LHS 15 Year Reunion

The main reason that I went to Lehi this weekend was for my 15 year class reunion. Not a lot of people attended, but it was so fun to see people I haven't seen for a very long time. and I was so proud of myself, I recognized all but a couple of people immediately.

Joellen did a great job planning everything. It was a luau, and so the group that came and did the dancing pulled a few people up on stage and taught them a few dances.

Sheena, Theresa, Terra and Dallas

I loved the fire dancers

These are a few of my close friends from high school. Not many came, but we were just enough to fill one table.
Jalene, Deena, Janet, Me

Deena and Harley just had their new baby Jade on Wednesday, so I was so glad that they came. They even got an award for the youngest child from our class!

It was such a fun weekend. I'm glad that I took the time to do all of the things I did while I was in Lehi. We usually don't have much extra time when we go. The only thing that I wish that I had done was to take the kids to the rodeo. I guess that we'll have to go back next year!

Lehi Round-Up Days Parade

Each year as the summer parades around here start up, I remember how much I don't like them. It seems to me that they are all about the adults, and for some reason, I have always felt that a parade is about the kids.

After attending the Lehi parade that I haven't been to in years, I remember why I feel this way.

In Lehi, there is a miniature parade within the big parade. Although it has changed a little over the years, the idea is still the same. Each ward (or any other group that wants to) makes a float, that fits within the theme for the year, and all the kids in town have the opportunity to be a part of the parade. Many families help make the float, many more are on the float or follow behind costumed to coordinate with the float, and the young men all pull the floats.

This year's theme was "If I Could, I Would..." Each ward has to stay within a certain budget, and the float has to be within specific dimensions, and it can't be motorized, it has to be hand pulled.

I love the Lehi parade, and maybe you will understand why after seeing these pictures....

If I Could I Would ...Live in Candy Land--

If I could I would...Travel through space--

If I Could I Would...And I Can!--

If I Could I Would...Stay up all night long--

If I Could I Would...Live under the Sea--

If I Could I Would ....Live in the jungle--

If I Could I Would...Be in a Nursery Rhyme--

There really is no parade like the Lehi Round-Up parade. I am so glad I got to go this year. And while we were watching the parade, one of my friends that I grew up with and haven't seen for years sat next to us. Afterwards, we went to her house and got caught up on each other and our families, and old friends I haven't seen for a long time. It was great to see you again Liz.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

We had such a fun weekend. It started out with a trip to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house. It is always such a neat thing to be able to take the kids to the temples, even if they are not yet dedicated. It is neat for the kids to see what they can look forward too, and it also brings great discussion about the blessings of the temple.

I loved the colors inside this temple. It was interesting to me though, that there wasn't carpet in the halls or on the stairs. That is something that I haven't seen before.

We were there at a beautiful time of day for pictures.

We also heard that last weekend the Angel Moroni was struck by lightning. His Arm and trumpet look like they are dark, so we assume that is what happened.

It was a neat time with our family. I only hope this makes the kids desire to obey the commandments so that they can attend the Holy Temple one day even more of a priority in their lives.

Magic Kingdom

For our last day at the Disney Parks, we went back to Magic Kingdom. We took it a little slower this time and took some time for those classic photo ops.

We visited Mickey's house,

Saw Pinocchio

Stopped at Mickeys mail box

walked through Donald's boat

Swung from the ropes,

and passed by Minnie's house,

stopped in front of the castle to see the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse

And wondered how long one person can hold that many balloons?

We also did a little more pin trading.

The lines were so long today, that we decided to go back to the hotel, take a nap, get dinner, and go back and do some of the rides that the little kids would be done at after the fireworks and parade at night.
When we returned, it was pouring rain.

Most people were huddled inside shops, or under awnings to keep dry, not willing to buy ponchos at the Disney price. We had taken ponchos with us, and so off we went through the puddles. We were able to walk right on to several rides without a wait in line at all

While we were on Pirate's of the Caribbean, the pumps that ran the ride stopped, and so we were stuck for about 10 minutes. I decided to take a few pics.

