Tag Archives: vacation

Cabin Fever

My mother’s side of the family has a cabin in the Uinta mountains.  My great grandparents started building it in the 1950′s.  The past couple of years my parents have been going up every weekend during the summers and fixing it up for all the generations of the family to be able to enjoy it again.  The past couple weekends I went up with the kids and Magpie to help out and this weekend we even got to take Deeds cousin from Houston with us.

Deeds and his “best girl buddy” Magpie the miracle service dog.

We have never taken Deeds up before because I was terrified.  Loosing him in a public place is frightening but you can usually enlist a lot of help to look for him.  Loosing him where there is nothing but vast wilderness and no cell phone coverage to call for help was something that I wasn’t willing to risk.  Now that we have Magpie and Deeds is getting older we decided it was time.  We even did a practice track while we were there to make sure Maggie could still find her boy out in the woods.

Deeds was so excited that he finished this puzzle all by himself!

Little sister painting and being a goof.

He calls this his “Spelling learning game”

The kids had a lot of fun playing games, doing puzzles and watching Disney movies while we were inside.  We would go for walks outside and it became quickly apparent that Deeds is not a huge fan of the great outdoors.  He never wanted to go for walks but once we got down to the water he would always have a lot of fun with Magpie playing fetch or throwing rocks into the creek.

Little sister LOVES being outside.

Deeds laughing as Magpie sticks her entire head under the water.

 

One day another family was also down by the creek and Magpie thought it was Christmas since they had two dogs and she got to play with them for a while.  She hasn’t been able to run and play that much since we were at training at 4 Paws.  Every once in a while I would randomly call out a command to make sure she was still aware we were still there and she would come bounding back with her tail wagging.  I’d praise her, Deeds would giggle and give her a treat and then we would let her jump back into the cold water to play some more.  It was a really great weekend.

Rock throwing, look at that form!

Beware the flying dogs!

You do NOT want to be standing next to Magpie when she is shaking off the water.

Deeds showed his cousin his favorite “biggest rock”

On the way home we took a little stop by the Provo River Falls.  They are beautiful and I promised Deeds cousin she could get some pictures by them.  About a half an hour later in the car as we were driving Deeds started to scream that he couldn’t find his blankie.  My heart sank and I pulled over to look around the car.  Sure enough it wasn’t there.  I could flip through the pictures on my phone and see exactly where he had it one second and not the next.  We turned around to drive back and prayed it would still be there.  My little guy was beyond upset and I was dealing with a great deal of anxiety about it myself.  Lucky for us someone had found it on the trail, folded it up and placed it on a rock.  I’ve never seen such a look of relief on Deeds face.  There is a new rule that the blankie doesn’t come out of the car unless mommy or daddy has it.  Since it’s what he hides under when he is overstimulated it’s more than just a comfort thing for him.  I’m so thankful that someone was nice enough to pick it up for us and set it somewhere we would see it.

All the cousins on the trail right before we lost blankie.

Provo River Falls

Deeds and Magpie checking out the falls. It was a beautiful day.

 


Day 3… FINALLY

Sorry for the absence and leaving everyone hanging about our last day at Disneyland.  Somehow I contracted Viral Meningitis, the doctor believes it was the week I had finals but it got a lot worse and mommy ended up in the hospital for a while.  I’m at home on the mend and have wanted to finish up the blogging about our amazing trip to Disneyland.  Especially so our Fairy Godmother can see why we are still smiling even with all the rough patches with unemployment and hospital stays we’ve had the past few weeks.

The last day on our vacation we decided to spend the entire day at Disneyland park.  We knew daddy had to leave by 4 pm to make his flight back home so he could be at work the next day (the dreaded day he lost his job, wish we’d known to save on that airfare and time away from family. ha ha)
We hit Tomorrowland first and Deeds even rode Space Mountain.  It wasn’t his favorite but meeting the storm troopers outside the ride made him quickly forget about that.  The troopers were fascinated with Magpie and I decided that they aren’t actually bad guys but probably just misunderstood.

