Stace does Utah, Disneyland CA & Vegas. June 2011.

[stace&tink]

Ok so I'm not going to go into a massive load of detail, but for those of you who are interested, heres a brief overview of my trip.

I travelled alone, and stayed with family in Utah...

James (my mums cousin)
Heather (James wife)
Carter (their son aged 6)
Preston (their son aged 4)
Claire (their daughter aged 1)

Weds 1st June – Leave home at 3.30am (UK time) Fly from Gatwick to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Utah. A pretty uneventful journey. Arrive into Salt Lake City at 6.30pm (Utah time), am welcomed at the airport by James and the 3 kids. Preston came running up to me for a hug and I then “had” to carry him to the car lol. We stop by JCW burgers for tea on way home, Arrive home just after 7pm, eat our burgers and the kids go to bed. I stay up chatting with James until gone 10pm. (By then I was ready to drop) lol, bear in mind it was 5am in the UK so I’d been up well over 24hrs. Heather was out having dinner with her dad for his birthday so I dont see her until the next day.

Thurs 2nd June – Heather made welcome pancakes for brekkie, Carters had his Kindergarted graduation at midday so we got ready and went to that. Bascially all the kids had their little hats on, sang some songs and collected their certificates, kinda crazy at that age...but hey it is America! After that we went to Tenneys pizza for lunch (this company is owned by Heathers brother and the Pizza is one of the best I’ve ever tasted), at approx 3pm we take Claire to Heather’s mums and drive to Vegas, we stop at Wendy’s for tea on the way and arrive at approx 9pm. (We gain an hour back for sleep too as there is a time difference from Utah to Vegas) We stayed at Heathers Uncles house...he is a millionaire and the house was enormous! I went straight to bed barely able to keep my eyes open as did the boys. Heather stayed up a while longer chatting to her family.


Fri 3rd June – We were up early (5am) by 5.30am we were in the car and ready to drive to Disneyland California, we drive through McDonalds for brekkie and arrive at Disney at 10.30am. By the time we picked our tickets up, parked the car at our hotel and did the loo stops we were in the park by 11am.

Me & Heather


We only had the day here so wanted to get in as much as possible.
We started in Disneyland and it went like this...
• Pirates of the Caribbean (20min queue)
• Jungle Cruise (5 min queue)
• Stopped for lunch
• Buzz Lightyears Laser Blast (15min queue)
• Autopia (15min queue)
• Its a small world (5 min queue)
• Met Brer Fox and Brer Bear, and also see Tigger & Eeyore
• Splash Mountain (5 min queue with fastpass)

Carter, Me, Preston, James...in line for Buzz.


Me infront of the castle. (Not as amazing as WDWs, but still pretty)


Preston, me and Carter, taking a break with ice cream.


We then left Disneyland and headed over to California Adventure, which went like this...
• James and I rode California Screamin (15min queue), while Heather took the boys into A Bugs World
• We all then rode Toy Story Mania (50min queue) but totally worth the wait
• Soarin (15min queue with fastpass)
• Stopped for dinner

Me with paradise pier in background.


Carter & I in line for Toy Story Mania.


We then looked around a couple of shops, I got a Disneyland hoody, before heading back into Disneyland for the Fireworks, in here I bought a ton of pins and a Minnie plush to add to my collection. We left just after 10pm and walked to our hotel for the night. We stayed at Eden Roc, it was actually really nice for what we paid for the night. 3 double beds, a full bathroom, with kitchen and dining table.




Sat 4th June - Dont remember what time we were up but we left CA to drive back to Vegas at 8am ish, we had brekkie at Dennys. We arrived at Mandalay Bay Las Vegas at approx 1.30pm. James dropped Heather & I off, then took the boys to a chocolate factory and cactus garden, then they went back to Heathers uncles house and used their pool. Heather and I were seeing the Lion King show at Mandalay Bay at 4pm so we picked our tickets up and then went exploring. We walked through the casino then headed onto the strip, past Luxor and Excalibor, looked around New York, New York, passed MGM and Monte Carlo, then went to the M&M world.







By the time we’d finished there we needed to be heading back for our show. It was amazing and finished at around 6.30pm.



We then took a monorial as far as the Excalibor and carried on down the strip. First we went to Planet Hollywood, then Paris, we passed the Bellagio and planned to go back there later to see the water fountains. Next we met up with one of Heathers friends and headed into Ceasers Palace, we has a good look around here, it is stunning inside and out, and we went to the cheesecake factory for dinner. We then headed back to the Bellagio, watched the fountains then went inside to look around, again a stunning hotel. By now it was gone 10.30pm... we were getting very tired and our feet very sore, so we decided a final must do was the stratosphere tower to see thelights of las vegas from up high...Heathers friend drove us there, as the walk would have done us in! We walked through the casino and got tickets to the viewing platform and 1 ride. We decided to ride the bigshot! The adrenaline rush was immense and the views were incredible. It was gone 11.30 and we decided to call it a day. We got back to heathers uncles house just past midnight and both fell right off to sleep. We also passed the Mirage and Treasure Island during the day. The only things we didn’t see that I would have liked to were the Venetian and Circus Circus, but we had a great day and managed to pack a fair bit in.







