Disneyland Trip

For my 21st birthday Andrew surprised me with a trip to Disneyland. So on Jan. 17 we headed to sunny California. We landed at the Long Beach Airport which a small but super pretty airport. Luckily our insurance covers the rule that you have to be 25 to rent a car so we got to drive around a Kia Soul all weekend. That night we headed to Downtown Disney since our tickets were not good till the next day. We ate at ESPN Zone which was super fun. We just sat and watched about 10 different sporting events happening at once. We then just walked around and looked at a few shops.

On Friday we got up early to get in line. Our hotel was only a 20 minute walk from Disneyland which saved us $15 dollars for parking every day. We had downloaded many apps to help us navigate lines as well as Disneyland tips that we had both found on the internet and Pinterest. We were there so early that we were the 3rd people in line. The let us in at 8:30 but only to a certain point where they had it roped off. We were the first ones to the rope and got to stand in line. It was fun because all of us at the front of the line were from Utah, so we had a good time talking to many different families.

Once the rope was dropped we made our way to the Peter Pan ride. We knew this line gets really long in the day so we thought we would just go there first. We were the first ones on the ride and didn't have to wait at all. As the ride started I just kept saying that this ride was not as cool as I remember it. It turns out they had left the lights on. So instead of feeling like we were flying through London with Peter Pan we could see the ground and all the exit signs in the ride. It was still fun though.

Our day just kept getting better and better. We went to Matterhorn and rode Splash mountain 2 times in a row because no one was there. The whole day the longest we had to wait in line was 20 minutes for Autotopia.... which was not worth it. We were glad we downloaded the RideMax program because it helped us throughout the whole day.

On Saturday we got up early again to go to California Adventure. This time it was a lot more crowded  Once again they let you into the park to a certain point. To avoid every one making a mad dash to Cars Land they had people walk in the front with a rope and you could not go past them. Before we started walking though they had Lightening McQueen and Mater come and drive us down Radiator Springs. We wished we would have filmed it but people were pushing and shoving. We made our way to the big ride called Radiator Springs Racers and only had to wait about 20 minutes. I can't even begin to describe how cool this ride is. The technology and the whole design of the ride is amazing. Let's just say me and Andrew have a new favorite ride at Disneyland. We ended up riding the ride 4 times that day. Unfortunately, we had to wait in line for 40 minutes each time in the single rider line but it was shorter than the 2-3 hour wait in the regular line.

We had a fun day at California Adventure and the best part was the World of Color at night. If you ever go to California Adventure, you have to see this show! It was INCREDIBLE! I even started crying it was so cool.....haha yes I just admitted that I cried at Disneyland and California Adventure multiple times.

Sunday was my actual birthday. We headed to church and then to the Newport Beach Temple. They had the gates closed so we couldn't walk around it, but it was still a beautiful temple. That whole Sunday we just kept saying how lucky we are to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We can go anywhere in the world and find churches, members, and temples to help make us feel right at home. We were so exhausted from the past two days that we slept most the day. We then headed back around Disneyland to have Ihop for dinner since that is a tradition for my birthday. We then walked around Downtown Disney again and got to watch the fireworks that they do inside of Disneyland.

Overall, it was a great trip. It was so fun to just hang out with Andrew 24/7 for 4 days and get to act like little kids again. During school we normally say goodbye at 8 am and don't see each other till 7 pm. I'm so grateful to Andrew for planning this trip and all those who helped us get there!! We sure do love you!!

Here are the pictures from our wonderful trip!!

 

Past Couple of Months

The past couple of months have flown by and we've had so much fun!!  Andrew and I survived finals and ended up having a great semester. We got to go to Logan for a week and American Fork for a week. We're so grateful that both our families live so close and we can see them a lot. On the King side it was the first time all of us had been together since 2008. Then on the Bangerter side we got to be with all of Andrew's family, including all his siblings who live out of the state. We had fun hanging out with our only nephew Jay and our new niece Page. For some reason every time Jay saw me he would reach out his arms and run to me. I felt pretty special. Andrew also discovered that making kissing sounds to Page made her smile....He is going to be a great dad :)

Now that school has started again, I can't believe that this is my  last full semester. After this semester I just have to take one more GE class...YAHOO. Hopefully I'll get that done over the summer through independent study and graduate in August. I can't explain how excited I am to be finished with school and start the next phase of my life. 

Andrew has also had some new things come up with school. Most people know that we were trying to get an internship for winter semester to give Andrew some more experience. Unfortunately, we didn't hear back from any of them. Luckily, on the first day of classes everything changed. Andrew was sitting in one of his stats classes and a professor came in and talked about internship opportunities that BYU has to offer to students while they  are going to school.  So Andrew went and looked at these internships, and at the end of the day he had one with US Bank....which now has changed to United Health Care as of yesterday. This was a huge blessing and an answer to prayers that he was able to get an internship and he even gets to do it while going to school. He is excited to get started and learn more about how to apply statistics in the real world. The lady in charge also asked him if he could help her evaluate the data that other groups come up with at the end of their internships. We'll keep you posted as to how this internship goes and hopefully some news on a summer internship. The plan is to have Andrew complete two internships by the time he graduates in December 2013 or April 2014.

I guess the most exciting thing that has happened to us is that it was my 21st birthday this past week. Andrew surprised me on Christmas morning with two plane tickets and two tickets to Disneyland. So we left on Thursday and headed to sunny California to enjoy a weekend at Disneyland. It was such a fun weekend and we loved being kids again. I'll post pictures soon.

Well that is about all that is going on in our life. We just try to live it up everyday and remember what really is important. I sure am grateful that Andrew is in my life, I don't know what I would do without him.