Rich "It's Your Love"

Quite a few people have asked for more video of Rich singing. So this is a song Mom *LOVES* to have him sing. And she sang backup for it :).

Rich - In top 5 at BYU-Idol

At the finals for BYU-Idol, after they all performed, they called out the top 5 (out of 15 finalists), and Rich was there in the TOP FIVE with 3 girls and one other guy!!! Then they called the top 3, and he didn't make it. But we were THRILLED anyway. Mostly he was competing against people who have had a lot of vocal training and are studying the performing arts, etc. Rich does none of that and just sings for fun, and we think he is *AWESOME*!! He definitely did NOT have a large family entourage like a lot of the other kids. PLUS, he is so "low key", he didn't want to beg people to come and cheer for him. He also had a roommate, Tyler, in the finals. Tyler has a GREAT voice too, and had a huge family group supporting him, but he did NOT make it to the top 5. So that shows that a lot of "other people not attached to Rich" cheered for him.

I think he would have done a LOT better with a different song selection. I did not know the song he chose at all, but he tells me it's a really popular song at dances, etc. It seemed a little "monotonous" to me, but what does an old mother know?! The biggest problem (that he did not anticipate) was that in his nervousness, the song was a little low for him. So that was a bit of a struggle. But even with the song selection, he was GREAT! They asked the top-5 to give their thoughts and Rich said something like, "I don't deserve to be up here - one of these other people behind me does. But (waving to the audience) Thanks a lot!"

This video is actually from his qualifying round and I love it!

We had to entertain a young woman from Venezuela who was here to work with Mark for a week, and she was there with us. I said I wished I could clone Rich, and she said, "When you figure that out, send three to Venezuela - One for me, one for my sister, and one for my best friend :)."

All of us with "the mouse".....

















Dad rode the carousel with Nadia while the rest of us
braved Screamin' (See us on the 3rd & 4th cars
below). Dad had NO desire to try the ride. Mom
decided he was very smart & she's getting too old
for such frivolity! Everyone else LOVED this ride.















Cruella DeVil on the phone with Rich. He called the
cell, she commandeered the phone from mom, and
informed him he was interrupting her photo shoot,
and he would have to call back!














Riding "Autopia" more times than we care to count.
The three little ones LOVED this ride.

Why are eyes always closed on the BEST shots?!














The "dancing picture" is great except I took it off
a video, so the resolution is NOT too great.














We regularly tell Nadia that "puppy dog eyes" do NOT work on us.
It doesn't keep her from trying though! (The light was reflecting in
a weird way all around her mouth.)














Tanya perfecting her "Hollywood pose" with
Rich, Daniel & James as backdrop :).














The girls showing genuine emotion on Splash Mountain...
The men "acting cool"!

Rich with the kids

The problem with the Tower of Terror "official picture" is that

they snap it right BEFORE you drop... so you have plenty of time

to look "unbothered!" See James, Mark, Daniel, Tanya and Rich

on the back row (on the right) acting cool.

Saying "EEEEW" to mom and dad kissing!

Great action shot with Daniel, Benjamin & Rich
(behind mom and Nadia) on Big Thunder Mtn.

SOAKED at Grizzly River Run
Having fun at Tarzan's treehouse (although mom and dad
still think it's a great travesty of justice that's it's not
Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse anymore!

I love this picture of Benjamin taking care of his little sister :).

The Year of Disney

Last year we let James choose our vacation destination (since it was the last family vacation before he'll be leaving on his mission). He chose Disneyland!! Dad and the kids were thrilled. Mom was "ecstatic" in the Jafar (Aladdin) sense! Every Disney trip in the past has been the "we-have-16-hours-jam-in-everything-you-can-exhausting-day". So we decided to get the 5-day pass. After researching, we realized that it would not be much more to get an annual pass, so we decided to get those and "DO DISNEY" in a major way for a year, then not do it for a while after that. We figured we could go to Ontario to visit my mom more often, and to Escondido to visit Mark's brother, Howard and family, and justify a side-day to Disneyland more often :). Unfortunately Rich's school and work schedule, and James and Tanya's being in Northern California, and their work, dance, school schedules & the prohibitive costs of flying them down, meant they wouldn't be able to come for the side-trips very often, so we didn't do the annual passes for them - just a 5-day pass for the summer.

We also had been using a Disney rewards Visa card for several years and had about $1000 "Disney Dollars" we could use for things that we don't normally do in the park: Face Painting, a souvenir for everyone, The Princess lunch at Ariel's grotto for mom, Tanya & Nadia, breakfast at "Goofy's kitchen" for mom, dad and the 3 little ones, and dinner at "The Blue Bayou (Mark's favorite) for mom, dad, Rich, James & Tanya.

