Day Five- Animal Kingdom

Day Five we went to Animal Kingdom. The safari was great. They had tons of animals to see and we got to save a baby elephant from poachers.


This is the front entrance.


Shauna with movie posters at the entrance to the Bugs' Life show.

Shauna eating a Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich.

Me in front of Everest. It's an awesome roller coaster. The animal exhibits closed at sunset, so we rode it over and over until I started getting motion sick.
As you can see it drizzled most of the morning. Shauna and I were able to just walk on the water raft ride. For some reason no one was on it.


Me driving with the dinos.

Day Four- Back to Magic Kingdom

On our fourth day we went to Magic Kingdom. It was my B-day, so I got a nifty button that said "Happy Birthday, Emily". It was like being a celebrity. All the workers went out of their ways to wish me a Happy Birthday.


This is me with Mickey and Walt.
Walt and I share a Birthday!


Shauna at the Wishing Well. We both threw coins in.
She must be thinking about her wish.


Look who I found on the carousel. She nicely smiled for me too.


Towards the end of the day we were exhausted. We found a small theater where a video on animation is shown. The video never turned on, but they had fun spots to take pictures. If the theater chairs were more comfortable, we probably would have fallen asleep there.

Day Four- Hollywood Studios

On day four we went to Hollywood Studios. It was great fun.


This is Shauna. Don't be fooled, this buildings are fake and the ones at the end are just cardboard. Tricky.










Below is the car stunt show. It was really fun. The car in this pick is in the air. I guess the show originated at Disney- Paris. Great show. I want to be a stunt car driver.



While we waited for our Toy Story fast pass time to come, we went to the Prince Caspian attraction. We waited in line, watched an introduction by the director, and then went in this room with the stone table where they re-hashed a scene from the movie.
We kind of thought there would be more, so when they told us it was over, Shauna and I were a little surprised. It was lame. Skip it if you ever go.




This is the Tower of Terror. It was great. We wanted to go again, but there were so many shows that we spent most of the day running from one side of the park to the other to get into various shows.
















We went on the Studio Lot Tour, which starts with us watching some poor fool get soaked. It was fun. When we came umpteen years ago, Bryan was the poor fool.














On the tour we got to see Herbie. Just as cute as ever.
We also saw the space ship from Flight of the Navigator. There are definitely some props that the younger generations are not going to understand.
The thing next to it is from Star Wars. You may recognize it from the scene where Jabba the Hut is about to through Luke and Han into the carnivorous hole in the desert.





















There is a part of the tour where we drive onto a set and a giant gas truck catches on fire and there is a flash flood. I only know that it happens cuz I've been here before. This time it was a blinding experience. Ha ha. Blasted sun.

Me outside of Star Tours. I'm on one of those flying thingamajigs from Return of the Jedi.


I'm not sure exactly what I'm pointing at. I think I was doing a Buzz- To Infinity and Beyond pose.








Here is the Osborn Family Christmas display. It's really impressive and gave me a goal for my parent's home. Next year.

Day Three- Magic Kingdom

Day three we went to Magic Kingdom. All my pics are backwards, going from night to day.

It was fairly empty, so we were able to walk onto most of our rides. We fast passed the popular rides, but the normal lines were still only 20-30 minutes long. It was great.

We watched a parade and the fireworks that night. The castle was draped with lights, it was really pretty.





















Here's Sha trying to pull the sword from the stone.
She never got it out, but it was a valiant effort.

Below is her with Cinderella.




















Me on the carousel. Notice my sweater. It was a rather chilly. But it kept the park empty.
I overheard the ride operators for Splash Mountain expressing bafflement that anyone would ride it when it was that cold. pshaw. What's a little cold when your at Disney World.








This is at the fort at Tom Sawyer's Island. I've always skipped the Island in the past, but it was really cool. It had a fort and barrel bridges and lots of caves.


















Me at the Dumbo ride and Sha in her circus cage.

Below is the Autotopia ride. The gas pedal was really stiff and by the time the ride was over my leg was cramping up. I also discovered that I'm not as good a driver as I thought. I was running into the middle guide rail a lot.
I wonder if the employees ever take the cars out for a drive around the park at night. That would entertaining. I guess not, there are no headlights.

