First Roller Coaster

Roller coasters have been a part of my life since I rode my first one before I could speak full sentances. I LOVE roller coasters! I remember going to Kennywood Park when I was little and begging to go on the roller coasters. The Little Dipper was the first one I rode. I needed and wanted more after that first ride ... The next one was the Jack Rabbit. I was so little that my mom had to wrap her arms around me to hold me in my seat on the killer double hill ... all the while I laughed like crazy! Roller coasters hold a lot of special momories for me. I got to go off with my mom, grandma, and pappy and ride the roller coasters while my dad stayed with my little brother and sister. My brother and sister never grew to like roller coasters until they were adults so it was always a special time that I got to spend with the adults.

Yesterday we took the day off and took Grace to Disneyland. Our annual passes are about to expire at the beginning of June so we wanted to get one more trip in. It's so crowded and hot in the summer so we probably won't renew our passes until the fall.

The day was beautiful. We got on the road at about 6:30 and after a stop at Starbuck's we headed north on the 5 freeway. We walked up to the front gates just after the park opened at 9:15 am. Our plan was to head straight to Nemo. The lines had been so long all of the other times we were there. We waited 45 minutes to ride it and it was ok. Next we headed to Mickey's Toontown where we went straight to the Go Coaster. I couldn't wait to take Grace on her first roller coaster. I was hoping she would love it ... I was not disappointed. She smiled and laughed during the whole ride. As soon as we got off she wanted to ride again. It made me so HAPPY!

We are in the front car, I will try to edit the picture for a close up.

Mother's Day

I hope all of the Mother's had a wonderful day!

I had a day that could not get more perfect! We had a nice brunch at the Omni Hotel, downtown. After brunch we went to the New Children's Museum.

Castle Park

When I was 13 we moved from Pennsylvania to California. My parents were just learning the area and they would always try to find fun stuff for us to do. I have no idea how they came to find Castle Park, but it became a place where we made tons of fun memories. Castle Park is a little amusement park/arcade/miniature golf course. The mini golf course is like no other that I have ever been to in my life, even now. There are 4 courses that weive in and out of each other. All of them are beautifully landscaped and they have really fun obstacles to get through. They have a lot of holes where you hit the ball into a hole and it comes out down on a different level and you don't know where it is going to come out. The arcade was always great for a competive game of air hockey and I could always be found at the Pac Man machine. We would collect endless amounts of tickets from the skee ball machines, hoping for a great prize but always ended up going home with a rubber ball or something just as lame. As I got older Castle Park became a fun place to "hang out". My frinds and I would ride the "big" rides, most of which spin you until your brain felt like scrambled eggs and later we would over dose on cotton candy. We would always scope out the place for cute boys, I think I even had a crush on a boy working at one of the carnival games.
I tell you all of this because a couple of weekends ago I went to Castle Park for the first time in almost 15 years! I wasn't sure what to expect ... was it going to be the same as I remeber it in all of my fun memories? Had the place gotten run down over the years? Had they completely changed the place? Well ... it was everything i remembered it to be and more. Being a mom I saw the park through a whole new set of eyes. I didn't realize they had so many cute kiddie rides! The park had been kept up and barely changed at all in 15 years. We had a really great time. I can't wait until Grace is big enough to play mini golf. I know that we will create so many fun new memories there.

Mother's Day Project

For my mom's first Mother's Day as a Grandma I made her a stepping stone for her garden. Grace was just 10 months and we made an imprint of her hand and decorated it with colored glass. My mom LOVED it! She asked that we make one every year on Mother's Day. My dad also loved the stones and asked that we make him one for Father's day too. When they moved into their new house, my parents planned a place for the stones with room to grow over the years. It is a special tradition that we always have fun doing. So here are a couple of pictures of us making my mom's stone this year.