Finally home, Easter, Disneyland

Well, I was gone 12 days!!! That is a long time. It was a great 12 days though. I took approximately 456 pictures, after cutting out the blurry, eye's closed and repeats, I now have 270 pics to choose from! I will try to pick the best and ones that will make the trip flow. I counted the pics there are 72! I figure if you don't want to see them you can scroll fast. It was hard choosing!

I packed two large suitcases because I had presents and two different seasons of clothes. I can't believe how many comments I got from people about them. You would think I had taken ten suitcases!

I flew out on a Friday, got to Rebecca's about 10:00. I made a nummy hummus dip all core for our vegetable dish and then went to bed.Aren't you impressed! We ate very healthy on the way down! (Catch the word down!)
We got up and left about 8:00.The s couldn't have been better. They watched moviescolored and slept. Gracie had a hard time being that she was sick, but other than that the trip was great. We drove all the way to Lizzie's in one day. We got there about 10:00pm I think. The next day was Easter, here's Tanner coming down the stairsThey found their baskets!
The Easter bunny brought all the s an autograph book for Disneyland, here's Anna's.Another thing that Rebecca had the s do was make a list in the back of their books of all the things they wanted to buy throughout the week. Then at the end of the week they could choose what they wanted most. It thought that was a great idea. Here's Gracie and Tanner enjoying their treats. Next of course is hunting for Easter eggs. Tanner was true to being a boy, he was very quick to hunt and very quick to start eating! The first pick is when Lizzie told Tanner he was going to have to share his eggs.Kate woke up and as you can see she was center of attention!!! It is hard to resist that cute little face and hair!
Lizzie who accuses me of wanting to be the favorite grandma and person in particular, wants to be the favorite aunt-she bought cocoa puffs and pop tarts for breakfast!We all went to vacation church except Tanner and Shad. Lizzie bless her heart, was sick all week and still prepared us a wonderful Easter dinner.After dinner the kids wanted to go out and swim, and of course since the grandkids wanted me to go, we all got in. We left much later than we planned, so got to our motel very late. To make matters worse, they reserved the wrong room (not Rebecca, the motel got it wrong) We got moved 3 times before we got to the right room. The poor s kept falling asleep in every room. Rebecca did this cool thing called Ridemax, it was a program that you download and then plug in what you want to do and it tells you what time to get to the park, where to go first and then you don't wait in line or barely wait in line. I have to tell you it worked! Since we had gotten there so late we decided to not to get up early and just pick up the plan the best we could. Amazingly enough it worked and we did pretty good the first day. Well, here they are in from of the big O in California Disney. We did a few things, one being the 3-d show a bugs life, Gracie started crying as soon as we got in there so Rebecca and her left and did the slowest ride known to mankind, you will see it later. Aliese and Anna and I went in it was great, they thought it was scary, but made it through. This is them in their bug glasses.After we walked around a bit, we went to lunch at Ariels Grotto. Rebecca had reserved us a place at the princess luncheon. They promised you would get to see at least 4-5 princesses. We were hoping all their favorites would be there. And thankfully, the only one we didn't see was Sleeping Beauty. The princesses and all the characters were amazing, they never hurried, they hugged each child, if they were a real person and not an animal, they talked to them. If they were an animal they did the most amazing job of communicating. I was so impressed. You will see the typical thing that all the princesses and characters did in this first experience with Ariel, after that I just put in the group pics. I probably had at least 7 poses or more with each person talking and getting hugged. The cool thing about the lunch was that we didn't have to stand in line, we just sat and waited for our lunch as each princess would come out and around to our table. They would hug the s individually, then together and again just before they left. Here's Belle!CinderellaJasmineGracie's favorite was Snow White, the first picture is when Gracie saw Snow White come out from the back room.The next pic isn't me being creative, I turned the lever the wrong way. I should have let you thing I was being cool!After we got done eating we were walking down the street and we could here high school musical music, we turned and looked and it was a parade sort of thing, we started following them and got in the front row. They asked for audience participation several times but the s were too scared. It was fun.Next we went over to Disneyland. But Gracie was just too sick and tired. Rebecca and her went back and the s and I walked around trying to pick up the schedule the best we could. But instead took advantage of things that were open. Amazingly enough Pirates had a small line so we got in line and I convinced the s it wasn't scary. I kind of forgot about the first "down" as Amy used to call them, and the s got really mad at me. Then the next down, wasn't as scary and they told me that was fun, by the time we got to the end they wanted to do it again. By then the line was way too long so we went on the Mark Twain, it was perfect for when you are tired!We then went over to the Pooh ride, it wasn't crowded at all so we did that ride, some shopping and some picsDid some castle picsWent to the Tiki roomI think Rebecca met us at this point we ate at Ihop, our first of 3 meals there. (across the street from disneyland) Aliese was tired, Anna and Rebecca wanted to keep going, so I took Gracie and Aliese back to the motel. Rebecca and Aliese did the Jungle ride and the fire works. It was a great first day.