Thus began our "Year of Disney". We got our condo in Anaheim and had all six kids there in August 06. This is a GREAT way to do it as we could go early in the morning, come back to the condo for lunch, swimming, naps, dinner, and then go back to the park when it wasn't so hot in the evening. Mom, dad and the three little ones went in January and May 07 for a few days. Mom and kids went to stay with my mom for a week in July while Mark was out of country on a business trip. Richard joined us in Disneyland for one day, and then Mark got off the plane in Los Angeles on his way home from Guatemala, and we did one last hurrah at the park. Everyone really enjoyed it. Dad and kids are trying to figure out which bank to rob so they can go again - soon - and this time they want to stay in a hotel on-site. Mom is Disneyed out for at least a few years!

FAVORITES - at Disneyland and California Adventure Park: We *LOVED* fast passes and made excellent use of them.
Dad - Just likes ALL of Disneyland... "The feeling as you walk in is exciting and uplifting. The theme "You leave the world of today, and enter a world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy" captures the feeling that you are entering a different place. Most amusement parks feel transitory and almost run down. Disneyland has a feeling of substance."
Mom - SOARIN' Over California (I could ride this and listen to the music ALL day!). Splash Mountain, and The live "Aladdin" production. My days of loving roller coasters have come to an end - they make me nauseous. I never thought that would happen - so it's a bit depressing!
Rich - Screamin', Tower of Terror and Space Mountain
James - Tower of Terror and Screamin'
The next 3 kids all want to put those two rides down as their favorites, but we told them to go for the "next favorite!"
Tanya - Splash Mountain, It's a Small World and Peter Pan
Daniel - Autopia and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (although on repeat trips - mom and dad *did* beat him!)
Benjamin - Innoventions - the Technology Center. (Mom MISSES "America Sings")
Nadia - Ariel's Grotto where we had lunch and visited with FIVE princesses, and the Grizzly River Run, until (after riding it about six times) one employee decided she was a TEENY bit too short and wouldn't let her on the last time. THAT did not go over too well!! Oh, and "PUSH", the talking, moving garbage can, who spoke to Nadia, called her by name, asked her to "feed him", and thanked her for the garbage she put in. She spent the rest of the YEAR checking every garbage can to see if it was "PUSH"!

LEAST Favorites:
Toon Town
The Sun Wheel if you're in the moving cages. When we had all 8 of us in one cage - it really moves, and KEEPS swinging back and forth. Mom and Dad think it's quite amusing that the 5 oldest kids all love Screamin' and Tower of Terror, but are FREAKED out by the swinging cages on the Sun Wheel (especially James & Daniel).
Crowds and lines. We swore we would never go in the summer again.

FRUSTRATIONS:
THE NEW NEMO RIDE: We ran over there as soon as the park opened, and it already had a TWO hour line. And there were no fast passes. So we didn't go on it. I never rode the submarines before, so I'm looking forward to this one in the future.
THE PRINCESS FAIRE: Mom waited in line (for Nadia to meet three princesses) for one and a half hours while dad took the kids into the storytelling festival inside. Once they came out of the storytelling, and dad and the boys went elsewhere, mom and Nadia stood for ANOTHER hour (so 2.5 hours total). Nadia had seen Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) go in, and that was who she wanted to see, so she was very excited about that. Once we "turned the corner", our 3 princesses were Mulan, Pocahantas and Cinderella (Aurora had left). We took pictures with the first two, then Cinderella was a little slow, and an "inside line" had formed waiting for her. So we were standing behind about 7 people, when Belle came in and replaced Mulan. We were in the back part WAITING for Cinderella, so we scuttled back and tried to get a picture with Belle, but were told, "Sorry, you can't go BACK. You've already been to the "1st Princess station". Then the Fairy Godmother breezed in, and Cinderella LEFT ("she has to get to the ball"). Nadia was SOOOO upset we didn't get a picture with her - she just cried. The NEXT time we went to Disneyland, we stood in line here AGAIN, but again did not get Aurora. This time it was Belle, Jasmine & Prince Philip (No matter how I tried to hype it, Nadia wasn't interested in him!) I wrote to Disneyland and told them I felt if they were going to merchandise the princesses in such a blatant fashion, that they ought to make it a little more "kid friendly" because the current way was really harsh on little kids. I suggested "appointments" for specific princesses, and/or fast passes. I mean, they MAKE the princesses, why can't they have more of the popular ones, and less Mulans, Jasmines, etc?!! And if they are going to trade princesses regularly, IMHO, they should CLOSE off the back part, trade all 3 princesses, and then let a new group in for pictures with the new princesses. How can they make you stand in line for two and a half hours, and then whisk Cinderella away while a 5-year old is standing there WAITING to meet her? That's just cruel. They were rather blase about the whole thing and sent Nadia an autographed black and white picture of the princesses together to make up for it. Good joke!