9-14-2016 - Disneyland Trip

BIGGEST FIASCO - Matt lost the Disneyland tickets (read on for further details)

We woke up and got ready for the day by heading down to breakfast. Our breakfast was included with our room and they didn't disappoint on the selection. We had a ton of hot food to choose from and the area was nice and large. 

After we ate, we headed back to the room to get our stuff. We were on our way, but Matt had decided to write our names on the tickets and said he would catch up to us as he was waiting to borrow a pen from the hotel front desk. We were stopped at the light waiting to get cross. Matt pulled out the tickets and showed Kara her ticket and that it had Minnie Mouse on it.
Kara asked "Can I hold my ticket"

Matt - "No we don't want you to lose it as you are only 3"

We walked down the street to Disneyland security and got through security. Upon getting through security, I asked Matt to get out the tickets.

He said "I don't have them". 

Me - "yeah right"

Matt- "I really don't have them". He was wearing cargo pants and proceeded to turn out all his pockets. 

We got worried, upset, frustrated, and alarmed ALL at the same time. I told Matt to run back to the light to see if he could find them. All the time thinking, we are going to have to spend $1500 for 4 more tickets for 5 days. I was pissed and nervous and anxious the whole time hoping Matt would find them. YEAH right. 

My mom suggested to go to see if they have a lost and found. I went over to guest services and tried to explained what happened. I told her it was our first day and that we hadn't even scanned our tickets yet and if there was anything we could do. 

She would need our barcodes on the tickets, so I called Get Away Today to see if they could help, Disney Customer service person said she couldn't talk to anyone on the phone. Lisa with Get Away Today told me she could fax the barcodes over to Disney, but the Disney Customer service person said she didn't have a fax. Lisa informed me she had just barely faxed over some just that morning.
I quickly found out there are 2 customer service areas at Disney and the main one is at the Disneyland Gate entrance.

I ran over there hoping they could still help me out before someone scanned our tickets. I waited patiently as I could in line.Then as calmly as I could I talked to another Disney Guest service person. He said he hadn't received a fax so I called Lisa at Get Away Today back again to have her re-fax the barcodes. 

I waited and waited. The seconds ticked by too slowly for me to even see any hope. I was starting to cry. Another guy stepped to the window and had a fax in his hand. MY BARCODES from the tickets. He checked and the tickets hadn't been processed yet.

YAHOOOOOOO! He gave us replacement tickets and voided out the other tickets. He even gave us a fast pass to any ride and I chose CARS. 

I quickly called Matt and had him come back to meet us.

We were so worried and paranoid, but got a quick reset to be the happiest and luckiest people in Disneyland. 

Our tentative schedule for our trip.

First picture of the day in California Adventures. My mom had never been to California Adventures. We also grabbed some fast passes to Soarin at the same time.

We headed over to Toy Story Mania.

Kara and my mom rode the rode together.

Matt and I took Logan with us.

Mine and Matt's scores from Toy Story Mania. I am player #1 and I was even holding Logan while playing the games on the ride.

Matt took the kids on the carousel. My mom and I don't do spinning rides, so we decided to wait by going on California Screamin. We went as single riders to get on quicker and still ended up only two seat away from each other.

My mom liked the roller coaster until it went upside down. I forgot it did that otherwise I wouldn't have gotten onto it at all.

My mom, Kara, and I rode it first, since Logan was too small.

Waiting with Kara and Logan and eating lunch while Matt was riding Soarin and my mom was filling up our waters.

Kids ran to Matt when he got back from riding Soarin. We also ended up running into Kim and Brandon Johnson, so everyone went on the Grizzly River Run while Logan and I hung out together.

Video - Running the river

My mom, Kara, and Kim Johnson (Matt set Kim and Brandon up)

Brandon and Mattie.

Riding the river.

After the River Run, we headed over to Cars Land area and Tower of Terror.

My mom and I went on the ride together. Kara wouldn't join us. My favorite ride of the entire park.

