IT'S WHAT FUN IS...OR IS IT?

LAGOON

Order of Rides

1. The Rocket (re-entry)

2. Wicked

3. Train ride (around park)

4. Terror house

5. Dracula's Castle

I know what you are saying. "The park was open to ICON only employees, where there were no lines and you only rode 5 rides in 4 hours!?!" yep. pretty much. Could we have gone on more. sure. Could we have gone on more without wanting to rip our brains out and throw it in the garbage can along with the remains from our dinner? probably not.

The first ride, THE ROCKET we fared pretty well on. I can handle the up and down motion longer than I can handle the twisty-spinning-twirling motion. Although both Clayton and I screamed like 12 year-old girls who had just seen Poltergeist for the first time. I forget that looking up from the bottom it doesn't seem as high as it does from the top looking down. go figure.

Next we moved on to...WICKED. Let me just say that the "WICKED" is just that...WICKED! It did crazy things to my head. Made me want to die. Made me realize how old I am. Question...Clayton and I have this on going debate that I would like settled once and for all. When I get sick from rides it is the feeling in my head that causes me to throw-up. My stomach will feel completely, 100% fine, but my head..."oy vey". Clayton believes that isn't possible. He believes that you can't throw-up from a headache, that you can only get nauseated in your stomach. Who is right?

After that we met up with some of the fam and let our heads (and stomachs...for Clayton's sake) rest while taking in the lovely sights of Lagoon on the Train.

Not the best picture, but whatdoyado? By the way the smiles are fake. They are masking the grueling pain we were feeling.

After that we hit the two haunted houses. Rachel thought it would be funny to take 3 year-old Tydon on the haunted house rides. I was skeptical thinking that I would hear him screaming the whole time, but it was his favorite ride. weird.

After that we were done. Let's be honest after WICKED I was done. I have been dying to try another new fro-yo place...Menchies. I have been waiting for them to come to Utah for months. About 5 months ago, when I saw on their website that they were building one in Utah I emailed their headquarters to see when they would be open (yes I am lame). When they weren't open by the date they told me I called (again lame I am). Now they are open, I am happy and I will leave their headquarters alone. At $0.39/oz they aren't as cheap as Yogurtland, but have definitely won out as my second favorite.

BEST OF FAMILY VACATION 2010

After doing the travel log blog post below I decided that we needed an awards post for the trip.

BEST WAY TO USE BORING FLIGHT TIME

Cort. He made this pig out of a dollar bill. Hours of endless fun compliments of Spirit Magazine!

BEST FAKE HAPPY FACE

Brandon. getting up at 5 am to make a flight isn't really his cup of tea (decaf tea of course).

BEST HEISMAN POSE

Cort. Take a look at the second picture and you will know why. Personally I like dad's pose.

BEST CELEBRATORY CHEST BUMP

Clayton and I. Of course we were the only ones who did do it.

BEST TOUCHDOWN DANCE
Clayton. He did the worm. Got sand in places he didn't know existed. If only I would have gotten a picture!




BEST PADDLE BALL PLAYERS
mom and pops. Of course I'm being extremely generous with this award. We all know that I have mad skills in this area.



BEST WAY TO START AN EARLY MORNING
Session at the Temple

BEST WAY TO PRACTICE FOR A FUTURE BISHOPRIC CALLING
Erik, Brandon, Dad, Cort, Clayton





BEST WAY TO CONVINCE PEOPLE YOU ARE GAY
Clayton and Cort
(side note: notice Clayton's new five fingers. We are big Five Fingers fans. They deserve a whole post to themselves.)


BEST WAY TO MAKE USE OF OVER PRICED GIFT SHOPS
Cort. GK shot.



BEST "YOU NEED TO TAKE A PICTURE OF ME AND THIS SIGN" MOMENT
Clayton.
Please tell me you know what a covered wagon is? I'm not talking pioneer wagons either. If you don't know ask the 'rents. They just found out.




BEST WAY TO LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT
Me.
My five fingers make me feel like a ballerina. Believe it or not there is a reason why I never was good at dancing.








BEST NEW CANDY
Pretzel M&M's
I was an unbeliever until I tried them.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G




BEST CLASSY MOMENT
Erik.
When he politely asked the Colorado fan at the restaurant if he would stop dropping the "F-Bomb". Seriously he was loud and obnoxious and dropped it every other sentence. After Erik talked to him he did better... for about 5 minutes.




BEST KARATE KID POSE
Clayton








BEST SELF ENTERTAINMENT
throwing rocks at the rock chucks, prairie dogs or whatever they were. There were so many of them in the field across from our hotel. I'm surprised that the boys weren't out all night trying to hit them with rocks. Every time we would get ready to leave the boys would have to throw a few rounds before they could get in the car.

