Favorite Picture Friday: December 30, 2011

We have had so much fun visiting Jason's family in Price. Here are a couple of pictures from our adventures.

Video from Universal Studios Backlot 5K

Favorite Picture Friday: A Walk in the Backlot (Say that 5 times fast)

Jason and I were able to have a really fun and unique experience this last weekend.  We have been looking at doing a 5K for a while now, and since California has so many diverse places to do so we had fun trying to decide which one to do.  When we heard about one where you walk the backlot at Universal Studios we knew we found one.  Normally at Universal Studios you can go on the backlot tour, but it has to be done with a tour guide and a group on a tram.  But this walk allowed us to wander the backlot at our own pace and take pictures and even go into some of the sets.  It was so relaxing because it is a 5K walk, which was perfect for us since Jason almost had to go in for surgery and I still had a nasty cold.  We were amazed how popular it was because there were over 2,000 people there to see the backlots.  

Here we are getting ready to start the walk.  Can you see the Mystery Bus and the Gang behind us.  There were a few characters cheering us on the walk.

All of the roads here are named very appropriately.  The road that leads to the prop department is Steven Spielberg Drive.

This lake behind us is where they did some shots for Jaws.  Dun duh.....dun duh!  

Since Jason is a Back to the Future fan, we had to stop and walk around this set.

Phone Home

The backlot roads even go past some well-known companies.  Here is DreamWorks.

This set was used in Angels and Demons.

Here we are on "Wisteria Lane" that is still being used on the show Desperate Housewives.

This picture is so bright because there is white smoke all around us.  It is the set from War of the Worlds.

Here is a better view of a crashed airplane and several destroyed vehicles.

Here is Jason still on the torn up set.  It is pretty amazing because there are noises that still come from the crashed plane, along with car noises, and the crackling sound of electricity lines.  It is neat here but so eerie that we walked pretty fast through that area.  

Welcome to Whoville!  Here we are on the set of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  

Another view of Whoville.  Here is the Christmas tree in the middle of the town.  

We thought we would spend some time that evening walking around Universal Studios.  

It was so much fun to spend a day walking around famous movie sets and enjoying the lovely weather.  We had such a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!  

Thanksgiving Week: It takes 4 to eat a turkey

Thanksgiving was so wonderful this year. We started put thinking it was going to be quiet with just a traditional dinner for Jason and me. That is how it was on Thursday, which led to a relaxing day. The great surprise was my parents arriving from St. George for a non-traditional Thanksgiving. We spent the day driving from Long Beach to Dana Point and all of the beaches in between. We had another Thanksgiving dinner that day as well, but we just threw some turkey in the slow cooker and came home and threw together a dinner in less than 30 minutes. Honestly it was just as delicious as the day before.
Here are some pictures of us checking out the ocean. Even though it is almost December, the weather was gorgeous and sunny. Just what I would expect for a Thanksgiving weekend in California.

My dad didn't bring his boat down so we didn't go sailing this time, but we did go and watch the sailboats drift out to sea.

When we were up in Long Beach we took a look at the Queen Mary. This is an old cruise boat that is permanently docked here after it performed its 1,001 transatlantic crossing. Looking at the Queen Mary behind us you can see that it's a pretty big ship, but nothing compared to the cruise boats these days. Amazingly, the Queen Mary is actually bigger than the Titanic.

One thing you should know about my mom is that she has the world's best green thumb. She is amazing when it comes to plants. There is a huge plant nursery by our place so my mom was in heaven going there walking and buying the plants. I just snapped some quick pics around the area. They have a huge variety of plants there and it is a beautiful area to come and wander.

Overall we had an amazing Thanksgiving week! We started it out celebrating Jason's birthday and then had a quiet and simple Thanksgiving day by ourselves. Then we enjoyed the rest of the time running around with my parents. We can't wait to see what Thanksgiving will be like next year.

Favorite Picture Friday: Jason Special

I look forward to Jason's birthday because it's the one time throughout the year that Jason doesn't fight me on giving him gifts! He really is amazing at treating me so well everyday and so I get to repay him this one day!
The way I describe Jason to everyone is he is the kind of man that every girl dreams of marrying. He is the sweetest man I've ever met and I always get told how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband by my side. I hope he knows that I do feel so lucky and grateful to have the person who makes the happiest in the world standing next to me and holding my hand.
For his birthday I knew even without him saying anything that we would go to Disneyland. I thought I would give him something to do while there, so I went a day early and took pictures of different letters at Disneyland and he had to guess where the pictures were taken. It took me 2 hours to find some hard letters that I didn't think he would be able to find. I showed him the pictures that spelled out his name and right away he knew where most of them were! He only had to find 2 of them and he found those in 15 minutes! Let's just say that next year I will make sure it takes him a longer time.
Jason's main thing for his birthday is that we always go out somewhere to eat that is above the ordinary. He enjoys the fancy and expensive restaurants and indulging in all of the fine dining he can fit in one sitting. We enjoyed an amazing meal at Steakhouse 55 in Downtown Disney. Some of the best food I've ever had!
Here is a picture of Jason in front of one of the Christmas trees at Disneyland.

