This year the American Fork Marching Band performed in the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California. We decided to take the whole family down to watch Sarah march in the parade on New Years Day.
We had a great time doing all our favorite things to do in California. . .
Of course, the first stop was the Lego store in Downtown Disney. We had a special request from our neighbor to pick up a promotional box of FREE legos . . . we don't like to disappoint. And, the boys always love to go and see the bigger-than-life size lego creations.
Our next stop was food . . . we do have our priorities right. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, which is always a fun experience.
When we came out from lunch, there was a parrot show going on. The kids wanted to watched (really it was David) so we stopped for awhile.
The next morning we went to the Pasadena Junior College to watch Sarah's band perform their awesome show piece. They did a great job. We got to see all the band's participating in the parade do a field show. They had bands from Europe and even Japan. It was really cool to see the different styles of marching bands.
Most of our free time was spent at the pool at our hotel. The kids loved to swim and I love to lounge in the sun. So, it is a win-win for everyone!
One of our adventures was to go to Santa Monica Pier to watch the sun set. It was pretty chilly so we begged the kids not to get too wet. They had a blast chasing the waves.
It was all fun and games until someone (I won't disclose any names to protect the innocent) fell into the water! It was all over after that.
Dinner was a rushed and fairly unpleasant event while "someone" was very wet, cold and sandy!
New Year's morning we got up SUPER early to get to the parade and hope for decent seats. There are a lot of CRAZY people out there that spend the night to get good seats. Not me. I value my sleep WAY too much! We got there and managed pretty well. We carved out a little piece of lawn to spread out on. The kids and Dave hung out while I walked to the Mc Donald's to get breakfast. WOW - that was a crazy experience. Evidently EVERYONE else thought it would be great to pick up breakfast while they waited. It was worth it though to get a tall Diet Coke. It took off the sting of the early morning.
This is the start of the parade. Sarah's band was towards the end, and we were at the end of the parade route so there was a lot of waiting.
It was worth it though. The kids did great. It was a proud moment to see the fruits of so much hard work for this band. They did Utah proud!!!
Here is a clip of the band at the parade.
Disneyland was super fun (as always) although it was weird to be there without Sarah. It always felt like we were missing someone. She had previously went with the band and was busy with a full schedule of fun events of her own.
Pirates of the Caribbean is always the first ride we go on. It never disappoints. Josh still doesn't like to go on many rides, even at Disneyland, but we made this one mandatory.
David finally talked me into going on the pirate ship that circles behind the Mark Twain river boat. We all needed a break from the long lines so it was a good break.
We had a great two days at Disneyland and fun supporting Sarah at her marching band events. It's time to plan the next Disneyland trip!!!