Disney World Day Two- Epcot

We decided to go to Epcot first.
Our first ride broke down several times while we were in line. The people in front and behind us complained the whole time. Shauna and I established our one rule for the trip. No complaining.
Except for the car, we kept it.

My favorite ride at Epcot was the Soar'n. It was beautiful and they even had smells to go along with the scenes. On our second time, a lady lost her lunch. I felt bad for the poor employee who got to deal with that.



The last time I went to Epcot, the rides were still the originals from the 60's, so it was really cool to see all the new rides. It was pretty empty so we even played with a lot of the games after the rides.


For example, I got to take a test on fish without elbowing small children out of the way.
I did this test while waiting to see the Turtle Talk with Crush. That was about the coolest show ever.




After wondering Future World, we walked the World Showcase. A few of the countries have rides or shows. All of them have gift shops.
We ate lunch in China.

I hoped that this little fountain was representing Trevi fountain in Rome. They say if you through a coin in than you will return to Italy. I'm hoping this works for Disney World as well.





This is Shauna in England.
That girl- Always on the phone.













This is Shauna in Morocco. On one of their trips to Turkey, a man offered Mom a hundred camels for Shauna.






Here is the trademark of Epcot. The giant golf ball. They light it up at night.






And here is Paris in the Sunset.

Epcot was a great park. I managed to walk around the world in one afternoon.

DisneyWorld Day One-The Arrival

Shauna and I arrived at the airport. The car rental guys hassled us for a while about our car and insurance. Finally we got our car- a Crown Victoria. It was huge. The picture doesn't do it justice. We jumped in the car and headed to Merritt Island to the beach using one of those tourist maps that show the three biggest roads and isn't in scale.

The beach was beautiful and relaxing.

I had to call my sis-in-law and have her give us directions to our hotel.

We had a great hotel with two themed swimming areas and a lap pool and a few hot tubs.

This didn't happen our first day, but here's our crazy car story: Our last night, we stopped to fill up the tank. The gas cap said E-85 Gasoline. In Colorado we have pumps specifically for E-85. We stopped at gas station after gas station searching for an E-85. I even asked the attendant if he knew where one was. His response: "What's that?"
me: "Ethanol gas."
him: "I don't know what your talking about."
Everyone in the gas station looked at me like I was from outer space. I left.

So my sister calls the car rental place to see if you can put regular gas in an E-85 tank. We figured you could, but wanted to make sure. The conversation went something like this:

Shauna: Our rental car says to put in E-85 gasoline, can we put normal gas in it?
Rental Car Guy (angry b/c he is tired of dealing with people all day): You put normal gas in a diesel car!
S: No. We haven't put any gas in yet. We have a crown victoria. It says to put E-85 in it. We can't find an E-85 pump.
RCG: Put what in? Where does it say that?
S: On the gas cap.
RCG (getting impatient): Look, there's only three kinds of gas other than diesel. Regular, Mid-Grade, and Premium. You have to put in one of those.
S (also getting impatient): In Colorado we have pumps specifically for E-85. It's Ethanol gas. You know made out of corn.
RCG (angry at stupid girl who thinks gas is made of corn): I don't know what you're talking about. Put in regular.

Aargh! That's all we wanted to know.
Lesson: Just because every gas pump in the country has a sticker slapped on it that says "Contains less than 10% Ethanol", don't assume people know what it is. And more usefully: Engines made for ethanol gas can also take normal gas.

Cowgirls

While in Dallas, I went to the Cowgirl Museum. I got to try my hand at bronco riding. My ride is in the next clip.

My Flat

So, this is me at work showing off my very flat (even though you can't tell here) tire.

On my way to work yesterday, I heard a weird sound from the rear of my car. A few minutes later I heard the sound again. My car shakes a lot, so when it suddenly wasn't shaking, I knew something was wrong. I pulled into a rest stop and sure enough one of my tires was flat to the ground. My tires are less than a month old. Boo. Anyway, I took a deep breath and started pulling out all the gear I'd need. I haven't changed a tire since Driver's Ed. Some ten years ago.

