Disneyland and Universal

Ever since the last time we went to Disneyland in the fall of 2016, we knew we wanted to go again before Rebekah graduated and potentially left home. And after our trip to San Diego in early 2018, I was determined to find a time when there would be fewer crows. Disneyland on Columbus Day was crazy. Legoland in February was a ghost town. 

Clear back at the beginning of the school year, we cross-checked our calendars with the crowd-tracking calendars. Originally we thought we'd go to Disneyland in early March, but Ana got moved from silver to gold team in ballroom, and the week we had planned to go was the same week gold team would be attending nationals in Provo. So we consulted our calendars again and picked out the first full week of February, immediately after Rebekah's assumed All-State band performance. 

With one Disneyland/Universal trip under our belts, we were better prepared for our trip this time. That and the fact that everyone was tall enough to go on any ride made this a fun and unforgettable trip.

Sunday, February 5

We left the house at 7 a.m. We chose to take advantage of the fact that we have four licensed drivers in the family. Rebekah drove from Idaho Falls to Springville, Utah. Seth from from Springville to St. George. Ana drove from St. George to Baker, California. I drove the rest of the way. We made several pit stops along the way and a few stops for gas. I packed chicken salad for lunch and made sandwiches and passed them around while sitting in the back seat of the van. We ate pepperoni pizza pasta salad for dinner. We arrive at the hotel about 8:30 or 9 and got our backpacks ready for Disneyland the next day.

First driving shift. Rebekah loved the carpool lane in Utah.

Second shift. Winnie and I had recently finished listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so we watched that in the backseat during this leg of the trip.

Third leg. We didn't get a picture of the fourth leg when I drove. That was the one time Seth and I sat next to each other in the car. Ana was very proud of the fact that she drove us past Las Vegas.

Monday, February 6

I woke up before 5 because my internal clock was off. We got up right after 6 and got ready for Disneyland. We ate a light hotel breakfast and walked the 0.8 miles to Disneyland. We made it through the rigmarole of security and tickets, then hung out on front of Frontier Land for rope drop. (You can enter Disneyland an hour before the rides start, but you have to wait at the rope for everything to open. Most of us haven't been to rope drop before--the exception being Ana because of her ballroom tour to Disneyland last summer--but we learned that if you get there early enough, you're among the first to get on the high-demand rides.)

Our first stop was Galaxy's Edge, the Star Wars themed section of the park that didn't exist the last time we went as a family, and lined up for Rise of the Resistance. After that, we rode Smuggler's Run. In that ride each of us had a responsibility on the ship: pilot, gunner or engineer. Most everyone else rotated around those responsibilities throughout our trip there, but I was always an engineer. I'm really good at pushing buttons, I guess.

Then we headed to Frontier Land and rode Winnie the Pooh, Splash Mountain (it was only a 10-minute wait because it was still early-ish in the morning and the temperature was cool), Pirates, Jungle Cruise (Seth created a ridiculous laugh in response to the ridiculous puns), then Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Star Tours (which we rode twice), Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio, Autopia and Thunder Mountain after dark. At that point, Rebekah and Seth left walked back to the hotel. The rest of us did Thunder again and then rode the hotel shuttle back. 

Two things we learned about Disneyland this time: There are still plenty of people at Disneyland in February, and the rides don't seem to be very trustworthy. Thunder, Space Mountain and Matterhorn all broke down at some point. (Indiana Jones and Haunted Mansion were closed for scheduled maintenance.)

Walking from the hotel to Disneyland.

Family selfie after entering the park. Apparently you can't just go up to the fence and take pictures of the Mickey flowers whenever you want. We didn't want to stand in line, so we took this shot.

Andrea and Ana waiting for rope drop.

Miriam and Ana playing a game called "Sticks" while Rebekah watches and everyone waits for our turn to go on Rise of the Resistance. At one point, most of us took off our hoodies. A couple in front of us thought we were totally crazy. (It was probably in the high 40s.) We explained that we are from Idaho, and this was downright balmy for us. They balked when we told them that there had been three days the week before when the temperature didn't get above 0 at our house.

Seth plotting against the Empire while waiting in line.

Rebekah, Seth, Miriam, Ana and Winnie at Galaxy's Edge. It was very immersive and believable.

Winnie, Miriam and Ana playing with the holochess board while waiting for Smuggler's Run.

Family selfie on the Millennium Falcon.

Seth hugging Chewbacca.

Ana either laughing at one of the guide's jokes or at her dad's laugh while on Jungle Cruise.

