Eureka Branch!

For a little field trip Deidre, Leah and I drove to Eureka, Utah (Yes...it actually exists) to tour the Eureka Branch of America First! Don't ask. It was fabulous though. The manager there greeted us happily and took us on a full blown tour of the branch. Didn't even ask us for our employee ID's or anything? Yikes...\

They've got the original vault that's been there for a llloooonngg time, the original safety deposit boxes, and lots of cool other old stuff. The place is heated by a coal burning stove, believe it or not.

On our way back to civilization we stopped in Santaquin and got some lunch at a place called "The Family Tree". Creepiest restaurant ever but it had really tasty food. Here are the long awaited pictures! Enjoy!!

The vault! The ORIGINAL vault.

Deidre enjoying all the creepy family photos all over the wall

Our waters in mugs at "Family Tree"

Of course we had to stop for slurpees :)

Riley's Disneyland Birthday!

*WARNING* Long post with LOTS of pictures!!

So for Riley's birthday this year I had to make it good. I put a lot of time and effort into trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and kept coming up with a blank. Finally 3 days before his birthday I had it figured out. I wanted to take him to Disneyland! So with a lot of last minute planning (booking our flights, reserving our hotel and a shuttle to and from the airport) I got it all arranged. (Thanks to my dad for the air miles!!)

Riley had already made some arrangements to hang out with friends and go four-wheeling on his actual day, so I had to make sure they knew that he wasn't going to be around to go.

On Friday night when I got off work I told him I had made some reservations, so he needed to hurry and get showered and ready. I got him in the car and asked where he wanted to grab some food. He was confused because when I told him I had reservations, he had assumed it was for dinner. We made a quick stop and Wendy's and jumped back in the car. I told him, "This may be a little weird, but I'm going to ask you to put this purse over your head." Hahahaha! I couldn't find a blindfold anywhere, so I made him wear one of my purses on his head so he didn't know where we were headed. The little bum is so good with directions though, he knew right where we were when we pulled into the airport parking lot!

When I asked if he knew what we were doing there, he thought it was for a "behind the scenes" airport tour or something? What the heck is that?? Anyways, he was really surprised when I popped my trunk to reveal our bags all packed and ready. I had come home during lunch and got everything all put together.

We got our boarding passes and he was confused when they said 'Orange County, John Wayne airport'. I had to explain that our final destination was Anaheim, thinking that would give it away. But it didn't!! He just said, "What's in Anaheim?!". When I told him we were going to Disneyland his eyes just lit up and he instantly got excited! He hadn't been to Disneyland since he was like 5 or 6.

We landed and took our shuttle to the hotel, got all settled in for the night and went to bed. We woke up first thing and walked to Disneyland!! We did California Adventure first, and then Disneyland. We had SUCH a blast. Riley mentioned to the girl at the ticket counter that it was his birthday, so they gave him a special "It's my Birthday" pin. He proudly wore it all day!! They gave me one that said, "I'm Celebrating!", so I got to sport that, too. We lucked out and jumped in the single riders line for nearly all the rides. But because of his pin, we got to sit next to eachother on almost every ride, minus Indiana Jones (Which is still my all-time favorite ride, by the way). EVERY single park employee that either let us on the rides, or simply passed us in the park would tell him "Happy Birthday, Riley". He just loved that, it was such a nice gesture from everyone.

We had a great time spending time together and being in the warm weather. The humidity was killer, and it made us so grateful we just have "dry" heat here. But all in all it was a blast!!!

Now for the fun part!! Pictures!!

On the plane headed to Cali.

Our room

I liked the, "Acts of God" clause.

We got our toothpaste confiscated at the airport for it's size, so we had to buy some more when we got there.

Tower of Terror!!

Space Mountain

Space Mountain ride photo!

Riley loved his "Birthday" pin.

"It's Tough to be a Bug" 4D show!!

Riley just loved this.

Best. Picture. Ever.

Splash Mountain!

Yay for the Happiest Place on Earth!!!

Weber State Fireworks!!

Every year my family goes to the fireworks show put on by Weber State for the 24th of July. Usually they have it the Sunday just previous to the 24th but for some reason had it on the 11th this year. We started off the evening having dinner at my parents house for McKenna's birthday. She turned 17 today! Crazzzzyyyy. So we had yummy dinner accompanied with ice cream cake to celebrate the occasion.

Then we headed off to Weber State. Luckily Carter and my dad has set up our blankets the night before because it was packed! We had to park clear down in the FedEx/Kinko's parking lot on Harrison but we made it safely there. We sat by a family that had some Elder's with them, and another group of families that had three little girls that danced around to the symphony the entire time they played. It was quite fun to watch them! One of the little girls would do a handstand type thing, then kick each of her legs around, then do a few ballerina poses and take bows every once in awhile. Oh to be young again, right? Ha!

We had tons of candy, compliments of my grandma. We sat and chatted for a few hours prior to the show, and had fun listening to the music and naming the tunes that they were playing. The Elders passed around a few bags of glow sticks and we were the lucky recipients of quite a few! We had a fun time taking pictures and posing with the glow sticks. It made for a fun event.

The fireworks were a lot of fun and they're timed with the orchestra just right. The finale was one of the better ones I've ever seen! After the last fireworks went off we hauled quick to try and get out, but it took us over an hour to get home. We had a fun time turning up the tunes in Riley's car, rolled down the windows, and jammed out to hits such as theme music from Tarzan, Savage Garden, and the Pokemon Theme Song (Compliments of Jordan and Riley...)