BEST WAY TO GET FRUSTRATED
race running in the swim pool
notice me in last place. I cheated and still lost.

COLORADO TRAVEL LOG BLOG

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH

This years family vacation/BYU game was to Colorado. It was a short, quick trip but that is how we Andrew's roll. Our flight left early Friday morning (like 7am early) and we were to Denver by 8am. After checking into the hotel we hit Cherry Creek Lake for a picnic and some R&R. Prior to the R&R we had our own little football game. Team Losers were: Dad, Kami, Erik, Chelsey, and Brandon. Team Awesome was: me, Clayton, Cortney, and mom. Mom was our secret weapon...she has mad skills.

Dad decided that our football picture needed to be a pyramid. clever pops!

Don't let all the ornery faces in this picture fool you. We really were having a good time.

After napping, paddle ball, some towel game pops came up with, and examining the chewed off foot from some sort of alien duck we headed back to the hotel to swim in warmer water and get ready for dinner. Later that night we went to the movie "Inception". Only 3 people fell asleep in the movie so I would call that a success. The guilty party knows who they are (ummmm...mom, Cort, Brandon). After the movie we went to Yogurtland. Coincidence that our hotel was 10 minutes aways from the only open Yogurtland in Colorado? I think not. That was so totally planned. However the line was out the door and almost to the street. Colorado apparently shares my love for Yogurtland. Much to mine and Mom's dismay the "too tired to wait in line for the most awesome thing to hit society since the automobile" people won out. So we drove to Maggie Moos for our ice cream fix where there was no line.

That brings us to Saturday morning. Clayton and I hit an early session at the Temple and afterwards were met by the rest of the family. Can you tell that it is GAME DAY? Before the game we drove to Colorado Springs to see Seven Falls. I never got a good picture of the falls so I "borrowed" this one from the website.

There are 224 stairs that go up the falls. Not even close to the 3,992 stairs we climbed on Stairway to Heaven in Hawaii a few years ago, but enough to make my calves pretty dang sore. Once at the top we took a short hike to Inspiration Point. This hike takes you past the former gravesite for Helen Hunt. Not the "Twister" Helen Hunt, but the Helen Hunt that wrote the Ramona books.
The end of the trail is a beautiful view of Colorado Springs. Unfortunately your view of Colorado Springs is blocked by us.

The game.

Not worth mentioning.

Moving on.

OK I will mention a few things.

1. This was my second time going to a football game at Air Force Academy and I must say they are pretty classy.

2. The game was played on September 11. In honor of that day the Air Force Falcons put a flag in the lightening bolts on their helmets. Made me almost feel guilty if we were to beat them. Would that make us terrorists? But, then we didn't have to worry about beating them did we!!!

The picture below is of all the cadets on the football field before the game.

What better way to drown your sorrows than with food!?! That is exactly what we did. Emotional eaters? Yes. If how the cougars played against Air Force is any indication of the rest of the season we all might be 84 lbs heavier. After dinner we tried Yogurtland again thinking that the long line was just a crazy phenomenon. No way could the line be that long two nights in a row.

WRONG!

See what I mean! There was no way that I was going to go home with no Yogurtland so we waited in line. 45 minutes we got through the doors. Totally worth it!

After that off to bed before flying out the next morning.

Can't wait till BYU gets their schedule out for next year. I'm thinking Hawaii, Texas, Oregon State all seem like mighty fine places to vacation.

ps. next year we hope that Rachel and Nate can come with us. We missed you guys.

GAME DAY

GAME DAY

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year

I hate this time of year because of the temperature change

Temperature change = means four letter "S" word is coming

(hint: I'm talking about the white four letter "S" word on the brown four letter "S" word)

I love this time of year because of football

I decided that in honor to celebrate the start of another football season we would hike to the "Y" on Y mountain in Provo before the BYU/Washington game. Kami, Erik, Brandon and Chelsey embarked on this great journey with us.

Don't let him fool you...it may look like he is stretching, but really he is "airing" himself out. Sitting on the Y

There were a million BYU students hanging out up there listening to their 2010 EFY and Saturday Warriors soundtracks. Making our own Y. Cheesy I know. Maybe all the Michael Mclean songs blaring through the air were getting to us.

Pretty sure pops should copy this gate for use on his corals.

View of Y from our seats in the Stadium

Y Quarterbacks of the past tribute at halftime

Steve Young

Ty Detmer

This one is for Rachel

Coach LaVell Edwards

So I always wear hats for two reasons:

1) fashion

2) laziness to style or wash my hair

However, Clayton showed me that there is another use for a hat...to keep the sun off of your face. who knew!?! I couldn't figure out why Clayton and Brandon were wearing their hats like this for most of the game until Clayton told me that it was to block the sun. Wow.

BYU 23 WSU 17

Because I know that you want to know my thoughts on the game I will tell you...

