Sorry for the weeks we haven't posted. It seems like nothing happens for weeks and then everything happens at once. I guess that is life!!!!! On Thursday of last week, Jason, Robin, our mom and I went to Disneyland for a few hours. We hadn't been to Disneyland since before Christmas because of all the rain we have had. While we were at Disneyland, we literally ran into an old friend of ours (Kim) from church and her 2 year-old daughter Kiara. Robin and I have been friends with Kim since high school but we hadn't seen her in 7 years. Kim married another of our good friends (Gaylyn) shortly after we came home from our missions and moved to Seattle Washington. Kim and Kiara were on a 2 week road trip because Galyyn had A LOT of work he needed to get done. Gaylyn is a software tech at Microsoft.
After running into Kim and Kiara, Kim decided she wanted us to be her and Kiara's personal tour guide around Disneyland. We took her on the best rides that Kiara would like and took her to the best places to eat. While we were on a ride, Kim said it would be so much fun if Robin and I could spend the night with her and Kiara in their hotel room. Robin and I agreed and made arrangements to go to her hotel for the night.
After Disneyland closed, we took mom and Jason home, grabbed the things we would need and went back to the hotel by Disneyland. Robin and I had BLAST playing with Kiara for several hours. Gaylyn and Kim adopted Kiara through LDS Family Services. Kiara also has moderate hearing loss because she was a preemie. Kim could not believe how much Kiara LOVED robin and I. She said that she is usually really shy and standoffish to strangers. Robin and I couldn't see how that is possible considering how well she responded to Robin and I. Robin and I were in heaven as we were the servants to Kiaras every whim.
After Kiara fell asleep, Robin, Kim and I talked for another couple of hours. We talked about EVERYTHING!!!! It was SOOO NICE to get out of the house and spend time with a friend. Before we left to go back home and Kim and Kiara left to drive back to Seattle, we went out to breakfast. We went to Mimi's Cafe by Disneyland and had a wonderful breakfast.
On Saturday, a group of friends from church decided to spend the entire day at California Adventure (the Disney park next door to Disneyland). Both Robin and Jason had to work so they were unable to go. We all met at 9AM and stayed until 9PM. I had so much fun with them. We went on many rides and saw several shows and a parade. There are several rides at California Adventure that I REFUSE to go on because they are WAYYYY too wild for me. My friends talked me into going on 2 of the wild rides (actually they had to drag me on to the rides).
The first ride they dragged me onto is California Scream'n. I had been on this ride once before several years a go with some cousins visiting form Idaho. It starts off by going 0 to 45 MPH in 2 seconds. There are 2 real steep drops (I HATE steep drops) and it goes upside down. As I was anticipating the take-off, I kept saying 'I don't want to do this' over and over again. I continued to scream that phrase throughout the rest of the ride. The upside down part wasn't too bad, I just hated 1 of the drops (one of the drops ended up not being as bad as I had remembered) and the take-off. I was SO GLAD to for that ride to end.
The next ride they had to drag me on was Tower of Terror. I had never been on that ride before (and had NO plans to ever get on that ride). Tower of Terror is based on the Twilight Zone episode where an elevator of a 12 story hotel falls 13 stories and goes back in time. The ride consists of a 12 story drop in complete darkness. At the top of the drop the windows open and you look 12 stories down. You are suspended there for several seconds before the windows close and down you go. One of my friends who also had never been on ToT kept saying 'its not that bad' 'it will be fun' 'look at all the kids standing in line'. I said fine, I will go on the ride as long as I could hide my face behind my friends (the one that said 'its not that bad'...) shoulder. As we got on the ride I made sure I sat by that friend because she was the biggest I could hide behind. I hid behind her shoulder for the ENTIRE ride. I held on to her tight as we kept rising and falling for 3 long minutes. After the ride, the friend I held on to said that she will NEVER go on that ride ever again. She said that was the scariest ride she had EVER been on. I told her 'see wasn't there a great reason why I was so scared to go on it.' She said that she would listen to my reasons from now on. HAHAHAHA
On Sunday I taught Relief Society (with only 2 days notice). The lesson was about the creation (lesson#5 in the Gospel Principals manual). the lessons in the GP manuals are hard to teach because you only have 2 or 3 pages and you are only suppose to use the manual and the scriptures. When I teach out of the manual I have to plan that I am going to ask ALOT of questions and there is going to be A LOT of participation. I was stressing during the lesson because I was over half way through the lesson and had 30 minutes left. Somehow I asked enough questions towards the end and there was enough participation that I ended on time.
After Relief Society, Robin and I left church early because Grandpa, Jason, Robin and I were leaving to go spend 3 days at the Welk Resort in Escondido. We own a time share there and have been going there one week a year for over 20 years. We LOVE it there!!!! It is a nice place to relax. We love to swim in the 5 pools they have. We usually go see the play they have at the theater and we also make sure we spend some time in San Diego while we are there.
This time, we spent 2 full days in the pool, spa and the fun water slide. We also decided to spend a day in Old Town San Diego because I heard that the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center in Old Town, has a new movie. The Visitor Center just opened back up after a year long renovation. The new movie is AMAZING!!!! It goes into the lives of 8 people who were part of the Battalion. It showed the great faith, obedience and miracles that happened to the people of the battalion The movie makes you feel like you are also apart of the Battalion. At each part of the journey, you walk to a different room where it is set up to make it look and feel like what it would have been like to be there. At the end of the movie, there is a room that is filled with interactive activities and authentic artifacts from people from the Battalion. Also there was a place where you can pan for gold. Jason LOVED that part. He could have spent hours panning for gold. I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone visiting San Diego to go and experience the Visitors Center.
It was a long week filled with fun and amazing activities!!!!
