Bye Bye Bloggie

I'm pretty sure I'm going to stop posting on this blog. I never do anyways! I only use this blog to check up on other peoples' blogs, and I can accomplish that on Google reader. Thank goodness for Facebook, eh? Bye bye blog!

Our Disneyland Adventure

We haven't taken a family vacation in forever, but this month we made up for it by going to Disneyland!

We left after packing Jeremy's Beetle full of all our stuff and making sure the iPad was set and ready to go for the girls to watch. I packed a bag of treats and a bag of goodies/toys to hopefully keep them happy for the 10-hour drive. They did pretty well, all things considered. The drive there was uneventul. We got to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Resort hotel in Anaheim, at about 9:00 pm California time. We only had to stop for gas ONCE (though we made other stops for potty breaks and lunch). Love that little Bug!

The hotel was great. I recommend it. There was a restaurant in the hotel where we ate our free breakfasts every morning, and kids always ate free with a paying adult, so we were able to save money on a few dinners as well. It wasn't the best food ever, and after 7 days of the same hot breakfast, I was over it, but you can't beat free food, especially for my kids who eat like birds anyway.

We bought our vacation package through getawaytoday.com, after pricing it out through Hotwire and Priceline. Our park-hopper tickets were included, and we upgraded them to 5-day passes for only about $30 a ticket. This was well worth it. I really enjoyed the freedom to just do whatever we wanted and not feel like we had to cram it all in. Jeremy and I have gone to Disneyland 3 times previously, before we had kids, and we stayed only a day each time. Pressure! There's so much to see and do that you absolutely need more than one day. With kids, you need even more than that. Just my opinion, FWIW.

We rode the ART (Anaheim Resort Transit) to and from the parks each day. I recommend this as well as it surely saved us money on parking. The hotel was about a mile away. Someday I want to go back and stay at the Park Vue Inn or the Castle Inn and Suites, or one of the other hotels that are right across from the entrance. And someday I would looooooove to stay in the Grand Californian - that's my dream. It's so pricey, though!

Disneyland and California Adventure are so pretty at Christmas. If you haven't gone in November or December, do it. The atmosphere is just beautiful. I especially love New Orleans square during the holidays.

We packed in snacks and sandwiches, and we ate a few meals at the park. Years ago, Jeremy and I had a bad eating experience at California Adventure (let's just say I will never order a "hot link" anywhere again), so I did my research beforehand and we knew a few places to go. We ate at El Rancho del Zocala in Disneyland, and loved it. It's a sit-down restaurant (not table-service, you get your food at the counter) right by the Thunder Mountain Railroad. There's lots of seating outdoors and indoors, and some of the outdoor tables are right by the roller coaster. The girls loved this. Another night we splurged and ate at the Blue Bayou restaurant inside the Pirates of the Carribbean ride. It was so expensive, but was so worth it. The food was amazing, and the atmosphere couldn't be beat. Do save your money and try it - make sure you get a reservation! I wanted to order the Monte Cristo sandwich after seeing it all over Pinterest, but I guess they don't serve that at dinner?

Cars Land was pretty crowded, but it's so fun to just walk down the street there because it looks just like the movie. Meredith and Claire liked the Mater's Junkyard ride, and Radiator Springs Racers was AWESOME, but Luigi's Flying Tires was lame. Just so you know. The line for the Racers was crazy long, and you have to get to the park first thing in the am to get a fast pass because they disappear so quickly. Luckily, the ride was closed until noon one day, and we happened to be right there when it opened back up. I wish we could have ridden it more than once, but it was too long of a line (90+minutes). My other favorite rides in California Adventure are Toy Story Midway Mania (also a longish line at all times) and Soarin' Over California. Meredith rode the Tower of Terror like it was no big deal. So proud of her! She's so brave. She rode everything she was tall enough for.

We took a break in the middle of the week and went to Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific, which was fun. Jeremy and I went there on our honeymoon, so it's always fun to go back and reminisce.

Thursday afternoon we came back to the hotel to take naps before the World of Color show that night. When we woke up, Claire was hot. She developed a fever and was my little furnace all evening/night. The World of Color show is very cool - I just wish we didn't have to stand the whole time as it was nighttime and my feet were tired after walking for 4 days! Plus I had a kid on my shoulders for the entire 30 minute program. Ah well. Claire was sick the next morning, so I stayed in the hotel on Friday with her while Jeremy and Meredith went and tore it up at the parks for the last day. They had so much fun. I was happy to have a break and take care of my sick Claire-cita. She continued to fever all day and into Saturday, but perked up on our drive home. I was this close to taking her to an Urgent Care in Anaheim, though.... She wasn't too lethargic or cranky, so I wasn't too worried, but it's still a mystery. Kids.....

So yeah, that's our trip in a nutshell. We were sad to leave 70 degree temps and come home to snow, but we'll live. :)

Here are the pics:

Seeing Merida from Brave

 

Claire loves all "doggies"

El Rancho Del Zocalo

 

 Waiting for the bus
 

Space Mountain (Meredith said "I was brave-I didn't scream!"

It's A Small World (can we all just agree that this ride is creepy?)

