Halloween Time in Disneyland

Last weekend I met my best friend, Randi, in San Fransisco and we drove to LA together to spend two fabulous days in the happiest place on earth, DISNEYLAND!! Our drive gave us some much needed catch up time and we enjoyed yummy muddy buddies along the way. We haven't seen each other in over six months, (see our shopping trip last April) and it has been way way way too long!
We got into Anaheim around two in the morning, found our hotel, and hit the bed like a rock. We woke up the next morning ready to find some breakfast and walk to Disneyland. We had Randi's iPhone with the map to show us where we could find a Denny's before we tackled the park... Maps make things look much closer than they really are; we walked SO much before we even found a place to eat breakfast. After we downed some very delicious french toast we trekked our way to the Disneyland entrance, yay!
The park and the weather were absolutely perfect!! Giant pumpkins decorated like Mickey, Goofey and the rest of the characters. Randi and I were in heaven, as you know we both have a affinity for Halloween and Disneyland, and those two together=pure bliss.
Obviously our first ride HAD to be Space Mountain, and yes, it was worth the hour and a half wait!!
Big Thunder!
On the Big Thunder roller coaster, what a blast!

We ventured over to Toon Town for some pictures, they are redoing parts of the park so the little rides over there were closed, still a great photo opp right?

Sleeping Beauty's Castle!! She is my favorite princess and the last couple times i have gone to Disneyland the castle has been closed, so i was SUPER excited that we got to go through it!
Snow White's house
Its A Small World, we both LOVE this ride despite being made fun of by our anti-disney Ry and Dara:-)
There were the cutest caramel apples, Minnie, Mickey, and Mickey Pumpkin---so darling!!
Our favorite: Indiana Jones (whoa, *urch* whoa *urch* WHOA!!!!)

California Screamin'!!! We rode the ride a few times in a row, no wait, whoop whoop!

I am not a huge fan of farris wheels, and this one you are in a cart that slides around on a track, SO scary! We felt bad for the couple that rode with us, we screamed...A LOT!
California adventure at night, we tried to squeeze in every ride we could before the firework show.

The firework show was by far, the MOST amazing show i have ever experienced. They used fabulous music, the villains, and instead of Tink flying, it was a ghost and the fireworks were so great! It was by far the best show i have ever EVER seen!!

California Adventure was decorated with lots and lots of candy corn, it was so cute!

We wised up the next day and drove to the park rather than walking, our feet hurt so bad from all the walking the previous day. We got some blister pads and brought two pair of shoes to rotate through so our feet wouldn't hurt.Our first ride of this day was the Haunted Mansion, since the wait the day before was two hours long! It was AMAZING, they have it completely redone as the Nightmare Before Christmas! We loved this ride and went numerous times!
Haunted Mansion faces

Our second ride of the day: Splash Mountain. Notice, our nice straight hair and fresh make-up...

By the end of the ride we were completely drenched, for some reason neither of us remember getting this soaked. Advice to future riders; the front is not the place to be if you want to keep straight hair and new make up in place.

Drenched with some Halloween villains.

The sunglasses helped with smeared make-up and thank goodness for bobby pins! We headed to fantasy land to ride the Peter Pan ride, the Pinnochio ride, and all the fun magical kiddie rides.
We literally sprinted to make it to this ride before it closed so we could squeak one last ride of California Screamin in before California Adventure closed. Luckily with some begging slash sweet talking and slightly glistening foreheads we got on and had the best ride ever! We laughed and screamed the entire time.

The Mickey pumkin head at night, SO stinkin cute!

One last ride on the Haunted Mansion

The last ride of the trip, followed by some serious Christmas shopping! We both got some really cute ornaments that i cannot wait to put on my Christmas tree and some great Halloween mugs that have already been put to use!

Waiting for the tram at the end of the night with our trusty backpack, our new Disney goods and sore feet. I had the time of my life and i'm so glad we planned this. I miss you already, thanks Randi!!!

Attention Fellow Shoppers!!!

I just got the greatest bargain of my life! I went to Bath & Body to get my free antibacterial soap with a $10 purchase; little did i know i would get so much more for free. They have a deal going on right now that if you buy two oils you get an oil warmer (a $15 value) FREE, so i thought to myself, "i am the best shopper, two free items". I went to check out and the guy that works there said that i qualified for their new Christmas preview book (another amazing deal in and of itself)... what does that mean? Well, he split my items into two piles and said if you buy these in two separate purchases then i get another item, ANY item in the store (under $13) for FREE, yes for free! So i got that cute pumpkin candle, sweet cinnamon pumpkin antibacterial soap, and oil warmer ALL for FREE and didn't spend over $20. They also have their three wick candles 2 for $20 and they have Christmas preview candles for $4 and Christmas wallflowers for $3, i may have to go back very soon and i hope all my fellow shopaholics enjoy these killer deals as well!!