2nd Day
We got up at 5:40 am literally grabbed our breakfast ate it on the run and on the bus, got to disneyland by about 6:30. I ran ahead to get our place in line, a common ritual for the rest of the week. We were about 20 people back from the front. There were about 8 lines but still! When they opened the gates Aliese and I took off running, we were the first ones through the castle that morning and the first one's in line for Dumbo, we waited for Rebecca, Gracie and Anna though. Next we were off to Dumbo, Gracie's favorite ride she rode it I think 9 times with Rebecca and I trading off! Aliese and I flying through the air!Next to the tea cups, here's Rebecca and GracieWe went to the canal boats next, it was the longest wait we had-30minutes. Anna got to ride on top with the guideOff to toon town to see Mickey!Gracie was afraid to hug Mickey so he pretended to cryThere was a cute little park that Gracie loved that we found. Gracie loved this pumpkin. We then went on the Go-Coaster, the most fun easy going roller coaster and the shortest! The s ended up going on it about 9 times over a three day period I think. I think we then went back to Ihop for lunch. Back to the room for a nap and swim. I think we came back and went to Fantasmic, I think it is called. It was soooooo amazing. I am getting tired and so am going to start pasting pics. That night Lizzie and Tanner came, they stayed with us 1 1/2 days. After the first day, Rebecca decided that we all needed hats, so she bought us all hats. Waiting for Nemo! We basically walked on! Pretty amazing considering it is a min. of 90min wait.Next we did little kid rides, Tarzans Treehouse (yes it is very sad, Swiss Family Robinson tree house is gone!)Tom Sawyers Island: The first pic is us walking to a cave, Gracie and Tanner panicked, so the s and I went alone, we went to this spot where there was a piece of gold and you were supposed to pretend you were trying to steal it. So I did, a skeleton hand with an eyeball came down and said something to us, then it raised made a crunching sound, the s were grosed out, I thought it was funny, then I tried to steal it again and a skeleton head popped up and said something to us, the s were not happy with me. I thought it was funny. We ate lunch at this cute place in fantasy land, we learned that the food was really quite reasonable, and delicious.We went on the Train that was in Dumbo next, me pushing the wrong buttons again! Back to Pooh land (Critter Country)To Buzz Lightyear!! We shot with laser guns, they really worked!Next to Autotopia, I tried to get pics but this was the only one I got. We went again later in the week and Anna and Aliese did a lot better the second time.Somewhere in here we went to toon town and Tanner went to see Mickey. He loved Mickey and didn't want to leave, so we watched after our turn for a few minutesWe then all got to see Minnie Mouse she was a big hit with Gracie and the s, Tanner wasn't as impressed.Off to main street for the parade, we bought candy and ice cream on main street on two different days, pretty good stuff! This is Gracie with her choice, we ran into Mary Poppins and Bert, they were pretty funny. after that it is us sitting on the street watching the parade
This is the parade where Ariel talked directly to Gracie, it was amazing!At some point in the day, Tanner conked out, the following pic is him when it was time to go home to bed!The next day we went to California Disney again we went first to bug land and did all the little kid rides there. It was pretty fun, very laid back, the first ride was the slowest ride in the world!The slowest bumper cars in the worldThe most relaxing rideAt lunch that day Anna, Gracie and Tanner, were having a great time by the water, talking about who knows what.Anna and Rebecca went on the Ferris wheel while Aliese and I shopped and she threw a coin in the water and made a wish. The location was very important to her.Gracie feeling betterRebecca and the s finishing PiratesChip and Dale had to go, but they still hugged the s and did something that really made Aliese laughThe last day we ate lunch at the Blue Bayou, it was the resturant in the Pirates of the Carribean. We reserved it ahead, worth every penny! We loved it the atmosphere was great, the dishes beautiful, cloth napkins and tablecloth, the s loved it. The food was fabulous, we would have done it again in a heartbeat!While I ran to California Disney to get a fast pass, the s took there time going down main street and low and behold, there was Sleeping Beauty!While they went on their last ride in Calif. Disney, soaring over California, Gracie and I danced and danced and danced, sad to say noone to take the pics. Then we went back to Disney land for the Fireworks and to buy our souvenirs.It was a truly magical last night we got to see amazing fireworks, listen to Snow white sing and the wishing well respond, and last but not least we went on the Jungle cruise. I think Rebecca and I were the only ones that laughed at his corny jokes, we were tired and quite frankly thought he was funny. Well, if you read this far, it was the most amazing week, enjoyable beyond imagination. I am truly the most blessed Grandma ever!

