Day 7 and 8 of Our California Vacation: Hunington Beach and Vegas

Day 7: Hunington Beach and Vegas

Well I'm back with my last recap from our trip. You didn't think we would go to California and Not go to the beach did you? Anyways Saturday morning we were finally able to sleep in somewhat since we didn't have a park to get to before opening. So we took our time sleeping in and getting ready to leave the hotel. We decided that the beach we were going to go to was Hunington Beach cause i've heard it was pretty nice. Plus it was fairly close. So we packed up the car punched the beach into the GPS and we were on our way.

As I said before the GPS was great to have and I have no clue how I would have found our way around So Cal if we didn't have it. But there was many instances where it confused me and I still got lost for a moment. Well this happened when we were making our way to the beach. However I was kinda happy it happened because we stumbled across the Import Car store Super Autobacs. Being the fan of Import Cars that I am I had to stop in and check it out. Basically its a huge autoparts store like a Pep Boys but instead of your normal car care stuff they sell performance parts. Many of which are imported dirrectly from Japan. I had a good time looking around and wish we had a little more time (and money so I could by the 2,000 wheels I want for the Type R).

We finally got to downtown Hunington Beach so we found a parking spot and then walked down the main street there looking at all the surf shops and resturants that line the street. We got to the beach and just walked along the sand and watched the people out in the freezing cold ocean surfing and buggyboarding.

After walking the beach we walked to the end of the Hunington Beach Pier so we could ge some better views of the surfers and views of the city and beach and such. After our stop in Hunington beach we then headed to a nearby mall so we could get a Cinnabon since they don't have these back home. And once we had got that it was time to make the drive back to Vegas. Once again I got confused by the GPS and missed the turn we were suppose to take. So we ended up having about a 15 mile detour to get back in route to Vegas. But the detour took us thru where the recent fires in California had been. We were able to see some of the house that burn down from the freeway and it was just sad to see the distruction the fires caused.

We made it to Vegas in pretty good timing so we got to my aunts house and unpacked our stuff again since we would be staying with them again. Unlike the first night we stayed in Vegas we were going out to the strip. I heard some of the Hotels put up some christmas decorations so I wanted to check this out since i've never been in Vegas during the Christmas season. Since I make many trips to Vegas each year I didn't need the GPS to get around the town. We first went to the Premium Outlets to do some shopping and we also got dinner there. Then we headed to the strip. We parked at the Imperial Palace (a perfect central strip location to park) and we headed north to the Vanician and the Palazo. Both had a few suttle christmas decorations but nothing major.

We then went across the street to the Wynn to see if they had any decorations up. Sure enough they at least put some lights on there trees inside and out.

We then made our way across the street and started heading back south thru Tresure Island and past the Marage. We cut thru TI but they didn't have anything set up and we didn't make it into the Marage.

I read online the Ceasars Palace usually decorates there cortyard for christmas but we were dissapointed to find no decorations there this year. Even inside they had almost no decorations except for a few in the forum shops.

Next stop was the Bellagio. Which was diffenitly the most christmas done hotel we could find. Right when you walk into the shops from the pedestrian bridge you could tell that christmas was there cause they had a christmas tree set up. We went out in front to watch the water fountain show and then we made our way thru to the garden area inside the hotel to see what christmas decorations were there. It was done up very pretty with almost everything being made out of flowers. Even the check in desk had christmas decorations behind it.

After the Bellagio we were so tired of walking (and it was getting late) so we decided to start heading back to the car to head back to my aunts. The casino smoke was so bad though so we decided to take the long way out the front of the bellagio to avoid it. But by doing that I found some great locations to take some pictures of the nearby resorts.

What usually takes about a 15 minute drive to get back to my aunts took us an hour. The Las Vegas Marathon was the next morning and so they had many of the roads around the strip closed off. after about 8 detours though we finally made our way back and ended our night.

Day 8 wasn't anything real exciting. Once again we slept in late and then packed up and hit the road to head back to Salt Lake. The drive was boring as usual and once were home it felt so nice. Unfortunatly though it was way cold and snowed the night we got home so we were really wishing we could be back in California where it was in the high 70's. But oh well. We had a great trip and can't wait to do it agian. One thing we recommend is to take an extra day to just relax in California. We spent all of our days at the Theme Parks Open to Close so we had no time to relax. It would have been nice to just have one extra day to do whatever. But I guess you live and learn right?

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed our trip recap. I know I wrote a novel pretty much but Since I added these recaps to our blog we will always have our trip to look back on and know what all we did. Anyways thanks for reading.

Day 7 and 8 of our California Vacation Cont.....

Day 6 of our California Vacation: Knotts Berry Farm

Day 6: Knotts Berry Farm

Well i'm back with another report from our trip. This will be the 2nd to last report so its coming close to being done. Anyways for the 6th day of our trip we attended Knotts Berry Farm. This was a theme park that nether me or my wife had been to in a long time. The only thing I remember from the last time I went was the Parachute drop and the Soap Box racers. I knew the park had undergone a big change though since then. Like I did with Universal Studios I bought a discount ticket off Ebay and only payed 28 bucks a ticket for Knotts. I also didn't take near the amount of pictures at Knotts that I took at the Disney Resort.

Anyways we actually made it to the this park before it opened so we had about 10 minutes of waiting tell they finally let us in the gates. It seemed like there was alot of people waiting outside but when we got inside its like they all disapered. We started making our way to Silver Bullet first only to find that it wasn't open yet. So we went to find a restroom instead and found ourselves in the mexican area of the park. We were right next to the rollercoaster called Montizumas Revenge so we decided that would be the first ride of the day. Montizumas Revenge is your typical shuttle coaster. It launches you down a track thru a loop then up a tower where gravity catches up to you and you go back thru the track backwards. We were the first ones of the day to ride it so it was fun having it to ourselves. Next we went to the Rollercoaster called Jaguar. This coaster is like a glorified kiddy coaster lol. The que was well themed and it looked nice but it was pretty dumb. The only thing I liked about it was how long it was.

We next made our way to the Boardwalk area of the park. I had one thing in my sights and that was the Xcelerator Rollercoaster. This thing was amazing. Really short but Amazing. Its a launched coaster that shoots you strait up a huge tower (i'm not sure what the exact height is) and the strait down the other side and thru some banked turns. I can't even explain the kind of feeling you get on this thing. Its a rush. And sinse we were in the area we then went to the Rollercoaster called Boomerang. This coaster is along the same lines as Montizumas Revenge where you go thru it forwards and then again backwards. But this one has a twist in it. instead of launching you thru the course it pulls you up a hill backwards then lets gravity do its thing. you go thru a cobra roll then thru a loop and then up a second tower where your once again pulled to the top and dropped where you go thru it backwards. It was fun but it seemed so much ruffer then the other coasters we had done. We also did the Supreme Scream drop tower. Its the exact same thing as the Rocket at Lagoon except Supreme Scream only drops you and is taller then the Rocket.

After Boomerang we decided to go back and see if Silver Bullet was open yet and sure enough it was. This was our longest wait of the day where we waited around 25 minutes to ride it but it was worth the wait. This coaster is awesome and easily the best inverted coaster i've ever been on. To add to it the coaster itself is a pretty long ride for rollercoaster standards.

