Whirlwind of a Weekend

Here below is a brief synopsis of the crazy weekend my roommate and I just experienced:

Thursday: Harry Potter midnight showing...the preshow was great! A guy dressed up as though he came from the house of Slytherin and challenged the audience to a duel. A few people got up, and then one guy in our theater who was dressed as Voldemort stood up and took him on...he did a great job acting it. And a guy dressed as Hagrid got up and sat on the original guy. Pretty hilarious.

The movie was great! I left it hardly believing 2 1/2 hours had passed by and definitely wanting more. Hope the last one is amazing.

Friday: Traveled to California. Pretty uneventful except for a dust storm and rain once we got into California.

Saturday: It was pretty fantastic. :) I love Disneyland. No Becky, I didn't get a caramel apple. I still wouldn't have eaten it. It rained for a good portion of the day, so the lines were amazing! The longest line by 15 minutes was Space Mountain, and it was 35 min. Totally unheard of for Disneyland on a Saturday.

We hit all the rides I wanted to go on, went on Thunder Mountain twice and Splash Mountain three times in a row since there wasn't a line. They did a good job with the update on the Submarine ride, which is now Finding Nemo. Loved the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters...it's an interactive ride where you shoot at things and get points for it. :)

I was being really intense while Kaylee was in it for the fun of it. :)

They've updated the Nightmare Before Christmas decorations for the Haunted Mansion, so that was interesting to see...Pirates was good, but I miss the old Pirates...not such a fan of the new stuff they've added for the movies. The movies were based off of the ride, so why should they change the ride??? Gah!

Got a picture with Minnie and Mickey...will upload eventually...

Ate at the Blue Bayou...mmmmm, Monte Cristo's!!!

The fireworks were canceled due to high winds, but Fantasmic was on and it was Fantastic! Went on Splash Mountain three times in a row on the same log because there wasn't a line...the second time we came up and there was Ariel and Prince Eric on their boat about to start performing for Fantasmic...we screamed and they heard us and waved! It was awesome...

So yeah. 9AM-11:30PM...with a 50 minute drive back to Aunt Linda's house.

Sunday: Oh. My. Gosh. Well, the weather was great until just after we passed through St. George. Then the heavens opened and it was snow. Heavy thick snow and it was heading right toward us. That is the most trippy thing to have to stare into for 1 1/2 hours. My eyes are still tired from that. Then of course it was sticking to the road (we had heard it wasn't). Then we were driving on pure ice. We must have passed more than 10 incidents on the side of the road, 3 of them had obviously rolled. I was kinda freaking out.

We get to Beaver and they shut down the freeway....

We hear they are going to reopen the freeway. But I am NOT about to go drive on that again. So we pull into a Best Western and get on a waiting list. There are some cancellations, so everyone but the couple above us on the list get a room. The freeway reopens, and they decide to drive it.

Then an angel of mercy dropped down and a miracle happened.

So by this time, we have been sitting in the lobby of the hotel for at least 1 1/2 hours. I am in shock from driving and seeing all those accidents. Then this guy who had been on the waiting list pops his head in the door and asks if we are still wanting a room. He explains that he and his partner are thinking about trying out the freeway and may give up their room. And hour later, he comes in and hands us the keys. He GAVE us the room. Didn't ask for any money in return. I about dropped to the floor and started crying when he did that. We go in the room, and they turned up the temp to nice and toasty so we could thaw out.

The amazing thing is the lady at the front desk offered to take us to her house if we couldn't get anything. She asked us if we had money...was really taking care of us.

We are too wired from the shock of the drive to fall asleep right away, so we watch a movie and I tossed and turned until about 1:30, 2:00AM. Finally fall asleep, wake up at 7:30, and are on the road by 8:00AM. The roads were by far and away SO much better this morning, but there was still ice on the roads. We passed another roll over accident. But we were able to travel at the speed limit most of the way, thank goodness. I missed work this morning because I was still exhausted and such from the trip overall, but am at work right now.

So hopefully tonight I will get a full night sleep and be totally perky tomorrow.

And there you have my wild adventure. The End.

And the Craziness Begins...

Harry Potter tonight, California tomorrow, Disneyland the day after...

I wonder when I am going to be too old for this much excitement...

Peace, y'all!!!

My Apologies...