Fun Surprise and Update

Monday, Ginny Steve's brothers wife and daughter Lindy came to visit and spend the night. The next day I took Ginny out to see the greenhouse. She had never seen it. On the way out I told I her it had never had so many weeds before. She was looking around and said, isn't that lettuce? On the floor of my green house in between the bricks was the most beautiful head of leaf lettuce you have ever seen. Not far away is a smaller one. It cracks me up how plants will just grow all by themselves and at other times we nurture baby and the plant will die. I haven't tasted it yet. I hope it is still a healthy plant when I get back. I also found some carrots, I am assuming they are seeds that didn't germinate last summer. A volunteer petunia, they really love the greenhouse. And a petunia that was tiny last summer and I thought dead. I love my green house. I know I have said this before, but someday it will be a producing machine all year round. It is the perfect environment for so many plants.

Life has been crazy lately. In preparation to go to Disneyland with Rebecca and the girls I have been busy getting our website on our dot com and refining our website. I still do Beach house business while I am on vacation, so we have been looking for ways to make it easier for me to do business away from home. I had to create a new email box which that in itself was easy, but transferring our address book took a little researching. I found an easy way and it was awesome. Gotta love the Internet, the answer to any question! In the process of trying to make our website as easy and efficient as possible we observed a calendar on another site we loved. That sent my sweet and wonderful husband out on a hunt. He could hire himself out as a researcher I swear. He found the coolest, easiest to maintain calendar. I then had to connect it to the web. It took me forever because I didn't' realize it was working. Long story short, my web program has several different views, in the view I was using it appeared that the calendar wasn't showing up. But all along it was. So many emails later with the calendar people I finally realized all on my own that it was there all along. I was looking out of the wrong window so to speak!!! I must have said crap a thousand times. Steve teased me that I was going to teach all of our grandchildren that. Hopefully I don't, but I have taught it to my children sooo...... you know what that means. Anyway check out our website it is basically the same but cooler!

