Summer Beatle

We interrupt this family vacation to bring you...Paul McCartney! Krysta, Erin, Curt and I went to the concert. It was incredible. Sir Paul stayed on stage for almost 3 hours. His band even took a break while he stayed and played a few songs with just his guitar. (Those young 'uns needed a rest.)

Months ago when I got the tickets, I wondered how we'd choose which two kids we'd take. (The internet would only allow 4 tickets per address.) Rachel wasn't interested and when Camille heard the concert was 3 hours long, she decided she didn't want to go.

When I told Kevin I had Paul McCartney tickets, he said, "Isn't he dead?"

"No," I responded.

"Well, then isn't he like 90? He must just stand there and talk to people." replied Kevin.

"You're tending," I told him.

That was easier than I thought.

That biker dude behind me could whistle louder than anything going on on stage. I covered my ears every time he let loose.

As you can see from this picture we were rather far from the stage.

Good thing for the two big screens on either side.
See the little person by the white tent? The one in the dark suit on stage holding a guitar, just below the drummer? Yes, that would be him.

Here's the "close-up."

About half way through the concert, we walked around and found some standing room much closer to the stage. After that, we had as good a view as those who paid the big bucks.

I spent time putting together the video clips that I took that night. Trust me, I made an awesome video. Well, it was just okay given the abilities of my camera and me. However, apparently Blogger and Vimeo have limits on what they can upload. Come on, it's only about 4 minutes! My technology, my skills, and my imagination are not in sync. One or more are always lacking. Anyway here is a snippet. It's a little jumpy because I was trying to video and move to the music. What was I saying about my video skills?

Paul McCartney from Sydna Graf on Vimeo.

Krysta pulled a Ryan a was able to sneak down to the 2nd row during the encore!

This is Krysta's video. We missed most of the song because we were trying to pass a security guard to follow Krysta. I theorize that security tends to ignore cute girls in shorts. Bald men in jeans, not so much. (Curt went first and talked to the guard.) We had to hustle back up the stairs in shame.

Yesterday from Sydna Graf on Vimeo.

This is her explaining that when the guard was distracted by other fence hoppers, she snuck in.

We had a great time. On the way out I heard a mom tell her family, "Pack up the van, we're heading to Denver (the next concert stop)" I would agree!

Whale Watching

Our second day in California we went on a whale watching trip out of Long Beach. We found an internet deal where if you buy four adult tickets, you get one adult ticket free. Strange to think that our family has five "adults" and two children. Stranger to think that there might actually come a day when we all start acting like adults.

We passed by the Queen Mary, aka the Grey Ghost. This former luxury liner was painted naval grey in WWII and transported tens of thousands of troops. It is permanently berthed at Long Beach. You can take a tour (the ghost tour sounded fun/scary/weird) Part of it is a hotel where you can book a cabin and stay the night.

On the trip out, all of the kids stood at the bow of the ship along the rail and whooped and hollered every time we'd hit a wave. Even though we saw three types of dolphins, sea lions, seals, and the biggest animal (including the dinosaurs) to EVER live on the earth, the blue whale, they had the most fun riding at the front of the catamaran. They only stopped riding up front when the pitiful retching of a few very sick passengers drove them up to the top of the boat. None of us got seasick, but since my head was toying with the idea, I thought it best to just sit up top and breathe the nice fresh air. Hence I have no pictures of the antics going on up front with the kids. Oh well, I also didn't notice the sick people, which might have been enough to drive me over the edge. Good thing the kids inherited Curt's iron stomach and balance.

Look! I did it. I put a video on Vimeo and then on my blog! Unfortunately, I accidently uploaded the unedited version, so you will get to see a lot of blue water. My new point and shoot doesn't have a view finder which is a disadvantage in bright light, so I'm not always sure of what I am getting. Oh well, better luck next time.

Dolphins from Sydna Graf on Vimeo.

Sit on a buoy, sunbath, swim, eat, repeat. Sea lions have the life!

Erin and Krysta managed to crack a half-hearted smile for this picture of downtown Long Beach. After I told them we would not be eating lunch if I didn't get a few more happy faces, they produced the next picture.
That's better. Nothing like the threat of no food to bring everyone into compliance. Now at least we can pretend we loved taking pictures. I should have recorded the sigh that emanated forth after I was done with this picture. You'd have thought I had asked them to pose for 20 minutes instead of 20 seconds.
Then it was off to the beach. However, this time it was colder. A hint that it's not swimming weather is when the locals are making fires and wearing sweat shirts. Who'd have thought that we should have brought warmer clothes to California in June?! But that didn't stop the kids, including Curt, from having fun in the ocean. Maybe we'll have to go to Leigh Beach to have a warm beach experience.
I was on the same vibe as Angie when I took this feet in the sand picture. Though the St. Thomas sand looks a lot softer and cleaner.
Next up Universal Studios!

