Month: December 2016

Thanksgiving in Disneyland


Thanksgiving in Disneyland?  How about Thanksgiving dinner with the characters?  WELL, that is exactly what we did this year.  This magical vacation had been in the planning for 3 years as a whole group of family members were going to be descending on Disneyland.  We saved, planned, saved, planned, saved and planned some more.  My granddaughters even made a list of what they wanted to see and do.  We anticipated this trip, couldn’t wait for the months/years to pass by.  FINALLY, the time came for us to pack our bags and head to the airport.  Some of us arrived many days before the others as we had other things that we had added to our trip.  I will cover that in another blog.  Eleven of us in all descended on Disneyland.

Our first day at Disneyland it rained, rained and rained some more.  It did’t hamper us at all.  Disneyland is so fun and magical a little rain can’t stop us.  We are a Disneyland family.  We rode ride after ride, waiting in lines, eating our pineapple spears and dill pickles, still delighting in our magical vacation.

On Thanksgiving day, we had reservations to eat Thanksgiving dinner with the characters at Paradise Pier in the PCH Grill, where we feasted on a fun buffet and had Minnie Mouse, Stitch, Micky Mouse, Pluto visit our table and sign autograph books.  The grandchildren were in heaven.  Their faces were lit up as they waited patiently for the next character to join our table.   Even the 18th month old wanted a “hug” from all the characters and was shouting it out with such love.  We adults smiled from ear to ear watching the kids have so much fun.  This wasn’t your traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  The buffet had pork roast,turkey,salmon,potatoes, pumpkin ravioli, just to name a few, hotdogs for the kids, corn on the cob, and I’m not even sure what all the deserts were as I was too busy enjoying the fun my grandchildren were having.

We have eaten at PCH Grill in the past, and it has never let us down.  The atmosphere is so friendly.  The waiters and waitresses are so friendly and willing to get you whatever you need.  A huge shoutout to them as they are always working really, really hard.

Our last day in Disneyland was loaded with trying to fit everything in that we wanted to do.  HOWEVER, in the later part of the afternoon, the rain decided to come again.  This time we bought Disneyland ponchos for everyone to wear, so we could keep going.  Which we did for a little while until we were too cold and wet.

We are a Disneyland family, and visit it quite often, some of us more than others, but some of us try to get there at least once a year.  Disneyland you have been so good to us and will visit you again.

IF IT ISN’T YOURS, DON’T TAKE IT!

IF IT ISN’T YOURS, DON’T TAKE IT!  If you didn’t buy it or if it wasn’t given to you as a gift, DON’T TAKE IT! IT ISN’T YOURS!

Life really should be that easy.  What has become of our society today, that individuals have to take something that isn’t theirs, something they didn’t purchase or wasn’t given to them as a gift?  What would make someone take a baby stroller?  YES, A BABY TWO SEATER STROLLER!  I’m totally appalled.

First day of vacation, minding our business, eating dinner in Downtown Disney we parked the stroller in the “stroller parking” where many others had parked their strollers, and when we came out of the restaurant, the stroller was gone.  Yes, someone had the audacity to steal a baby’s stroller.   A BABY’S TWO SEATER STROLLER!  What were they thinking or not thinking?  Were they thinking of only themselves because obviously they weren’t thinking of the baby that the stroller belonged to or how the mother was going to get the baby back to their destination.  What a horrible act to commit.  But why are there no video camera’s in Downtown Disney?  They are not expensive, and would hopefully capture the stroller thief or thieves. The Disney policeman basically said, “Well that does happen here unfortunately”.  They must have had a child with them, so it wouldn’t look funny that they were pushing around an empty two seater stroller.  What kind of example is that for a child.   A couple of days later, we were in Universal Studios, and ran into another family that had their stroller stolen from Disneyland also.  I’m just appalled that people would steal baby strollers.  Really?

Downtown Disney needs to take a page from Universal Studios.  Everywhere we parked the new stroller (that had to be purchased to get two little boys through a vacation) in Universal Studios was always under video surveillance.

Hopefully the saying “what goes around, comes around” or “bad karma will get those that took the stroller”.

People please if you didn’t buy it, or it wasn’t given to you, IT ISN’T YOURS!  DON’T TAKE IT!

Fuji mini instant camera-review

So I purchased this Fuji mini instant camera to take on our Disneyland family vacation last month.  The thought behind this was the grandchildren would have a character sign their autograph books, I would take a picture and we would put them immediately in the autograph books with double sided tape.  We called this the “magic camera” as the picture would develop right before their eyes.    In theory this was a really good idea.  However, it was a major FAIL!

We went into Disneyland with so much excitement with 5 grandchildren looking for the Disney characters so we could get autographs and pictures.  As we all know most of the characters are outside in Disneyland, and our first character picture came out awful as the Fuji mini instant camera flash went off EVERY time we would try to take a picture.   It didn’t matter what the camera setting was on, the flash went off causing all of the outdoor pictures to over expose. We would make sure the setting was for outdoors, and still the flash would go off. We tried this time and time again with no success.  This was pretty disappointing for my grandchildren showing them and explaining that the “magic camera” wasn’t working as we hoped it would.  The only time the Fuji mini instant camera worked, was when we were indoors at the restaurants where we ate with the characters, as the flash was needed indoors.

Hopefully there were enough phone camera’s to capture the moments to add to the autograph books later.

I will keep this little camera for indoor activities that we will take pictures for and hang them up on our family wall.  But for outdoor activities, we will have to depend on other cameras to capture the moments.

Unfortunately, I will not be recommending this product to anyone as it was a major disappointment to me and my grandchildren.  This is strictly my opinion and I am not being paid for this review.

 

When life gives you lemons

Does life ever give you lemons?  Have you ever thought about the trials you are going through or have gone through?  Do you say to yourself, “Why me”, or do you look on the positive side and say, “what am I going to learn from this?”  People deal with life’s lemons in many different ways.

My sweet, sweet sister Annette was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  This isn’t her first round of cancer, as she is a breast cancer survivor of many, many, many years, but this is a different, maybe scarier form of cancer.  Within days of the diagnosis, she was given the good news, that she was a candidate for a surgery that is only given to people who have the right markers.  There is a specialist here in Salt Lake City that does this specialized surgery.  How lucky we are to live here.  Annette went through the long 8 hour surgery and came out with a great positive outcome.  Yes she does have to do 6 months of chemo, but she has a very positive outlook on life.  My sister is a a HUGE example in my life.  She is a HUGE example in her grandchildren’s life, in her great-grandchildren’s life.  She is known as “the grandma down the hill”, “the grandma with the smarties in her purse”.  How she is LOVED by her children, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins.  She is a shining light, and  a friend to everyone.  She has Christlike qualities that I want to exemplify in my life.  I look up to her for her unselfish love. She is an amazing artist with her oil paintings, a great alto singer and the perfect sister.  We have many more years to laugh, share good books, sew, quilt, and party.  Your positive outlook is an inspiration to everyone.

So, when life gives you lemons, squeeze out the juice, add a little sugar, a little water, and a lot of love and pass the lemonade around.