We did the Toy Story ride here too.
It was almost as fun as the one yesterday at Hollywood Studios.

And then about 40 minutes late, when all the lightning was gone, we watched the firework show.

It was more fun without the crowds that left when the rain lasted so long.

And Zak pouted the whole time because he has decided that he doesn't like fireworks.

Just then, we realized that the late Spectromagic parade was starting.
So we went and got an Ice Cream Sundae to share, and sat on the curb with front row seats for the parade.

Mickey started out the parade...as always.

It had a lot of the Disney characters, but some of the best were.....
Ursula, the Sea Witch

Cinderella and Prince Charming

Captain Hook

And Jimminy Cricket

Wow, what a vacation. We had an amazing time, and hopefully, the kids will talk about this for the rest of their lives.

I loved spending so much time with my family.
I love you guys!

Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studio

On Tuesday, we split the day between Hollywood Studio and Animal Kingdom. We started off at Hollywood Studio getting a fastpass for a ride that we wanted to do, but didn't want to stand in a 90 minute line with only an hour left in the day yesterday. Our fastpass wasn't until 6:00 at night, and we wanted to be back here to see the Fantasmic show, so we left and went to Animal Kingdom.

We didn't get to see the Tree of Life on Friday, so we started there.

It was an amazing work of art.

Inside the tree was the 3-D show It's Tough to Be A Bug based on the
characters from Bug's Life.

We also went back to see the Lion King Live musical show while we waited for our fastpass
time to do the Kilimanjaro Safari again.

This time I took my good camera on the safari.

The Kilimanjaro Safari is supposed to be set in the Harambe Wildlife Preserve
that is in Africa.

I don't remember what this guy is called, but he is related to the giraffe, not the Zebra!

The hippos were cool. He came up for air as we were driving past.

A Giraffe

And the elephant was really close to the road

This Rhino was huge.

The lion lifted it's head and started walking as we went by.
It is amazing to believe that these animals are on a free range that we are driving through.

Then we returned to Hollywood Studio where Zak wanted a picture on the plastic horse.
At this point, we just did some things to keep him happy.

The High School Musical 3 show was just starting as we got here.
Me and the boys stopped to watch it while Brian and Amber went to get
fastpasses for the Tower of Terror.

While waiting for the Little Mermaid Show, we saw Tinkerbell's Prison
from Peter Pan.

The one ride that we went back for was the Toy Story Midway Mania.
We didn't' know much about it yesterday, so we didn't go out of our way to hurry to it.
When we found out it was brand new and lots of fun, we hurried here to get a fastpass first thing in the morning.
It really was a lot of fun. It is a 4-d ride where you play carnival games from the ride and score points that are shown at the end of the ride.

The things outside of the ride were lots of fun too.
This was the ceiling of the souvenir shop outside.

And there is kids games and toys everywhere. Only they are huge.

This is over the entry for the ride.

The whole ally is full of fun stuff

I think inside waiting in line, we saw Chutes & Ladders, Scrabble, Playing Cards, Checkers, Crayons, CandyLand, Dominoes, Life, and probably a dozen others I can't remember.

Outside, on one of the streets made to look like New York, there was Mary Poppins Umbrella,

and side by side houses.

We also came across Luigi's Tire Shop from Cars. This is the wall next to it.

Near the Muppets 3-D movie.

In the entry to the Muppet's souvenir shop.

While we were at the Expedition Everest store earlier in the week, Zak found a hat with Disney trading pins on. He didn't care about the pins, he just liked the hat, and it was a good price (for Disney loot), and to add the pins made it a better deal. All the kids ended up doing pin trading, and they asked every person they could when we were standing still if they could see their pins.

A good friend let us use her little bubble holders to carry so if the kids got sick of lines they could blow bubbles. We forgot about them until this day, but they were well used and appreciated by us and other parents. We waited to see Fantasmic for about an hour, and it was a lifesaver by then.

The Fantasmic show was probably my favorite night time show of all the parks.

It was too dark to even attempt pictures, but it was a fun mix of Disney characters along with lasers, water and pyrotechnics. What a fun end to the night.