Driving Home

We drove home over yesterday and today.  Colin, Rylan and I aren't feeling too swift and I think we are all a little worn out from the fun.  The drive was uneventful and full of beautiful scenery - after we reached Utah.  I can't say much that is nice about the scenery in California.  The mountains are scrubby and plain, and the high desert is sort of plain as well.  The Joshua trees are pretty, though.  We spent the night in Cedar City again, and then made the drive over the mountains to get home.  Colorado has had a rough few days of bone-chilling cold, so I am glad we were in California for the duration!

Dean and I finished all of Serial, and then combed the internet looking for any updates.  The open ending was frustrating, but I was already prepared for that since it was splashed all over social media.  I think Jay had a hand in it, and that Adnan had more to do with it than he is saying.  It will be interesting to see what the Innocence Project turns up.

We're glad to be home, but so glad that we had the opportunity to finally vacation with our family!

Disneyland

Today was the day I had been looking forward to for the past several months.  I have been anticipating taking the little kids to Disneyland for a long, long time.  We took Jordan when he was 6 years old and Rylan was a mere 11 weeks old, so it has been a long time!  It took nearly an hour and a half before we even entered the park.  The parking was ridiculous, the lines were ridiculous and the crowds were unbelievable.  The grand spending total for a day at Disney including parking, 6 tickets, two meals, four hats and one toy each was around $1200.  Ouch.  Thank you to grandma Judy for the Christmas money for the tickets, and thank you to the aunties and Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve for the gift money for the toys.  The kids had a blast picking out their stuff!

It was a little difficult negotiating which rides to ride and so forth with such a diverse age group in our family, but with the smart move by getting fast passes, and some trickery to get Owen onto rides, we made it work.  Poor Owen.  He gets easily rattled by watching rides.  It was to our advantage that a lot of the rides were sort of hidden from view, so we could easily fool him into thinking it wasn't so bad.  His imagination gets the best of him.  Here he is on the platform on the Matterhorn after he rode it.  He loved it, of course, but for the entire hour we were waiting in line, we kept telling him that people were screaming because they were afraid of getting wet, not because the ride was scary.  The only scary part of the ride was the Yeti.

We waited an hour to get on It's a Small World, and it was worth it, since it was decorated differently for the holidays.  Here is a group shot of almost everyone on our boat as we head into the ride.  Dean and my brother were in search of the last round of fast passes for the day.

Another round of trickery was involved to get Owen onto Splash Mountain.  He was fooled until the very end, when we went up, up, up before we went down, down, down.  He was seated right in front of me, and as we made the climb up, I could here him say, "I have a bad feeling about this!!".  It was all good in the end.  Here is screen shot of the other boat of family: Drew, Rylan, Jordan, Connor, my brother Kirk and SIL Michelle.  I love Rylan's expression...lol.

We wandered over to Tomorrowland and gave Space Mountain a try.  Go figure, the scariest way to ride a roller coaster - in complete darkness - thrilled Owen to pieces!  He said over and over, "It's like we're in space!!!!"  I'm so glad they all rode it and loved it.  We ended the night with a few more rides and then a parting picture in front of the castle.  The kids lasted all day with minimal meltdowns, which was amazing.  So glad we all had the chance to spend the day together and share in the fun!

New Year's Day and Huntington Beach. (Again!)

It's later on New Year's Day and we drove back from Pasadena to the hotel.  We split off from the rest of the family and decided that we needed some more time at the beach.  We first stopped at a great seafood restaurant and then went back to the same beach we were at yesterday.  The kids brought their suits this time, and braved the chilly surf.  Jordan held Rylan in the bigger waves and she loved it.

The rest of the family eventually joined us and we watched the sun set on a wonderful New Year's Day.  I think every first day of the year should be spent at the beach - it is a great way to begin!!

Tournament of Roses Parade

Good Morning and Happy New Year from Pasadena, California!  We went to bed early last night - celebrating NYE at 9 pm, in anticipation of getting up at 4 am this morning.  We made the drive to Pasadena, snagged some Starbucks and made our way to our special parking area that was right behind our grandstands.  It is a warm and sunny morning and there is excitement in the air in anticipation of the parade.  The streets are full of people and dozens of dirty tortillas.  I'm not sure what that is about, but it looks like they had quite the party last night.

 
The parade began with a group that danced and sang, and then these guys were doing flips on moving trampolines.  It was neat to see it later on TV and see how they began the parade by emerging from the crowd.

This was my favorite float - how beautiful!!

It's the cast from Loveboat!!

Here is my nephew's band - Legacy Lightning Marching Band from Broomfield, CO.  They looked and sounded great!

It was a fun parade, and the floats were amazing.  There was an opportunity for us to get tickets to see the floats up close, but we opted not to.  I think the kids were a little fried by the end of the parade.  Anyway, it was a great family experience. :)