We posed for pictures afterwards as the momentous ride will never be seen again since it is closing the first of 2017.

Matt volunteered to let us go again, so we headed back for another go at it.

While we were on the ride, Matt stopped and posed for a picture with Mater with the kids.

Kara and my mom on the Maters Tractor ride.

CARS ride as we call it but Radiator Springs Racers. We had a blast and then sent Matt to go by himself.

We hit Grizzly River Run while Matt waited with Logan. Kara and my mom got soaked.

After Grizzly River Run, we headed back to the hotel to have dinner and get changed for an evening at the park. We had purchased tickets premier seating and dessert package for World of Color, so we needed to go back to the park in time to get there. 

My mom, Matt, and Kara rode the trolley back to Bugs Land.

Video - Riding the Trolly

We rode the catepillar train and then thought we had enough time to ride the bumper cars too.

Bumper cars line was really short, which was misgiving, since the wait wasn't fast at all. We hurriedly  got off the ride and raced over to get to our table to watch World of Color.

We almost got to the World of Color when we ran into someone we knew from High School and that I had played soccer with Brian Hendricks. We chatted for a couple minutes, but had to move along to get to our seats.

We tried to check in, BUT the hostess said we HAD ALREADY CHECKED IN. Luckily, I had my ID and the reservation information on my phone. It took us about 10 minutes before it was all figured out and we were able to sit at our table. Definitely not the best day for us regarding things that could go wrong.

Well once we were at our seats, we got a delicous and huge amount of sweets for each one of us. Logan ended up eating most of mine. Kara was so tired and a bit cold that she didn't touch much of hers, but we still enjoyed the time and our seats. The tickets were a bit pricey, but we enjoyed every minute of it, since this was the only area you could actually sit down. Otherwise, you have to stand up and watch the show. I knew that wouldn't happen with the kids and we would be holding them, so we purchased the premier seating and enjoyed it. The kids even got to take home some really cool souvenir cups. too.

Video - World of Color - Premier Seating

9-13-2016 - Disneyland Trip (Travel Day)

Yes - You are reading this right. We went to Disneyland twice in one year. About 6 months apart to the day. Matt was working so much in June, July, and August that one night I received an email from Get Away Today for their Halloween event and decided to look into going over Matt's 35 birthday. I had it all figured out and was so excited to tell him I wanted to go, but he reminded me they were switching weeks around at work and it wouldn't work. I was pretty bummed, but we arranged it around work and moved a couple things around to make it happen. We had it planned and booked then he got a full-time position at the U of U Hospital. He was able to tell them he would start the Wednesday after he got back and he worked his last graveyard at IMC and we left that morning after he had slept for a couple hours. We also invited my mom to come along. Having an extra adult is nice for so many reasons especially since Logan couldn't ride a ton of rides. Plus we were able to have a date night and just that extra help and fun. 

We didn't tell Kara we were going because we wanted it to be a surprise. This is her riding her scooter to school having no clue she would be on an airplane to Disneyland in a couple of hours. 

Pulling out of the driveway to meet my mom and Matt's parents at the airport. Matt's parents drove my mom to the airport as we didn't have any more room in our car and then they drove our Durango to their house to pick us up in a week.

We had a conversation with Kara on the way to the airport, but the video is too long to put on the blog. In essence, she said she didn't want to go to Disneyland cause she didn't want to get onto the airplane and have hurt ears. This time we had a remedy for that.

Kara telling Bonka where they are going
and asking if she wants to come. 

Video - At Airport asking Kara where she is going

Video - At airport with Bonka and Kara

At the airport, waiting to get through security. Its amazing how much easier it is when the kids are older. 

Hanging out with Logan before boarding the plane. He and another little boy played together and he got animal crackers from the little boy that he held onto pretty tight.

Matt, Kara, and my mom took up one row.

Logan and I had one row all to ourselves. It was nice since I didn't even buy him a plan ticket.

