The scariest part of flying is not the flying...

My family had been planning a trip to Disneyland. They'd been planning it for a while, and in typical fashion, I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to go with them. I didn't have the vacation time to take off of work, I had some major car repairs come up that drained most of my savings and I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but I noticed that my check is a major amount less than it used to be, I'm told this is due to an increase in taxes. I'm not happy about this, but that is another post entirely.

So, they were planning the happy trip and as it got closer and closer, the desire to go grew and grew. My mom and aunt kept saying "You should just fly out for the weekend." I didn't think that this sounded like such a bad idea, except for the fact that I am quite large, and it concerned me that the plane would be full of people and I'd get stuck in the middle trying to belt up my seat belt without drawing attention to the fact that I couldn't. This is an irrational fear, I know, but still after not going to the gym for well over 6 months, and watching the scale show it, it felt like a real enough excuse.

The Disney Magic won out in the end, and I ended up booking a flight to leave on Wednesday and go down and spend Thursday and Friday with the family and then drive home with them on Saturday.

Wednesday night I was met with much anticipation at the Long Beach airport. I say much anticipation because the flight was delayed. However it was a delightful flight, and the seat didn't pinch my hips and the belt fit perfectly, so I'm not sure what I was so worried about.

We got back to the hotel and to my sorrow, the kids were all asleep, and most of the adults too. I said Hi to the few that were awake and turned in for the night. I was awakened the next morning by a phone call from my sweet niece asking me if I'd eat breakfast with them. It made my day. I was greeted by the following

then we made our way to the park. My other nieces and nephews had gone off already to explore the wonders of Lego Land, so I didn't get to catch up with them till later.

but shortly after meeting up we headed to the park. Along the way we met up with my Aunt and cousins and their cute family. I think I caught a great couple of pictures of them, see...

Amy and Mark gave Jory his early Birthday present, and he decided he liked it so much he'd wear it the whole day. I never knew that Dumbo was his favorite Disney character, but apparently it is (don't quote me on this, I just thought from his excitement at the hat that it must be true.)

Then as typically happens I took a few more pictures and then stopped taking pictures and rode rides and played with the family and had a blast hopping between parks.

We met up, the whole group of us, all 20, for dinner. I think we may have overwhelmed Tony Roma's a bit. I was told when we went in there not to order Chicken because they aren't famous for Chicken, so instead I ordered the shrimp pasta. On their menu it says Steak, Seafood, and Ribs... or something to that effect. I don't like Ribs or Steak for that matter... I thought I'd be safe. I wasn't... but dinner with the family was fun!

The next morning I was met by this group...

And was told after making them pose for about 25 pictures, that it wouldn't be Disneyland without me and my camera... awe! But seriously, shortly after taking the photos my camera battery died, so I ended up playing much like I did the day before, only this day we got rained on but not before we had the kids done up like this....

We had a little puppy too, but he was too busy being a puppy to be in the picture.

Even though it was raining it didn't stop us from having a good time. We did take a break from it to go see the production of Aladdin. It was amazing! Even the little kids sat mesmerized by the performers. My favorite part was the Elephant he rode in on during the "Prince Ali" song. It was awesome.

We rode and played and had lunch, and all met back up later to go to the "World of Color". If you haven't been to Disneyland to see this, you need to. It was amazing, and my picture doesn't do it justice.

The next morning we said goodbye to those staying behind for another day of fun and headed out on our way home. After only one sick kid incident we made it to Utah and were met by a terrible snow storm. My mom made us promise we'd stay in St. George, so we found a room there, hunkered down for the night and got up and headed back to "home sweet home" the next morning.

Cleo must have finally missed me, because she wouldn't leave my side for the first 3 days I was home. I think she's pretty much over it now... must be time for another vacation.