Because we live in the sticks and have a branch, we have to adapt things at church sometimes. One of the adaptations was to put husbands and wives together and have them vt/home teach at the same time. Now as all the women know, that doesn't work. The Lord never would have set up visiting teaching if there wasn't a reason for it. I never felt like I was really serving the sisters. So eventually I just became the worst VT ever! Often Steve would catch my ladies either at church or Chris at the beach house and others on the phone. Since he was my partner, I would get lazy and not make contact, just count his. Well, about 4 weeks ago they changed the program back to the way the church has it normally set up. I don't have a partner, but I was reminded how important VT is and how much I love it. I got a 100% and it felt so good.

I am in the airport in Boise right now. I love how they have wireless Internet now days in the airports!

There was something else I know I was going to share, but alas I have forgotten.

I am very excited for Easter at Lizzie's and Disneyland for the next five days after!!! I plan to blog the trip, wish me luck!

Love you all!!!!!

Thursday

Hows that for boring. I don't' have a lot to say and I am tired, the only remnant of my illness. Oh we have been watching the Roots series, we love them. the second generation is better than the first. I went to Weight Watchers today for the first time in two weeks, it seemed like it had been forever. I was so out of sync at first. I lost about 3.5 lbs over the last two weeks. I was one happy camper. I have been doing a little too much lately, but I am trying to pace myself, I want to stay well. I have been spending a lot of time on the computer, fine tuning and just keeping up with our beach house business. It takes longer than I thought it would with two houses. I got some really cute clothes when I was at Lizzie's. I wore a black sweater I bought today to ww's. It is one of those longer sweaters. I have two of those now. They are very slimming and I like them! :-) Oh my new plan to try to stagger work with play is doing pretty good. I think it is going to take some practice and determination. I planted potatoes on Tuesday. It felt good. My next goal is to get out there and organize my greenhouse. I think I have said that before! Well, it is late! Love you all!

Getting better!

I feel so bad for Lizzie, I can't imagine the way I have felt lately and having toddlers. No wonder she is still sick. I think (cross my fingers) I am almost well. I stayed home from all my meetings on Sat, and Sun. I am going to try not to go to wild tomorrow, because I know I will feel a lot better. But I want to be well for the big trip coming up in 12 days!!!!! Disneyland with the Leslies!!!! Anyway besides that a good friend of ours offered to refinish our coffee table, it looks gorgeous. We will have to start using the coasters now!!! Well, that is about as exciting as it gets right now. Maybe once I'm doing more than the dishes and sitting on the couch, I will have more to share. Oh

Gorgeous Day!!! And fun Pics-scroll down!

Well, it has been an unbelievable day today. I wanted to go out and take a walk, but it didn't happen. Since reading the book I recommended, I have decided to be more like Danielle and Steve, and do one thing I have to do and then do something I want to do, continue that throughout the day and I think life will be better. I have a skirt that I started over a month ago, I finally started to work on it again today. I'm not where I want to be yet, but I'm walking forward! I realize that the things you have to do will always be there and there are more than we can do in one day. Then as the week goes on more gets added to the list. The reality is that none of us can do what we have to do forever, so we crash and do something stupid like watch a dumb TV show because I am too exhausted or brain dead to do something I would really like to do! So wish me luck on my new mission in life!!!

The pics of the ocean -one was from today- the other is one I took before I went to Lizzie's, to me it is amazing. The gorgeous days I have decided are better in real life!

I can hardly talk, but I am going to go to ww's anyway. Hopefully noone gets upset about it. I just can't miss another week.

Well, here are some pics the day of grandma's funeral, we were having a good time, I think she would have liked that! This pic cracks me up because it is so not Jake!

Mom and I! I love this one of us!
Beautiful girls!
couldn't resist this one!
Check out these next two pics, can you tell they are related? "Do we have to do this pic?"
I love this of Eddies kids!
Not the best pic of my dad, but the only one I got that day!
Cute Gracie! The names sake, it will be interesting to see if the personality is similar. Right now she seems a little calm compared to Grandma Grace.
Couldn't resist the dancing Ruby and Amy looking on!
Cute Grandma and Miles!!!!
Well, hope you liked the show!!! Love you all!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig! And a book you must read!