The next area we went to was Camp Snoopy. Camp Snoopy is the kid area of the park. But I liked how it seemed to be one of the most decorated for Christmas. There was only one ride in this area that we were interested in riding and that was the Sierra Sidewinder Rollercoaster. The Spider at Lagoon is my favorite ride there and the Sierra Sidewinder is similar except for the spinning cars are connected to each other in a train. The ride was fun but not as fun as the spider. Its just not near as fast and you don't spin near as much. But as I said it was still fun. We also ran into Snoopy when we got off so we had to get a picture.

After Camp Snoopy we made our way back thru the Boardwalk area and went to the parks log ride. I really enjoyed this. Almost as much as Splash Mountain at Disneyland. They also do a christmas overlay to make it look like your going thru santas workshop and see the elves working. I wish we could have done this ride again but we only did it the one time.

Right across from the log ride is there Mine Train dark ride. I guess this is one of the classic attractions of the park. I thought it was pretty well done. The only thing is they need to replace the speakers way bad. You couldn't even understand what the tour guide was telling you as you passed the displays. Here also a picture of the Calico Square across from the Mine Train ride.

Next we made our way thru the Roarin' 20's area of the park. There isn't a whole lot there other then the main theater, some bumper cars, and some nice looking buildings. But we then rounded around into the famous Ghost Town area of the park. The first part we came to being the parks newest attraction the Pony Express. This ride is pretty unique. It doesn't have any huge drops or anything. infact its doesn't really have any hills. Its a launched coaster that just goes fast pretty much. However the unique thing is how your strapped into the coaster. You sit on what looks like horses so it kinda simulates like your riding a horse. The restrant that holds you in comes up from behind and presses against your back and holds you against the horse. I really enjoyed the ride cause of how different the ride experiance is just by changing how your seated.

After Pony Express we had some lunch and then decided to do there rapids ride. So once again on went our ponchos so we wouldn't get soaked. The couple that were placed in the same raft as us were making fun of us for wearing ponchos but they quickly were jealous of us because they were soaked when they got off. The rapids weren't as exciting as I thought they would be. But oh well. We next made our way thru the Ghost Town which they had done up as a Christmas Village. It was cool to see the Christmas stuff everywhere and all the stuff for sale.

We made our way to the last Coaster we had left. That being the huge wooden one called Ghostrider. I have extremly mixed feelings about this ride. It was big and long and exciting. But it was so so so ruff. I have never rode on anything this ruff before. Me and Kiera both got off the ride with killer headaches that we had he rest of the day. I'm not really sure when the best time to ride this would be but i'm sure I would ride it again. Its just not a more then once ride.

We had some time to kill still before the show we wanted to see started so we made our way back to the boardwalk and went up in the observation tower to get a birds eye view of the park. unfortunatly the ride is so old that you can barely see thru the plexy glass. Because of this I thought it was a waist of time. We also decided to hit Xcelerater again too since we were in the area. Which was just as awesome as the first time we went on it.

After Xcelerater we headed back to the main theater for the Snoopys Cool Christmas Show on Ice. I was very impressed with this show. The fact that the stage is a giant ice rink with figure skaters and dancers performing the show is amazing. Also the show is based around Charlie Brown's Christmas which I love. But to my biggest surprise. Was the moral of the story. The show talked about how some of the peanut kids thinking the christmas is all about getting. But at the end the suprise came with one of the peanut kids saying that Christmas is about Christ and his birth and the gift he would give to us of eternal life. I was shocked about this. But thats not a bad thing. I was so happy about it. It seems like more and more each year people remove Christ out of Christmas as they get caught up in shopping and getting. I have a huge respect now or those who run Knotts Berry Farm for not being afraid to hide there beliefs.

Once again we had more time to kill so we decided to go ride the Silver Bullet again. So we made our way thru the Ghost Town again to get to Silver Bullet. On our way we passed a Nativity Scene where once agian my respect grew more for the people who run Knotts. Silver Bullet was great once again. I could ride that thing all day long.

After Silver Bullet we went and walked around the Ghost Town some more and also checked out the Christmas tree before the Parade started.

The Peanuts Christmas parade was alright. I mean its not as extravagent as Disney's but it works. It was short but its something.

After the Parade we decided to go see there Wild West Stunt Show. We passed by Camp Snoopy and saw the lights turned on so I snapped a picture. The Wild West Show was alright. I thought it had its funny moments but it also had its dumb ones. I would see it again though and thought they did a good job on it.

We then went back to the Calico Square to watch the Tree Lighting show. Once again the show was based on Charlie Brown's Christmas and was almost exactly like the Ice Show. But it was still good and portraid that same good Moral of Christ being the meaning of Christmas. After the Tree lighting we didn't have much time left tell the park closed so we walked around looking at the Christmas Lights and then exited the park. We were going to get dinner at Mrs. Knotts Fried Chicken cause I heard the food there is really good. However the wait was a mile long so we decided to go to Olive Garden instead.

Since the night was still young after dinner we decided to head over to Downtown Disney for a little while. Downtown Disney is a pretty cool shopping area. They had many shops that we checked out. One of them being the Big Lego Store. I thought many of the things there pretty cool that they made out of legos. However thats one of the only places I took pictures for the rest of the night. But it was fun. We also caught Disneylands Fireworks again that we could see from Downtown Disney. After checking out the Disney store again and cutting thru the Disneyland Hotel we headed back to our Hotel and ended our day.

Overall we had alot of fun at Knotts. However its diffenitly not what I remembered. All the coasters they have are great and worth going on. But it seems like its in an idenity crisus. You have all these new huge rollercoasters. and then on the flip side you have a horse drawn carage ride and an authentic steam engine train. Its like Knotts can't decide if it wants to continue to move forward with current technology or stay in the past for what there known for. And because of this the place doesn't look too great. It seemed like you could see or hear the coasters no matter what area of the park you were in. The other thing too is Knotts has no room to expand outwards. So instead they keep building on top of everything. The train and carage rides both go under the coasters (in which those are intertwinned). Knotts needs to figure itself out before it adds any more big rides. I would diffenitly go again though as theres many attractions that I we still had left to do but no time. You can always find good deals on tickets like I did. I don't know if I could pay the full price for tickets but I would diffenitly hit up discount tickets again.

Day 6 of our California Vacation: Knotts Cont.....

Day 5 of our California Vacation: Disney's California Adventure

Day 5: Disney's California Adventure

For our 2nd day at the Disneyland Resort we would be going to the resorts newest park California Adventure. We arived at the resort once again a little bit before opening. This time they parked us in the HUGE parking garage called Mickey and Friends and we parked on the 3rd level called Mickey and were lucky enough to park right to the escalaters to take you down to the trams that shuttle you to the parks.

California Adventure opens an hour later then Disneyland does so we went into Disneyland first to kill some time tell California Adventure opened. My wife is a fan of the Enchanted Tiki Room and I had never been in there before so we went there first. We saw we still had about 30 minutes tell the show started so We walked over to Tomorrowland so I could snap some pictures and also maybe ride Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters again until the Tiki Room opened. Unfortuanatly Buzz was having problems and wasn't opened. So we walked around for a short time and headed back towards the Tiki Room.

When we got back to the Tiki Room they were finally allowing people in so we went in and found our seats. I found the attraction interesting. The technology was pretty cool with how many anamotronics and such that are in there. But overall I can only take so much of singing birds and flowers lol. I did like the singing tiki masks and stuff though. I think it lasts the perfect amount of time and it was alright. Not my favorite.

After the Tiki Room was over we decided to go ride Haunted Mansion again. Which we walked right onto. After that we went over to the Train station and rode the Train around Disneyland Back to the Main Street Station so we could head over to California Adventure. I had only rode the Train maybe once before so even though it would have been faster walking I really wanted to ride the train.