Just as I started cranking my jack, a man asked if I needed help. Trying not to look as helpless as I felt, I asked if he could make sure I had my jack in the right spot. He took over. Boy was I glad. He was super fast and he knew how to get the spare from under my car. That simple feat alone would have stumped me. There's some weird hole above the bumper that you have so slide a pole into. Yeah, I wouldn't have figured that out.

Anyway, thank goodness for nice people.

Save your Sanity.

I got this list from my sis-in-law. It made me smile. If any of you try these out, let me know how it went.

Ways to Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity .
1.At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2.Page Yourself Over The Intercom.Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3.Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It, 'In.'
5 . Put Decaf In TheCoffee Maker for 3 weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions,Switch to Espresso.
6.In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write 'ForSmuggling Diamonds.'
7.Finish All Your sentences with'In Accordance With The Prophecy.'
8 . Don't use any punctuation
9.As Often As Possible,Skip, Rather Than Walk.
10.Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
11.Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is, 'To Go.'
12.Sing Along At The Opera.
13.Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme?
14.Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
15.Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
16.Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name,Rock Bottom.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won!, I Won!'
18.When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling,'Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!'
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'
20.And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.......
Send This E-mail To Someone To Make Them Smile.
Its Called .......therapy!

Why there are NO crime shows about the State Patrol.

I-25 at Castle Rock is under construction. I guess people are ignoring the reduced speed signs, because there are a couple State Patrol Cars assigned to be pace setters in the construction zone. They drive up and down the Interstate at 55 mph. One of them did stop us the other day so a truck could enter the road. Anyway, the point is that I now understand why there are shows about Crime Scene Investigators, Lawyers, G-men, normal police, and Detectives, but not the State Patrol. That would be one boring show.
I also started watching the Mentalist. The guy on it hooks up with CBI (California Bureau of Investigation) to solve crimes. Every time the CBI introduces themselves to a suspect or victim, the person always says, "CBI? What's that?" Everytime it happens I think, why on earth can't they just say "Police."
Anyway, I've decided that a truly entertaining show would be one that involved all these people. I'm sure Hollywood could come up with a scenerio that would require the crews of the various CSI shows, NCIS, CBI, the Without a Trace FBI and the crew from Numbers and Criminal Minds, and Psych to come together to solve a crime. Just to add a twist, I think Jessica Fletcher should come flying in at the end with the final clue. Maybe the State Patrol can cart off the criminal, just so they finally get on TV.

Election Day is almost here!

The humorous anecdote below was forwarded to me from my sister. It was written by one of our family friends. Mason is her son and Ronnie is her daughter.

I have here sitting on the desk [a] political cartoon ..... Mason picked up the comic and read it out loud.
Ronni got a scared look on her face and said, "I don't want someone to take my candy." Then she said, "Mommy, are democrats for real?"

The sun is out and I'm stuck inside

Today is absolutely beautiful and warm. I'm inside at work. I'm hoping my sister-in-law will go into labor. If she does, I won't have work tomorrow. Instead I'll get to take the kids to the zoo. I've been looking up foods for her to eat that might induce labor. Cross your fingers!
This past weekend I went to Swan Lake. The dancing is fantastic but the plot is slower than molasses. The main baller-dude hurt his leg near the end and went hopping off. The principle ballerina took the opportunity to show her stuff and spun circles on the stage for a few minutes. When the scene ended, we got a second intermission while they suctioned the tights onto the understudy. Those boys wear some tight tights. It was a great ballet though. It is amazing how muscular these people are. Some of these moves can't be easy, but they make it look easy and graceful.
I also got my car worked on this weekend. Just a new belt. My little guy is still going strong. We'll see how this winter goes.

Day at the Zoo

I went to the Zoo last week with my nephew's and niece. We had a good time searching for animals and letters.

When we reached the monkey area, Matthew informed me that he had to go potty. He didn't seem to need to go too bad (he kept looking at animals) so I didn't rush to the toilet. When we finally came in view of the WC, he said, "Enemy(that's what he calls me), the poop is coming out, the poop is coming out."