Well, it is always soooo fun to go visit my kids and grandkids, but as I rounded the bend and the ocean popped into view, my heart was ready to be home. I love my hubby, and we have our routine, and routine feels good.

I had a great trip, we had so much fun. Tanner and I made the car cupcakes and vehicle pancakes twice. The second time we used a yellow cake recipe and I forgot the sugar!!!! Needless to say they tasted like very okay muffins. Even Tanner didn't like those. The bonus is that Lizzie and I weren't tempted at all!!! Plus I hope Lizzie blogs at least one of the pics of the colored cars, because they were gross looking, they looked like playdough, so like Lizzie said it made you not even want to try them! I didn't bring my camera, next time I will! I am more comfortable with my camera. I think that Tanner thought they were cool, and I think most boys would. I think they would be popular for a long time, as the boys got older they would just get more intricate with their decorating. Great party idea!

We sat in the back yard while the kids played in the sandbox, and it felt soooo good. There is nothing quite like warm air moving softly with tropical plants around. The only thing that could have made it cooler is if the citrus was ripe on the trees. Someday....

Kate came to me a lot and that was fun, Lizzie said that wasn't normal for her. I got to see her taking some of her first steps, that was cool. Tanner and I built tower after tower with his blocks. He would pretend to be a monster and chase me around the house. I think I burned a lot of calories, at least I hope.

We went shopping also, have to do that when I'm with Lizzie, cause she always helps me to choose clothes. You'd think at 51 I could do it by myself. I buy clothes on my own more now, but it always helps to have Lizzie's honest and good taste. As Rebecca used to always say, "Lizzie always knows what's coming before it's in!" We also hit Williams Sonoma, have to say one of my favorite stores. I think I finally found my dishes. I don't have china, and have decided to spend a little more than I planned since they will be my "good dishes" and my everyday dishes. They are really beautiful in person. They look really cool with the other white dishes they have in the store, so I can use the other white dishes for the serving pieces. This particular set doesn't come with serving dishes. Because I am going to Disneyland with Rebecca and the girls, I probably won't buy them right away. I'll have to save for these!
The only sad thing this last week was that they were sick, and then I got sick. But at least there were fun distractions. On the way home even though I did everything I was supposed to on the last descent on the second flight I thought my eardrum was going to burst. It hurt and felt plugged until this morning. On the way to California I had a layover in Salt Lake, I knew I had a layover, but never really looked to see how long it was. When I landed I discovered it was 4 HOURS!! When I had little kids at home I would relish layovers, now its just annoying. Because I hadn't planned on that long of a layover, I didn't have enough to read, and I wasn't in the mood to do internet stuff, sooo off to the book store I went. Purusing the books is always a scary propisition. I don't want to spend money on a book that I will have to throw away before I even get very far into it. So I was milling around, and saw a Nicholas Sparks book. I thought, well he is probably safe, so I picked it up. It was non-fiction. I thought that was odd. I read the back and it sounded really interesting. It is one of the more thought provoking, entertaining books I've read in a long time. I want everyone of my kids to read it. It has all the elements of a good read- funny, sad, true, and teaches great life lessons. I think we all look at others and think there life is so easy. I've decided that just isn't true, and this book really teaches that. Also it talks a lot about choice and being too busy. I think it would do me some good to read it over several times! I left it with Lizzie. If you finish it Lizzie I'll pick it up at Easter and loan it out to some of your sibs. Anyway, I was reminded of how much I love to read, and that I need to always have a good book nearby!

Well,it is late and just a note to my kids and their spouses, thanks for fasting as a family for Danielle and Clay. I feel truly blessed to have kids that love and support their family like you all do!!!! I always know I can count on you when I need you! That is very comforting!

Love to all!!!!