We had originally intended to get up early and drive the entire day to get to Garden Grove. Yeah, well that did not work out so well. We made it about 1/2 of the way there stopping in Las Vegas at one of the higher class establishments, La Quinta Inn, to stay the night. I won’t elaborate on that stay, suffice to say sometimes a little more out of the pocket book is better.

The next day we drove from Las Vegas to Garden Grove, and our hotel, The Hampton Inn, about a mile away from Disneyland. Since we arrived in the afternoon, we decided not to waste our day passes for a half day of fun, So we ended up staying at the hotel and going out to eat at one of favorite out of state restaurants, Outback Steakhouse!!!

We had promised the kids we would take them to the pool to ease the disappointment of not being able to go to Disneyland that night. As you can see, the wind was not our ally.

Our day at California Adventure was a blast. The kids absolutely loved everything about it. Jaryn was constantly complaining about things he couldn’t do, Brianne was in awe at all the princesses walking around, and Beauen was just glad to be out of the house and take in a few new sites and sounds. Jaryn was even brave enough to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Which is not for the feint of heart.

What can I say, Disneyland was Disneyland. We ended up hitting a lot of the rides we had not ridden the other times we had visited. We ended up in line for close to and hour and a half to go down Splash Mountain. Finding Nemo was not anything like I expected it to be. The rest was a blast. The only drawback each night was the mile walk back to the hotel. Since the shuttles had stopped running by the time we were done playing or eating we were forced to haul everyone back to the hotel a pie (by foot).

Following a full day at Disneyland we drove to Oceanside to crash at our nicely furnished beach condominium Nicole found through Craigslist.com. I think we all slept until 10am or so the next morning. Relief. Nicole and I took the kids to the beach to enjoy some waves and sand, especially Beauen. We had decided already to take a day break between Disneyland and Legoland, so a little rest and relaxation after two solid days of toting around 3 kids until all hours of the night was a welcome event.

Legoland was exciting. Not as big as I thought it would be, but again the kids were just glad to take in new sights and sounds. Brianne and Jaryn loved to drive the little Lego cars and get their very own drivers license. Mom and dad enjoyed not having to rush from ride to ride. It was all good. The one drawback to Legoland are the strategically placed kiosk at every turn.

The drive home was extremely long. We again did not make the entire drive in a single attempt. We stopped in Mesquite hoping to find a room (this at midnight) but were told there were no rooms at the Inn, any of the Inns. Apparently, there was a huge fight in Las Vegas so everyone was booked up. I was temped to stop a small “motel” that had a room available, but decided against it.

After another hour or so drive we arrived in St. George (around 1:00 or so) and found the closest, most accommodating place we find and hit the sack.

The following day drive home was a snap. We made the entire drive from St. George to South Jordan in around 4 hours or so. Not bad.

What an awesome trip!

Here is the route we took from our home.

If really interested, see more photos of our trip to California.

Documentary reveals how little Obama voters knew about issues.

Utah faces boycott after Mormon work for Prop 8

Some talking points:

1. “The main focus is going to be going after the Utah brand,” he said. “At this point, honestly, we’re going to destroy the Utah brand. It is a hate state.”
   What a blatant, bigoted attack! Lets destroy (notice the usage of the word here, no hate in that right) the Utah brand. It is a hate (yeah, lets let the pot call the kettle black shall we?) state. Unbelievable!

The more I ponder this, the less I focus on proposition 8 and more on the hypocrisy of the special interest groups (in this case the gay and lesbian groups), and their blatant intolerance to those that may have contradictory opinions about issues that affect everyone.

Update

I have come to realize I was a tad irate while all of this was happening. When it comes to being attacked, I take it a bit personally. Hopefully all this will all just fizzle out as most things like this do.

Catholic Bishop Decries Religious Bigotry Against Mormons.

And from the horses mouth…

Former Catholic Bishop of Salt Lake City Decries Religious Bigotry in Political Ad; Defends LDS Role in California Ballot Initiative Protecting Traditional Marriage.

Obama’s New Attack on Those Who Don’t Want Higher Taxes: ‘Selfishness’

“…when young people can all go to college, when everybody’s got decent health care, when everybody’s got a little more money at the end of the month…”

This is not the role of government unfortunately. That is the fallacy of his argument. It’s the role of government to make sure the infrastructure is there for us all to make this happen for ourselves, not for “them” to determine it for us.

Why did the mortgage crisis of 2008 happen?

Feedback always welcome.

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Here is “one” of the many explanations.