We got off the train and then headed strait across the main plaza over to California Adventure. This park was another reason for Us deciding to go on vacation when we did. The last time I attended Disneyland the area that California Adventure sits on was still a parking lot. So I had never seen it before in person. Also last year Disney announced that they were doing a huge rennovation on the park changing almost the majority of things there. So we decided to go when we did so I could still experiance the park how it was originally built. The signs were everywhere that the renovation was underway but I still got the idea of what it must have been like without the construction going on.

When we got into the parks "Sunshine Plaza" we had to decide which way we were going first. Kiera wanted to head into the Hollywood Pictures Backlot and make our way towards the Tower of Terror but since we were right next to it (and the restrooms) we decided to head to Condor Flats and the attraction "Soarin' Over California". This ride we walked right onto with zero wait. It like the Simpsons ride or Star Tours is a motion simulator which simulates like your paragliding over many of the areas that California is known for. I thought it was pretty cool. I thought it was going to have more extreme movment but I guess when your paragliding the movements arn't real extreme. I enjoyed how they had wind blowing in your face and you could even smell the differnt scents of the areas you were going over. The thing I really liked though is that the screen that the movie is being projected onto wrapped underneath you so when you would look down you would see the movie too like you were really looking strait down.

After Soarin' we continued heading down the runway into an area that resembled the backwoods of California. The major attraction here being the Grizzly River Run. Basically its your typical raft ride thru the backwoods of California and around the parks "Grizzly Peak". I was extremely impressed with this raft ride and I have never seen one this well themed or extreme. The ride is long and has two pretty big drops that can give you a pretty good adrenaline rush. This was also the ride where I finally wore my Poncho as well as Kiera wearing hers. And we are glad we did cause we would have got soaked had we not.

After the river run we went to the Challenge Trail. Basically its like a little kids play area thats themed to the Brother Bear movies as well as teaches about nature and animals and things National Park rangers use. We strolled thru here and played on some of the rope next things and bridges and such. I also got what I consider my best picture at the Disney Resort in this area.

The next are we came into had the parks Christmas tree set up as well as a few other decorations. I also got my first glimpse of the Paradise Pier section of the park. Which looked like a baron concrete waistland. Thats because this area of the park is where all the work for the renevation is taking place right now. The lake is drained and the Sun Wheel is hiding behind a bunch of construction platforms.

We headed down towards the west end of the pier first. The first ride we came to was the Golden Zepher. Its a version of alot of the swinging rockets that were popular in the early 1900's. It was different but nothing too exciting. Just think of it as like swings in a rocket. We the went to the Orange Stinger. Which is just a typical Swing ride inside of whats suppose to be an Orange. I guess your suppose to feel like your a bee or something. I don't know. Across from that is the Mulholland Madness Rollercoaster. It was closed at that time but we would make our way back to it later. Then it was onto a ride called the Maliboomer. This being your typical shottower. I'm guessing the theme for it though is that your the ball or whatever it is on one of those test your strength games where you hit the botton with a mallot and see how high it will go up a tower. Anyways these things always give me a rush. Even though this one isn't near as high as the Rocket is at Lagoon. I enjoyed this while I could cause the Maliboomer is one of the attractions being removed for the renovation of the park.

Next we headed down the middle of Paradise Peir where the bulk of the consruction is taking place. As I said the Sunwheel is closed because its being renovated and turned into "Mickey's Fun Wheel". I didn't lose too much sleep over it being closed cause it would have scared the crap out of me anyways. I hate tall Ferris Wheels and then to add too it the cars you would sit in roll around a track. Also have the games were closed cause they were reduing them all to a victorian themed building look. But we then went to the newest Ride in the whole Disneyland Resort. Toy Story Midway Mania. This was our longest wait for our whole 2 days at the Disneyland Resort. We waited about 25 minutes to go on it and we figure it had the longest wait since its the newest ride. They also have a huge Mr. Potato head out front to talk to you and tell jokes lol. But it was worth it. I really enjoyed this ride. Its along the same idea as Buzz Lightyear. Where its a dark ride and you have guns to shoot things to score points. The difference is this ride is done in 3D and instead of having figures to shot at like Buzz you pull up to movie screens that look like you pulled up to a carnival game. Theres 5 different stations you go to and the ride is just a blast. We also liked how the car would spin around as it took you to the next stations. Unfortunatly Kiera really killed me this time. I wish we could have gone on it again but unfortunatly time just didn't allow it.

After getting my butt handed to me at Toy Story we then headed to the California Screamin' Roller Coaster. To our suprise the wait was only about 5 minutes for it. Wow I loved this coaster. It was probably my favorite coaster of the entire trip. I really liked how big it is and it was like all over the place. Running from end to end of the pier multipule times. It starts out as a launched coaster which is always a rush but it also has a lift hill half way thru. It also has speakers in the seats which plays a song while its going. Other then Space Mountain i've never seen that used before and thought it was cool and added to the experiance. However I thought the song could have been better lol. I had so much fun on this coaster that when we got off we went around and did it agian a second time.

After Screamin' we were done with the Pier so we made our way thru the Warf area. This is where I found the preview center for the Calfornia Adventure Redo. Unfortunatly it had just closed but they told us to come back in an hour. So we headed over to A Bugs Land until then. First we stopped at the show "Its tough to be a Bug". I thought this was really cool and had alot of interactions built into the seat. I recommend checking this out if nothing else in Bugs Land. I loved how emmersive the Bugs Land is. It really feels like you've been shrunk down to the size of a bug. They also added some christmas decore in the form of Giant Christmas lights and Ornaments. Bugs Land is made up of pretty much only kids rides so we didn't ride any except for Himlechs cho cho train. basically you just go thru an area with the catapiller finding different food. Its cool cause when you pass by the food thats what it actually smells like. but after that we were done with Bugs Land and headed out and ate our lunch.

After Lunch the Preview center was finally opened so we went in and checked it out. Theres alot of change coming to California Adventure in the next couple of years. It was cool cause they had a bunch of drawings hanging up and also a model of paradise pier. they also had a video playing of what changes are to come. It will be intersting to go back in 5 years after the changes happen and see how much the park has improved. Some of the changes coming is a complete redesign of the enterance to what LA looked like in the 30's including the addition of the theater that Snow White permered in, The 30's theme will continue into the Hollywood Pictures Backlot where it is being renamed Hollywood Land. They are also going to have red trollys moving between the two areas. Paradise Pier is already under way as they retheme all the buildings to a victorian look. The sun wheel is being rethemed as well as the Maliboomer being removed. They are removing the orange from around the swings and rethemeing those to silly simphonys and the Mulholland Madness is being rethemed to Goofys Sky School. They are also adding a huge Little Mermaid ride and in the lake they are doing a big Bellagio type Fountain show. The biggest addition though is the addition of Cars Land. A whole new area based on the Movie Cars where a life size scale version of Radiator Springs will be as well as 3 new rides. One of which is a huge racer type ride based off the technology Test Track at Epcot uses.

