The Wonderful World of...

DISNEY!

So, we went to Disneyland. And, uh, whatever it's called, California-land or something. And, we have proof, in picture form. Lots of proof, but I'm trying to only put ones I like and/or have some emotional value to them.

I was walking down the street, from our hotel to Disneyland one morning, when I looked down and saw this:
Walt Disney's Star! I had to take a picture, because I'm a dork.

We also had to get our picture next to all the classics.Like outside the train station next to the giant floral Mickey.

And, since it's Halloween time...
In front of the giant Mickey Pumpkin.

Kyler graciously allowed me to take a picture with Cap'n Jack Sparrow.Not quite as attractive when two dimensional, let me tell you.

We went on this cool riverboat:Isn't it pretty?

There is also this AWESOME pirate/Tom Sawyer island that doesn't have "rides" or whatever, but you can just run around and climb up tree houses (see below)
Or walk on really cool bridges
Or get a little chummy with a skull or two.Really, did anyone expect me to do any different?
Seriously, the island was so cool. Definitely the place to hang out when your children are tired of waiting in lines for all the rides... which we actually didn't do too much. It was kind of overcast and threatening to rain in the morning of both days, so fewer people at the park! Woohoo!

I got eaten by a whale...


And we saw Darth Vader!
The little kid "Jedis" in the crowd got to fight him with their "lightsabers." Hilarious.

We also, how random is this, ran into Steph, Kyler's former girlfriend, so we hung out with her for part of the afternoon.She got a higher score than Kyler! Good job, Steph!

My favorite thing in Disneyland ended up being Big Thunder Railroad or whatever it's called... but not necessarily for the reasons you think.
It is a really fun ride, but on the second morning, while Kyler and I were riding it.......it suddenly stopped! (These pictures were taken after it stopped. In the first, the nice lady a little in front of us told us to look scared.)Long story short, on a different "train," barely out of the station, someone had stood up, so they stopped the ride. They couldn't just start it back up, though, for whatever (probably legal) reason, so they came out, let us out, and we got to walk around in the ride to get out!It was way cool, and let see what was behind the scenes a little, and let us take pictures that never would have worked before.

Also, Kyler likes Mr. Toad.And his wild ride.


And Dad, this one is for you...
Everytime I see a cannon anywhere, I think of you!

Lego Woody at the Lego Store


And now, onto California Adventure place!We thought the little kids playing on the letters was a nice touch.


Note: this is not the REAL Golden Gate Bridge. Sorry to anyone who thought it was.


There is a really cool "ride" that has airplane pictures all over the walls of the line area, including this one:Recognize it? It's the Spruce Goose! The airplane ride also reminded me of Cliffy because they showed this huge Navy ship with jets on it... and helicopters! One of them was flying, and I told Kyler, "my brother's flying that one!" Kyler said, "Yes, I'm sure he is." I think he was just humoring me.


Kyler and the Walking Stick.
Quite the resemblance, eh?

Our favorite ride in California was the Grizzly Bear Run or whatever. See the grizzly bear?
It's a ride that takes you through white water rapids. Little man-made ones, but still way fun. Kyler and I got SOAKED. Well, here and at Splash Mountain, too. My bag was literally dripping. Good thing our camera case protected the camera. We did ruin a few maps of the parks and had to get new ones, though.

The last thing we did was go to World of Colors, this water/light (and a little fire!) show.
Very pretty.

That is all.
Well, we did return home, Kyler got sick (from BlizzCon or Disneyland, whichever) and then got me sick.
The end.

Chilvary is not dead!

Jeez, Mom, it's all about the bite-sized chunks! Also, this post covers two days, and this post the next two days, meaning I've written about four days so far, not just one.
Also, I'm sick. Take pity on me.

So, after BlizzCon, we went to the beach and Medieval Times. See? Beach.
We played around in the sand and struck poses for each other. Well, that or we just took pictures while the other one wasn't paying attention.The beach was way fun. We got rather wet, but the weather was beautiful and we didn't mind at all. After taking all the awesome beach pictures, we got a little cheesy and took a picture of our shadows in the water.
Isn't it cute? The shadows are holding hands!
Then we wandered around town a bit and stumbled across a red phone booth! Loradona, this one is for you!
But where is the phone?
We went to lunch in the town at a place called The Greeter's Corner.This is a picture of the greeter. Apparently, this Scandinavian man would stand on the side walk and wave and say hi to everyone that drove by. He did it for, like, 33 years or something. Too bad his statue didn't have a thumb.




Now, Medieval Times... Kyler is rather intimidating. This suit of armor is shaking in his boots.Do you think I could win in an arm-wrestling competition?
While we were there, we got to meet "royalty."This is Kyler and me with the King of the Castle!
For those of you who don't know, they randomly divide the audience at Medieval Times into color groups, based on your crown - we're green! That color is the color of the knight you support... and hope manages to kill everyone else!The green knight and squire. Our knight almost won but, really, he's destined to lose. Go to see it and you'll figure out why. Plus you'll get a lot of tasty food.

