Overcoming Fears!!

Saturday began bright and early at 7 am!!with the reason we took this trip, to watch the girls dance at Disneyland. First, they had hair and makeup and then a practice. Later, they had the chance to go backstage with only the Disneyland hosts, Michelle (their dance teacher), and two other Moms. Dancing at Disneyland was a neat experience for them. Karina danced along with Tia's group in the audience. It was very cute! Tierra did a wonderful job. I was so happy that she did such a great job back stage without me. :) Grant gave all the girls a blessing the night before they danced and it really helped. Sariah did a terrific job!! I was so happy for her! Riana and her class were particularly fun to watch because they've all gotten so good this year!! The adult class has the best facial expressions and the last song is always my favorite "We're All in this Together." The girls did fantastic!! We were so happy to have so much family there. In addition to those we had already seen, some of Grant's family came-- his brother Brian and his wife Shannon. We were so happy they came. It was really nice to spend some time with them. Next, we went on a bunch of rides. During the big rides, they kids were such troopers to wait so patiently. Sometimes they got bored though and found other things to keep them busy (see picture above). ;) Some of the rides we went on included: Soarin' Over California, Grizzly River Run (my old favorite ride--I know a little wimpy huh?), Jumpin' Jellyfish, the Golden Zephyr (which Tia was chosen to be the flight commander and received a sticker and everything), the Carousel (which was conveniently located next to California Screamin' so the kids got to go on it many times), and many more. Anyway, I have always been the biggest ride wimp ever!!!, ever since I rode the Octopus at Enchanted Village when I was 8 and puked on my older, cooler boy cousins. I was traumatized to say the least. Two years ago when Grant and I went to Disney World alone, I realized that I only hated long drops and lots of quick spinning (thus the Octopus.) He helped me overcoming the fear of being upside down and many others. So when I heard that my littlest brother Joe, 15, (who was not so into rides before this trip) went on California Screamin' 7 times! and then my Mom and Dad went on it too, I thought maybe I should give it a try. (Side note-- Riana went on it 10 times during the trip and Joe went on it 5 more times.) My oldest brother decided to go too. I was pretty nervous and wondered how I let Grant talk me into it. But luckily, I didn't have time to convince myself not to go because we had fast passes. I had Grant next to me, so I could hold his hand. He was so funny, taking pictures the whole way and we took pictures of the screen pictures at the end. Let's just say that I loved it so much that I went on it 2 more times that night!! (We all jumped in the single rider line and even though we didn't get to ride next to each other, we rode it 3 times in a 45 minute period, when the wait was 45 minutes for one ride.) It is now my favorite ride at Disneyland!! I am wondering what other cool rides I have missed out on in my life. What was so awesome was that the ups were quick and the downs were quick, so I didn't get that stomach drop out feeling for so long. I would way rather go on that ride then Splash Mountain because the drops were not as bad. Next, we headed over to Disneyland and went to dinner at Pizza Port with Brian and Shannon and their friends Erin and Ben. The company was great!! We loved hanging out with them. However, the meal was almost as pricey as Red Lobster for our family and the portions sizes were the right size for Jiminy Cricket! LOL! It was fun though. :) It was worth it to spend more time with Brian and Shannon. We sure love those guys and we don't get to see them as often as we would like. We ended our night with an amazing fireworks show (including a real human Tinkerbell flying over the castle) and the always fabulous "Fantasmic." We were all pretty tired at the end of the day. Luckily we got to sleep in the next morning, as it was one of our resting days. :)