The Orchard Team Huddle

10 years ago we got to experience this tournament with Douglas and had a ton of fun.  I was excited when Mason's team decided to go.  However, the price of the hotel ($200 per night), airfare ($300 per person) and rental car ($400) was giving me heartburn so we decided to drive. The plan was to leave Wednesday at lunchtime and drive all the way through so Mason could go to school for half of the day.  The weather did not cooperate so we decided to leave Tuesday after school to avoid an incoming snow storm.  We made it to Vegas. We didn't have a reservation so we grabbed a cheap room on Hotels.com.  It was the Fiesta in Henderson for $30 plus a $20 resort fee.  We asked for a King bed and Mason agreed to sleep on the air mattress we brought for this very reason.  When we got to our room we were grossed out to find the garbage overflowing, bed sheets all a mess and used towels laying on the bathroom floor.  Needless to say, we requested a di...

Snow days are rare!  Neither Douglas or Stockton got the opportunity to have one.  The last one I could find on record was in 1993.  Imagine our surprise when school was canceled today!  At first glance, you could tell there was a lot but we didn't understand just how much until we actually got out there. I thought it was a little troubling that you couldn't see the parking curb in the middle of the parking lot.  It was all leveled out. We started the day with some lazy TV time.  This is rarely allowed! The night before, Russell had to fly out to St. George for a 1-day trip.  It had been snowing for a bit and he shoveled a few inches from the driveway.  He told me to leave whatever fell overnight for him to clear the next evening.  I would have happily done that but I am pretty sure there is no way we would have made it out of the driveway without getting stuck.  And, Amelia needed to get to work.  She spent th...

Another successful rope drop(Disneyland this time).  Russell went on ahead and went through a no bags line so he could be first in line at one of the entrance gates.  Then we made our way to Tomorrowland so we could ride Space Mountain first. Very few people in front of us on Main Street. Front of the rope, again! Mason makes fun of the way I bend over to take pictures.  He was mocking me. I am never good at posing for the pictures but today I had the best pose ever.  I pretended like I was puking which was almost the truth.  Unfortunately, my pose was blocked by Russell.  This ride makes me sicker than any ride in the park.  I hate being flung around in the complete darkness.  It is so nauseating. We lucked into the tail end of Small World Holiday.  It was SO CUTE!  Russell and I loved this.  The little people sang It's A Small World and Jingle Bells.  So festive, so magical! Mason has to...

We started day 2 in California Adventure! Now that's how you do a rope drop! Our first task of the day was Guardians of the galaxy.  We love this ride so much!  We were the very first in line and we got to follow the Guardians dude all the way through the queue to start the day:).  Incredicoaster was awesome!  We made sure to ride it twice. A new thing for today was sharing a Num Num Cookie.  It was warm and gooey and Mason got it all over himself:). Num Num Cookie just outside of the Incredicoaster This is where I would put a picture of us riding the Radiator Springs Racers.  We usually ride this single rider and end up in different cars so we can't get a family picture.  Today we got a fast pass so we could all ride together and be in the same photo.  Well, we had a blast but our ride got stopped just as we were finishing up and by the time we could get off  and check out our pic, it had flashed past and was gone for...