Now, patiently wait for the next (and final?) installment of our trip: Disneyland!

Geek-Con 2010!

This is the second post about our trip... post #1 is here.This is the reason primary reason we went to California. So that Kyler could revel in all that is geeky. BlizzCon 2010.
Of course, Kyler wasn't the only geek there:
What a huge crowd of people, all waiting to enter the Anaheim Convention Center. Some of them were dressed up, because there was a costume contest.
This girl actually got proposed to on stage at the costume contest! Cool, eh?



I'm bored waiting to get in, so I made Kyler take my picture.
It's me with my name tag and schedule of events. Sweet action, eh?



Once we got inside, we posed for pictures with all the cool statues.
Villains and heroes alike, we didn't discriminate when it came to picture-taking. And there was a photo booth, so we decided to take advantage of it.
Too bad the lady didn't tell us we were off-center. Thanks, lady.



We stood in line to play a game that isn't publicly available yet. Look at the bank of computer they had!
We look way cool when our pictures get taken without our knowledge, don't we?



Lest you think we were anti-social, Kyler met some people he'd been playing with. They are real people after all!
L-R: iHealer (Matt), Lucedordai (Rich), and Kyler (Gloredhel). A whole group of geeks!



At the end of BlizzCon, there was a concert. Anyone want to guess who performed?
Someone inappropriate...Tenacious D! And, yes, they are dirty.

There were lots of game developers and people talking about the games and things, but that would be boring to rehash, so just know that they were there. And Kyler loved it!

What a dichotomy!

So how about we skip all the excuses about why I haven't blogged lately (hey, make Kyler blog, why don't you? Give me a break!), and just go straight into what we just did... go to California! Why? Well, the primary reason is because Kyler is a geek. But we'll get to that in a bit.

First, we headed out after work and drove to Vegas. Cutting the trip in half was way less stressful. On our way, the entire drive from Cedar City to... somewhere in Nevada, it was all lightning and exciting. Seriously, like, 200 miles of lightning. Made for some pretty nighttime driving.
We got to Vegas, wandered around a bit, and decided Las Vegas is trashy, gaudy, and not really the city of my dreams. As I'm sure everyone knows, you can gamble everywhere in Vegas, literally. Even our hotel:
That's right, Super 8/Casino. Because who wouldn't want to come to the Super 8 to gamble?



This picture is really just here so you can mock the spelling.
Ready, set, go! Mock "whith" me!



Kyler is shocked by the sign. It was indeed a Wild Wednesday, after all.



The next morning, we hastily left Vegas to head to California. We happened to stop for breakfast in a town that also sported the World's Tallest Thermometer.
I'm trying to be as tall as the thermometer, but it's really not working.



The first real place we went was the LA temple. Dedicated in 1956, it's huge. This is the picture we took from the car as we approached.
Kyler and I both took pictures with the spire, and also got one of the Sister Missionaries to take our picture with the Christus statue at the Visitor's Center.Do you see the background? It's the ocean! How cool is that?

After we went to the temple, we headed to the motel in Anaheim that would be our home for the next 6 nights, and waited in line for our entry tickets to the primary reason we went on vacation... but I think that will wait for next time. Keep up the suspense and all that, right?

Kind of like Popcorn, but way deadlier

Happy August, everyone! August means:

• Kyler and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary! And, for the first time ever, we have real plans. We're going to stay the night at a bed and breakfast in Salt Lake and eat tasty dinner and have fun.
• It's been nearly a month since my mother came to visit, and I haven't posted about it yet. Ooops.
• My soccer games start again. I'm both looking forward to and dreading them. I love to play, but it was kind of nice to have relaxing Saturdays that didn't require us to go anywhere if we didn't want to.
• We moved and have officially had the keys to our new apartment for one week. Our new place has central air conditioning, but it appears are cell phones are incredibly stupid anywhere are the premises.
  

Sorry, I don't have pictures of the new place or all of the ones from when Mom visited, but I do have a few:
View of the temple from the top of the church office building, I think. Mom and I went all over Temple Square, touring where we could (and, uh, where we couldn't) and feeling all tourist-y. It was fun.


Utah State Capitol building, also from the top of the Church Office Building.


Mom and I at the top of the church office building.


Mom and I also had a sewing lesson. I bought a sewing machine a few months ago, so we attempted to make use of it. The results as follows:
I made the skirt (with Mom's help). What do you think? Justify my vanity and flatter me, please.

Also, yesterday morning, I looked out the window and what did I see?
Lightning flashing near the apricot tree.
Summer has brought me such a nice surprise:
Lightning flashing right before my eyes....
Seriously, it was so loud. It invaded my dreams before it finally woke me up. (In the dream, the lightning was somehow and indicator for the number of children you were going to have. Katrina and I decided Liz was going to have seven children, including a set of triplets.)
I loved the fact that it was stormy and raining, even if tons of people at work were glaring at the windows all day... I was happy!