The Magic of Disneyland

So after we'd checked into our very spacious handicap hotel room, we were able to experience all the magic of Disneyland at Christmas time. We rode the classics like Space Mountain, Star Tours, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Splash Mountain, the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and It's a Small World. However, there were a lot of new attractions to experience this time. Disneyland is transformed into a wonderland of holiday lights, garland, Christmas trees, and holiday magic at Christmas time! The Haunted Mansion is transformed into a ride with a The Nightmare Before Christmas theme. WE LOVED IT! My favorite part was where you suddenly smell gingerbread and you look down and see a gingerbread man rising from a coffin with little x's for his eyes. As I describe it, I guess it sounds a little morbid, but it really was just very clever and hilarious. I only wish they'd keep the theme for the whole year, but it probably wouldn't be as special and cool...needless to say, we rode the ride several...okay, okay, A LOT of times.

However, our first ride on it was the absolute best and couldn't be beat, at least in my opinion. When we walked into the first room of the house (where they shut the doors, turn off the lights, and the walls begin to get taller), the lights turned off and a scary man started talking. As we heard the first sound of thunder crash, a little boy behind us let out a piercing shriek and burst into tears. The incident only became more entertaining as his parents tried to console him by telling him to look at the cool pictures on the walls, which just happened to be the same horrifying pictures that were growing taller before our eyes. The boy became hysterical and gasping between sobs he screamed, “I DON’T WANT TO BE IN THIS HOUSE ANYMORE!” It was just too must amusement for us to handle. Me, Jeff, and his dad laughed the whole time at this poor child’s traumatic experience. As the doors opened, the boy said he wanted to leave, but before his mom could try to dissuade him, Jeff’s dad turns around and says, “Oh, you’ve got to stay because you’re making the ride so much more enjoyable for us.”

We also were able to go to California Adventures, which had most of my highlights for the trip. The ride SOARIN’ is absolutely the best ride in both parks. It’s not scary or super thrilling, but it is exhilarating and breathtaking. The best is being on the top hang gliders because you can’t see anyone’s feet above you. My favorite part of this ride was the smells! Really I think all amusement park rides should use smells. They are so wonderful. You smell oranges and pine trees during this ride! Yummm! The ride is indescribable. You just have to experience it for yourself in all its awesomeness. Really, I want that ride in my own home someday. It’s just that awesome. California Adventures also has two cool tours. The Mission tortilla tour is great because they give you a hot tortilla at the end, but I loved the Boudin bread tour the most. They give you a sample of the bread at the beginning, but you also learn the secret of the delicious sourness of Boudin – they use part of the starter dough that was first used 200 years ago! No wonder! The mystery has been solved! (Plus it was lunch time when we had the tour, so we all got Boudin bread bowls after the tour!)

We learned on our trip that at Disneyland you can also see celebrities. Who knew? Triple D (Guy Fieri) happened to be there from the Food Network. He was filming a show in one of the Disney candy shops, and we could see him through the window. Jeff’s dad had a perfect view above the crowd since he’s a towering 6’4”. He is a huge Triple D fan, so he throws up his hands, makes the rock on sign, and screams, “Yeah Triple D!” We got a good laugh at it, but we all were surprised when Triple D stopped what he was doing, looks out the window, and makes the rock on sign back! A Disneyland worker that was on crowd control informed Jeff’s dad that they will cut that out of the segment for sure (I guess some people think it’s fun to try and ruin people’s days). Travis quickly responded, “He doesn’t care. That’s not why he did it.” And it was true. He didn’t care.

Out of all the crazy fun adventures, I think the most magical part was when they lit up Sleeping Beauty’s castle for the fireworks. For Christmas the castle was decorated to look like there was snow and icicles on it. After they light up the castle, they start playing a song about believing and then suddenly snow starts to fall. You look up and realize it’s coming from the rooftops of the shops on Main St. and that it’s not actually snow but soap suds. Jeff’s mom said she thought it was so magical she almost started crying. So I mean really…how much more magical can you get? However, you could tell most the people at the park were Californians because when the snow started to land on people they quickly brushed it off. Ahh…true Californians – snow haters.

Basically, we loved Disneyland at Christmas time and we can’t wait to go back!

Spacious rooms, showers, and the beginning of F-U-N

I know, I know, I stink at blogging. But in true Jeff fashion I am wasting my life away watching retarded comedies, today its Joe Dirt, and since I have seen this many times I am gonna try to update the masses. I decided that since Christmas was amazing I am gonna write more than one blog about it.