Disneyland and California Adventure

After spending the night at Grandma's, we started finally started our vacation. But first we spent an hour and a half touring the metropolis of Hurricane. All of those last minute errands added up. One would think that our destination was Hurricane. Meanwhile to ease her boredom, Rachel prepared for Disneyland by pretending to ride on top of the Sequoia.

But we finally made it to the beach that night...

...and to Disneyland the next day. This was the first time we entered the park without a stroller. Last time both Camille and Rachel were in strollers. We didn't know what to do with all of our stuff. Some silly children thought that mom would carry it for them. Then they tried to get dad to carry items. All soon learned that less is more, and all you really need is a camera, a phone, and money.
When I was little I so wanted to live in a tree house just like this. I still think it would be fun.
Here we are on the Small World ride. This was Kevin's favorite ride!...when he was five. Look how much he seems to be enjoying it now.
Yes, Erin's enthusiasm is also unbounded.
Our new favorite ride was the Tour of Terror. This is a picture of a picture of us just before another drop. Rachel looked at me half way through and said, "I want to get off." "We will," I told her, "in just one minute." DROP!
The second time (we convinced Rachel that it really was fun), we planned on holding our fingers up and circling our eyes. Not all of us made it, but the guy behind us obviously heard us talk about it and joined in.
At first I thought the drop was more of an illusion. How in the world do they get that thing to drop so far and so fast and then catch it? But when I looked at my purse floating in free fall next to me, I was convinced that the drop was real.
We only had one long wait. Our neighbors were at Disneyland the same day, so the kids had friends to wait with in the Splash Mountain ride. Here Kevin models his friend's hat.
One of Krysta's favorite rides really is the Winnie the Pooh ride. Frumpalumps (or whatever they are) and Woozles, oh my!
Have you ever been on the Storybook Boats? Neither have we. This is a ride we have always skipped, but everything was closing for fireworks and this is one of the few still open. Besides, we had to do a few kid rides for Rachel. We would race by on our way to the "big" rides and she kept saying, "I want to go on that." Finally we did.
The ride turned out to be a tour of cute miniature castles, homes and gardens from various Disney stories. Ironically, of all the boats we rode-Jungle Cruise, Small World, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean-it was the Storybook boats that had the greatest risk of tipping over. The employees had us load in a certain order and really cautioned us not stand up because of the danger of capsizing. We even all had to stand up together at the end of the ride to keep the boat balanced. Really, the little kid ride is the most dangerous boat in Disneyland?

I had video from the World of Color show that we saw at the end of the day, but it didn't load properly. Someday I will get the hang of this video blogger thing. But if you'd like to see the entire show, follow this link to the YouTube video. It's incredible what Disney can create out of water, light, music and fire. Movie scenes were also projected onto a screen of water. This show was wonderful and worth the 40 minute wait in line just to get our fast pass tickets to come back at night.

Fifteen hours later we ended our day. How fun to have kids that can go all day long!

Little Subaru in the Big Woods

While Curt, Kevin, and Erin were river running on the Colorado River for Youth Conference, I took the girls camping at Granite Flats in American Fork Canyon. We had a great short stay--perfect weather and no bugs!

Krysta had to work early the next morning so she and her friend, Dana, just came up for the evening. They were eager to snag some smores.

It's a good thing we had Dana along. She has some mad fire starting skills. Our firewood must have been a little wet, but she got the fire going so we could roast our hotdogs and marshmellows.

The little girls found a perfect tree to climb right in our campsite.

The next morning we went to Tibble Fork, where the girls amused themselves by constructing a "bridge."
It was a great little get-away!

One Day More! Until Summer Vacation!

"One day to a new beginning. Raise the flag of freedom high!"

Good News!

Krysta got into the Dental Hygiene Program at UVU!!

They only take 14 students and she was number 16 on their list. We were bummed when we heard the news a few months ago, but today they called and offered her a spot. Yeah! All of her hard work in anatomy paid off!

Summer!!!!!

Summer Vacation is in two weeks!!!! Not that I am counting. Here are my plans: sleep, free time, only 5 children all day, sleep, catch up on everything, sleep, scrapbook, eat a real home cooked meal, sleep, relax, exercise, sleep, read, play, dejunk the house, camp, vacation, hike, sleep! Can you tell how tiring this year has been?