Favorite Picture Friday: November 18th, 2011

We were lucky enough to be able to go to my ASHA convention again this year. This is the first time we didn't have to fly to the convention because it was just a couple hours away in San Diego. We spent so much time at the convention there that we didn't bother with sightseeing. We did take some strolls at night downtown and by the beach. Here is a picture of the beach at only 5:00 at night. Yeah, it gets kind of dark here.

Favorite Picture Friday: November 11th, 2011

Jason and I are excited to be heading down to San Diego this week! It is such a beautiful city and there are so many fun things to do there. This is a picture of a pizza slice that we got at a local pizza joint there. As you can see, it is HUGE! And that was just one slice! We recently saw this place on Food Network and it made us hungry for more!

Favorite Picture Friday: November 4th, 2011

Here is a picture from the ride "Astro Blasters" at Disneyland. We rode this on the night of our Halloween party and we thought it would be funny to pose as if I were sleeping. I actually didn't mind pretending to sleep for longer than the picture. It's a pretty smooth ride!

Halloween Fireworks

Here is a clip from the Halloween fireworks show. It gets so loud that it spikes the sound on the recording but otherwise it is a great video.

This is Halloween! Oct. 2011

Jason and I are just thrilled to show our pictures from our spooky night at Disneyland. We had so much fun and we kept saying that we didn't think Disneyland could get any better, but if you add a new fireworks show, costumes, short lines on the rides, and all the free candy you want... it definitely can get better!

Here are some pictures of what Disneyland looks like during this time of year. They do a nice job or decorating the area so that it is still mainly classic Disney, but with a few ghoulish touches here and there.

This GIANT pumpkin Mickey Mouse meets you right when you enter Disneyland and head towards mainstreet USA.

A special treat for this time of year is how they adapt "The Haunted Mansion" so that it becomes "The Nightmare before Christmas" ride. They go all out on the decorations outside of the ride, but it doesn't even give you a glimpse on how well they transform the inside of the ride. It's funny because "The Haunted Mansion" isn't usually busy and is our go-to ride when the park is busy. But since it is a special treat to get to ride it now they actually have a fast pass for the ride and the line is at least 30 mins long. Luckily we had gotten our fast pass and ran through the line in 5 minutes!

This picture is outside the mansion and it has this poster that duplicates the equation from the movie.


Purple, orange, and black bows and decorations are all over the normal decorations outside.



Here's the front of the mansion. My favorite feature is the clock.

Scarecrows dressed as Santa Claus.


I liked this picture because it was taken at night and you can see the Jack-o-lantern glowing under Jack.

Here are the decorations that specifically are out when the Halloween costume party begins at 7:00pm on select nights.

Here is the sign that is everywhere letting you know that you are at a special party.

Normally the pirate ship isn't lit up like this at night, but it looked so eerie on the lake that they filled with fog.
Here you can see how the fog got heavier and heavier as the night went on to the point that it was spilling over the edge. It was kind of fun to go and get lost in it. I'm sure some of the parents were worried of the same thing for their kids.


We were at Disneyland before 7:00 and all of these Mickey ghosts weren't there in the daytime, so I don't know where they came from but suddenly they were all over the park and lit up like this.

They also projected these figures all over the park. It was funny how some people noticed them and how others were too busy scarfing down candy.

They had spooky lights all around the area and the sound of bats, cats, and growling in the background. The amazing thing about Disney is their attention to details, and they created such an amazing atmosphere there that you felt like you were at a haunted house.


There were two of these scarecrow guys that would hang out and answer your questions or comment on what costumes they liked or didn't like. He called out to us saying that if we needed to take a nap so badly we could have at least brought a costume to change in to. He was pretty funny.


One of the best features of the Halloween party: Treat Trails! Basically there are designated areas in Disneyland that lead you down a path where there are several stands like this one and someone is passing out candy to you. Usually there are 2-3 stands per trail. You do have to stand in line, but they moved surprising fast (kids want their candy) and even the adults get their own bag and candy. I seriously haven't gone trick or treating in years so it was so nostalgic to hold out my bag and say "Trick or Treat." The coolest part is that you can go through the lines as many times as you want. By about 11:00 at night all the kids are gone and there is no one in the candy lines so went home with two full bags of candy.

Proof that we got our candy.

Disney was trying to give healthy options for some of the trick or treaters and would hand out bags of carrots with the candy. I caught Jason snacking on some while in line for some more candy.

There were also special Halloween themed snacks that you normally don't see for the rest of the year. This Jack Skeleton caramel apple was... TO DIE FOR!

Now for the pictures of us and our costumes. Here we are at the front of the park. As you can see from this picture we both decided to wear our pajamas as costumes. Really that is what inspired our costumes, because I wanted us to wear something that would be comfortable but also a little bit warm in case it got cold. It did not get cold at all and we were actually a little hot in our pj's. I brought my robe just in case I got cold and wanted something more, but naturally since I brought it I didn't need it.

Since we wore pajamas we had to think of a costume to match the pants. We decided for Jason that he would be a "Bed Bug." See how he is wearing antennas.

