The "not so much a vacation" vacation

Wow...what a trip. You know how people used to invite friends over and sit them down in front of the projector and show them slides from trips and subsequently the friends would become rather irritated and bored? Well, I think the blog has taken place of the slide show but can be just as irritating. Nevertheless, here I am with our trip report. The only difference is that you have the choice to continue (or not) and I will not make you read.

Wednesday: I left with my kids and my mom at 7 am. Mike did not leave until 6pm because he had Region Band in Cedar City. When we got there we had to compile all of the packets for the HS students. It was a lot more work then I thought. I ran over to Disneyland and picked up the tickets, made copies of maps, figured out room numbers for the kids, got all of the meal tickets divided, etc. My mom and I got everything into separate envelopes. In between everything we went to the Disney Warehouse and then had dinner. My mom went to her hotel and I got my kids to sleep. I finished getting rooming lists labeled and went to sleep for about an hour. I got a call from the caravan a little before 12 and got the hotel security alerted. We waited until after 1am before the buses arrived. I was feeling sick with a bad headache and a cold so I was happy when they arrived and I could get back tot he room to bed.

Thursday: We woke up early. I felt like CRAP! The kids were SO excited and Mike was still a little stressed. My mom took the boys and the Schmidts (some great friends/colleagues) took Anna. Mike and I went to Toon Town with his concert band to meet up with a Disney Performing Arts rep. It was so cool to see behind the scenes at Disney. Looks pretty un-Disney if you ask me. Kind of warehouse like. Anyway, the kids warmed-up and were directed to a studio where they learned how to be studio musicians. They rehearsed and recorded 3 different songs from three different Disney movies including "The Emperors New Groove", "Atlantis", and "Beauty and the Beast". Altogether it was a 90 min session. The kids had ear phones with a click track (metronome) to keep things in time with the movie and they worked with an AMAZING director. He was a member of the Carpenters for 20 years, was the director of Entertainment at Disney World, and was the voice of Donald Duck in the 80's. After the session, Mike did a session with the Jazz Ensemble and I met up with the kiddos and my mom. We went on a few rides, but I felt just awful. We went out of the park to eat and I couldn't move. Mike made me go to the hotel and I slept for 15 hours. Seriously sick. The rest of the fam went to A Bugs Land and played the rest of the day away. Mike began to fall asleep so my mom made everyone go back to the hotel. That was pretty much the day. We are pathetic :)

Friday: I was coherent for the day so I tried to be excited to walk miles in the heat with a not as bad headache. I did alright. My mom had made a list of rides and one by one we checked them off. This was performance day, however, so we couldn't get much done in between seeing the groups. It was so exciting to see them all up there and to see my hot husband lead his band. The HS kids were such a great support to each other. They all came to listen to each group so we always had a full audience. There were also a lot of family members and just onlookers there to watch as well. Pictures are below. I am very proud of Mike! We ate dinner and then the kids stayed at the hotel with my mom and Mike and I went back to the park. He had gone on very few rides so it was nice to get on our favorites (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones). We happened to be among the most annoying tourists in the park though. Oh well, gave us
something to make fun of :)

Saturday: This was OUR day! We had made a reservation for a character breakfast and we went to it at 8:30. Well, we were actually late so I ran (with my lungs full of nasty) to make sure we were ok. We had a great time. We saw so many characters and Brayden was in LOVE with them all. I think Anna just melted every time she saw one and Tyson was the cutest big brother- pointing out to Brayden every time a new one came up. He would get his shy grin and giggle when they would hug him. Loved every minute. We then went on the rest of the Disneyland rides we could before heading over to California Adventure for lunch and rides. We worked Fastpass brilliantly and got on all of the big rides. Anna and Bray couldn't go on much, so I took them to Turtle Talk. We have never been picked to talk to Crush before, but this time all three of us were picked! I felt a little guilty. It was so funny. Tyson told him we were from St. George and the rest of the time he kept referring back to St. George in his jokes. Anna forgot what her question was but was hilarious anyway and he asked me about my kids. It was fun. Tyson's "break through rides" were Indiana Jones, Screamin', Splash Mountain, and Soarin'. Anna's were Soarin', Star Tours, Haunted Mansion, and Splash Mountain. We went shopping after the rides, had some tired kids, and went back to the hotel. We left Sunday morning with a lot of new toys. Today has been a rough one- getting back to school and all. Ty slept all the way to school, Brayden has been a little bear, and Anna cried for a half hour on the way home then fell asleep. Now Bray is fighting a much needed nap, I'm still recovering from my stupid cold, and Mike is a lot less stressed. We are glad we went- though we wish it had gone just a bit smoother. Oh well. Vacations are never vacations.

In line for Buzz.

At breakfast on Friday.

Watching Daddy's Jazz Band.

Hottie!

Concert Band.

Tyson in Tarzans TreeGrandma and the kids on Jungle CruiseI have a picture like this of Tyson when he was Bray's size. I had to get another

Tyson and Grandma on Screamin'! He went twice and LOVED it!

We all watched for Ty. Anna and Bray loved seeing the people shoot off.My two favorite pictures of the trip. Look at our cute family.