Christmastime at "The Happiest Place on Earth"

We took a very short vacation down to California to visit Disneyland at Christmas time. I absolutely love going to Disneyland and we have the perfect excuse with my sister, grandparents, and aunts living down there. We have a free place to stay, annual passes, and plenty of family to spend time with. It has a been a few years since I first went to Disneyland to enjoy the Christmas festivities (with my regency 23 friends) and I loved it. They really deck the place out for the holidays. Aaron had never been during the holiday season...so yet another good excuse to go down there.

We packed up with my brother, Johnny, and cousin, Brandy, and left Thursday after work and arrived late that evening. Friday we spent the day at Disneyland with Julia, Stephen, Johnny and our Stanton/McCorvey cousins. I absolutely loved all the decorations. New Orleans Square looked quite festive, there was a huge tree and lots of garlands and other deocrations down main street, and the Castle and It's a Small World looked fabulous at night when they were all lit up. We enjoyed the Christmas Parade, a light show projected on It's a Small World, as well as the snowfall in front of the castle. There is something cool about seeing fake snow fall in front of a castle covered in fake snow and lots of lights. I know it sounds weird, considering we could have been at home watching real snow falling, but I thought it was pretty great. In addition to doing all the Christmas stuff, we enjoyed a lot of rides too because it wasn't crowded, and we have a 2 inch stack of fast passes that Aaron has collected over time.

On Saturday we went to this park in Orange County where you can ride in this huge orange helium balloon 300 yards up in the air...for free. We were all pretty excited. But unfortunately after driving there and signing away our lives on our release forms, and watching the group before us go, they decided it was too windy and they probably wouldn't go up again for the rest of the day. So after taking a sad looking picture...we returned to the beach house and enjoyed an afternoon of game playing. We ate a lot of good pizza for dinner and downed a giant pizookie in record time. I think we amazed our waiter with our ability to eat a lot and eat it fast. We are a talented group. This was followed up by a disappointing trip to my favorite store, H&M, where I set a personal record by walking out of the store without buying anything. It is obviously a popular place for Christmas shopping because all the good sale stuff was gone and there were mounds of clothing thrown all over the place.

We left to drive home the next morning. It almost feels like we spent as much time driving back and forth as we spent there. But we had a great time, and it was definitely worth all the time we spent in the car. It made me even more excited for the Christmas season and reminded me of how much I love spending time with my family. They are the greatest!

Aaron's Christmas List

Aaron has requested that I post his Christmas list this year for any interested parties. I told him he could post it himself, but he claims he doesn't know how (which means he doesn't want to figure out how) and he's not going to get into the whole blog thing. He has a little tradition of sending out this list to family, most of it being humorous things that he doesn't really expect to get, but it gives you a little insight into his likes/dislikes and personality. He is actually very unmaterialistic when it comes to Christmas and wouldn't care if he didn't get anything. I should be more like him. So here it is:

Well family the time of year has come where a Christmas list is a good thing for all of your close ones to know. I know that Adam is not giving to me this year, but I figured he might as well be able to rejoice in the spirit of my list just as much as everyone else, so without any further adu the list. Mind you that these are in no particular order. I would also like to preface that all receipts would be greatly appreciated as to my size and likes and dislikes change about as often as the time. For those of you with really good memories this is the same list as last year with a few modifications, so please enjoy. I thank you for your generosity in this matter. Please feel free to email me with any question or comment you may have about what you are about to see.

1. A Toyota Tacoma found at your nearest Toyota dealership priced at a small fortune.
2. A back massager you know the ones that are electric that need to be plugged in and that vibrate, this can be found at target or any like store for 39.99,I also recently was at Dixie’s and enjoyed her leg massager, not sure where to find it or how much but she would know..
3. A cruise really anywhere in the world but I prefer the Mediterranean, price 3000 give or take a little
4. A home surround sound theater system. this would not only benefit me but the whole family Rachel would love it, ahahaha. about $400
5. An LCD at least 42" TV can be bought at Costco for about 1100
6. For those looking to spend a little less money this idea is for you. A good recipe for lettuce wraps, I love them and I want to know how to make them.
7. Socks all colors/patterns are needed
8. A few button up shirts now that I am a teacher I wear these everyday except Friday of course, I do enjoy checkered ones, all colors, price will vary but please bring a receipt.
9. Brown church shoes size 9 1/2 but be careful
10. A backpacking water purifier, so I do not die while backpacking with the scouts, about $50, also works well in a emergency kit.
11. Bowling shoes see the above size I have no idea where to buy them or how much they are
12. Bowling ball again no idea I enjoy a solid 15 or 16 pounder.
13. A push broom so that I can clean up around the house and outside, this is priced at about 15 to 20 dollars at home depot or Lowe’s.
14. Also I am trying to start to collect tools and other things so I would like jumper cables, not sure on price
15. A tree now that the landscaping is done a tree would spruce things up. Rachel wants a fruitless flowering pear, but whatever works for me.
16. A 20 dollar gift certificate to Bon Lossee for a pedicure to be done by Brandy.
17. Any new game that you happen to hear is a good one price will vary.
18. A paid trip to Miami so I can see my boy John Beck play for the Dolphins,
19. A nice picture for our home I do love the Washington picture with him kneeling by his horse offering a word of prayer
20. Last but not least your love this is priceless.