After the Preview Center we then made our way to the Hollywood Pictures backlot. This area I though was nicely themed and well done. First ride we went to was the Monsters inc. ride. This was nice but basically retold the story of the movie. Then we went to the parks most popular attraction. The Tower of Terror. I've never been on one of these so I didn't know what all to expect. The Disney World one was under construction when we went there and I remember wishing we had gone later in the year so I could go on it. Anyways this ride didn't dissapoint. It is awesome. It had a few unexpected drops and I liked how it would accelerate you up fast and then drop you fast. The wait wasn't bad for it so we went on it second time right away. We also ran into sulley from Monsters Inc. After that we then went and watched the "Turtle Talk with Crush" which I thought was cool cause Crush from Finding Nemo would actually talk to the kids and answer there questions.

After Hollywood we had some time to kill still so we made out way back to Paradise Pier to go ride the Mulholland Madness coaster. I must say that I was dissapointed with it. I was expecting more of a thrill out of it but it was pretty lame. The Wild Mouse at Lagoon is tons better then this was. So I pretty much don't care to ride it ever again. So after that we went and rode a real coaster. Thats right we went to Screamin' again. We then found a bench to sit on for the Pixar Play Parade right across from the Warf. The parade was pretty cool but It could have been longer. They need to add Wall-e to the parade too. But overall it was good.

After the Parade was over we were done at California Adventure. We managed to spend a whole day in the park. So we decided to head back over to Disneyland sence there was another 2 hours tell that parked closed and so we could watch the fireworks.

We made a plan for what we wanted to do in what little time we had left. Main Street was already packed as people were getting ready for the christmas parade to start. So we decided to run over to Tomorrowland and grab a fast pass for Space Mountain. After we got our Fast Pass we fought thru the crowds again to get to Adventureland. We stopped at the Tiki Room so we could grab a dole whip. These things are so good. I hate Pineapple but I really liked the Dole Whip. But after that it was on to wait for Indiana Jones again. When we were done with Indy the parade was started and cut us off from Tomorrowland. So went the back route thru the castle and Fantasyland and around the Matterhorn (the parade was already over at this end). I didn't know why but Kiera was running the whole way. So we were dead tired by the time we got Space Mountain right at the moment we could use your Fast Pass. After Space Mountain she was running thru the exit and I finally asked why she was in such a hurry. Well she thought the Fireworks started a half hour earlier then they really did. So we waisted all that time running for nothing lol. Since we still had 30 minutes tell the fireworks started we decided to try and get the Matterhorn in. The line moved pretty quick and with about 5 minutes tell the Fireworks started we were loading into our bobsled. But then some kind of alarm went off and they had us exit the bobsled. We waited for a few minutes hoping it would just be a temporary thing. But finally the workers told us something broke and it would be down for 45 minutes. This sucked since we were the next to go but oh well. We decided we wanted to see the fireworks more so we left. Unfortunatly we had no time to get to the front of the castle though so we watched the fireworks from fantasyland. I'm sure we didn't get the full effect of them as we were right in the middle of where the two fireworks were going off but they were still cool. After that the snow came again so we played in that a little and then the park closed. To kill some time after we exited the park we checked out the big disney store in Downtown Disney. And that pretty much ended our day.

I really liked California Adventure. It seemed more Adult to me which was good. However I could see in a way why people say it doesn't feel like a Disney park because a good majority of the rides there are stuff I can do at our Local Amusment Park. However I still felt like there was a small Disney feel there. I look forward to the changes coming to the park and can't wait tell we go back again to visit the Disneyland Resort.

Day 5 of our California Vacation: Disney's California Adventure Cont....

Day 4 of our California Vacation

Day 4: Disneyland

We arived at the Disneyland Resort shortly before the park opened. However due to parking and the wait for the tram we didn't get into the park tell about 1/4 after its opening. We parked in the Pinochio lot and then caught the tram to the park. Thats where I finally got my first glance into the Disneyland Resort (Last time I went only Disneyland was there). We bought our tickets a few months before the trip so we went right to the gates and were in the park. We wondered Main Street for a little checking out the Christmas tree and decorations that were all set up.

Once we got to the Hub it was time to decide where we would be heading first. I already knew where I wanted to go. And that would be the last ride I rode on last time I was at Disneyland 13 years earlier. That being the Indiana Jones ride. The last time I was at the park was the summer Indiana Jones opened. At the time I was only 12 and me and my younger brother waited over 3 hours to ride it. All I can remember about the ride is that the wait was worth it. So I wanted to do that first thing to see if I still agree with the ride being so great that it would be worth a 3 hour wait. I must say it didn't disapoint. I loved the ride just as much now as I did that long time ago. I was also pleased that we waited about 5 minutes to ride it. Now that i'm older I don't know if I could ever stand to wait in a line for 3 hours again. But this ride is awesome and I loved it.

While we were in Adventureland we decided that we would start that and work our way around the park. So after Indy we made jumped over to Jungle Cruise. I never cared for this ride when I was younger. In fact it really bored me and I hated going on it. However now that i'm older I picked up more on the humor and how well themed the attraction is and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunatly with it being foggy still that morning and ride being pretty dark with the trees covering what light made it into the Jungle Cruise my camara was having a tough time capturing good pictures. The darkness would fire the flash on the camara and then it would blur from the movement of the boat. Oh well.

After Jungle Cruise we went to Tarzans Treehouse. Last time I went this was still the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. I have many fond memorys of it and always looked forward to going thru it when I was a kid. I remember hearing they changed it to Tarzan and thinking that might be pretty cool. But I was disapointed with it. I miss the simpleness of the original tree house and the feel that the Robinsons invited you to tour there house instead of filling it with life size cartoon characters. I think the Tarzan theme had good intentions but it was just executed poorly.

After the Treehouse we were done with Adventure land and it was on to New Orlenes Square. Of course the first thing we came to was Pirate of the Carabian which is a must ride. I was additionally shocked when we litterally walked right on to the ride. Admitadly I don't really remember this ride from the last time I rode. I have a old home video of it from like 1988 but other then that I didn't remember the full ride. They have added a few elements and characters from the Pirates of the Carabian movies also in the last few years. From what little I remember of the original attraction I really liked the new elements that they added from the movies. I thought they fit well with the theme and was glad to see they just added the movie characters to the story of the ride instead of turning the ride into following the plots of the movies. I unfortuantly didn't take any pictures of the ride though. So after Pirates we wondered thru new orleans square a little. We really liked there Christmas decorations and liked how this area was decorated the best.

Our next stop was at the Haunted Mansion. This is one of my favorite rides. During Halloween and Christmas though they redue it for the holidays to a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. A part of me was sad because its been so long since i've experianced the normal Haunted Mansion but the Holiday version didn't dissapoint. We enjoyed it and thought it was pretty fun and different. I would still perfer the original version though over the holiday version.

After the Haunted Mansion we headed into Critter Country and I Knew right where I wanted to go. That being my favorite ride as a child. Splash Mountain. Today I still love this ride. Maybe even more so then when I was a kid. Theres more drops and such inside the show building then I remembered and the ride is just a pretty good rush. My wife was prepared again with her poncho so she wouldn't get wet. But i decided to go without cause I couldn't ever remember getting wet on Splash Mountain. Well I got wet this time. Luckly it wasn't bad though. Just a few wet spots here and there. I really wish we could have gone on it again but we never got back to it.

Next was to the other ride in Critter Country. The Winnie the Pooh ride. I've seen a youtube video of this ride before so I was ready to feel like I was on drugs. Sure enough I felt like I was tripping out lol. It was just really really weird. My wife loves it though but i'm guessing thats cause shes a Winnie the Pooh fan. We never made it out to Tom Sawyer Island or even on the Mark Twain River Boat but I did take a picture haha.

