2013

I used to think I was too cool for two holiday traditions: wearing green on St. Patricks Day and setting New Years Resolutions.  Time has passed and I've become a not-so-cool math teacher and got over my New Years Resolution thing (I still refuse to wear green on St. Patty's Day).  I actually put some serious thought into what I wanted to accomplish and wrote some pretty good resolutions, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I only kept one - travel somewhere once a month.  To be completely honesty, I really didn't even do that because I didn't take a trip in January, but February through December were good.

Without further ado, here is my 2013 vacation year in review:

February - Las Vegas - Hoover Dam

March - Utah - Easter Sunrise

April - Denver, Colorado - "Before I die" wall

May - The Grand Canyon

June - Lake Powell

July - Carlsbad, California - Rachel's wedding

August - Utah - Tracy's wedding

September - San Diego, California

October - Austin, Texa

November - Utah - Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

November - Utah - lights at Temple Square

December - Utah - Annual Romantic Breakfast/Kimball's 25th Birthday

December - Utah - Christmas Day at Snowbird

Resolutions

At the beginning of the year I set six New Years Resolutions.  I don't think I have ever actually accomplished all my resolutions.  In fact, I don't think I have ever accomplished one resolution.  I was all about five of them and the sixth was more just for fun.  The sixth also happens to be the only one I've actually completed and will go down in history as the first New Years Resolution I have ever kept. Go ahead and give me a round of applause.  My sixth resolution was to go on a vacation every month of the year.  Some were not that glamorous, but every month this year so far has included at least one weekend out of wherever I was currently living.  My holiday plane tickets are booked so, unless something goes terribly wrong, you can consider this resolution checked off.  Here's a little recap of my last two vacations

For September I was going to go to Flagstaff for a weekend of hiking, but that didn't happen.  The last weekend rolled around and I hadn't gone anywhere so I jumped in the car after school and drove to San Diego to see my friends Rachel and Andy.  The weekend involved lots of eating, sleeping, walking, and talking.  It was actually quite perfect.

Arizona gives teachers the most wonderful gift every October - a full week for fall break!  It's spectacular.  I went with my roommate to her parent's house just outside of Austin, Texas.  This vacation also included a lot of sleeping.  We did spend some time at the University of Texas and checking out Austin, but my favorite part of the trip was sitting at the lake house next to the fire or on the balcony and relaxing during my time off.

Some More Disney

Disney Day 2 was a beautiful day spent at California Adventure.  The best part of the day was definitely going on Tower of Terror.  Luke had been on it before, but it was Jacks first time.  He was so excited and confident that it was not going to scare him.  I wish I would have recorded him.  While the elevator was dropping I looked over at Jack and he was gripping the cage on the side of the elevator with a look of sheer terror on his face.  Being the good dad that he is, Ryan made Jack ride in the middle the next time so he couldn't hold onto the elevator wall.  He was panicking trying to find something to hold because he was afraid he'd fly up and hit the ceiling.  

Disney Day 3 was a special day, February 29.  In case you were not aware, Disneyland was open for 24 hours to celebrate the day that only comes around once every four years.  It was surprisingly not busy most of the day, but by 8 PM it was a madhouse.  Main Street USA was packed with people going all the way across and lines were up to two hours long.  They stopped letting people in around 11 PM because it was full to capacity.

Tangent:  My favorite TV show is Modern Family.  Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to watch it now.  Despite the February 29 madness, that was my favorite day in Disneyland.  Why?  Because they were filming Modern Family.  We got to see the whole crew, minus Phil Dunphey.  I'm wondering if he got left at home.  It's ok though, I found out where his house is in Salt Lake so I'll just have to stop by and see him there.  I'm definitely looking forward to the Modern Family in Disneyland.

The trick to making Conner happy all day:  Dorritos

Disney: Day 1

I almost forgot just how much I love Disneyland.  Especially Disneyland in the winter, when hardly anyone is there.  When we got the park we walked right onto Thunder Mountain, which quickly became Jack's favorite ride.  We would spend the rest of the trip hearing him say, "I want to go on Thunder Mountain," about every 5 minutes.  By the third day he was forbidden from saying those words, so instead he'd say, "you know what I want to do."

It started raining a little after lunch then it rained....and rained....and rained the rest of the day.  The good thing about rain is that it makes the lines so much shorter.  Bad thing is it makes three little boys (especially a 2-year-old) very angry.  After a full day of Disney and a whole lot of rain, we sent Ryan to BJ's for some dinner and gluten free pizza for me!  Yum :)

The boys loved driving the Autopia cars

Dumbo in the rain!

There are three great things about this picture: 1 - Luke's dazed look.  2 - Jack's classic "trying to smile naturally" smile.  3 - Conner's obvious dislike towards his poncho and the rain.

Pssst...

I have a secret.  I'm going to California Saturday morning to go to Disneyland and San Diego with my nephews, but don't tell them.  They don't know.  We'll see how far we can drive before they start to wonder where we're going....

CA

What did you do last weekend?  I went to California.  My Rachel (yes, my Rachel) moved to California while I was in China so it had been almost a year since I last saw her.  Stacie and I bought tickets a couple months ago then called Rachel on Christmas and told her we were coming.  It was great.  Our trip included Laguna, LA, San Diego, finally meeting Andy, food, and more food.

Anyone going to San Diego should stop at Hash House.  It's breakfast worth the over an hour wait and feeling full for the rest of the day.

Hollywood from the Griffith Observatory

We love Andy