Trying on ears

At the Long Beach Aquarium

Radiator Springs Racers

 

Teacups

The end!

That one time we almost lost our house to a fire

On Thursday, June 21, the girls and I came home from running errands, and I noticed that the hill about a half-mile to the west of our house was on fire. This was somewhere between 11 and 12.  My initial thought was that it might be a controlled burn, especially since it was so small, but I didn't have a good feeling about it, and it was eerie that no one was around to monitor it. I stood on the corner and watched it for a while, then decided to call Utah County dispatch, who assured me that crews were on their way.

(this picture taken standing in my front yard looking west)

My neighbors and I watched the fire grow throughout the day, jumping hills and moving west (away from us).

The fire kept growing throughout the evening and seemed to still be moving west toward Eagle Mountain rather than toward us. I went outside a few times that night to watch the mountain glowing, but I never really thought we were in danger. We usually sleep with our windows open, but it was much too smoky that night.

Friday morning Jeremy left for work and the girls and I were going about our morning when the doorbell rang over and over again. It was my neighbor across the street, letting us know that we were being evacuated.

(the view from our front porch Friday morning)

(also Friday morning, looking southwest. Our house is 4 houses down the street where the arrow is pointing)

I could vaguely see lots of emergency lights through the smoke, which was getting pretty thick. This was a pretty surreal experience. All I could think was to get the girls and the dogs and GO. There was no telling where the fire was because of the smoke. The girls were still in their jammies, but I put them in the car and we left. I drove around the block and realized we probably wouldn't be coming home for a while and we had nothing for overnight, so I went back to the house. A police officer was in my driveway, and he told me I had probably 15 minutes, so I went in and packed a pillowcase full of clothes and underwear. The only other things I took were the laptop, my camera, and my iPad.

There's only one entrance/exit to our neighborhood, so there was a line of cars waiting to exit. There were also policemen blocking re-entry.

(the line of cars waiting to leave. Photo courtesy of Facebook)

I made a few phone calls and drove up to our old neighborhood in Salt Lake to my good friend Angie's house. She let me camp out on her couch all day, and the girls has a great time with her girls, which was such a blessing. We were able to leave the dogs with her as well. When Jeremy got off work, we drove to Provo and stayed at a hotel there. Lots of people had offered us beds, but a hotel seemed the best option for us. Through all of this, I was constantly checking Facebook and the news for updates. A few rogue individuals in our neighborhood had stayed behind, ignoring the evac orders. While maybe not the smartest decision, I'm grateful to them because that's how we knew our homes were okay. Also, they did patrols around the neighborhood that evening, looking for looters and whatnot. The cops were still there, too. I was blessedly able to sleep Friday night because I knew our homes were being watched out for.

Saturday was a loooong day. We checked out of the hotel and went to see Brave. As we were driving to the theater and looking west toward the fire, I was surprised to see blue skies! You could hardly see any smoke, either. I was pretty sure we would be able to return home soon, but it was a long day of waiting. We spent the rest of the day camped out at Jeremy's parents house, and as soon as I read on FB that people were getting back in, we left. The evac order was lifted about 5:00 pm, and we got  home sometime between 6 and 7. I have never been so grateful to step foot into my own home! I never wanted to leave it again.

There are still some hotspots flaring on the mountain, but the fire is 100% contained. It burned somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 acres, but not one structure or life was lost. AMAZING.

I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for watching out for us and for our neighbors. I'm so grateful that our homes were not burned. I'm grateful for the knowledge that stuff is just stuff, and it could all be replaced. I am SO THANKFUL for those diligent firefighters who worked so hard to protect our homes. I wish I knew how to adequately express my thanks. We passed a firetruck leaving the neighborhood when were returning home, and even though all I could do was wave at them, I hope they knew that in that wave was all of our heartfelt thanks!

Here are some more pictures, most of them from various people's FB posts. The red arrows indicate approximately where our house would be.

I took this photo after we'd left the neighborhood. If you look close, you can see one of the airplanes.

(at the intersection of Redwood Road and Pioneer Crossing, looking southwest)

(a photo taken near the entrance to our neighborhood, looking west)

(lots of black hills)

(this is taken somewhere in the middle of our neighborhood)

(this picture is from the news, I think. It makes me want to cry. I hope these people know how appreciated they are)

 (Firefighters resting. Love this shot. It's been all over the news.)

(This is taken in the neighborhood south of us, Jacob's Ranch. Look how close the fire line got to these houses!!!!)

My Lovelies

Some house pictures

Here are some pictures of the house. More to come as I get other rooms effectively "staged".

No yard.  I had NO IDEA how expensive landscaping is. It might not be this year that we get a yard.

My pots! I love them. Also, I am very happy to finally have blinds in those side light panels by the front door, especially after I had to answer the door a couple times the day I had the stomach flu just because people could see me through them and knew I was home. Privacy is gooooooood.

This is the result of the wind storm yesterday. Our neighbors have a trailer just for collecting and hauling away the sagebrush that blows in. Not a bad idea.

Entryway.

Front room (right off entry)

Front room....

Front room again....

.....and the laundry room, because it was the only other room clean enough to photograph. :)