We then made our way thru Frontierland. Unfortunatly Big Thunder Mountain was closed while we were there. I was pretty sad about it cause thats one of my favorite rides. But oh well theres not much I could change about that. Next time i'll make sure its going to be open before we go lol. We also went to Big Thunder Ranch where they had it done up as Santas Reindeer Roundup. Here we meet Santa as well as his Reindeer. They had the area done up nicely for Christmas time. We also ran into Woody and Jessie from Toy Story here.

Well we finally made it to Fantasyland. We caught our first glimpse of the Matterhorn (from fantasyland) and after that I attempted (and failed) to pull the sword out of the stone we started hitting the rides. First was Ponochio and Snow White. I don't ever recall riding ether of these rides in the past. And now I know why. I didn't care for ether of them. I thought they were pretty boring but I could imagine they were probably pretty cool at the time they were built. We also walked right on to both of them. I do appreciate the archatecture and design of fantasyland now that i'm older too. It looks really good.

We then saw that the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk thru was open. I guess this was an attraction before 9/11 happend also but I never remember doing it when I was younger. Anyways the new one just opened a week before we went so we checked it out. I thought it was pretty cool and the diaramas had some cool effects to them. I've never seen the Sleeping Beauty movie so this was my first real introduction to the story. I didn't take any pictures inside though cause it was way to packed in there. But heres a picture of the castle lol.

After the castle we then went and waited in our longest line of the day. And that was at the Peter Pan ride. We waited about 30 minutes to get on the ride. But I always enjoy this ride and its diffenitly one of my favorite dark rides in the park. After Peter Pan we rode Mister Toad which I too enjoy alot. I completly forgot about the "hell" part at the end and thought it was pretty funny cause I never knew that when I was younger. It was way hot in that section of the ride too.

We then headed over to Its a Small World. I always dread this ride. Its so annoying and boring to me. But with it done up for the holidays I figured it wouldn't be too bad. And suprisingly it wasn't. Its still not my most favorite but its not bad ether. They referbished the ride recently so the thing looked brand new. Plus with the christmas theme it had a few christmas songs thrown into the mix as well.

Next we went to Toontown. Toontown was only a couple years old the last time I went but I still enjoyed it. However I was sad to see all the lawyers taking out alot of the fun. For example the ball pits being gone at chip and dales house, Goofys house not being a bounch house anymore, and the trollys not running across the town anymore. But oh well. Roger Rabbit was still a blast and probably my favorite Dark ride in the park. Its so unique that you can make the ride be however you want just by how much you spin the car around. I also rode Gadgets Go Coaster for the first time. Yeah its a kid coaster. But its the funnest kid coaster i've ever been on. Even better the Knotts Jaguar coaster lol. We also went by Mickeys house and ran into Minnie and Goofy on the streets of ToonTown.

After Toontown we headed back to Fantasyland where we went on the Storybook Land Boats, Tea Cups, and Alice in Wonderland. Storybook land was cute. I liked how they added a few suttle christmas decorations to the mini houses. I also love the two Alice rides. I think Alice and Peter Pan rival for my favorite Fantasyland Dark Ride.

Our last Fantasyland is by far its best. That being the Matterhorn Bobsleds. I've always loved this ride and still do. We rode it on the tomorrowland side and enjoyed everyminute of it. I have a love for rollercoasters and the Matterhorn is ton funner then what I remember it being. It was one of the rides we tried to ride twice but i'll tell more about our second attempt in the next recap I do of Day 5.

Next stop was at my favorite land. Tomorrowland. I was anctious to see how the "new" tomorrowland looked sinse the remodel took place 3 years after the last time I went. I must say it was bittersweet. Its still my favorite land. But there were things I don't like. I guess first we will go over what I liked. It gets ridiculed alot but I thought the paint themeing worked well. It truely made me feel like I was in a land of the future. I also thought the Neon lights and bright colored lighting worked well too. To me the looks of the area worked well with one another. But there were things I didn't like as well. The land looks naked without the Rocket Jets atop the old People Mover platform. Thats the thing I remember most about tomorrowland. The Rocket Jets replacement now sits in the entryway to Tomorrowland which just seems to get in the way. It looks great but its just in the wrong location. Get rid of the satalite thing from the top of the platform and move the Astro Orbitor up top where it belongs. I also miss seeing nothing on the People Mover tracks that run all over Tomorrowland. They need to put something back up there or remove them all together. But other then that I enjoyed the things we did in tomorrowland. Now onto the attractions.

Sinse the parade was about an hour and a half away we decided to get a Fast Pass for Space Mountain. So after that we decided to hit rides with smaller waits. First we hit Star Tours. Man I love this ride. I'm a big Star Wars fan. It was exactly as I remembered it. But after riding newer simulators like the Simpsons Ride at Universal I saw how badly Star Tours needs to be updated. But it was still fun. Then we went across the way to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. i had alot of fun on this ride. It was my first time experiancing a interactive dark ride and thought it was way fun. I thought I was doing pretty good cause I was beating Kieras score but then out of nowhere she beat me pretty bad in the last area. Oh well I guess i'll get her next time.

We still had about 40 mintus to kill before we could use our Space Mountain Fast Pass so we decided to go do the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I know it has a bad rep but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was tons better then the original Submarine Voyage. Yeah they could have done a better story but I thought it worked well. I really liked the new way the animation was done other then fish on strings. I don't know if I would wait for over 30 minutes to ride it but I thought it was pretty good and well done.

Right when we got off the Subs we could finally use our Fast Passes for Space Mountain. I looked forward to this the whole day. The last time I went to Disneyland it was broken that day so I didn't get to go on it. It had probably been 18 years since I had rode the Disneyland Space Mountain. I was happy we got the Fast passes cause we pretty much walked right on. maybe had a 5 minute wait. This ride was awesome. So much cooler then I remember it being. Everything was done perfect on this ride. It was one of the few that made me wanting to ride it again the moment I got off of it. But we had a parade we had to make it to.

So it was off to the parade route for the Christmas Fantasy parade. We found a spot right by the Castle. So since we had some time to kill before it started I snapped some pictures of the Castle all lit up in its Christmas lighting.

The parade was pretty cool. I like how it was all a Christmas/Winter theme. There was also a Bolt preparade for the new Disney movie.

After the parade was over we went back over to Tomorrowland and rode the Autopia. Also one of my favorite attractions when I was younger and I still loved it today. We then started making our way back to Small world to see it all lit up for Christmas. But before we got there we stopped and rode Dumbo. As we were walking to Small World they had there fake snow turned on. It was a pretty cool effect and the music they had playing with it fit pefectly. We kinda laughed seeing all the people playing in the fake snow cause we are use to having real snow since we live in Utah. But it was fun. I thought it was cool that the foam stuff they were using looked just like snow from a distance. After I snapped some pictures of Small World we started making our way towards the exit of the park. I don't know why but it seemed like only 2 trams were running so we waited forever to get out of the park.

A few people have asked me if Disneyland was as fun being an adult as it was when I was a kid. The answer is yes it is. I had a blast. Yeah there are some rides that now that i've gone on them I don't care to again until I have children of my own. But between Disneyland and California Adventure there are plenty of Attractions to keep an adult occupied. If you have the chance to go do it. Let the inner kid come out in you and have a blast. Going to Disneyland brought back so many fond Childhood memorys that I have. This time of year was the perfect time to attend the park. Yeah it was busier then I thought it would be but it wasn't bad at all. The longest we waited for a ride was about 25 minutes. Plus the oppertunity to see the park all done up for Christmas is an added bonus.

