5 ways to get the most out of your trip to Disneyland!

Those who know me know I am Disney obsessed!  I have visited Disneyland more than I can count.  Over the countless times I have visited I have come up with some tips and tricks to help your experience go smoother.

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare - Disneyland is sure to be exhausting. Make sure you are prepared for your trip. Comfortable shoes are a must. I would even say bring a couple pairs, a pair of sandals and tennis shoes. We always make sure we bring along a different pair of shoes so when we do water rides we can switch shoes and we don't have to spend the rest of the day with wet shoes.

2. Make a plan - Decide which rides you absolutely want to ride while you are there.  Make a plan on which ones you will go to first, and which ones you will get fast passes for.  I highly recommend paying the extra money for the maxpass, it is a fastpass you can get on your phone, which saves you from running around to the different fast pass locations. Another great tip a Disney employee gave me was to walk the park counter clockwise.  most people enter the gates and immediately go to the right, because its a natural tendency and its where space mountain is.  If you enter and go immediately to the left, you will experience shorter lines and ride more rides in half the time.

3. Stay close to the park - I think it is totally worth it to stay within walking distance of the park.  You don't have to deal with parking (it's expensive and a pain), and you faster access to your hotel room if you need a break anytime during the day.  This is also best if you have kids with you, we know they can't always last all day.

4.  Always make sure you have ziploc bags to put your valuables in while you do water rides.  You can also purchase ponchos for pretty cheap on Amazon, or at the dollar store if you would prefer not to get wet at all, personally that is my favorite part, especially when its hot. 

 

(Pic of my brother and my cute son on his first Disney trip)

5.  Book with Getawaytoday! I have used getawaytoday.com for all of my Disney trips.  They have the best prices on trips and you can bundle your tickets, hotel and even plane tickets if you need. Their customer service is amazing and I promise you won't be disappointed! 

Until next time....

Timing is Everything

Today is September 11, 2012.  A very somber day for our country.  11 years have passed since the tragedy, and I like many others, can remember exactly what I was doing when we got word the the airplane had hit the first tower.  I am pretty sure I will never forget that moment, and it is not something that I want to forget.  That moment in time brought this country closer together.  People were praying together, looking out for each other, and being kind to one another (for the most part).  These are things that should be done on an everyday basis, not just in the mist of a tragedy.  But nonetheless, what a strength we felt during that time.  Unfortunately, many many innocent lives were lost in this tragedy.  I am forever grateful for those that lost their lives, those that sacrificed, and those that continually fight for our freedom and try to keep terrorists away.  

This brings me to my topic, timing is everything.  Many of you know my husband is in the military, he served our country through 2 tours in Iraq.  As he and many friends posted memories and thank you's on Facebook, one hit me kind of hard.  This is what he said, "crazy to think that 5 years ago today we landed in Iraq..."  Five years ago today, my husband and many others started their first tour in Iraq.  It seems like so long ago, yet I remember it like it was yesterday.  I remember the stress, anxiety, sadness, and pride that I was feeling up to his initial departure. And the thought of the love of my life and best friend going into a war zone, a country where for the most part he wasn't wanted, and was sought out.  That was one of the hardest years of my life.  But it strengthened us, me more than him.  I became independent and strong among other things, and I think I was just being prepared for more things to come.  Luckily I was not left alone in this crazy time in my life.  I can still remember the conversation I had with my husband.  "Nate has a girlfriend, I think you would like her.  You should get together."  Me - "You want ME of all people to get together with a totally random person that I don't know..." "Yes, babe, I know you girls will get along great and you can lean on each other during this deployment." So Carissa and I met at Olive Garden, for a get to know you date, and its a good thing our husbands know us well because we have been best friends ever since.  Without her, the deployment would have been ridiculously hard.  It is SO nice to have someone who knows exactly what you are going through.  Someone who you can share your ups and downs, your worries and frustrations, everything and we spent many a nights at Starbucks or Olive Garden, crying on one another's shoulders, looking for the strength to make it through another day. And guess what, we made it through that year, and our relationship is stronger than ever.

A little while later and deployment #2 came around for us.  Luckily Nate and Rissa did not have to go through another one.  But she still supported me through our second.  Sending random texts, meeting up for dates, and letting me cry to her about my frustrations.  The second deployment was much different for us.  I found out I was pregnant the day Kenny left for Iraq.  Talk about a day of mixed emotions.  I just cried, and Kenny tried to do everything he could to comfort me, knowing that nothing was going to help, and there was nothing he could do to stay behind.  Thankfully, my pregnancy was very easy (I think the Lord know I couldn't handle a rough pregnancy and my husband being gone), and Kenny was able to be home for the birth and 2 weeks after.  He returned from his deployment when she was three months old, so luckily she was never really affected by it. 

Here are some pictures of that time in our lives.

Kenny leaving when Kenzi was 3 months old.

I think this picture completely explains how we feel about deployments.

We made sure to support daddy while he was gone.

We love daddy!

Fast forward to now.  We have a COMPLETE daddy's girl.  I mean whenever he leaves the room, she cries so hard that she does the whole stop breathing and panicking until he comes back.  It is completely ridiculous.  Tonight when he left for work, she went through this routine and so we called daddy and just hearing his voice instantly calmed her down.  Can you imagine if he had been deployed while she was old enough to understand?  That would be SO hard on both of us.  I can't imagine having to have the strength for both of us.  I admire military spouses that go through deployments with kids because it is such a hard thing to understand.  Why you can't call them whenever you want, or see them whenever you want, how most the time you NEVER know anything for certain.  It is a rough time.

Timing is Everything....