We left the Saturday after finals early in the morning and drove straight on down to L.A. It wasn’t such a bad drive until we hit San Bernadino. That is because it wasn’t until we were about 8 hours into the drive that I realized that we had forgotten the map to the hotel we were gonna stay in. With some quick thinking on my part I texted Joey who lived his whole life in the greater L.A. area. This may come as a shock to some of you but, there are so many freeways in L.A. that nobody has them all memorized. So with a little help from Joey we got ourselves a more than just a little lost. Take home message / Late Christmas gift to all, never get directions through texting, most of the time you are already past the exit you should have taken by the time the planets align and the message gets to you. Once we were completely lost we called Whitney’s dad, luckily he was near a computer and led us safely to our destination. La Quinta.

I have seen our beautiful La Quinta hotel in Orem from the road. I always figured it was your normal hotel with unlimited doughnuts and small boxes of frosted flakes in the morning. However, this one that we stayed in was huge. I am positive that it was bigger than our apartment. It was a handicapper room so everything had to be spaced out so that a wheelchair could move around. We had two T.V.s, a couch, a living room, and a bathroom. I only mention the bathroom because it was crazy. Apparently handicapped people get to shower sitting down on a bench. Needless to say, I want to be handicapped.

So This is Christmas...

Our Beautiful (Real ) Christmas Tree! YAY!

This year is our first Christmas together. We were lucky to get ornaments and decorations from both our families to help bring more Christmas cheer into our home. I was very excited to get twinkling lights, ribbon, my Christmas ornaments, and a Moravian star for the tree. Jeff was very happy to get colored lights, his snowball candle, Santa’s Workshop, and his lite brite Christmas tree. We also received a cute advent calendar from my little sister, Carly, that allows us to eat a piece of candy each day until Christmas! YAY for enjoying candy and getting fat!

Another pleasant and unexpected surprise we received was a special ceramic nativity from Jeff’s family. Jeff had told me all about this special nativity that his mom made and was always his job to set up. He was very shocked when his mom sent it and loved setting it up again this year. We are glad to have a family tradition that can be carried on with our own family.

Jeff and I have enjoyed the holiday season. Besides finals and my crazy kids that are super excited about Santa and no school, it has been so fun listening to Christmas music and baking Gingerbread cookies!

Here are some pictures of the fun we had decorating our house for Christmas.

Cute Precious Moments nativity we got for Christmas.

Thanks Carly!

Merry Christmas!

Body World

Today while I was kicking back, watching Zoolander, and tying to memorize some stuff that I think is so retarded, the movie came to life for me like it never had before. It got to the part where Derek returns home to “find himself” and, right before the Merman commercial comes on, he starts to complain about having the Black Lung. I know that this experience does not seem that unusual, nor does it make sense why that part would jump out so much this time, but prior to this weekend, I had never seen an actual black lung.

Instead of freezing to death standing in line in order to get a good deal on some stuff at Best Buy, we decided to spend the day after Thanksgiving with Whitney’s family in SLC at Body World 3. In case you didn’t know, there are a ton of dead bodies lying around at the Leonardo. I won’t try to explain what they do at Body World because I don’t want to sound like a dork, but basically you can see all the body parts that you want for $19. There is a cross section of a big fat dude and you can see all the fat around the organs and everything. Also, there is a full on camel. It is a lot like the ones that the Wise Men probably rode on to visit you-know-who, except this one had a gaping hole in its side, so you could see all of its guts. Pretty much it was a great date, even though there were bazillions of people there.

Oh, as a side note, I would like to post the following warning: I love Christmas and I get carried away quite frequently. Tonight I was trying to bring the Christmas spirit into our home with a little hot chocolate. Unfortunately, I don’t drink milk, so I have a hard time getting that creamy thickness; I have tried to remedy this by adding extra flavors. I tried making the hot chocolate tonight with grape juice instead of water. I’m surprised that I am still alive to tell about it. I was one of the worst flavors that I have ever had in my mouth. So be warned in case you think you are the first person to think of Grape Chocolate, there really is a reason that nobody is selling it.

Family … isn’t it about T.I.M.E

When I was in high school, and for about a year afterwards, all I did was play guitar in local bands and bum around with friends. Unfortunately, I have learned that there is more to life than all of that. However, my buddy Jack has found a way to mix adulthood with those beloved teen years. He is a student at the U of U and plays in a local band. His band, This Is My Escape, opened for Fall of Troy. It was a pretty good concert. It had your usual group of junkies and burnouts, but it was fun to get out and do something that didn’t involve O Chem, Physics, or Physiology. I was surprised because there were 5 bands on the bill, which is a lot of rocking for one night. This was compounded by the fact that one of the bands was a modern day Nirvana; I didn’t know it was possible to write 5 songs and only use 4 phrases. To top off the night, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Betos. I am so glad that we had Thanksgiving break.