Day 4 of our California Vacation: Disneyland

Day 3 of our California Trip: Universal Studios

Well this turned out a little bit different then I was planning on. As im sure most of you know who have posted pictures on blogspot. It pretty much sucks. Everytime I add another picture the page skips further and further down. So halfway thru loading pictures I gave up and put them all into a slideshow instead. Theres 50 pictures in the slideshow today so be sure to check it out. I also gave a pretty detailed recount of our day at Universal Studios. Anyways enjoy.

Day 3: Universal Studios Hollywood

Our first park we would be going to was Universal Studios. Out of all the parks this was the one I had most recently visited. That being 11 years ago when I flew to Cali for a few days with my dad and brother. I don't know what it is but I love Universal Studios. I know theres not much there and its pretty expensive now but I always have a good time when I go. Also my wife has never been to a Universal park before so I made it a priority to go to the park. To make it even better I bought a $20 off coupon per ticket from ebay.

We started the day early so we could get to the park around opening. We were staying about 35 miles away from the park and I had no clue how traffic would be so we just we left about an hour before the park opened. To my suprise the freeways weren't bad at all and we made it to the park barely after it opened. Last time I went to Universal City Walk hadn't been built yet so it was fun checking out the shops and stuff they have there.

We finally made it to the gates of the park. What I found funny is how the tickets sellers kept trying to sell us on the better tickets. For example the guy who sold us our parking pass tried convincing us to buy the "Premium" parking pass over the regular one cause it would save us a "12 Minute Walk". We laughed at this considering it took us maybe 5 minutes to walk thru City Walk. And then when we buying our tickets to get into the park the ticket seller tried convincing us to buy a front of line pass. Which we laughed about later in the day cause the park was so dead the longest we waited for any attraction was like 3 minutes. We walked onto everything in the park.

Our first attraction of the day would be non other then what Universal Studios is famous for. The Studio Tour. To our luck we got onto a tram about 2 minutes before it departed. First they drove us thru the soundstage area of the lot. I'm not sure who it was but there was some celebrity that was waving as we drove past that many of the people on the tram were trying to get a picture of. We then drove past the area that was burned in the fire. It looked liked they were re-curbing the area and getting it ready for construction again. It made me sad to think that King Kong as I remember it was now gone forever as that was one of the attractions on the Studio Tour that I always looked forward to. I also loved going thru Courthouse Square (even if it doesn't look like I remember it) since Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies. After that it was on the Collapsing bridge. Once again another classic attraction on the Studio Tour. I guess they recently did some work on the bridge and it had been closed for some time. But I was happy to see (and go over it) again just like I remembered as a kid.

After that they took us thru a new area that they have added in the last few years. First they had many of the famous movie cars thruout the year. Including The Delorian and a few others from Back to the Future, Some of the vehicles from the Jurassic Park movies, and also some of the cars from The Fast and the Furious movies. They then took us into the area where The Fast and the Furious attraction takes place. I thought this was kinda cool and really lame at the same time. basically they have 2 Volkswagon GTI's placed on robotic arms. I thought it was cool cause they kinda simulated an explosion and when the vehicles were thrown up it really looked like the explosion thru them into the air. But then it got lame cause they then started bounching around and spinning to simulate like they were "dancing" to some lame rap music. I totally didn't think that was needed but whatever.

After the Fast and the Furious thing they took us thru a mock up of Jurassic Park. I thought this was pretty well done with some of the props from the movie as well as anamatronic dinosaurs that would pop up and spray you with water. After that it was on to the area where the simulated "flash flood" happens. Once again this was exactly as I remembered and I still think its pretty cool. After the flood area we went thru the old western sets. I don't know if this was set up or not but they had some guys setting up for a stunt sequence. They said they were just practicing and actually performed the stunts in front of us. I'm not sure if it is part of the tour now but it was kinda cool.

Next it was on to the spliting of the red sea. But I guess they don't refer to it as that anymore. especially since the skull island minature used in the new version of King Kong sits right next to it. I still think the sea spliting is pretty cool though. Then it was onto Amity Island to have an encounter with Jaws. Once again this is another classic attraction they still have on the studio tour.

Next they would usually take you thru the Desperate Housewifes set but they were filming that day so they just drove past it. After which we went past Whoville and the Bates Motel where they even had an actor playing Norman Bates putting a body into the back of a car. He then noticed us and came chasing after the tram with his knife. We then went thru the plain crash from War of the Worlds. I thought this was pretty cool cause it looked so real. The last attraction on the studio tour is something to do with the mummy. It use to be the snow cave that spun around and made you feel like you were spinning around. Now its different and only spins for a little bit. I honestly miss the old attraction. All and all though the studio tour was as good as I remember it being. One thing I did miss going in though was the "Earthquake" attraction. We drove past it and could see inside but they were doing some work on it and had it closed off.

Since we were in the area we decided to head over to Shrek 4D. This was our longest wait of the day and I thought it was a pretty decent show. On our way there though we ran into Curious George and Sponge Bob on the way out. It was also nice to see Jaws is still hanging up posing for photos.

Next we headed to the new Simpsons ride. I was looking forward to this ride the most. The old Back to the Future ride was my favorite one at Universal and I was very sad when I heard it was leaving. I too am a big fan of the Simpsons so my hopes were high that this new ride would be a worthy replacement to BTTF. I must say that I was very impressed with the ride and do find it was a worthy replacement. I loved this ride. We ended up riding it twice. Just everything about it is so well done. They also have a video that plays in the ques while you wait in line that pretty much makes fun of theme parks and such as you wait. We pretty much walked on though so we didn't get to see the whole que video. We even ran into Homer, Marge, and Bart as we walked off the ride.

After Simpsons we went down to the lower lot where we first rode The Mummy ride. Once again this ride is a replacement for one that was there last time I went to Universal. That ride being E.T. I loved E.T. but I diffenitly loved the Mummy even more. Its an indoor launched rollercoaster that takes you thru high speed banking and also in reverse. It was short but fun. There was no wait for the ride so we rode it 3 times. After that we headed to Jurassic Park. This ride was pretty new still last time I went but its just as I remember. My wife didn't want to get wet so she wore a poncho but i decided to brave it without one. Lucky for me alot of the extra water features were turned off so I didn't even get wet on the ride. We also did Jurassic Park twice. We also did the Backdraft thing while we were down on the bottom lot.

We then went and watched the Water World show (after we attempted to run up the stairs instead of the escalaters I don't recommend it). The show was alright. Not as good as I remember it being but still better then the movie. We also walked around the rest of the upper lot as well and went to the Termonater 3D show. I thought this show was pretty cool. They mixed in alot of real life acting with the 3D film. I just thought that was neat. It was my first time seeing this show even though it was there last time I went. We also ran in to Shrek.

On our way out they were getting all the final things ready for the big Grenchmas thing they do for christmas. The actors were practicing for the show so I snapped a picture and then we were out. We had alot of fun at Universal and I look forward to going back next time i'm in the LA area. We ended our night by heading over to WestWood to get some ice cream sandwhiches at Diddy Reese (these things are amazing and only $1.50) and then we cruised around Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Figured we were in the area so why not. We also went to a big mall in Beverly Hills that was pretty cool. But that all for day 3. Next up is Disneyland.