Eating Dole Whips after lunch. We packed bagels sandwiches for lunch, then spent the low, low price of $50 on 6 soft serves.

On Star Tours. Ana was the rebel spy pictured in the opening sequence.

Family selfie on Thunder Mountain.

Getting ready for Mr. Toad.

Miriam trying to read something on Seth's phone and keep others from reading it. While we waited in line, we had a couple of games we played on the phone. This one was an imposter-type game where one person was trying to fake being "in the know" while the rest of us were actually in the know.

Tuesday, February 7

This day was much like Monday, except Seth dropped us at the gate, then drove back to the hotel, parked the van, and walked to the park. He was trying to spare Miriam's feet--the one that had a bunionectomy last summer and the other that will need a bunionectomy at some point.

This was our day at California Adventure. We were there for rope drop and planned to zip over to the Cars ride because the line is always so long. As we were waiting for rope drop, however, a CA employee wound his way through the crows of people to inform us that Cars would not be functioning at the beginning of the day. So instead of heading over to Cars land, we went to the Avengers campus and rode Guardians of the Galaxy twice followed by Web Slingers. 

Next up was the Little Mermaid followed by the Incredicoaster. Winnie wanted to go on on it, but as we progressed in line, she got really quiet and turned a little gray. She finally admitted to me that although she wanted to go, she was also scared to go. I assured her that even though the Incredicoaster goes upside down, it wasn't any scarier than all the other rollercoasters she had already gone on. She screwed her courage to the sticking place, went on the ride (and even let go of the handles before the end), then asked if we could go on it again. So we did.

Then we rode Goofy's Sky School, Soaring Around the World, and Monsters, Inc. If we could do that over again, we wouldn't have chosen Goofy's and Monsters. They were not worth the wait. Meanwhile the Cars ride was back up and running, and the wait time was estimated as under an hour, so we ran over to Cars land, got in line, moved up in line ... and heard them announce that the ride was down. We waited another 20 minutes to see if it could come back up quickly, then we gave up and left. And that's the story of how our family has been to California Adventure twice but never gone on Radiator Springs Raceway.

Instead we went on the Incredicoaster and Guardians of the Galaxy some more. 

We carried most of our meals and snacks into the park, but we did choose to eat out a couple of times on our trip. This night we bought mac and cheese and clam chowder--both in sourdough bread bowls. We bought three for the six of us, ate some of our other food as sides, drank our own flavored water, and had a delicious and filling dinner.

Miriam's feet were hurting. Rebekah was tired. So Seth went back to the hotel with them while Ana, Winnie and I rode Guardians of the Galaxy and checked out some of the parts of the Avengers campus together. Then we rode the shuttle back to the hotel at 8:30 p.m.

Going past the Guardians tower. Once we knew exactly where the picture would be taken on this ride, we orchestrated our poses. 

Eating our sandwiches that we made that morning in the hotel room.

Another waiting in line game. In this one, everyone tries to get the person with the phone to guess what is on it. This was from the "Bible" category. If the person with the phone answers correctly, she tips the phone down to get another prompt. You try to get as many as possible within a time limit.

Ana waiting for Radiator Springs. This is how close we were to the front when it shut down.

Winnie posing next to the Walt statue.

Miriam hauling Winnie through the line of the Incredicoaster.

Family picture with Pixar Pier in the background.

The optical illusion we found on the Avengers campus. The tile was flat.

Wednesday, February 8

This day we went straight to Space Mountain at rope drop and rode it twice in a row. Then we rode Star Tours (Winnie was the rebel spy), Matterhorn, It's a Small World, Big Thunder, Pirates, Splash Mountain, Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance. Winnie, Rebecca and I went on the teacups.  While Seth, Ana and Miriam looked for pins to trade. 

A word about pins. Disneyland has collector's pins. You can buy them. If you already have one, you can trade it for a different pin. There are pin trading boards at most of the gift shops, and sometimes employees will have them on their person. We knew about the pin trading beforehand, so we bought pins from Ebay before we left on the trip. We divvied those up, and everyone traded throughout our Disney trip. This turned out to be a real hoot. Ana traded for Star Wars Tsum Tsum pins. Rebekah worked on getting Winnie the Pooh pins. Winnie collected random pins. Miriam collected mostly Star Wars pins. Seth traded our pins the entire time and gave most of them to the girls. The one pin he did keep was a $20 Anna pin (from Frozen) that had a sapphire in it and said "September." That one he gave to me.

