Sunday, July 29, 2012

Happy Birthday Mumsie!!

After going to the Trick or Treat party in Disneyland last Halloween, my siblings really wanted to go again this year.  When I found out my flight back from China stopped in LA, we decided it really would be perfect to meet up and spend the weekend in Disneyland before I had to go back work.  That weekend also happened to be my mom's birthday.  She had some VERY difficult kids in her class and it was already a rough school year (1 month in) so it wasn't too hard to convince her that she needed a break and to get her and Dad to come with us.  I got in to LAX around 10 am and took a shuttle to our hotel and tried really hard to not sleep while I waited for the rest of the family to get there.

The next morning we were up bright and early and ready for a birthday celebration in Disneyland!


We had to get a picture of Mumsie with her birthday button!

That night was the Halloween party.  We decided to go with a theme for our costumes this year, so we dressed up as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  And, well, since what else are you supposed to do but brag on a blog - I have to say, I made the costumes. I think I did pretty good! :)  
We had Snow White, Sleepy (obviously that was me with jet lag), Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, and the evil Queen. 


Dad had a blast playing the evil queen, he was loving going around to all of the little kids and offering them some of his apple.  It was hilarious!


 The Halloween Party is always so much fun!

The next day we raced over to Midway Mania so we could get on before the line got to long,

and then introduced Mumsie to the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show.  
 

Apparently we were big on 3-D glasses that day! 

We got our favorite rice bowls for lunch,

Dad wasn't quite sure how to use the chopsticks!
Then Mom and Dad danced to the Mariachi band.


Lauren was thrilled to see her favorite ride (the canoes) were open!
To end our trip we got some chocolate birthday cake for mom and enjoyed Fantasmic!


It was a great birthday celebration - and I only fell asleep on one ride!

Sunday, July 22, 2012

China - The Finale!

Our last day in China was spent at the Forbidden City.  That place is huge!  It took us at least two hours to just walk from one end to the other.



One of the interesting things about the buildings there - the number of animal statues that are on the edges of the roof would show that status of the person living in that building.



Again, it would have been nice to go in some of the buildings, that is something that I really missed, actually seeing the rooms and how the buildings looked on the inside.  But we were able to peek around the crowds of people and see in a couple of the rooms.



The one building we could go into was a bathroom, a four-star facility! Once I heard even four-stars don't mean anything more than a hole in the ground, I decided to stay outside! 



After the Forbidden City we had some lunch and had some last minute shopping before heading home to pack up.  We had to get a picture with Maggie, our tour guide before we left.



And I had to get a picture of the gas masks that were so thoughtfully provided in our hotel room!



The next morning we were up super early to drive to the airport, after sitting around forever at the airport, we were finally let through security (I'm not sure what the hold up was) and on our way home! It was a wonderful trip - we had such a fun group, and I was honestly a little sad to leave them in LA instead of flying all the way to Salt Lake with them - although not enough to give up my next adventure - Disneyland with JETLAG!! :)