I know many of these things are out of your price ranges, but I figure if you never ask you can never receive. It is also possible that you can think of something on your own please feel free to buy me whatever as long as there is a receipt so your gift does not go straight to the DI pile. I love you all and hope your holiday season to be as good as mine. If I have offended any of you in the course of this email please feel free to not get me anything and life will go on.

Thank you and adios.

Aaron

Traitor To My Utah Roots

So, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but I have been somewhat fantically following Dancing with the Stars this season. Maybe because Jane Seymour was on it and I am a huge Dr. Quinn fan (I own all 6 seasons if anyone wants to borrow). I've watched seasons off and on in the past, but this season I was hooked from the first episode. When Jane's time came and she was kicked off, most of my loyalties switched over to Mel B (Scary Spice). I absolutely loved watching her dance...and talk with her great British accent. And yes, you can call me a traitor if you like, but despite my utah Mormon roots I had absolutely no loyalty for Marie Osmond. While I do love the Osmond Christmas Album, that is about as much of them as I need for the year. I even used all of my votes from two different addresses this week to vote for the other two contestants, hoping that Marie wouldn't win. I was happy to see that my votes counted and that my two favorites were there at the end...even though Scary Spice wasn't able to pull out the win...and I think I've stooped to a new level of patheticness in voting for reality TV shows.

Go Cougars!

Well, another great performance by BYU. Well, great in the last 2 minutes. I don't know why they insist on waiting until the very last moments possible to pull out the win, but it certainly makes for some exciting football. We have really enjoyed games this season and we have loved watching Harvey, who has turned out to be quite the team superstar. I have a cool connection to Harvey that I like to brag about. Not only did he play for my alma mater, Timpview High School, but I was actually his teacher when he was in 10th grade. I also have worked with his dad for the last four years, so I have run into Harvey at work and have been receiving personal Harvey updates ever since he was being recruited by BYU (and many other schools for that matter). His dad is awesome and recently spontaneously gave me a BYU hat autographed by members of the team (including Harvey, Hall, Reed, and a bunch of other names I can't read) because he knows that I love BYU football. Aaron says we need to hold on to it because it may be worth something one day. And good news is Harvey's brother played for the state championship Timpview football team this year and his dad says he is bigger and faster and thinking of coming to BYU next year. The future of BYU football looks bright.

I've finally arrived...

Well, since it seems to be the thing to do...I've decided to join the blogging world. I have loved getting updates from friends and family through their blogs and thought it might be fun to join in. I'm not sure I'll have anything all that exciting to write, but I figured it would be a good way for me to keep track of my life, since I haven't been so good at the whole writing in a journal thing lately. So, here we go with a brief summary of the last 6 months or so of our lives that I have been meaning to send out in email form, but never did.

For those of you who didn't know, after 3 great years of managing Regency apartments (in addition to the 3 1/2 years I spent there as a student) we decided it was time to move on. I figured after living almost a fourth of my life there, the time had come. We had a great experience there and were really grateful for the time we had there.

We built a house in Lehi. After much unpacking and shopping at IKEA, it is starting to feel like home. The ward is full of young families with lots of little kids. Sacrament meeting is somewhat of a circus and it takes a lot of concentration to focus on the speakers over the children that are screaming. We got called into the primary (where I have been ever since we got married) and quickly got assigned to a somewhat challenging class…Aaron thinks that I am cursed with difficult children (based on my past primary experiences and my job).

We've managed to take a few quick vacations...the best of which was our family reunion at Newport Beach where we saw "Wicked" in Los Angeles (and absolutely loved it) and rode the new "Finding Nemo" submarine ride at Disneyland on it's first full day of being open to the public (thanks to Aaron who had to sprint and hurdle a stroller to get a good place in line). We have annual passes to Disneyland because my mom invested in some property in Newport, so we can claim California residency and get cheap passes. We’ve utilized them a lot and are quickly becoming Disneyland experts. On three of our four trips this year we got “Dream Fastpasses” at Disneyland…they hand out a limited amount in undisclosed locations and they hang around your neck and give you one free fastpass to use any time that day on each of the rides that have fastpasses. Aaron seems to be the lucky charm and is the one that always spots them. Last time we also won Micky Mouse shaped loaves of sourdough bread at the bread factory in California Adventure. Aaron also runs around all day and gets us fast passes so we never run out. He even saves them, so that we can try to use them the next time we go. So far it has been successful.

We’ve also managed to read a few books this summer. The most anticipated and loved was Harry Potter which Aaron had finished within 48 hours of its release (while I was still reading Twilight—which I also loved) and then I was able to finish soon after. I thought the last book was a perfect ending to a great saga…although it was somewhat sad to realize it was over. I also loved the Twilight series, much to Aaron's delight because he can make fun of me and my book about "sparkling vampires."

Now we are back in school (although technically I never stopped). Aaron has been really busy with putting in our yard, coaching soccer, and advising the senior class officers. The soccer season for girls ended recently (after ending up 4th in state), so he has a break for a few months before boys soccer starts up. I have been really busy the last year with my jobs and working on my special education license (which my work requires and pays for). But after taking 30+ credit hours over the last two years, completing lots of projects, taking the praxis, and compiling a 3" binder portfolio...I am ecstatic to announce that as of yesterday I am finished! Now I won't feel quite as guilty when I want to watch Dancing with the Stars, Heroes, the Office, and reruns of Gilmore Girls.