We ate beignets (which were a lot cheaper than the Dole Whips and equally delicious), and Miriam, Winnie, Ana and I rode Star Tours one more time (I was the rebel spy--I have no idea how members of our group kept being the one on the screen) while Rebekah and Seth looked for pins. We caught the 5:30 shuttle back to the hotel and ate dinner there.

In the end, we asked all the girls what their favorite rides had been.

Miriam: Star Tours and Smuggler's Run; Incredicoaster and Guardians

Rebekah: Matterhorn; Incredicoaster

Ana: Rise of the Resistance and Big Thunder Mountain

Winnie: Space Mountain; Incredicoaster 

Andrea: Big Thunder at night and Star Tours; Guardians

Seth: Big Thunder; Incredicoaster and Guardians

As mentioned before, we had a grand time coordinating poses for the ride photos. And on Wednesday, we took turns choosing the rider configurations for each ride. 

Rebekah watching the marching band in New Orleans Square.

Family selfie on Pirates.

Waiting in line for Smuggler's Run.

Also waiting in line, but with the Millennium Falcon in the background.

Family picture in front of the Falcon.

Captured by the Empire.

Miriam and Winnie watching a show in the bottom bunk of the castle bunk beds in our hotel room.

Rebekah (already asleep) and Ana in their bed. We rotated the girls around in the beds since more than two wanted the bunks. Ana chose to stay in the queen all five nights and shared with each of her sisters in turn.

Thursday, February 9

Even though we had a 1.5-hour drive to Universal Studios, the park didn't open until 10 a.m., so we actually got to sleep in until 7. We ate breakfast and left the hotel around 8:15. After parking the van, we went down CityWalk, through security, and straight to the lower lot. We started by riding The Mummy (twice in a row), Jurassic World (twice) and Transformers (twice). We tried to check out the new Mario World land, but you needed a special pass to get in, and the Bowser ride wasn't open yet anyway.

Then we went back up the escalators to upper lot to eat our lunch before going to Harry Potter land and riding Flight of the Hippogriff followed by Forbidden Journey followed by Flight of the Hippogriff. After that we rode Simpsons, watched Kung Fu Panda and went on the Universal tour. The tour, which we didn't go on during our last trip, turned out to be one of everybody's favorite things to do there. (Granted, I don't think our younger kids would have enjoyed it as much then as they did now.) We've been watching The Good Place, and we were able to drive past that set and point out the frozen yogurt shops and chowder fountain. The girls were fascinated by the flash flood effects in the little Mexican town set and the subway set. They have a couple of 3D features along the way; the King Kong one was okay, but the Fast and the Furious One was ... dumb in everyone's opinion.

We ate a giant maple bacon donut while on the tour, and then we headed to the the Water World show. The pyrotechnics, water effects, and stunts were all spectacular. We sat near the very back in the middle section and didn't not get wet at all. We were able to see everything and stay dry.

We headed to the Minions ride, but it temporarily broke down so we had to wait for a little while. That turned out to be our longest wait of the whole day, and it was only about half an hour. At this point we Decided not to do The Secret Life of Pets ride. We shelled out $53 for butter beers and ate our packed dinners next to Lard Lad Donuts.

After dinner, we went back to the lower lot for the rest of the day. We went on Jurassic World, The Mummy, The Mummy, The Mummy and Jurassic World. The girls got a wild hare and decided to chant "Imhotep! Imhotep!" on our second-to-last ride on The Mummy. Then on our last time through, they had us all be completely expressionless so the workers would wonder about us. 

Then we walked all the way back to the car in the Curious George parking lot. On our way back to the hotel, we paid $4.29 for gas.

One drawback to Universal was the amount of virtual rollercoasters. Poor Seth and Rebekah ended up feeling sick on those. On some of the later ones, they chose to sit in seats that didn't shake and move, or they put their heads down and didn't watch. The other drawback (albeit a minor one) is that they don't let you download or even take pictures of the photos they shoot on the rides, so we didn't even stop to look at them.

Before the trip, we knew that smashed pennies would be the cheapest souvenirs we could get, so I raided Ana's change and brought a ton of pennies and quarters. When we got to both Disneyland and Universal, however, we found that their machines have changed and only accept dollar bills and provide the penny. So a few times on our trip I had to get some of my quarters changed to bills, and I borrowed several of Winnie's ones for the girls to get smashed pennies.

Family selfie on Jurassic World.

Eating our packed lunches.

Winnie and Seth posing next to the Salazar Slytherin statue in Hogwarts.

Riding Flight of the Hippogriff.

Family picture at Hogsmeade.

Seth next to the War of the Worlds set that we saw while on the tour.

