Disney park take 2.

This last weekend some friends were going to Cali to visit Disneyland and our friend Emilie. I decided last minute to join the crew. I was kind of hesitant since I was just in Disneyworld last month,but So glad I went. It was a good chance to take my mind off of things and go have fun with an old friend!
We boarded a jet plane on Thursday evening and off to Long Beach we went. Once we got there we decided it would be fun to all try and fit in one car. Great idea...for the most part. Getting to the hotel was a bit tricky with all of our luggage on our laps!

Once we got settled into the hotel, we headed off to dinner. We went to this place called Dave and Busters, because everyone had seen it on TV. Basically it was like a Chuck E Cheese for adults. Lots of fun arcade games with a restaurant right in the middle. And then TVs all around if you wanted to watch sports. This was my favorite game...mostly because I won.

Its like skee ball and horse racing mixed. Loved it.
The next morning we went to Disneyland. My friend Mason is a DIE HARD Disney/Halloween fan so we were there BEFORE Disney land opened up until it closed at Midnight, and I am not kidding. My feet killed.
Mason made us these great shirts that I thought were hilarious.

Em had to work here and there over our trip and just decided last minute to come, so we didnt have a shirt for her. But I loved it because we got to ride the rides together :)
The lines were crazy long, but we made the best out of it. One of the lines I threw out the idea of Down by the banks and they took it right up. I was pretty happy.
I hate to brag again...but I won :)
Here's the final 3

We also played Telephone, and made up some sweet handshakes.
I had the first experience of riding Tower of Terror. And the dirtbags wouldnt tell me what to expect. I took a picture of the picture, so its kind of blurry, but if you can see my face I was terrified.

Probably my favorite group photo of the trip.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast in Huntington Beach at a little restaurant called Sugar Shack.

Anyone who knows me, knows I have spent my fair share of time at the beach. Never in my life have I been to a beach where I was laying out in the middle of a cloud. It was the weirdest thing ever. You could feel little beads of liquid and couldnt even see the ocean from a short distance. It was still great though. Em and I threw the frisbee, and Sabrina and I quoted FRIENDS episodes.
Playing Frisbee

Surprisingly enough, I still got some sun!
Then we went back to the hotel, got showered and ready and went to In & Out for some dinner and then onward to Universal Studios for their Horror Nights.
If you havent been to Universal Studios its where they make movies and TV shows...so everything is so real. Well they turned the whole thing into a haunted house. It really was scary. But so fun. It didnt open until 7 and we got stuck in traffic for 3hrs due to a wreck so we didnt get their until late.
Simpson Ride

The lines were insanely long. By far the longest lines I have ever stood in.This is one line, in one section. This line went on for hrs..

By then it was like 1 in the morning (The park started closing at 2) and anyone again who knows me, knows I am a pretty early to bedder. I like sleep. I am in bed on average around 10. So by this time with all these people and being 1 in the AM and already have been scared for a couple hrs I decided to bow out of the line half way part way through and wait for them to go through one of the haunted housed. Sabrina decided to come with me. We sat there for what seemed like forever right by the exit until a cop came up to us with a flash light telling us we need to leave. We looked at our watches at it was 2:45 AM!! We told them we were waiting for our friends in the haunted house. They told us there was no one left in the haunted house and then we realized the streets of Universal Sudios were dead. Sure enough, the group had walked right past us and we had no idea. At least we had the keys so they couldnt leave us!
When we walked to the car we found this...

We didnt get home and in bed until like 4 in the AM.
The next morning we woke up and went to a local singles ward. Then we grabbed some food, and went back to the hotel where we watched ET and had a little nap. I snuggled right in between Sabrina and Emilie and was OUT.
We woke up and headed to Sprinkles, a little cupcake shop.

Then we went and saw a movie. This is at Fashion Island outside of the movie theatre.

The next morning we were up at 4AM to take back the rental car and catch our flight back to SLC. We flew in and straight to work I went! Look at this pretty sunrise from the airplane...almost worth waking up that early for.

Great Story

I was driving to work this morning and heard this story on the radio. They were talking about a picture of a little girl who didnt want to let go of her dad that was getting ready to depart to Iraq.

I looked up the story when I got to work and thought it was a good one to share.

I think its easy to forget all the men, women and their families that are sacrificing for us daily.

This is a good reminder.

By Tom Henderson:

Some things are just not allowed when soldiers are standing in formation. One of them is 4-year-old girls.
However, there was no soldier stern enough to pry Paige Bennethum of Laureldale, Pa. from her father as he prepared to leave last July for a year-long deployment in Iraq.
Abby Bennethum captured her daughter's emotions in a photograph that she passed along to the Reading Eagle, the newspaper in Berks County, Pa. The image immediately captured many other people's emotions.
Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum was preparing to depart from Fort Dix, N.J., for Iraq, leaving behind his pregnant wife and two little girls. His family was there to see him off. His commanding officer didn't have the heart to tell Paige she had to let go of her daddy.
"I didn't want to let go of him," she told NBC Philadelphia.
Sgt. Bennethum, 30, is scheduled to return home next July. Until then, he's transporting supplies across the Iraqi border. He serves with the 733rd Transportation Company based in Reading, Pa.
Abby Bennethum said she got pregnant right before her husband left for Iraq. "I've heard of deployment babies, but I never thought I'd be having one," she told the Reading Eagle. The couple's other daughter, Lena, is just 10 months old.
Staff Sgt. Bennethum got a four-day pass so he could spend some quality time with his family and they could make the two-hour trip to Fort Dix to see him off. Almost immediately upon arrival, his commanding officer ordered the soldiers to fall in.
"Gotta go," he told his family. But Paige walked up behind him in formation, grabbed his right hand and would not let go.
"I called her a couple of times, but she wouldn't budge," her mother said. She still wishes she was holding her father's hand.
"I just miss my dad right now," Paige told NBC.

So Long Sweet Summer

I know I am only like a month late, but this is my formal goodbye to summer.
I love summer with all of my heart and I have finally come around to the idea of fall. Fall is such a beautiful season and I hope we get to enjoy it before more snow hits!
I am now saying so long also to my Summer List. I almost accomplished all of it!
The Zipling in Park City I attempted 2 or 3 times. One of the times I got a fun group together to go up and we were pelted with Hail and then the other time we got rained out. So I at least tried that one. The Zoo....I was kind of anti zoo this year. I dont know why. And then the horseback riding I want to move over to my fall list.
So if anyone would like to take a beautiful horse ride with me and my sister in law Kami, let me know. Should be a killer time.
I hope you all had as fun as I did this summer!!