While the kids and guys went on the last ride I went to stand in line so we could all meet Tinkerbell.  I heard dad yell and then I looked over in time to catch Sleeping Beauty walking by on a pathway while holding the kids hands.

The line for Tinkerbell was long but worth it.  Each family gets to meet them alone and it was AWESOME to meet Tink and her friend Faun who is apparently the Animal Talent fairy and so happy to meet Magpie.

We enjoyed heading over to ride the Haunted Mansion, which might have been better liked if we didn’t get stuck in the dark for a minute or two.  Poor kids weren’t fans after that.  We headed over to ride on Splash Mountain and encountered the Winnie the Pooh ride and right when we got off we saw Tigger, Eeyore and Pooh as well.  Deeds liked Splash Mountain so much he rode it twice, once with dad and once with mom since little sister was too short to make it on the ride.

We enjoyed some lunch and then the kids decided they wanted to go to Toon Town again.  We hopped the train and headed over.  I waited in line to meet some princesses since we were still on a quest to find little sister’s favorite, Princess Tiana.  The guys and kids headed over to ride It’s a Small World again and then we had fun reacquainting ourselves with the princesses again.  Our magical moment of the day happened when Tiana was not there, on the way out I talked with a cast member to find out where we could find her and he told me to just stay in the gift shop for a minute with the kids.  Next thing we knew they were ushering us back in and there was Tiana.  Apparently she had been on a break and they let the kids go back and meet her without waiting in line again.  It really made everyone’s day.

Daddy had to go catch his flight shortly after that.  The kids, Uncle Bryan and mommy headed over to have fun in Fantasyland.  We found out where to meet Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.

We headed to go grab some ice cream with my cousin and his wife who had just come into town and then enjoyed relaxing as we waited for the parade to start.

Uncle Bryan is loosing his mind a little
Gwen spotted Mickey Mouse first.

We realized we had neglected to do the Jungle Cruise earlier so we headed over there.  JD loved it and laughed so much at the skipper that we all laughed along.  We swung by the carousel for our last ride and then on our way to the front of the park the kids fell asleep.  Rather than wake them to get on the tram we walked back to the car and actually got them buckled in the car and then into beds without waking them.

The next day we drove home.  Even after getting the call that daddy had lost his job we counted our blessings for our magical trip.  Our Fairy Godmother and Uncle Bryan helped us to make this a trip to remember!  We were lucky to have Uncle Bryan help us the entire time we were there and even brave the drive home with the kids and Magpie so that mommy wouldn’t have to do it alone.  Thank you so much Bry.

It’s been about a month since our trip and the kids are STILL talking about it multiple times a day.  They are already planning our next trip and Deeds has informed us of all the rides we forgot to go on and all the characters we still need to see.  I’m glad we waited until we had Magpie to go, and considering I was probably already sick with the Viral Meningitis while we were there and battling tremendous headaches I can’t wait to go again when I feel good.  I mean if the trip was that magical and I was under the weather imagine how it will be next time.  Even if we never make it out again, this was a trip to remember and one we are so incredibly thankful for.


Disneyland Day 1

Thanks for the patience.  We would crash in bed every night after we were done in the parks and I had a hard time staying awake to blog.  Dad flew home a day early to get back to work.   When we were three hours from home I got a call from Jeremy letting me know he’d been fired when he went into work that day.  On top of the shock of him loosing his job I got a stomach bug.  SO long story short over the next couple days we’ll catch with a new blog post each day about our trip.

I can’t start this blog without a HUGE thank you to our Fairy Godmother and Uncle Bryan.  This magical trip wouldn’t have happened without them.  Uncle Bryan works for Disney and not only helped us get into the parks but also stayed with us the entire time helping with kids and even Magpie.  He’s a pro dog handler now and we wouldn’t have so many pictures without his holding onto the camera and photo pass card for the entire trip!

