The Count Down Has Begun!!!

Here is a link to the Make A Wish blog page.
http://makeawishfoundationofutah.blogspot.com/2010/04/announcing-our-2500th-wish.html

The countdown counter was started and only 9 days left. Feel free to post the count down on your blog or facebook or where ever. I think the ratings from Utah will be high. Callie is really excited as we all are. Dont miss!

Mother's Day
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
Channel 4 ABC
7:00 PM

We will be doing a premiere for Callie at the Classic Fun Center in Layton. 6:30 -8:30.
Come and watch with us.

Disney California Adventure

Today we went to California Adventure for the day. It was fun. Zoe loved the Ladybug ride and there were a lot of rides that Zoe really enjoyed. We started at the tower of terror and Zoe, Callie and I ate at Ariels Grotto for lunch. Each of the princesses came by your table and had their pics.

I'm so exhausted tonight I'm going to have to stop. Highlights were:
Ariels Grotto
Ferris Wheel
Screamin
Sorin
Zip line
Mormon Boys
Electric Parade
Bugs Life
No turkey leg
Zoe peed her pants
Asleep Good night!

It has been a long day. Disneyland was full of the Utah visitors here on spring break. We hit most of the major rides that were at Disneyland. In looking at the cost of taking our own vehicle to Disneyland we decided to ride ART to and from the resort. It allowed us to avoid the drive while arriving to the front gate. Callie enjoyed becoming a jedi and fighting DarthMaul as did Brody. Jordan was just glad to get to ride Indiana Jones. Zoe was all about the teacups. I know that more details would be nice, but leave it at full day with lots of Disney. Since we are planning to do it again tomorrow I will post a few pics and add to the story. The Celebration Parade and the Fireworks were awsome to see. Well we will see if we are really able to do all day again tomorrow.

This morning was exciting as we left Modesto headed to Fresno to see the first temple of the day. We ate at the hotel before we left and it was a good breakfast. It was an hour and a half drive to get there. It is in a neighborhood of houses with a church adjacent. It was very similar to the Temple in Reno and was built at the same time. The grounds were all locked up but we walked around the outside fenced area, took some pictures. The kids were being silly and everybody posed for a picture before heading out.

We then started the long hall to LA. We made it almost to Bakersfield before Zoe needed a potty break. We pulled off and ate at Perko's, a ma and pa kind of restaurant. It was good food. We got back on the road to finish a four hour drive to LA. We made it to the LA temple without much traffic. Four or Five slow downs and not for long. We got out at the LA temple and another family was there saying that just 15 min. before we got there the chandelier in the celestial room was swaying because of an earthquake. We didn't feel it but we were driving and the roads in CA are like a roller coaster. You would never be able to tell if the earth was shaking or if it was just the road. The temple ground were open and it was really fun to get pictures. A lot of good picture spots all around that temple. It is one of the larger temples. It is huge. It had a ton of green grass and lots of flowers and gnarly trees. One cool gnarly tree we all sat in to have our picture.

Then we decided that we hadn't already had enough fun in the car that we would visit the Newport Beach temple. It was pretty cool. It is in a richy part of town and very pretty. It's kind of PINK, it is a light pinkish color with domes on top, not very tall and kind of smaller. Very pretty. Then we went to find our hotel and drove past Disneyland. We checked in and got dinner at Maui Hawaiian BBQ. It was good we had a ton of left overs. We came back unloaded the car started treatments and tried to get the kids in bed. They are so excited that they can hardly sleep. Finally at 11:00 they fell asleep. Now I better go to bed if I'm supposed to keep up with them tomorrow. Disneyland here we come! (kind of sad NO Paulie) ;(

Well it was such a great day on our trip although it started with sad news. Paul Dimeo who was planning to join us at Disneyland had his father pass away last Saturday so today when we texted him he indicated that he was still in Phili with his family. Our thoughts go out to him and his family. After getting started this morning we went to the Reno Temple. It was closed so all of our photos were taken outside the main area of the temple. After that we faced the part of road that we had monitored the most: Donner's Pass. No problem, it was dry and cold.

When we arrived at the temple in Sacremento, it was amazing! It is located in a very secluded plateau with a large parcel of land that the church uses for Girls Camp and even has a chapel on the property. It was so beautiful. Callie loved it so much that she has indicated that this is where she is getting married. Although there would be no complaints from any of us, I am sure that time is necessary before we need to book a room. It was interesting as there was wild turkeys and deer on the property by the temple.

We then headed off to Oakland to see that temple there. We were amazed to find that due to the proximity of the multistake center next to the temple that there were a lot of people there. They also have a visitor center. So we learned a lot of interesting facts about the Oakland Temple. It has NO WINDOWS due to the earthquakes that they face in the area. It has palm trees that line each side of the path leading to the temple and there are twelve trees on each side symolizing the apostles of old and current. There is three different palm trees at the head of each row representing the Godhead and the First Presidency. There was a statue of two children at the base of the temple and they looked up to the temple. I really reflected on the purpose that we had sought in starting this family goal two years ago and creating the desire in the hearts of our children to turn their hearts and minds to the temple. It was a beautiful temple and as we came home after a visit to San Francisco it shined bightly and stood as a becon on the hill for all to see (which is what David O McKay said it would do)

We ended our day at Fisherman's Wharf and had dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Restaurant. We had a beautiful view of Alcatraz and watch many boats passing. The meal was very good and the kids really liked the specialty drinks that they got in glasses that light up. Although it has been a long day it was still happy kids and excitement for tomorrow. The pics help add to the story.

Mark didn't post all of our pics so here are a few more I will post. I like pictures and they do tell a thousand words. They all posted at the top. I know there are more from the temples I just don't know where he saved them. We are having a blast!

SPRING BREAK

This week the kids are out of school and we decided to go to Disneyland. We also thought that on our way we would stop and see as many temples as possible. Which going the round about way would let us see 9 temples. So we headed out Friday after school to Reno. Mark and I have been to the Reno temple but the kids haven't. On our way to Reno the kids did awesome! Zoe slept about 3 hours and the worst it got was fighting over who got the pillow. Today is our longest drive day. We went 8 hours and tomorrow we will go 5 with 3 stops along the way. We plan to see the Reno temple tomorrow. When we got here it was already dark and the kids were anxious to get to our hotel. We will then head to Sacramento to see that temple then to Oakland to see that temple and I was thinking of taking the kids to San Franscisco. We will have time tomorrow and when I went as a kid it was fun. The kids might be in for a culture shock. We will have to talk about girls like girls thing and guys like guys thing. Not much for today just a lot of driving and Stacie complaining. I don't like driving in the snow and rain and wind. It scares me. I will be glad to have most of the weather behind us. By tomorrow we will be in the clear. Tomorrow night we will stay in Modesto Ca. Like in the movie Monsters vs Aliens. Here are a few pics we took today in the car, since that is where most of time was spent. Also a picture of the sun shining through the clouds. It was very beautiful. Last but not least the kids on their vests.