Disneyland with the Fam

Growing up my brother and I were the only cousins that were our age, everyone else was older (by 15-20 years) and my parents did not want to drag us to Thanksgiving where we would sit and be bored. Instead of hosting or attending the traditional Thanksgiving meal, they decided to travel for Thanksgiving instead. It's been so much fun and the tradition keeps on going! 

This year we went to Disneyland and we loved it! Andrew is the Disneyland master and when I first went to Disneyland with Andrew I wanted my family to experience Disneyland with him because he makes Disneyland magical! He knows how to work the Disneyland system; how to get on the most rides, the shows to see, the food to eat, everything!

Four years after that first time with Andrew, my we finally went as a family! And we were finally able to go to Star Wars Land and see the new Pixar Pier!

Thanksgiving day it poured rain the entire day! Just walking to the shuttle to take us the park our shoes got soaked! (we later learned to tie plastic bags around our socks and that trick worked wonders!) But even with the rain, we loved it! It was the day we laughed the most and the day we got on the most rides! 

^In line for the Star Wars ride and the boys thought this was so cool. My mom and I just got in the picture^

We did Splash Mountain twice because we figured we were already wet, so why not get on the wet rides then?
Plus we were poncho prepared which actually did help a lot. 

 ^If you can't tell my mom and I are soaked through!^ 

The next day there was no rain! We went a little slower today to enjoy all the small magic parts of Disneyland.
My family enjoyed looking at all the small details that make Disneyland an escape from reality. One of my
mom's favorites was Turtle Talk. It was so funny and it's good for adults and kids. 

One thing that I love about California is the people that I met while on my mission and it's so fun to see and catch
up with them. We didn't have a lot of opportunities to do that on this trip because we were in Disneyland for all 3 days,
but one of my friends, Shannon was able to stop by! I love her and she taught me so much on my mission.
It was so good to see her and she came on a few rides with us.

 ^Guardians of the Galaxy was one of our favorites^
(we are in the back and middle rows)

 ^One thing that I have wanted my family to see forever was the World of Color show. It's amazing the things
they can do with water, lights, movie projections, and some music. It was incredible and I loved hearing their reactions!^

Our final day in Disneyland started out with only Andrew and me. My parents had some errands to run,
and Blake wanted to sleep in. They did meet up with us later in the afternoon.

 ^Our favorite drink from Cars Land^

^We had asked Shannon what the best food in Disneyland was and she recommended the corn dogs
and I would have to agree + it's filling.^

^Blake really loved Star Wars land. He and my dad went to look around,
and just looking at stuff they were there for 2 hours!^

^Walt's apartment behind us.^

We left the park around 8:30 to get a head start on the drive back to Utah so we would not be doing it all in one day.
Disneyland, we love you. Thanks for the memories and the magic.

Dixie Land

For Fall Break, Andrew and I went down to Dixieland (a.k.a. St. George). 

It has been our list to do since we got married and we finally made it happen! 

For our first night we found a camping spot and then we explored the area. We tried several different hiking trails, 

but it was not meant to happen. One trail we almost got our car stuck in the sand and the other trail was straight up a 

mountain- which we did climb but it did not lead to the destination that it claimed, and climbing back down was 

a little iffy. By that point we were hungry so we called it quits for hiking for the day. 

That night we camped in our tent. We read a "scary story." It was a choose your own adventure and 

Andrew was not into it so he kept picking the path that he thought would end the story the 

story fastest. 😂 We played a game (one of my favorite things) and then Andrew surprised me 

with Toy Story #4. We had not seen it yet, but he bought it for us to watch. It was such a fun surprise!

Everything was fine and dandy until we were woken up by 25 mph winds for 4 hours! It kept us awake 

for most of the night. It was so loud with our tent whipping in the wind. We woke up the next morning 

with dust all over our tent, pillows, and our face. Showering never felt so good!

We went paddle boarding at Sand Hollow State Park. We are really trying to not let summer go. It was a little too 

cold to get into the water but we really enjoyed paddle boarding around the lake and exploring little "islands." 

While we were in St. George we were able to go to the temple. It's closing at the beginning of November for 

reconstruction and we had never been there so we wanted to make sure we went. It was beautiful. 

We are trying to get to all the temples in Utah. We are currently at 9/17 for 53%. 

For the rest of the day we explored St. George. We toured Brigham Young's summer home. 

I love church history sites.

We also went to Dixie Rock which was one of my favorite places on our vacation. It was so much 

fun to explore and to look down at the city. Right next to Dixie Rock was a desert garden that was 

all decorated for Halloween! It was a lot of fun to walk around and see everything. 

We hiked the temple quarry trail. It was a really easy walk and it's where the pioneers went to get rock 

to build the temple. The ending destination was just a bunch of rock. But we had never done the trail before 

so it was fun to do something new. 

St. George was good to us! It was such a fun place to explore and it has so many fun things. 

We are excited to go back and see the things we missed and revisit a few favorites. 

Labor Day Weekend

For the three-day weekend, we went to Huntington Lake with my parents and then Blake and his friend 

David joined us later. It was such a fun way to put a close to the summer season and it was actually 

warm outside! We brought kayaks and a pool donut. We also rented paddle boards twice when we were there.

 On Sunday On Sunday we went to 9-mile canyon… NEVER AGAIN, it was at least 40 miles! We thought we would drive a 

short distance to a hiking trail and then hike to see some hieroglyphs. Not even close! It was a 40 mile drive and we really could 

not see any of the hieroglyphs. We talked to some people and we were finally able to see some stuff. Sure, it was interesting, 

but was it was not worth all those miles! But now it will be a fun memory and we can say we have been there and done that! 

We also celebrated Blake’s 25th Birthday! We had a fun weekend together as a family! 

Chalk the Block 2019

One annual event that Andrew and I love to attend is Chalk the Block. Local artists draw amazing art work with chalk all 

over the parking lot and every year I am blown away with the talent and creativity these people have, especially when 

I struggle at drawing basic stick figures. If you have never been and you are in the area during the time,

 you need to put it on your list to go!

 ^This one was Andrew's favorites because it's basketball^

The theme this year was based on Hollywood, so there were a lot of different movies as part of the display. 

^Look how magical this set up was!^ 

 ^Love this artwork so much and the quote!^ 

Isn't all that artwork astounding?! We really love going and every year we hope it doesn't rain 

(because that has happened before). And one thing that I think would have been really cool was if an  artist did

a Mary Poppins chalk drawing from when they went into the chalk drawing with Bert. It would have been 

practically perfect in every way! But we didn't see one. If only I had some level of artistic ability and I would have done it. haha. Personally, I just love the idea I had. 

It's a fun way to start wrapping up the summer and it's so much fun to spend time together.