My Birthday Surprise!!!

Let me start at the beginning. My mom has started a tradition of celebrating each one of her kids 29th birthdays to the extream. This year was my year. I was told that we were going to spend 2 days is Las Vegas. The only thing she told me was that we were staying at the Mandalay Bay hotel. I was super excited. I love the shopping and thought we were going to see a show and maybe go to the spa. Well since my sister was having her missionary farewell on Sunday (my actual b-day) my mom and I decided to celebrate it Wednesday-Friday and then we would be back in time to get things together for Karri's farewell. The kids and I left on Monday and headed to Santaquin. On Tuesday we went to my nephews birthday party and after that I dropped the kids off at Wayne's parents house and I was officially "free".
Wednesday morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get ready for the long drive to Vegas. Before we headed out my mom said that she wanted to give me my birthday gift. I thought okay and she handed me a stack of papers. The first one was a reservation of a hotel...it wasn't for Mandalay Bay. The second one showed a reservation of a car rental...which was weird cause I thought we were driving, but flying was good to. The last one was our tickets to DISNEYLAND!!! It took me a minute for it to process. I wasn't going to Vegas I was going to Disneyland. I haven't been to Disneyland since I was eight (that's 20 years). Then my mom handed me an envelope with a card in it. I was from Wayne and he had put $260.00 dollars in it for spending money. I just started boo whooing and my dad got some really "nice" pictures of that.

On the way to the airport I was still in shock. Nothing like this has ever happened to me and I just couldn't comprehend what was going on. When we arrived in Anaheim the weather was great. Sunny, not a cloud in the sky and in the 70's. We took our shuttle to the car rental place and they gave us a silver Seibring convertible...it was sweet! It took us a little while to find our hotel and we checked in and then walked to Disneyland.

As soon as we entered all the memories came flooding back. I told my mom how seeing Disneyland through 28 year old eyes was so much different then seeing it for the first time as an eight year old. Everything seemed smaller. I only remembered certain rides like Space Mtn. and it's a Small World, The Haunted Mansion. We decided to go on the Star Tours ride first. The lines were great. I think the longest we were in line was for Splash Mtn and the was for 45 min. Other then that we spent 20 min or less in line. We then headed for Space Mtn. I would say that for most of the first day we power walked the distance from Santaquin to Salt Lake. We hit every ride two or three times. By the end of the day there was only one other ride that I wanted to go on and the was the Tower of Terror. We made it right before the park closed. It was the perfect ending the a perfect day.

Day two we decided to go to California Adventures first. Our first ride of the day was Soaring over California. Then decided to go on the river ride next. My mom is so funny. She did not want to get wet. For this ride that was something that would have been a miracle. She thought that the safest place would be in the middle, so I sat on the edge. She ended up getting soaked and I made it out just slightly damp. It was great! We then went on a ride that shoots you up in to the air. It was fun, but not as fun and I thought it would be. After that we on this roller coaster that goes 0-80 in 6 seconds. That was the best roller coaster ride I have ever been on! We made it to the Tower of Terror again and took some pictures with some Disney characters.
We decided to take a break from the park and went in search for a mall. I found a really cute dress that was priced at $87.00 and bought it or $11.00 ( I just love a good deal). We had lunch at the Olive Garden which I think gave us our second wind. We headed back to Disneyland and hit all the rides we didn't get to the day before.

The next day we turned our car back in and went to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye, but it was the break I needed. I can't wait for my kids to experience Disneyland for the first time. I have a renewed excitment to get them there in the next couple of years. I am soooo thankful for my parents and for Wayne. I am thankful for Wayne's parents for taking my kids so that I could do this. It is a birthday that I will never forget. Thanks Mom!