Day 3 of our California Vacation: Universal Studios Slideshow

Day 1 and 2 of our California Vacation

The reason for this trip was because My wife has always wanted to see Disneyland during Christmas time and I haven't been to Disneyland in over 13 years. So we decided to go while we still have money and no kids. While we were at it we decided to make a full vacation out of it and added in a Day at Universal Studios Hollywood and Knotts Berry Farm as well as the 2 days at the Disneyland Resort.

Day 1: The Drive

Well we left on our trip last Sunday the 30th. We went to church that morning cause we had to teach our Primary class that week so we didn't end up leaving until around 1:30. We decided to drive instead of fly to keep the cost of the trip down. Plus with how gas prices are right now we did the whole drive for less then $100 for the trip. Theres nothing too exciting to tell about the drive. We drove until we got to Vegas where we stayed the night. I have family in Vegas so we crashed there. We were going to go out that night but instead we decided to go get some In-N-Out burger and stay in and watch a movie.

Day 2: The Drive Part 2

The next day we randomly woke up sooner then we were planning so we decided to go ahead and get ready and get out of Vegas sooner then we planned. I make many Vegas trips a year so I'm pretty familiar with the area. But I haven't driven to California for over 13 years. Lucky for us my Wife's Dad let us borrow his GPS to help us get around. I can't tell you how thankful I was for that GPS all week long. I don't know how people get around Southern California without one. But anyways I got that all hooked up and we were on our way to our hotel just outside Anaheim.
I made a quick stop in Baker, CA on our drive so we could see the worlds largest thermometer. It was such an amazing site to behold. OK I'm lying. It wasn't too impressive and the town has nothing there other then a few fast food joints and gas stations. So after about 2 minutes we were back on the road.

Our next stop was in the town of Barstow. Mainly cause we needed gas. But also because of a tradition my family had when we would drive to California when I was little. We would always stop at the Barstow Station McDonald's to eat. So I told Kiera that I wanted to keep doing that too. So we did. She isn't a fan of McDonald's at all but lucky for us there are more places to eat there now then just the McDonald's. So after some Panda Express that we ate in one of the train cars we were back on the road non stop to our hotel. When we finally got into the city I became very greatful we had that GPS cause I don't know how I would have found our hotel without it. But we did. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn of Placentia and it was very nice. Our room was very clean and even had a fridge and microwave. Plus the hotel offered an excellent contential breakfast each day. The only thing it was missing was a hot tub. But oh well. We decided before we left on our vacation that to help save money we would take our own lunches to the parks each day. So after we got settled into the hotel we found the nearest Ralphs (I work for a Kroger owned store) and got the rest of the food we would need to make our lunches each day.

After we got our food and stuff I wanted to go drive around the Disney Resort so we headed that way. We also decided to check out the new GardenWalk complex that's right across the street from the Disney resort. Basically its a outdoor shopping complex with many restaurants and a movie theater similar to the Gateway in Salt Lake. GardenWalk is only a few months old and I heard it was very slow but i was shocked at how dead it was there. It felt like a ghost town. Like me and Kiera were the only ones there. I didn't take many pictures here except for there Christmas tree that was made up of all poinsettias.

After that we just went back to the hotel room and relaxed. I watched my two TV shows (Chuck and Heroes) and then it was off to bed to get some rest for our busy week.
But that's it for now. Here's a preview of whats to come later in Day 3. And there will be tons of pictures in my next post.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas Time

Well its a little late but you know what they say. Better late then never. The reason why I am so late in blogging about these Items is cause we left on our California Vacation a couple days after Thanksgiving. With trying to get everything together for that the blog got put on the back burner. Check back often this week as I will be blogging about each day of our vacation and posting up plenty of pictures. Anyways onto the main points of this topic.

First off Thanksgiving. For the 2nd year in a row I was lucky enough to have Thanksgiving off of work. I kinda wanted to work in the morning to get the extra holiday pay but I won't complain when I have the day off to spend time with my Family. Especially since the day before Thanksgiving is pretty out of control when you work in the Grocery Business. Anyways we woke up early on Thanksgiving to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I guess this is something that Kieras Family always did when she was growing up. My family though never watched it. I must say that I enjoyed it and look forward to watching it each year. After that we finally got ready for the day and then headed over to Kieras Grandparents house for there traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. We spent the majority of the Day at Kieras Grandparents this year cause last year we were with my family most the day. We did make it up to my Grandma Cagles for a couple hours though to spend time with my Family. I had a few of my relatives come up from Vegas so it was nice to see them. Unfortunately my Mom and Step Dad weren't able to make it to my families Thanksgiving Dinner cause they had the privilege of being in California for my little Brothers Hockey tournament. As you could imagine my mom wasn't too happy about that. Overall the day was great and we had a lot to be thankful for.

Many may call me crazy. But I love Black Friday. Kiera does not. Mainly cause she hates the crowds and seeing people pushing and shoving and pretty much going crazy. But some how I still somehow convince her to go out with me in the wee hours of the Morning. She must really Love me lol. This year we decided to get some sleep though and just wake up early to go out. Last year we were crazy enough to actually camp out and didn't even get what we camped out for. Needless to say we will not be doing that again ever. This year we went out with the main intent to find a Christmas tree. We hit 8 places in about 2 hours time and ended it off with Breakfast at Dylan's in Kaysville. I had to work at 10 that morning so we had to be quick. We found our tree and a few other decorations and DVD's and we were done. Kiera also got some of my Christmas gifts and my dads stuff after I went to work so she could take advantage of the Black Friday prices.

Friday after I got off work we started putting up the Christmas decorations. We got our tree all set up and Kiera got it decorated very nicely. We just bought a cheaper tree this year to be temporary until we have our own house and then we will get the tree of Kieras dreams. We still have some decorating to do but for the most part all of our Christmas stuff is up. Its so much fun to come home and see the Christmas tree all lit up and the lights in our windows. I love Christmas time. Its so fun and relaxing. Anyways below is a picture of our tree. We still have some more ornaments to put on it but its coming along. Once we finish decorating I'll post up some more pictures of everything.

Lucky Number 8

I Got Tagged!!

8 TV Shows I Watch: (I am home during the day that is why you probably haven’t heard of them.)
1. Friends
2. George Lopez
3. Rachael Ray
4. Good Things Utah
5. The Extreme Home Makeover
6. The Doctors
7. Studio 5
8. My wife and kids

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Olive Garden
2. Costa Vida
3. Rumbi
4. Granny Annie’s
5. Chili's
6. Red Robin
7. Boston’s
8. The Mandarin

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
1. I Slept In with my Hubby
2. I got ready
3. I Went to Work
4. I left work an hour early :)
5. I had my last day working nights
6. I drove down to the Jordan commons with Kelsie (my sister in law)
7. I went to the midnight showing of Twilight :) :)
8. I had so much fun with my in laws at the Twilight party.

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving-Food :)
3. My trip to Cali with Jeff only 9 more days :)
4. Being able to see Jeff more now that I will be working during the day
5. Shopping for Christmas presents
6. Going to Temple square to look at the lights
7. Decorating our house for Christmas
8. The warm weather to be back I don’t like the cold

8 Things on My Wish List:
1. To be able to buy Jeff the camera he wants
2. To buy a house by the summer time
3. A new pair of Jeans
4. Go back to Hawaii
5. Go on a cruise to the Caribbean
6. Not to get sick any more this season or ever would be nice lol
7. For the economy to get better
8. Play Friends Scene it with Jacque :)

8 Things I Love:
1. My Hubby :)
2. My Family
3. To have a job
4. Traveling (just not in the car lol)
5. Sunny days
6. The beach (Hawaii)
7. Relaxing by the fire place wrapped up in a blanket
8. Hot baths with a good book (Twilight)

8 Things I Can't Stand:
1. Slow drivers
2. Working on sick smelly feet
3. People that chew their gum like a cow
4. Driving on the freeway
5. Construction work
6. Touching raw meat :P
7. Going shopping by myself
8. The cold, but I love the look of snow I know I am weird.

