Disneyland May 2008

Okay, it's finally time to post some pictures from Disneyland. Again, we went with Rand's family to Disneyland and California Adventure at the beginning of May. I hadn't been since I was about 6, I think. So it's been over 20 years for me! Since Rand's mom and brother are Disney junkies, I was told I was not a true Erickson until I had experienced it with them. Here are some quick, fun highlights of the trip.

The Arrival!

Okay, so one of the first rides we decided to go on was Splash Mountain. Well, let me first prefice this by saying that I forgot one of my hoodie sweatshirts at work and we didn't have time to go get it before heading for the airport. Rand was telling me, "it's California, you don't need a sweatshirt". So...I didn't take a sweatshirt the first day. Mistake number one!

We went on Splash Mountain about about 11:00 a.m. There should be LARGE warning signs that say, "You will get wet...REALLY wet, so if you don't want to be wet for the majority of the day...don't go on this ride!" Now, you can't go to Disneyland and not ride Splash Mountain. I just should have been more prepared! And of course, being the smallest of the group, I get to sit up front. Rand's mom gave me her sweatshirt to wear so I would get less wet (though I was assured repeatedly that it wouldn't be that bad). The picture below is of me...getting very, very wet!

This is the aftermath! It's more humid in Cali than Utah and so the time to straighten my hair that morning was doubled! Total waste of getting up early!!! I was SOAKED! My shirt had some dry spots because of Susan's sweatshirt, but every other bit of me was drenched. Did I mention it was an overcast day?!

As the day went on, I did start to dry out (as seen by my hair starting to do some crazy stuff).

We grabbed some 'theme park' food classics while there. Rand and I tried the chimichangas (huge), though I knew it wouldn't satisfy Rand. As usual though, he finished off both his dad and brothers turkey legs.

This picture below is pretty funny. We were in line for Thunder Mountain when we looked up and saw a couple 'stars': Harry Hamlin and his wife Lisa Rinna and their kids. You may know them best from Dancing with the Stars (they each appeared on different seasons). Rand's mom was pretty excited and went to take a picture when Rand and Jason gave her a hard time because they were on vacation and didn't need pictures snapped of them. Susan replied, "What, I'm just taking a picture of Jason." We laugh everytime we see this picture now. If she had just brought the camera up some above Jason's head, you'd see them standing on the wood deck up to Jason's left. Instead, we've got a nice random picture of Jason!

So we stayed at Disneyland until midnight that first night to watch all the fireworks and ride some rides one last time before it closed. While watching the fireworks we met this really cool couple who was there with there 2 little kids. They had a little boy who was about 4 who was SO excited to watch the show...until it started! It was too loud for him. He covered his ears and started yelling to his parents, "vamanos, vamanos!" His dad turned to translate for me and we got talking about how Rand knew spanish. This couple lives in San Jose, California...but both are latino (I can't remember exactly where they both were from). But the husband had been to Chile and so he and Rand had a connection. He travels alot for his church and it was neat to hear the good that he was striving to accomplish. He was also intrigued at the work that our church does and how 19-year-old boys go out and serve missions for 2 years, striving to bring others closer to Christ. He also told us of a program he works with (started, maybe) to travel to third world countries and help educate them and give them the ability to better where they live through the knowledge they give them. I of course thought of the perpetual education fund and all the good that program has done on such a grand scale, in the same way. What a neat opportunity we have to be a part of such a great program, even if we can't physically go to these countries and places ourselves.

I do have to say that I started to feel really sick by the end of the night. I think it was the TWO LARGE hot chocolates I drank to try to keep me warm. Susan even gave me her brand new Disneyland sweatshirt to wear that night (while she had a semi-damp sweatshirt still drying from the Splash Mountain drenching.) Literally, Rand had to help walk me out to the shuttle, where the whole ride home I thought I was going to lose it. I hadn't felt that sick in a really, really long time. I'm totally surprised I didn't throw up. BUT...we made it back to the hotel where I immediately fell asleep...

until the next morning then the fire alarm went off. At first I thought it was some random alarm clock and I wondered why Rand wasn't turning it off. I finally realized it was saying, "There has been an emergency reported on your floor, please exit the building immediately. Do not take the elevators." So...we head down 7 flight of stairs (picture below), along with an older woman who had just had knee surgery a few weeks before and was really struggling to get down. We get down to the bottom and realize that life on the main floor is just going on like normal. Ends up it was a false alarm and nobody else in the building was even aware it had gone off. That poor old woman!!! They better have given her a free stay in the future!

The second day we hit California Adventure, and then back to Disneyland, mainly for this ride:

I must admit that Space Mountain was awesome! Hands down my favorite ride there!
So we of course had to get a family picture with it in the background! haha!
Please note that I did bring a sweatshirt the second day!

So we were in the airport in Salt Lake waiting for our flight to California. Susan had a magazine (home journal or something like that) to read while travelling. Of course I look down at the cover and one of the stories is about theme park rides gone wrong!!! So, to make things more fun and interesting, I read the article. There was a really sad story in there about a teenage girl who was on a ride like the one below when a cable broke as they were heading up on the ride. As she went up, the cable flew down and caught her ankels and cut her feet off. So that was the thought in my head as we decided to go on this ride. As you can see, I was probably saying a little prayer as the ride was about to take off. Nice soothing thoughts!

These next two pictures were part of some I took for my niece and nephews. The parade wasn't too exciting for me (I'm very well aware they are actors and actresses...sorry to ruin the surprise for all you believers out there), but I just kept thinking about how excited they would be to see their favorite characters 'in real life'! The little kids loved it!

If you haven't been to Disneyland since they added the Bug's Life area, you have to check it out. It's a really cute idea how they put it all together. Then the 3D show is really fun as well! Of all the 'little kid' type attractions they had, this was probably my favorite.

Gotta get a picture giving a shout out to the great state of California from whence I come!
(Soarin California...ride it!)

Interesting...of all the characters you could be named the same as and Rand is the weasally monster from Monsters Inc.

It just wasn't meant to be, no sword for us!

As we were pulling on it though, the thought came to me of how funny it would be to pull a 'candid camera' prank here. Nobody expects the sword to come out. One small push of the button and people go flying!

The Departure