It's been a while. I will blame it on the lack of internet at my house. Yes, I am still without internet. Yes, it sucks. I can check my facebook on my phone, but beyond that most of my internetting consists of using the office computer in the afternoons that is running on Windows 98 (I kid you not) and my few intermittent runs over to Barnes and Noble to rip off of their internet.

So to make up for the fairly certain lack of posts in the near future, let me fill you in on what I will be doing over the next week or two:

• Harry Potter midnight showing
• Drive to California
• Go to Disneyland from 8AM to 12AM (and be deliriously happy)
• Drive back to Utah
• Drive to New Mexico
• Eat lots and lots and lots of food
• Coo and faun over the ultrasounds of my future niece/nephew (and be deliriously happy)
• Watch the Iron Bowl (and hopefully be deliriously happy)
• Shop until I can't stand it anymore
• Drive back to Utah

Hopefully I will get a camera somewhere in there so I can show y'all the fun times that are sure to be had. :)

The driving parts (and of course the parts in between) will be slightly determined by the weather. If there is snow falling AND it is sticking to the ground, I will not be driving. Nor will I be riding with someone else who is trying to drive in the black ice patched, snowy weather.

Even if I have to stay here in Utah, I will be happy. I have people here to spend the holidays with (cousins and such). It will be fabulously wonderful.

On Family...

I was on the phone tonight with my Mom when she passed it over to my Dad so she could finish up something. He got on the phone and was in one of his super chipper moods. It was good to hear him talking in such a happy tone. My Mom doesn't really have what I call 'super chipper' moods...she is for the most part pretty mellow in a happy way. Usually. But she was obviously happy as I was talking with her as well. My sister, as I was talking with her the other day, was also in a good mood, despite the morning sickness and first trimester stuff she is dealing with right now. I don't really hold phone conversations with my bro-in-law, but I am sure that he was pretty dang happy too, being back home with Emily and a soon to be Dad.

I am just really grateful right now to be a part of this family. And am super excited that it is soon going to grow. I look forward to meeting my niece/nephew, and I am really excited to spoil him/her rotten...well, not rotten, but enough. But more importantly I look forward to adding my testimony to that of his/her parents and grandparents of the Gospel and of the doctrine that families can be together forever. I look forward to adding to the happy atmosphere he/she will be brought up in within this family.

Wow. I am going to be an aunt...:) Heart is full.

Right or Wrong

Last night I went to Barnes and Noble with my laptop to take advantage of the free wifi they offer. It was the second time I went there to use their internet without purchasing something, whether a book or a hot chocolate from the cafe. I feel kinda guilty as I leave knowing that they didn't make any money off of me that day, I just bummed off their wifi.

As I was sitting there, I heard someone's phone camera going off over and over again. I look around, and there was this lady sitting across with me with one of those 'The Biggest Loser' books in hand, taking picture after picture after picture of quite a few pages in the book. She wasn't making any attempt to hide what she was doing. There were plenty of other people sitting there who could see exactly what she was doing. She kept clicking away.

Did I turn her in? No. I probably should've told someone. But then again, I was stealing their internet...

Halloween 2010: Nightmare Before Christmas

Have I mentioned how much I love Halloween? I really truly love Halloween. It mostly stems from the chance to try out stage makeup for myself. I think I first became a bit obsessed with stage makeup when we bought a book that was all about the Phantom of the Opera...it showed a stage by stage process of how they make the Phantom look the way he does. I was mesmerized. Absolutely loved it. 

First, the costume. I was so lucky to find the costume here in Orem. There is a small costume store that makes it's residence in the mall here called Taylor Maid Costumes. There were two problems though. The wig had barely any yarn on it, so you could see the underside of the wig easily, and the back of the dress was a solid panel of pink. I can't believe Disney let them get away with that (this was a licensed costume). So I went to the packed fabric store full of people doing last minute fabric shopping to make costumes, grabbed a bunch of pre-cut quilting squares, and using fabric glue, patched the back. My roommate and I then went to town adding the stitching you see in the movie. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately), I didn't get a picture of my costume from the back:

IF I had had more time both Friday and Saturday, I would've tried my hand at molding wax to my face to make it really look like I was a stitched together rag doll. But the makeup looked pretty awesome, even if I do say so myself. And yes, I put makeup on my legs too, with the stitching. I am still trying to get the eyeliner off the back of my knees...

I was a big hit in Wal-Mart...2 people asked for my picture. I felt like I was a character at Disneyland. :)