Ashlie was in the wagon, so I swooped Brandon into my arms, grabbed the handle of the wagon and we sprinted to the toilet. We made it okay, but it was a close one.

The rest of the day was pretty mellow compared to that, but we made it back with everyone still smiling, so it was a great day.

Suddenly

I was thinking of the word 'suddenly' yesterday during church. I find that the the moment it is used, its meaning is destroyed.
For example:
Bill studied the test in front of him. Suddenly a gust of wind swept through the room and all the papers when flying.
'Suddenly' warned you something was going to happen, so it wasn't really all that sudden. You were prepared for something. 'Suddenly' halted the movement.
Example 2: Suzy was adjusting her IPOD when an anvil fell on her.
Oh my gosh! An anvil just fell on her! Out of the blue! Now that is shocking. She sure didn't see that coming, did she? And guess what, neither did the reader. You might say it was so sudden that I didn't have time to write 'suddenly'.

English Language usage is a fickle thing subject to opinion. This was one of mine.

It's coming!

October 16 is National Boss Day. Don't forget!

The Demise

This morning I watched the end of Barbie Swan Lake with my niece. I was a tad disappointed in how simply Barbie beat the villian. In keeping with the other Barbie movies, the villian did come to an obnoxious end. He was turned into a Cuckoo Bird on a clock. In Twelve Dancing Princesses, the villian dances for the rest of her life. I like these endings. I feel like they really put a lot of throught and creativity into them. Several Grimm's Fairytales end with the villian being put in a barrel of nails and rolled down a hill to death. It's creative, but these endings where the villian doesn't die are genius. They suffer for their lifetime.

Well, about time...

I finally got a new cell phone. My "free" upgrade. I'm way overdue, but I just couldn't bring myself to get the blasted phone because I didn't want to sign a two year agreement. But I finally bit the bullet. My power cord which was chewed up by one of the dogs a couple years ago is starting to scare me. No sparks, but the wires were showing threw the protective plastic layer.
My new phone should come in the mail soon. It's not very fancy. It has a shoddy camera and I think it has a calculator. I'm just excited to see what kind of games come with it. Frogger would be nice.
Dinah, my meyer lemon tree, has blossomed. She had a ton of blossoms. I think some tiny lemons are starting to form, but it's hard to tell. I'll keep you all updated.

Ha ha.

The olympics were just crazy this year!

My last week

So, I stole this pic from my bro. By the time I got my camera out, it was gone. The picture really doesn't do justice of the size. The letters were enormous.

Last week was the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I listened to a couple minutes of if on TV. The crowd seemed to enjoy all of Obama's ideas. All I heard were dollar signs.

But anyway, I had intended to run downtown to see the hulabaloo, but I went to the zoo instead. It was great fun. I went with my parents and niece and nephews. We saw the hyenas and lions getting fed, and the sea lion show (which I always miss). The hyena had babies, which were cute. The leopard also had kittens. They were really little. They kept attacking each other. The giraffes also had little guys. A polar bear was swimming. It was fun, most of the animals were active. Little B was mostly interested in pulling the wagon, but the other two enjoyed the animals. I love the Zoo.

So, the DNC came and went. And without any regret on my part, I totally missed it. The one thing I missed this weekend that I was sad about, was the balloon lighting. It was cancelled. Boo. It's my third attempt to see it.

Sha and I hiked Red Mountain with the dogs. I like the hike. It's only a mile or two, but it's pretty steep. At the top we ate pistachios and granola bars. The view was amazing. It was the perfect day to be out hiking.

Where have all the frisbees gone?

I had a great time last weekend. I went to Utah to see Jack Johnson.

The concert was great. We missed the opener because of traffic. It was insanely bad. We were almost two hours late for the concert. To our credit, Curtis and I both managed to keep cool in a very aggravating situation. But I still don't understand why the venue hasn't perfected it's parking issues. It's been open for years.

Lucky for us, Jack didn't start until after we got there.

The concert was lots of fun. I love his music and it was definitely worth flying to Utah for. The Accordian player even did a rendition of The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Except he called it The Devil Went Down to Bavaria.

