Disneyland with Friends

Our first day at Disneyland was great! It stayed open until midnight and we packed every minute of the day with rides! We got to go with the Gardner's and the Muir's and we ended up seeing the Anderson boys and riding a couple rides with the Hendricksons. Melody had SO much fun being with friends. Erik, Melody and Ryan had a lot of fun in line together and were laughing most of the time. Melody and Erik were tall enough for everything and so they got to go on Indiana Jones for the first time. Mel was a little spooked before the ride but by the end she loved it and they all wanted to go again. We did a few new things this time, we went to Tom Sawyer's Island and the kids played for a while and we rode the train around Disneyland. We also went on Autopia for the first time. Now, this one is the one I thought was new, and I found out that it had been there for a LONG time... not sure why I had never been on it but Melody and the kids LOVED it and went on it a few times. Melody drove me around once too and thinks she is ready to drive a real car,lol. We had lunch at a place in New Orleans square that had yummy food and the kids all liked it too. That evening we went on the Haunted Mansion and I guess I have only ever been on this ride at Halloween time because Tanisha told me it was completely different than normal. The ghost dog reindeer, Xero, was Melody's favorite on that ride. Space Mountain was also re-done for Halloween. No planets, just scary monsters and creepy music. The kids weren't too sure about it...Melody says she likes it better the "normal" way. I think I do too! We rode rides until the last possible minute and then did some shopping on main street. Melody and Erik were so tired they both fell asleep and had to be carried out. I carried her as long as I could and then Jason carried Mel the rest of the way. It was a great first day of vacation!

Fall Break Road Trip to CA

For Fall Break this past week, we drove to California. I drove behind the Gardner's since I did NOT want to drive alone. We stopped on the way in, at Pink's, a famous hot dog place. I am a fan of a good hot dog on the grill, so I was not so excited when I saw that this place was more famous for the stuff you put on the hot dog than the actual hot dog. I think that some of those in the group liked their smothered dogs but Ted's still holds the top place in my hot dog loving heart :) After we ate, we went back to the cars and the Gardner's suburban wouldn't start...too many electric devices plugged in. Coleman took the battery to the store in my car and Tanisha and I hung out with the kids on the side of the road and did some people watching in a kinda scary neighborhood. We kept ourselves amused and when Coleman came back with a new battery from a retarded Walmart that didn't work either. We waited again while he tried an auto zone. So after 3 hours or so and a couple batteries later, we were finally on our way to our hotel. We had thought it was close to Disneyland but it turned out to be a ways down the street but we were so excited to just arrive I don't think anyone cared.

Camping

In September, we went camping with the Gardner, Hendrickson, Holste and Muir families. Tanisha and Coleman did A LOT of work for this camp out. They had an awesome menu planned and we had amazing food! The kids had a blast and got to hike, play in the water, and go to a fish hatchery. The kids tried to play their DS's but after a while we talked them into playing cards and they LOVED old maid. I had brought up a deck of cards and Melody got to show the other kids how to play. It was a fun trip and we came home tired and dirty so I am pretty sure that means it was a successful camping trip :)