Happy Golden Birthday!!!

Thursday, the 24th was Ry's golden birthday!! We both had to work and he wanted a really low key birthday; for those of you who know me know that that was SO hard for me because i LOVE birthday celebrations and going all out. I got up super early and made a yummy breakfast before we both had to go to work.

I sent Ry a candy bouquet at work:-) he was very surprised.
He said no presents, but i had to get him something, it just wouldn't have felt like a birthday, right? He got a pull up bar that he has been wanting forever, i know, not very exciting.

Just the two of us, we went to Applebee's for dinner, were too full for dessert there or the cake i made, bummer.

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!

Since Ry just wanted a low key birthday i planned his birthday weekend up in Island Park, the most relaxing place on the planet, and it was just the two of us. We drove up Friday night as soon as Ry got off work and watched Kung Fu Panda on the way. We got to the cabin, unpacked and crashed for the night.

We woke up to the most beautiful morning ever!! Ry got up and made breakfast while i slept in, what a sweetheart! After breakfast i was ready to go to the frog ponds because i had a little surprise for the birthday boy and he had absolutely no clue. So i pretended that i brought one of my dad's guns when he sneaked a peak under the quilt i had it wrapped in, luckily he still had no idea it was for him.

While Ry was setting up targets i put a big red bow on his present and sang happy birthday to him. He said "wait i thought that was your Dad's" he could not believe it was for him, he was sooo excited!! I'm so glad that i was able to surprise him, he is the hardest person to surprise because he is such i little snoop.

Happy Birthday Ry!!!

Checkin out the amazing scope!

I'm not going to lie, i'm a great shot!:-)

After playing with the gun for a while we went over to visit my grandparents at Mack's Inn (they have a fifth wheel trailer and a lot there). I forgot to pack a sweatshirt for Ry so we decided we needed to go over to West Yellowstone to find one. Our grandparents came along, we went to the icecream shoppe and the candy shoppe where we saw two darling missionaries making taffy. I talked to them for a while and told them about Marcus, they were super jealous that he gets to brand cattle, and i guess they aren't allowed to tract there, weird huh? Talking with them made me so happy and it made me miss Marcus lots! After we took my grandparents back to their trailer we went back to the cabin and watched a movie (we watched a few this weekend,) it was SO nice to just relax and enjoy each other.

Our chili and cornbread candlelit dinner, so perfect and soo delicious (even though i forgot to add the egg).

We did not want to leave and cannot wait to go back!! Thanks Dr. Willey and Dari, and HAPPY HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY RY!!!

Busy Weekend...

Yesterday we went up to Twin Falls for one of our good friend, Natalie's, wedding. Her grandfather is the temple president, and got to seal them , it was a beautiful sealing. The day was perfect, not a cloud in sight and it was the perfect temperature.
Such a gorgeous temple!!

Waiting for the new Mr. & Mrs. to come out...

Officially married!! They looked soo happy and we are so happy for them! Congrats Nat and Justin!!

Just and Nat grinning ear to ear, Nat looked beautiful and Justin look thrilled to finally be married.

We were trying to get all of Moroni into our picture as well, but could never get it to work.

After the sealing in Twin Falls we headed up to Boise to visit some of our best friends, Lucas and Holly. We ate at Changs, sooo yummy, and got the grand tour of down town Boise. There were so many great sales going on, too bad neither of the boys are avid shoppers. After wandering the down town area we went to the sub and Boise state, bowled, played pool, and pinball; thanks guys, we had a blast with you!!

Summer winding down...

LASER TAG!!

The girl's team!

After Bess' viewing we were all ready to go out and do something fun and decided laser tag was a perfect option. Mareesa, Ashley (Ry's sister), Brekka (Kaid's girlfriend), Kaz (Ash's boyfriend), Kaid, Ry and I all played; the boys killed us, but only because Kaid cheated, he would hold our guns down and just shoot our vest until he had to recharge his bullets. We had a great time!! Sorry the picture is so blurry it was the fog.

