Another cash offering made to the Mother Church of the Cult of Mouse

I hate theme parks.  I hate the parking, I hate the prices of tickets.  I hate the crowds.  I hate the lines.  But year after year, I somehow decide that this year will be diffrent and make a pilgramage to some theme park located usually somewhere in Southern California.  First off, the location.  Southern California really has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Too bad its full of Californians.  For you Californians out there, why do you feel entitled to allways drive in the left lane when faster traffic comes up behind you, even if the right lane(s) are empty?  And do you know what the cruise control in your car is for?  Anyways, I digress.  Californians aside, it looked like this would be a decent trip.  We arived in excellent time, even after my GPS put me on two toll roads, one for 2.5 miles, and another for 1 mile, costing me $4 for less than 4 miles of driving, and not to mention, it took us around the back side of Garden Grove/Anaheim, and we had to drive back into town.  The hotel, the Hyatt Orange County/Garden Grove, was a very nice hotel with nice hotel amenities like $15 a day parking, $10/day internet (thank goodness for ICS in Windows Mobile and a unlimited data plan), and $5 for two tylenol.  But luckily we were across the street from a Target and lots of resturants.  So Friday comes and we load up on the shuttle bus (was very nice not to have to pay parking at Disneyland) and off to the park with the other perfect yuppie couples.  Things for the most part went pretty well this day.  We took a mid day break and Amy and Cameron took a nap while the other kids and me went to lunch and to browse around Fry's electronics for a while.  We went back to California Adventure later that evening and it was decent (it sucked the only other time I went there).  Saturday was a diffrent story.  It was packed.  It was hot.  It was humid.  We were miserable.  We did go to Blue Bayou since it was Tessa's birthday and had lunch there.  The only other time I had gone to Blue Bayou was 9 years ago when I went with Amy's family when we were dating.  It seems since then, they have upgraded the resturant from casual dining to fine dining, and by adding the occasional white aspargus and other fancy ingredient, have found a way to double the prices.  We droped a C-note on lunch, and that was not including the birthday bucket we had ordered the week before when we made the reservation that they didnt bring, but then again they didn't charge us for.  I guess I'm just not geneticly inclined to go to theme parks for more than one day.  As a kid, the trips we took to places like this were wake up early, drive there, do it, and come home that night.  I just cant go on the same rides over and over (except Pirates of the Carribean, my all time favorite).  I did go on quite a few rides I had never gone on before since I am a huge wuss and was afraid of them.  I quite enjoyed Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones.  I also went on Autopia for the first time ever, and it sucked.  The only ride I didnt like was Soaring over California.  Collin and Tessa loved it.  They went on it twice, once with Amy and once with me.  I hated it, I was freaked out the whole time.  I'm not much of a flyer to begin with, and between the simulated close encounters with the mountains, ocean, and land, the thing that freaked me out the most was seeing the feet dangeling from the row in front of us.  Saturday night, we headed out to Ontario to meet up with Scott, Miss, and her kids Sam and Ethan.  We went to the Ontario Mills Mall and had dinner at a resturant there.  Those Mills mall people have the same archetectural vision as the LDS church.  It was exactly the same as AZ Mills.  I guess they want you to know where you are going whether you are in Ontario, Tempe, or wherever else they build their malls.  And I would once again like to thank my GPS for not only sending me about 20 miles out of my way, but also putting me into the middle of a huge traffic jam.  Whoever said technology was making our lives easier was full of it.

Just an Update

I guess I should get back to actually updating this thing! Man, I have been lazy.

I am now 12 weeks and everything seems to be going well. I had a check-up Monday and no problems so far. YEAH! I am mostly over the morning sickness, but it does hit me on occassion still. I am also forced into maternity clothes as my other "fat" clothes don't fit anymore. I am going to get sick of them fast!

Contessa is enjoying 2nd grade and just started girl scouts and soccer which she loves both. I am the "cookie mom" so I may be contacting everyone to buy a dozen boxes of cookies each in February & March! So start saving up now! (just kidding, I will only make you buy 6!)

Collin loves kindergarten and riding the bus. He is also starts soccer today.

I have Cameron's schedule perfect now! After I drop off Collin for afternoon kindergarten, Cameron takes a nap so I get 2 1/2 hours to myself! YEAH for me! I love this schedule.

We are hoping to visit family the end of October since it will be the last opportunity before I can't travel anymore (plus Devin's work is crazy in the winter). We will see if we can pull it off.

So that is the little update on our family. Maybe I will update more often. I'll see if I feel like being less lazy!