Highlights of my trip:

Riding the lift at Sundance

Hiking Stuart Falls with Curtis and Sarah

Breakfast with Millie and Davey

BBQ with Katie the cuz and Jeff and Bryan

Walking down memory lane at BYU

Seeing Joel and Morgan at the Concert

Eating at J-Dawgs

Eating plums off the trees at BYU

Complaints of my trip:

the JKHB has lost the H

My fav painting in the MOA is gone. It has been replaced by a Minerva Teichert (shudder)

I was too full to eat at Smart Cookie

Licky?

Years ago my family watched a rather disturbing movie that included a moment where an author tells a bunch of orphans a story about Licky the carnivorous pony (its real name was Ricky, but the orphans called it Licky). I always wondered what Licky would look like, thanks to DIA, I now know.




Let me give you some history on the new sculpture that graces the airport.




In 1992, the city council commissioned Luis Jimenez, a famous sculptor I've never heard of, to make a sculpture for the brand new airport. They settled on a fee of $300,000 for the art. It was to be finished in 1996. In 2003, the council sued Jimenez to get the money they had advanced him back. He had missed his deadline. He counter-sued and things went in such a way that he still got to make the statue. In 2006, Jimenez was killed by his creation. A chunk of the mustang fell on him and he died on the way to the hospital. His family had the sculpture finished and then the city council rerouted it through California to get $350,000 for upgrades and safety measures.
Ending costs on the sucker, $650,000. If you want the references on this or the pics, just ask.



Finally, it reached DIA and was set up facing Pikes Peak in the distance. It's situated in the median, so you can't actually stop and take pictures of it. You can gaze at it as long as it takes you to drive past. It's also supposed to welcome visitors to colorado by reminding them of it's rugged wildness, or something like that. Ironically, it faces those arriving to the airport. Those driving to Denver, get to see its blue backside.




The mustang is painted bright blue with red menacing eyes that light up. Its ribs stick out and its slightly disproportioned. It's made of fiberglass and over 30 feet high.




Why does it remind me of Licky?




It's clearly evil with its demonic eyes and angry face. And with ribs sticking out, it must be hungry. On top of that, it already killed one human. So as you approach DIA, I would suggest moving to the slow lane so that you are as far from it as possible.





I also recently discovered that DIA is also built over a secret underground military base, which some websites claim is linked to UFO cover ups. The govt bribed Denver's mayor to build the airport in the middle of nowhere so they could hide the base.
To support this theory: Supposedly, The old airport had more gates and runways than the new one. The purpose of building the new airport was to make it bigger. Duhn duhn duhn.

And with a horse like this guarding its gate, DIA clearly has something to hide.

My other cakes

So these are the other two cakes I've done this year. The castle was for my Dad and Jamie's b-day. To make it more manly, we put an awacs airplane on the finished product.
But I found this nifty castle kit on sale at hobby lobby and couldn't help myself.






My other cake was for Shauna's b-day. I decided to make my own fondant. I've never used fondant before. I did a marshmellow recipe. It took some serious muscles to make it.

My fondant got too dry and cracked. That's way there are so many flowers in certain spots.
For G-pa's plane I used store bought. I think that's the way I'll go if I do a fondant cake again. But I think I like frosting better.

Pics of Zion and Bryce (Finally)

Earlier this year I went to Bryce with my friend Holly. Bryce National Park was my last park in Utah that I needed.
It was surprisingly chilly around the rim, but pretty warm on the hike.






We started by hiking down through this narrow canyon. On this hike we stopped for lunch and a psycho squirrel stalked us.




This is a view of Bryce. It's spectacular.

This is a hike to the Tower Bridge formation. We did this hike immediately after the last. We were pretty wiped out by the time we returned. I was thrilled that it really looked like the tower bridge. This hike was hot and all down hill. And steep. The problem with Bryce is all the hikes are downhill on the way there and uphill on the way back. On the way up, a hummingbird started attacking Holly. Luckily it gave up.

That evening we stayed at a campground with Teepees. We just used the tent. But they told Indian legends in the main teepee. It was great.

The next day we went to Zions. Holly and I did a hike and then met up with Sara and Curtis. Here are some pics.