Logan passed out on the plane after eating his lunch. It was really nice since we were traveling during his naptime. Fantastic little boy.

Logan woke up 30 minutes before we were going to land so I had him watch the Ipad and the home videos of Kara and him.

This was our view of Disneyland from our hotel room. We were on the back side of California adventures. It was about a 10 to 15 minute walk from our hotel to the front gates of Disneyland.

We got to the hotel and quickly unpacked and headed for Downtown Disney for dinner. It was a bit of a walk but ended up being a nice night. We ate at Earl of Sandwich and then walked through Downtown Disney. 

Video - Logan and I dancing in Downtown Disney

Video - Kara and Logan dancing in Downtown Disney

We went back to the hotel and pretty much crashed for the night. Kara and my mom were in the kids room. Logan was in a pack and play in our room. There were 2 queen beds in it, so I slept in one and Matt slept in the other. When you are use to the room of a king mattress, having to sleep in a queen together turns out for a rough night sleep.

9-30-2016 - Horse Day - Ride in Rose Canyon

"Today is the Day." Kara has been using this saying lately, and I pretty much felt the same when I went riding on September 30th. It was my first time helping load a horse trailer and go riding with Bubbles besides at Terri's. I was giddily nervous and excited at the same time. Hence all the photos I took of the trip and asking others for their photos and videos. 

We had a pretty safe trip except for one instance. (Read Below) It was great to get out and be with people that I really care about. We love the horses and enjoy being around each other. We saw some deer, had the horses cross streams, cantered in different areas on the trail, and chatted as we enjoyed the fall beauty. 

Video - Cantering up the trail

Video - Everyone on the ride

 (Liz, Me, Zahrah, Payton, & Terri (who was filming))

Video - Path through the trees over fallen leaves. 

We had been practicing on trotting and cantering which I had loved and enjoyed immensely on Terri's property but we were now in a new area and I was a bit nervous. Well we were on our way back and Terri and her grand daughter Payton, who was riding Mufasa, went up ahead on the trail to canter back toward us so we could film them. I had let Bubbles turn her head up a hill to eat so I could see Terri and Payton come back cantering up the trail. Well needless to say, Bubbles thought there must be tastier morsels up the hill further and decided to go up. I don't mind the going up, its the coming down the hill that scares me. So I was up on the hill going further up to find a place to turn around, when all of a sudden, Mufsa decided to scale a 5 to 6 foot wall of dirt to join us. Payton was crying and scared to death. I was scared until I saw her and that went right out of my body. I quickly got off Bubbles and grabbed Mufsa. Its amazing what you can do when you think someone else needs you. We were both shaken up a bit but survived and hopefully grew from the experience. By the way, Payton is 11 and can ride and canter bare back were I have just barely started cantering this year in a saddle. So different, but yet so similar! Horses are what brings us together.

Video - Terri and Payton cantering - then at the end "where the heck is Abbie going?" 

(trust me I totally thought the same thing)

Logan hanging out with me after I got back from riding the horses waiting for Kara to wake up from her nap. 

I took Kara and Logan out to eat since it was a Friday and Matt was at work. Mommy and kid date night. 

9-23-2016 - Logan 18 months old

Well - its official. Logan turned 18 months old. I am a bit late writing about it, just over a month late but what can I say. This little guy isn't a baby anymore, even though I like to remind his sister that he still is. He has grown up so much since we got back from Disneyland. He says words left and right. Understands what you ask him to do, if he wants to. Loves to play with his sister. Can play pretend, especially when it comes to cooking. Says too many words to count. Can tell us when he is hungry, wants a drink, gets hurt, poopy, wants a bath, and so much more. He is a little goof ball and just laughs at me when he gets in trouble. He is a lot better for Matt when he is disciplined by him cause he doesn't laugh when daddy gets mad. 

Weight - 25 lbs - 45%

Height - 33 in. - 80%

Head - 18 in - 5%