8 People I Tag:
1. Bridgette
2. Amberlee
3. Rach
4. Laura
5. Valisa
6. Kelsie
7. Beki
8. Suzie

Twilight Tailgate Party

I went to the Twilight movie last night for the midnight showing. It was very good, it was a little different in the movie than the book. But I think that usually happens when they try and take book and turn it into a movie. I had so much fun at the party though my husbands cousin's wife and her sisters that own a salon rented out two theaters at the Jordan commons center. They made it so much fun they gave out a bunch of prizes and goodie bags. I went with all the girls on Jeff"s side (well not all of them but a lot lol). It was funny when the movie started everybody started screaming they were so excited. This is the first midnight showing I have been to, so it was a fun experience. I loved it and I will defiantly be seeing it again soon :) Everybody needs to go see it at least once, it is better if you have read the book, because it makes certain parts funnier and you understand why it is funny. But still see it even if you haven't read the book! (sorry I don't have a picture)

Back Into the Arms of the One I Love

Well I'm got home from my Vegas trip for the Sema show last sunday. This was the first time sense Me and Kiera have been married that we had been apart. And it was for a whole week to make it worse. Every year I go to Las Vegas for the Sema show. Its the largest Automotive trade show in the country and the experiance is just unbelieable. Well if your into cars that is.

In the past i've gone to the show strictly for fun but in the last couple of years its started to become somewhat of a job for me too cause I started doing Photography coverage of the show for the website Semagallery.com. This year I took around 1,700 pictures and it took me all 4 days to cover the whole show. Theres alot of work involved with what I do for the website. I shot photography for about 6 hours each of the 4 days at the show. Then after the show I spend another 3 hours orginizing and editing and uploading all the pictures I took that day up to Semagallery.com. Its a long process but I was doing something I love so I can't complain.
But no matter how much I loved doing the photography and being around my hobby of hot cars all day long and being with all my best buds. I missed the love of my life like none other. I know it was alot harder for Kiera while we were apart but I still missed her a ton. My mind was constantly thinking about her and wishing she could be there with me. I love just to walking around the town with her looking at all the hotels and sites and such. So everytime I go to Vegas without her now I can't help but think about her where ever I go. She couldn't go with me because she couldn't get off work. We are going on Vacation in 2 weeks to California so she had to save her time off for that week. I figure she would probably go to California anyways then looking at cars all day lol. But I hope that maybe next year she will come. Maybe the other guys will bring there wives/girlfriends and the girls can go do there own thing why we are at the show. But I missed her a ton and couldn't wait tell I got home to hold her again. I've gone to Vegas for Sema each year for the past 4 years now. But in addition to the Sema Show we have always made it a vacation get away. This year me and 5 of my friends went to Sema and it was nice to have a smaller group this year. (one year we had 12). We all share the same hotel room too so just imagine how nice our hotel room looked with 6 boys living in it for a week with no room service lol. But its fun chilling with the guys. It seems now days we never do anything like this anymore. Alot of my friends have also done alot of growing up in the past year so the drinking wasn't near as bad as it had been in the past. which makes me happy cause thats less babysitting for me to do. We also stayed on the Strip this year for the first time at the Imperial Palace. So everything was pretty much in walking distance and the drinkers could go do there own thing and the sober people could do there own thing sinse the drinkers wouldn't need a DD to get back to the hotel. One thing I didn't like about the strip though was how overpriced everything is. All the food is probably like 5% higher then what it is at home. And that sucks when your on a budget. But it was worth it. In addition to the Sema show we just did the typical stuff you would do in Vegas. Walk the strip, check out some hotels and outdoor shows, Hit up some buffets, Go watch the light show down at Freemont street, go to the Premium Factor Outlet stores as well as the Fashion Show mall. We also went to a Sports grill called Blondies at the Planet Hollywood Hotel to watch the Utah vs. TCU football game. I'm a BYU fan but I will root for Utah when they arn't playing BYU. So needless to say we were all freaking out when Utah pulled off the win in the final minute of the game. Luckly we fit right in with everyone yelling at the NFL game being played at the same time.

Kiera isn't home right now so I can't tell you how she felt while I was gone. But I think I can give you a pretty good idea of how she felt just by quoting the lyrics from the Avril Lavign song "When Your Gone":

I always needed time on my own. I never thought I'd need you there when I cry. And the days feel like years when I'm alone. And the bed where you lie is made up on your side, When you walk away I count the steps that you take, Do you see how much I need you right now. When you're gone, The pieces of my heart are missing you, When you're gone, The face I came to know is missing too, When you're gone, The words I need to hear to always get me through the day and make it ok, I miss you. I've never felt this way before, Everything that I do reminds me of you, And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor, And they smell just like you, I love the things that you do, When you walk away I count the steps that you take, Do you see how much I need you right now, We were made for each other, Out here forever, I know we were, yeah, All I ever wanted was for you to know, Everything I'd do, I'd give my heart and soulI can hardly breathe I need to feel you here with me. Anyways overall I had a good time. I was in Vegas for a week and that is way to long to be in that city. After Sema was over I was ready to come home. So next year I think i'm going to go down only for the show and thats it. We do enough at night after the show to make the Trip a vacation too so I think thats the plan for next year right now. I also hope to have a better camera with me next year for my photography work and who knows with how big of success Semagallery.com was this year maybe it will open the door for my photography in the future. I just hope that next year Kiera will be by my side for it. Anyways i'll leave you now with some final pictures of my trip. Enjoy:

Our First Halloween Together. (Literally).

So the reason for the title is that every year that we have been together Jeff has been in Las Vegas for SEMA (a huge car show) but this year it starts next week. But anyways for our first Halloween together we spent the night at Kieras parents house. Every year Kieras dad go's all out on the decorations and continue to add to it each year. the house is more decorated for Halloween then what most houses do for Christmas. I must say that I am pretty impressed with it and would much rather hang out there every Halloween then in Vegas. (Halloween in Vegas sucks by the way). But anyways it was a fun night watching junior high and high school kids get scared out of there pants by Kieras Dad and Brother and I also thought it was pretty funny to watch the younger kids be too scared to walk up the driveway to come get some candy. I also had my first opportunity to play with Kieras Mom's digital SLR camera. Those of you who know me know that I have a love for photography and I hope someday I will have a nice DSLR camera also. Anyways all the pictures I'm posting are what I took with the DSLR. I tried to be artsy with most of the pictures and tried a bunch of different techniques and I think some of them turned out pretty cool. There were are a few pictures that are blurry. But I think the overall effect of the picture makes them pretty cool. Anyways enjoy. We hope you all had a great Halloween.

Scary Hill

This last friday we went and checked out Scary Hill. Scary Hill takes place at Cherry Hill and basically all they did was redue there miniature golf course in a Halloween theme. This is the first year that they have done it and for only $6 a person it was well worth the cost. My friend Tyler also tagged along with us for our night of fun on the haunted mini golf course. This was a fun thing to do and if you have a chance I recommend checking it out before it closes on the 1st of November. Anyways on to the pictures.