And here I am dressed up as "Sleeping Beauty." This costume is complete with crazy bed hair, a sleeping mask, a crown, jewelry.

I couldn't believe the reactions we got from everyone. Some people, especially little kids, would read our shirts and not really get it. Most people would glance at us, do a double take, and then start to laugh and tell us they loved our costumes. I felt that I should have tried to put more effort into them because we were asked to pose for so many pictures. We would be walking along and literally people would stop us to tell us that they thought we were so clever. The worst was when we went into a shop and a group of the employees just started applauding us and saying that our costumes were the most original they've seen. I'm guessing they have probably seen every costume available. Jason was a stud and just bowed when they were clapping for us, but I couldn't think of anything to do... so I blushed and ran away.

Here we are in front of the castle. We had to get just one scary picture in... but it's amazing how hard it is to take scary pictures in Disneyland.

Here we are in line to get candy!

I'm pretending to be asleep and hoping that Jason will kiss me to wake me up. Yeah, my wish came true!
Here are some more pictures of us just around the park at different locations. Every time you turned a corner there was something new and fun to take a picture of.






I loved this tree because it was decorated like so elaborately for Halloween. Here we are in front of it.


On to the character pictures. This is the only time of the year that people will wait in line to take pictures with the bad guys from the Disney movies. Here are a few that we took:

Here is the voodoo guy from "Princess and the Frog." Look how creepy and long his hand looks. I think he is a perfect match for the cartoon character.


The queen from "Alice in Wonderland." Without even asking for permission, she took a hold of my Jason and I had to fight her off. Let's just say I painted her nose (not rose) red! HA!

This is the bad wolf from "Pinocchio." He posed this picture himself, because he read Jason's shirt and wouldn't come within arms length of Jas. Even when we were thanking him he wouldn't go near Jason and then he started scratching all over. He was pretty awesome!

Here is a random picture of our pj's. I think we took this picture while we were waiting for the fireworks show.

In case you were wondering if I didn't match my costume, here is proof that I was very sleepy that night. We went on a Friday and I had a long day at work with meetings and IEP's. It was so much fun to go and party but while we were waiting for the fireworks I did think to take a little nap. Darn Jason and his camera skills!



Here are pictures from the parade that, you guessed it, only happens at the Halloween party.

It was pretty funny because all of the characters were dressed up as something else beyond their normal costume.

For all of you "Monsters, Inc" fans, you will get the significance of this picture with the sock.

Woody and Jesse!

All of the princesses.

In the parade were these big pumpkins that were dressed up in different costumes. Super fun.

Then the fireworks show. I love the fireworks that Disney puts on every night and I don't think I ever get sick of them. It's to the point now that Jason and I can not be watching and cue the fireworks when they are going to happen. So it was nice to have a new show to watch. This one was amazing! There was this huge ball next to the castle that lit up and Jack Skeleton was projected on it. Zero also came out and flew around the castle.

Before the fireworks show they would play Halloween music and project different images on the castle. I seriously could have spent the night just watching that.

These are from the dream that Winnie the Pooh has about "Heffalumps and Woozles."

And now for one of our favorite things we decided to do while at the party: The Costume Contest. So there wasn't really a costume contest at the park, but Jason and I tried to catch the pictures of those that we thought were different and creative. There were so many pirates and mad hatters that they got old after a while. The most popular kids costumes were Rapunzel, Woody, and Buzz. We couldn't decide on a winner, so here are a few that we really liked.

This first one was a group that dressed like the "Up" characters. My favorite was the balloons because the lady holding them had taped them together so they held all together. We went up and talked with them for a bit and the old guy (who wasn't really old) totally stayed in character the whole time. They were really cool.

We liked this costume because it is perfect for Disneyland and Halloween: Ghost Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This couple was standing behind us for the fireworks show and they were nice enough to pose for us.

This family was one of my favorites. The little girl dressed up like Ariel, The Little Mermaid, which wasn't uncommon because there were several mermaids. What made this family cool was the parents going all out on their costumes, too. The mom was Ursula and the dad was King Tritan.

This last one is a bad picture but I wanted to capture this huge family that all dressed up like gnomes from "Gnomeo and Juliet." We really liked this movie and we thought it was cute that all of the guys dressed as blues and all the girls dressed up like reds.
Right as we were leaving the park we saw another awesome costume but we couldn't get a picture of it. A guy dressed up like Walt Disney and had a striking resemblance to him. Then the girl that was with him dressed up like a black and white version of Minnie Mouse. So clever!

I can't believe how much fun it was to do this and I have to say that it was the best Halloween party I have ever been to. We originally decided that we would try Disneyland out this year for Halloween and then try some of the other places over the next few years, but I think we are very happy with Disney.

We can't leave out how much fun our ward party was. We had a blast running the doughnut stand and really appreciated how much work was put in to the party. We have such a great ward!

The only downside to Halloween was that we weren't around for my family's annual Halloween party at Kurt n Shel's. We looked forward to that every year and had to miss it this time. Darn distance between St. George and Costa Mesa!

Also, we have to give a shout out to my brother, Easton, because his birthday is on Halloween. I hope he had a great bday and we love him so much!

We hope everyone else had a great Halloween!