I have said in previous posts that the Lord for sure knew what I needed, and always done.  I am thankful that I just had to go through pregnancy without Kenny and a few short months of Kenzi's life. I am thankful that we did not wait until he came home from deployment to start our family.    I needed Kenzi at that time of my life to give me strength to get through another deployment.  Because it was just her and I for the first 3 months, we will have a bond that I am not sure we would have had in a different situation.  I am thankful that heavenly father is all knowing and knows what needs to happen in my life at what time.  And although sometimes I don't understand it, and may even be angry or find it unfair, in the end it always makes sense eventually...

Teaching By Example

I had a sweet experience with my sweet baby girl tonight and I wanted to write it down for journaling purposes.  My sweet baby girl is definitely giving me a run for my money.  She never stops doing something (which is usually her getting into something.)  She has the attention span of a small fish (about 5 seconds) and she thinks time out and the word no are funny.  But man do I love her.  Tonight as we sat down to eat dinner, I bowed my head to say a blessing on the food.  During the prayer I opened one eye just to see what she was doing.  To my complete surprise she was folding her arms and she had her head down.  What a sweet moment that was.  I have not taught her this yet.  Of course every time we pray I tell her to fold her arms, but she never does.  It gave me such a strong testimony of  how important our examples are to others.  Our children, and people around us are watching what we are doing.  You can teach so much by actions without using any words.  I need to be more away of my actions, cause she is taking them all in, good or bad.  And even though I feel like she is never really listening to me, or not taking anything in, she truly is.  She is an amazing child of God and I am so thankful that he trusted me enough, to send her to me.  To nurture, teach and eventually, hopefully return to live with him again.

Source: motherletters.com via Kayla on Pinterest

Fitting In

*Note this is mostly for journaling purposes, so if for some reason it bores you or you think I am in a pity party, I'm not. I just feel the need to write down my thoughts at this moment before I explode :) Feel free to scroll down as you need, I won't be offended :)*


I have been lucky in my life. I have always found a place to fit in. I have always had at least one best friend, that I could go to at any moment and share my good and bad times with. I have had a few really close friends, and for reasons which are unknown to me, we have grown apart. That happens, I think it is part of life. I am thankful to be able to have fit in, I can't imagine being without friends, because there were some moments in my life where just hanging out with friends was all I needed in order to cheer me up. There have, however been a few times that I have felt like I didn't fit in. Let me tell you it is a hard stage to be in, and not fun.

The first time I remember really not fitting in was the crazy time in my life when I got married. Let me give you just a little background on how my church works in order to help you better understand this story. When teenagers graduate from high school and up until they get married, they are able to go to what is called a singles ward. It is a church service meant only for young single adults, in order for you to meet and mingle, and give kids in that weird gap a place to have friends and basically a place to fit in. If you do not go to a singles ward, then there is the basic family ward, which you probably guessed, is meant for all those who don't fall into the young single adult category. Ok back to my post. So when Kenny and I got married, he was home for 2 weeks before he was deployed to Iraq. So here I was a non-single (but technically single) young women, living with her parents attending a family ward. Man was that a hard time in my life. I felt like nobody understood what I was going through. I couldn't hang out with my single's ward friends anymore because they all went on group dates, and were looking to find marriage companions (which I definitely didn't fit into), and I didn't fit in with the family ward because here I was a (semi)single young adult surrounded with people in their middle ages with kids. Hard as I tried, it just never really worked. We had nothing in common, and I struggled with finding a place in which I felt comfortable. Thankfully, after many tearful phone calls with my dear husband he finally convinced me to get together with his best friend's (who was deployed with him) fiancee because they were both sure that we would get along great. Luckily Carissa and I set up a time to meet (which let me tell you is super scary considering you don't know the person from Adam) and we never looked back from there. Finally, someone who knew what I was going through, someone who had much in common with me, and actually we didn't realize it, but we had gone to elementary and high school together but never really met until years after high school. How Crazy is that!? She definitely was the answer to my heartfelt prayers as I asked my Heavenly Father to help me find somewhere to fit in.

Many years later, 2 deployments and a baby later, I find myself in the same place. Struggling to fit in. No my husband isn't deployed, and no I don't live with my parents, but I now have a (soon to be) one year old, and several friends who don't have kids. As much as they try, and I try to explain, it is just hard to understand having a child unless you actually have one. Whether you like it or not your life now revolves around this child. They have feedings, diaper changes, nap times (or else they are totally grumpy), schedules, don't do well in public places (let me tell you going out to dinner is definitely an adventure), now that she can walk she feels the need to walk everywhere and doesn't like to be held, which also narrows down the things that we can do, and so on and so forth... Is any of this making sense?? Maybe I am just rambling. Oh well it is for my purposes anyway. So here I am trying to explain to friends why we can't hang out at a certain time, why we can't go to a movie, why we can't go to that restaurant or why sometimes just keeping baby girl at home is best. I also feel bad when she cries at all. Sometimes I feel like if you don't have kids the crying and fusiness can get annoying super fast. But sometimes there is nothing I can do about it. She is a baby and sometimes she just gets uncomfortable, tired, irritable etc, in fact most adults have these issues to. So then I find myself frustrated and continually apologizing because she is not smiling and happy, but then I think to myself why am I apologizing for her being a baby? There is no need to apologize. So here I am again, feeling like I don't fit in, where do I find friends who will understand, who will know what it is like? I know you are probably saying find people who have kids, but then sometimes I feel like they are too old, and they will find me too immature. Here I am praying again, for that chance to fit in, and I know sooner or later Heavenly Father will answer my prayers, as I try everything I can to find my place.