Disneyland and California Adventure

Disneyland :Day 1

  First ride: Autopia  A great beginning

 Waiting for bigger people to finish big people rides.

 Splash Mountain

 Meeting the characters of Winnie the Pooh.  Sabrina loved the ride as well.

 The Tea Cups:  This was a much anticipated ride.  Wendy and Zachary went in one they turned quickly.  The rest of us stayed as still as possible.

 Waiting to watch Frozen.  It was a great live show and break from walking. 

 A short break.

 

 We had wonderful reserved seats for the Fireworks and Main Street Electrical Parade.  I really enjoyed both.

California Adventure: Day 2

Greeting the day with Walt Disney himself.

 

Time on the King Triton Carousel.

At the top of the Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel.

Midday break swimming at the Hotel Pool.

We enjoyed a dinner at Goofy's Kitchen where we were greeted by Disney Characters.  We had a fun time.

 

After dinner we headed back to California Adventure to see the World of Color light show.  It was spectacular.

Disneyland: Day 3

 Toad's Wild Ride

 Casey Jr. Train  I loved that we were wild animals.  It fits the family so well.

 The grown-ups experiencing the magic as well.

 

Death Valley

 After visiting with Family we headed south.  We stopped in Ely, Nevada for the night and church the next morning.  The ward was very kind and indicated that we were the farthest traveled family that had visited their ward.  We then headed to Beatty, Nevada where we visited Rhyolite Township and then headed into Death Valley National Park.  We knew it would be hot so we planned our time for the morning, but it still was sweltering.  Glad we did not walk around much.  The scenery was beautiful.

 Rhyolite Ghost Town.  This is about 15 minutes outside the entrance to Death Valley National Park.  The bottle house was quite interesting.  All the walls were made from glass bottles and it looked cool.

 Scenery shots on our drive through Nevada.  It is a barren place, but has its own kind of beauty.

 First stop in Death Valley was the Borax Works ruins

 We then stopped at the Furnace Creek Visators Center, followed by Badwater Basin, Artist Drive, and Wendy and I braved the heat to walk to Zabriskie's Point.  

Family

 Travel is always the first part of the adventure.  We spent 14 hours flying and then 8 more on the road.  It was a long day, but we made it to Kanab and the Super Hero Schwieder Family Reunion.

                             Beautiful view from the plane.                                                                 Google sent us on a detour due to construction.                                                                                                                                                                 I think it did save us time, but it took us on a dirt road                                                                                                                                                          past these signs.  Anyone know what a Fogata is?                                                                                                                                                                 They are not allowed at Lost Lake.

Brett and Todd designed and built this beautiful Dragon when we were playing at Lake Powell.

We also visited Horseshoe Bend and enjoyed a gorgeous view holding tightly to hands.

 Waiting for our ice cream at Big Al's in Kanab

Zion's National Park

After the Reunion we drove to Pleasant Grove to stay with The Judd Flamm family for a few days.  It was full of fun, but I took no pictures :(  We went swimming and watched movies and played.

Rainbow seen on our drive to The Flamm Home

 Visiting Emily and Cousins.  Fun!