LIKES

1. Special teams did really well (with exception of Matt Payne. Thank Heavens he is graduating this year). Total turn around from last year.

2. Riley surprised me. He did quite well and didn't run the ball every time it was hiked to him. shocker.

3. Heaps also did well. It is good to know that we have two good quarterbacks. With that being said...

DISLIKES

1. Are you seriously going to use 2 quarterbacks the entire year!!! I'm not talking about one main quarterback, I'm talking using a different quarterback every other series. I. don't. like. it. and I don't think that it will work the entire season. But what do I know.

2. Matt Payne. How close do you need to be to make a field goal!?!

3. Receivers need to learn to catch.

I wouldn't be a BYU fan if I was just happy with a win. BYU fans find something to complain about win or lose.

Bring on the falcons!

EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY

CLAYTON: Today is a good day!
HEIDI: Why?
CLAYTON: For two reasons. One, I finally caught with my bare hands the dinosaur fly on steroids that has been flying around our house for weeks. And two, we have enough bananas for you to make banana bread.

Yes he was so excited to catch this wild beast that he took a picture all on his own.

Isn't it funny how we focus so much of our energy on the negative stuff that happens to us that we often don't recognize the good things. I often complain about my job, but then immediately guilty because A) I have a job, B) For two hours every morning I get paid to work out, how many people get to do that, C) I have lots of friends here that I can laugh with or can go to when I am down. I am a firm believer that no matter how crappy your day is going there is always something good to be found. Lots of times these good things are so small that we don't recognize them as good things. So I'm going to make a list of some of the good things that happened to me each day this week. This is mostly for my own benefit so I'm not offended if you don't want to read on.

Sunday: Got to hear Clayton speak in church (love that) and I got to bear my testimony (doing that really uplifts me). Had steak at the in laws. Oh how I love their steak. My Father-in-law has become my ice cream BFF. Lately he has been making sure his freezer is stocked with some.

Monday: Had a nice, long run. That always makes me feel good. Heard rain pounding on the roof. I love that sound.

Tuesday: Took a nice walk. Wasn't too hot or cold. Did sealings at the Temple. Made an awesome smoothie. Had quality cuddle time with Clayton.

Wednesday: did squats and lunges that killed my legs. Felt good even though they hurt so bad. Had weekly lunch date with Clayton. Received book I ordered from Amazon.com in the mail. Got a visit at work from this little guy and his mom. FYI I have been saving treats for him at my office. He wore his new football shirt and jean shorts with pockets. He chose the shorts because they had pockets for the treats I had for him. cheese!

Thursday: Talked to mom on the phone during my walk at lunch. Green grapes were on sale at Kent's Marketplace for $0.44/lb (red were $0.88/lb). Made banana bread. Discovered that I like Kelly Clarkson's new album. Clayton brought me home Bear Lake raspberries.

Friday: This morning as we were running on treadmills Clayton's belt suddenly stopped and he went flying backwards. Scared the crap out of me, but he didn't get hurt. only working 1/2 day. Yogurtland tonight!!!

Saturday: I know that Saturday hasn't come yet but I KNOW that it will be a great day. Hiking Y mountain. BYU football season starts! GO COUGARS! Time with family.

PLAN A, B, & C

If you haven't noticed we live for the weekends

Last weekend was no exception

We wanted to get one more Bear Lake trip in before the end of summer,

so that was PLAN A. but...

nope weather was not looking good

So we decided to go with Plan B - Glendale

We had fun there a over the 24th of July.

The water was warm and the rope swing was fun ...

(well except for when it ripped Clayton's nail off)

Off we went

We raced the clouds...because they were coming fast

We thought that we could get at least a few hours of sun/fun in

Apparently the weather wasn't our main problem...

there was NO WATER.

What!?!

To clarify there was a little bit of water

but where the rope swing was...

NONE. ZILCH. ZERO. NADA.

It is crazy how just one measly month ago we were playing in the water and jumping off of the rope swing and now NOTHING!

My guess is that farmers use it for irrigation water.

Which is ok, because farmers need water too.

Onto Plan C

Plan C was to ride the tandem to the farmers market and pick up some fresh produce

We got there just as the vendors were closing up

but we did score some Zucchini and squash.

Hey mom...remember when I hated squash?

Then we decided to go hiking.

Richard's Hollow Waterfall was the planned destination

Berries that Clayton wouldn't let me eat

We get to the waterfall and low and behold

a trickle!

That was our bad

We should have known that you can't expect much from Utah waterfalls in August

(ps. to give him credit Clayton warned me about that before we left)

Did get some good shots of me showing my muscles

That is almost as exciting as a waterfall
Check out my huge calves
note to self...no more squatting in pictures

Where the waterfall was supposed to be if we would have hiked it in March or April

Moral of the story...

Always have a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C