin, Lexy, visiting from Atlanta. It was a lot of fun to hang out around with her in the house... We also got to go spend some time at 7-Peaks Waterpark together. It was a great amount of fun! Lexy and I were both COMPLETELY convinced that we were going to flip at some point on one of the waterslides... We even went on the Boomerang... The Boomerang a 3 story half pipe that Ramona and Kat both broke their butts on. (sorry Ramona and Kat, I had to throw it in there, because that's the whole reason we went on it!) While we were sitting on the edge, waiting to go, I started to ask Lexy, probably pretty loudly, "WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?!?" to which she also responded, nearly as loudly, "I DON'T KNOW!" The little boy behind us told Lexy that it wasn't that scary... I completely disagree with him! I screamed the entire way down, back up, back down, back up, back down, back up, and back down once more... We went within a foot of the top... I had gone skydiving the week before, and I'm not going to lie, I'd MUCH rather skydive again than go on the Boomerang.

Alright, so I know this hasn't been the greatest blog... But I promise to keep updated better!