The girls during the tour.

Leaving the stands after the Water World show.

Friday, February 10

This was our uneventful day of driving home. We woke up shortly after 6 and packed everything up, ate breakfast at the hotel one last time and loaded the last of our things into the van. Seth drove the first shift from Anaheim to Baker. Rebekah drove the second shift to St. George. Ana drove the third shift, and I drove the last shift. We got home, unloaded everything from the car, and collapsed in our beds. 

Splash Mountain on Monday and Wednesday. We obviously synchronized the pose for Wednesday's shot. We learned that this perhaps wasn't the best idea because our arms aren't long enough to reach everyone's mouths in a row like this unless you're basically ripping heads off.

Space Mountain on Monday and Wednesday. The first time we didn't know where the camera took the picture, so everyone's reactions are genuine. I blinked when the flash fired. The dudes in the back of the upper right shot make it especially delightful.

Guardians on Tuesday. The first one was our genuine reaction not knowing when the picture was shot. Second one we're praying for our lives. Third one we were trying to point directly at the camera. Winnie was spot-on. I was way off. Last one dabbing.

Incredicoaster on Tuesday. You can see the apprehension in Winnie's eyes in the first one. Seth is a puppy dog on the right middle. Rebekah and I are nonplussed on the last one.

	LUNCH	DINNER
SUNDAY	Chicken salad sandwiches	Pepperoni pizza salad
MONDAY	Salad bags	Tuna and crackers
TUESDAY	Bagel sandwiches	Purchased in California Adventure
WEDNESDAY	Wraps	Clif Bars
THURSDAY	Sandwiches	Fruit, nuts, cheese
FRIDAY	Leftovers	Purchased on the drive

All the bands

Rebekah has been collecting honor bands like baseball cards. She participated in the BYU-Idaho Honor Band performance on Saturday, January 28 where she played first chair euphonium. This was the first time they had an honor band in since 2020, and Rebekah didn't participate during her freshman year since this honor band is director-recommended, and her previous band instructor chose to recommend kids who hadn't already qualified for audition-only honor bands. 

Rebekah standing with the other members of the honor band.

A great shot of the bell of her euphonium, which is all we could see as she played.

Then we got to watch Rebekah participate in the All-State Jazz Band at ISU on Friday, February 3. Rebekah has auditioned for this band every year of high school, but instead of making the jazz band, she was placed in the concert band (which she also auditioned for) ... until this year. It was rewarding to see her not only make the jazz band, but she also was assigned first chair trombone. The jazz band is much smaller than the concert band, so fewer kids make it in.

Other years the performance has been in Nampa, so because it was in Pocatello this year, it was much easier for all her grandparents and sisters to attend. Unfortunately, the concert started later than anyone expected because the fire alarm went off at the end of the elementary school concert, which made the mixed choir concert start late, which made the jazz band concert start late. The building had to be cleared, and the fire department had to come make sure everything was okay before they could let everyone back in and continue. Despite the late start and the hour drive home, everyone survived and enjoyed the music and seeing Rebekah perform.

Rebekah smiling between songs. Their directoIt was a great experience for Rebekah to get to work with a female jazz musician.

Rebekah soloing during one of their songs.

Then it was back to Rexburg for the annual jazz festival and Rebekah's performance in the BYU-Idaho honor jazz band on Saturday, February 25. This performance took place in their student hall. Because it was in Rexburg, we were able to pick up Grandma Hendricks so she could watch Rebekah perform. It was Grandma's birthday, so we took her out to dinner at Pizza Pie Café in between Rebekah's concerts. After we took Grandma home and went home ourselves, there was a longer performance with the BYU-Idaho that night. Rebekah got to play with them and solo in one of their songs.

Rebekah playing a trombone solo during her jazz band's performance.

Andrea and Winnie during Rebekah's performance. 

Miriam and Winnie during the performance.

Rebekah with the honor jazz band at the end of their performance. She played bass bone in this band since she was the only one in her section who had access to one.

Seth and Rebekah eating at Pizza Pie Café. 

Grandma Miriam and Winnie enjoying a birthday dinner.

Rebekah performed at the Gem State solo and ensemble competition at Century High School on Monday, February 27. Rebekah performed two solos this year: an unaccompanied euphonium solo and an accompanied trombone solo. She placed first and scored superior in both, so she will compete in the state solo and ensemble competition in May.

Rebekah playing her euphonium solo.

Rebekah and her accompanist playing her trombone solo. Poor Rebekah contacted probably five other pianists who couldn't make it before she found Allison Anderson to play with her.