View from top of Stratosphere tower.


Sun 5th June – We were up and out by 9am to drive back to Utah. On the way out I had the obligatory picture under the welcome to fabulous las vegas sign.


Brekkie was McDs drive through again and we stopped for lunch at subway. We arrived home at 3pm ish. All had showers and freshened up before heading to Heathers mums for tea at 5pm. Their family is huge, Heather has 5 brothers/sisters, and between the 6 of them there are over 20 grandchildren. We had a BBQ and all sat around in the garden chatting, while the kids all played games etc. It was really fun, and I’d love to have a big family like that at home. (Although Christmas must cost a fortune)!

Mon 6th June – We chilled out in the morning as we were all shattered from a busy whirlwind weekend trip. In the afternoon heather took me to see the Lehi roller mills, (these are where alot of the scenes from Footloose were filmed), we had lunch at CDP Cheesesteaks, went shopping at walmart and costco, then that eveing at home James cooked salmon for tea. Heather and I then went to cinema to see something borrowed. We also got Ice cream at an ice cream parlour...I had cake mix flavour mixed with chocolate chips and brownie, it was the best ice cream I have ever tasted!

Tues 7th June – We made pancakes again for brekkie, then Heather & I took the kids to Utahs Hogle Zoo (James had to work), we packed up a picnic and spent the day wondering in the sunshine. At home that evening James cooked spaghetti Bolognese for tea, then we roasted smores on their fire pit in the back garden (smores are graham crackers with a roasted marshmallow and melted chocolate inside) there are yummy. We got giant marshmallows though which turned out to be very messy! The kids went to bed around 8pm. We watched a bit of TV then watched my best friends wedding on DVD.

Weds 8th June –Another chilled out morning playing games with the boys. At 12ish heather and I went out to lunch to the olive garden, we then drove up to the Sundance ski resort, it was beautiful, there was still snow on the tops of the mountains and we took the chairlift up as far as we could go...it was so relaxing and fun to watch the bikers riding the mountain trails beneath us. We went on to Walmart and Target afterwards to get some essentials (this included snacks and dvds haha). We grabbed In and out burgers for everyone for tea then headed home. We had a chilled out evening and Watched 16 candles on DVD...we all fell asleep before the movie ended though.

Thurs 9th June – James was working from home today so kept Claire, while heather and I took the boys to Planet Play... there was a pizza/pasta/pie/dessert buffett with unlimited drinks too, tons of arcade games, mini bowlng, laser tag, go karts, and glow in the dark mini golf for as long as you wanted for about $20 per person, at the end you can collect prizes with all the tokens you’ve won. It was great fun and really great value for money. The boys loved it! That evening we just all had some fun in garden, on the trampoline etc. Later once the boys were in bed, heather and I went to Tapenyeki for dinner. (Similar to Teppan edo) James was supposed to go but was suffering really bad with hay fever so heather went instead.


Fri 10th June – My last day (it went so quick) Us girls spent the morning at the mall, bath and body works had a sale on so i stocked up on their lush lipglosses. At midday we picked up all the boys and headed to seven peaks water park, it was a really hot day and the slides were great fun, as was the lazy river. We took a Picnic and stayed until 5pm, when it started to cool down. We drove through Chick fil A for tea, seriously the best chicken nuggets I have ever had. Once home, Carter fell right asleep on the sofa, poor kid was exhausted. The rest of us Roasted smores again in the back garden, i was made a special farewell one too. We watched a bit of tv and then the proposal. Finally called it a night at 11pm.

Sat 11th June– I was up early (6am) and off home. Tears were present during all the goodbyes from everyone. I was so sad to leave,I had such a fun time. I flew salt lake – new York JFK – Heathrow.
Finally touched down at Heathrow at 11.10am Sunday 12th, and arrived home about 3.30pm.

A few more random pics to follow.
Thanks for reading!

[stace&tink]

Me at the Lehi Roller Mills





Claire having fun...







Carter roasting some marshmallows


Me with my smore


Me at Sundance


Me and Preston riding a rollercoaster simulator at Planet Play




Heather & I at Tepanyaki


Seven Peaks Waterpark

[lucylou]

Wow - what a fab trip.

You packed so much in.

Thanks for sharing.

[voddygirl]

What a fab trip ,i wish i had family that lives in the States ..lovely pics thanks for sharing

[Astrid]

What an amazing trip you had! You crammed an awful lot in, I wouldn't dare go on the rides at the top of Stratosphere!

Utah looks fabulous - the picture of you at Sundance is fantastic. Glad you had such a lovely time.

[Alyson]

Look like you had a fantastic time, really lovely photos

[DIBBadmin]

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