When we all hopped on the tram Deeds wasn’t so sure about it but quickly warmed up to the first “ride” we were on at Disneyland.

Gwen, Deeds and Uncle Bryan

When we got into the park the first person we saw was Mary Poppins.  Deeds followed her around for about 5 minutes before he finally got her his autograph book.  She never did stop walking so I didn’t get a picture but he was hooked after that first signature.   Next we saw Goofy.  Magpie was instantly intrigued by the big stuffed dog and little sister freaked out when Goofy bent over to give her a kiss.  She was much more cautious after that kiss.  We learned that if a line is to meet a character Deeds will wait like a champion!  We could have done nothing but meet characters the entire time and I think Deeds would have still had a blast.

Goofy acting like a Service Dog and it was making Deeds laugh so hard.

We headed straight back to Fantasyland and then Toon Town to try and avoid the long lines and crowds later.  We hit Dumbo first.  Magpie wasn’t so sure about it once we got up in the air but was a champ.  There were just a couple of rides she wasn’t a real fan of but was always a champ anyway.  Gwen had a hard time after the first few rides that she couldn’t immediately ride again or had to get off.  I spent so much time prepping Deeds for the trip I might have overlooked explaining lines to the two year old. We also got the kids some ears.  It was adorable to see them running around with them on.

HORSES! The kids LOVE the carousel.

Sister was SO excited to meet Minnie Mouse and she was adorable showing her dress to Minnie and Mickey.  Thank goodness for Grandma taking the time to make the dress while mommy was studying for finals.  I’m sure she would have worn it everyday if we had let her.

We headed over to the California Adventure after some lunch because Deeds wanted to see the Aladdin show and it was only showing our first day.  Sadly he didn’t make it very far into the show before Jeremy had to take him and Magpie out.  We stayed in the park after that and Deeds went on the Tower of Terror for the first time.  He looked a little shocked when he got off but went again on the second day with mom.  He tells us now he won’t go again till he is 5 years old because he’ll be older then.  He is too cute.  The kids discovered the Little Mermaid ride that evening and we spent the next two days going on it around 20 times.  We let them play in the water too and I was glad I had thought to bring a change of clothes.  Our stroller looked like a clothes line after that.

While we were sitting eating some sourdough bread Deeds started to have a meltdown.  I was worried as we started to get looks from others sitting around.  At one point a woman who had been sitting across from us started to walk over to me and I took a deep breath waiting for the backlash about my parenting.  Instead of saying a word she smiled at me, picked up Deeds wet shorts that had fallen and I didn’t notice and put them back on the stroller.  She told me to hang in there and have a nice day.  I won’t lie.  I shed tears that night at that wonderful woman.  I was stressed and expected the worst and she helped me so much with that simple smile.  I hope I always remember to look for ways to help others and not judge them.

Gwen playing in the water

Our traveling clothesline.

 

 

 


It’s SO CLOSE

Today I was at the university all day.  While studying for my last final I was able to attend an autism conference.  It was pretty amazing to be able to take study breaks that included wonderful breakout sessions on many different topics in regards to autism.  Even included lunch and the best part was that since I am a student I got in free.  YAY!

When I got home tonight I asked Deeds how many days till Disneyland and he gleefully replied “TWO!”  I asked who was going with us and he listed off all of us but forgot Magpie.  He always includes her so I prompted him and asked who else was going.  He then shouted “MICKEY MOUSE!”  I chuckled and was just thrilled he was so excited to go on Monday.  We’ll see how excited he is after the long drive out there.

Mommy goofing off after work in Peter Pan's Flight at Disney World twelve years ago.

This mommy is getting really excited not only because it is a dream coming true but also because once we start that drive it means I’m actually done with Chemistry!  We will be leaving in the morning on Monday right after I take my final.

We will be taking the computer so I’ll try to make sure we blog every night so that you can follow Deeds and Magpie on their first trip to the magical land of Disney.

Until then I’ll be studying my little heart out.


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