BESS' FUNERAL

The service was one of the nicest ones i have ever been to, many happy memories were shared and the great accomplishments of my great-grandmother were relived. She was such a wonderful person, the other side is so lucky to have her and all of her amazing talent. We will miss and remember her!

I love this pic, don't have i have the cutest siblings?!

My cute grandparents!

On our way to the cemetery.

This is the lid to Bess' concrete box that the casket goes it (i forget what it's called), i thought it was really pretty though.

FINALLY:
Ry and I have been looking for new furniture for our living room for a while now and finally found some!!

Us driving to Logan to pick it up!

The chair and ottoman, cute huh?

The couch, so much nicer than our old one!

The love seat, obviously already getting some lovin:-)

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

I always get so excited when the fair comes because i know fall is just around the corner. For Labor Day weekend Ry, Mareesa and I went up to Idaho Falls to see the Titanic exhibit at the Museum of Idaho, it was amazing!! I was sad that we couldn't take any pictures, i tried, but Ry got grumpy and there were lots of museum workers walking around. I was obsessed with learning about the Titanic when i was young and it was amazing to see actual artifacts that have been retrieved from the resting place of the amazing ship. At the beginning of the tour you got a ticket with an actual person who was on the ship with short bio and at the end you find out if you lived or died, Ween lived and Ry and I both died (my wife lived, i don't know why they didn't give you gender specific tickets). They had a chandelier from the first class dining room, it was still so beautiful; there were dining plates that were found in perfect rows because the wooden drawer that held them rotted away on the ocean floor, they had leather wallets and really cool old money, they even had port hole windows with the signature star that they had extracted. I was just blown away by how well some of the artifacts had been preserved. Did you know that in today's money it would cost $78,000 for a first class room!?! It really was a beautiful ship and i'm so glad we got to see the exhibit before it left.
After we finished our Titanic tour we headed down to Blackfoot for the Idaho State fair. We went through all the commercial buildings, saw all the animals, contemplated purchasing a pinball machine (we played for hours and i'm sure we will eventually cave), bought some super nice pans all made in the USA, and of course ate lots of really yummy, unhealthy food that you can only get once a year at the fair! Our food choices this year included: tiger ears, indian tacos, fried cheese curds dipped in ranch, home made curly fries, ice cream, scone nuggets dipped in honey butter, cheeseburgers, cotton candy, and i think that about covers it. I know what you are thinking, how in the world did we eat all of that, we went up to the fair three times while it was here.

Happy with our night at the fair...

So we wasted $10 trying to win $50 at this little stand. This is a bike that steers opposite and the goal was to ride it 15 feet, only to the orange line. Ry and i both tried, i thought, it's a straight shot it shouldn't be that hard, right!? WRONG! It was so stinkin hard, needless to say neither of us made it and we got three tries each and came out ten bucks short.

This would have been a better picture, but i was standing in the middle of the street trying to stop traffic to get it, didn't work out so well, but you get the idea.

Another Sweet Angel Joins the Other Side...

Last night our sweet little Bess (my great-grandmother) passed away around 6:00PM. She has been waiting 14 years to join her sweetheart on the other side and i am sure it was a happy reunion for her and the rest of her family. She truly was the sweetest, most kind and thoughtful woman ever. She has been suffering for a while now, always keeping a sweet demeanor and continuing to make us laugh.

I have so many happy memories of and with her...She used to make us a tin can full of our favorite vanilla kranza (yummy Danish little cookies,) on our birthday when she was able to cook. At Christmas we would have to be very careful when opening our presents because she would save every little scrap of wrapping paper. We use to walk her dog, Prince, an ugly little grey poodle; when we would return she/and Besterfar (our great-grandfather) would let us have some licorice candies from her beautiful glass candy dishes. She has always been so thoughtful of all of those around her, even when she was unable to cook she would offer to cook us things when we would come visit her. I remember swinging on her tire swing in her backyard on hot summer days with my brothers and cousins. She was always knitting or crocheting something, she would make kitchen towels and hot-mitts, she loved the BYU channel, and her very favorite color is purple. She loved when Mareesa or I would brush her hair and massage her scalp, she would get this look on her face that reminds me of a little puppy getting a good scratch behind his ears.

Our little Bess will be greatly missed here but i am so grateful that she isn't in pain anymore and that she gets to be with her family that she continually talked about joining. I hope that everyone around her can take her humble, sweet, and serving example and become more like her. We love you Bess!