On August 10, Nate turned 30. This also happened to be the day that we left for Disneyland to join my family for 3 days of Disney entertainment. It was filled with long lines, expensive food, family shirts, jazzies and good old fashioned fun. Before leaving, we had the birthday festivites at home. I made Nate a blueberry crumb cake for breakfast, as it was our only chance to have cake that day. It was delicious.
I gave him the board game Ticket to Ride (as seen in the picture below). His other gift was the BYU shirt he was wearing in the cake picture. I must admit, I had to pat myself on the back for a job well done in the present department.
My little sister Melissa and her husband Travis met up with us around noon and we left for Vegas. First stop...the pawn shop from the reality TV show Pawn Stars. Nate and Travis were quite star struck from the whole experience.
After and overpriced and under tasty birthday buffet and a nights stay at the Excalibur, we made way for California. Our first stop Huntington Beach. We borrowed beach cruisers from Nate's local friends took a bike ride down the beach. The weather was perfect. 
Nice weather doesn't always make for nice water. That wasn't about to stop Nate and Travis. They had great time playing in the water.
While they did that, we did this.
After the beach, we strolled around downtown Huntington. We looked through the shops and then found a cute little restaurant called Hurricanes. I kept pronouncing it like Nate's hometown of Hurricane(sounds like hurrikin). Sometimes I get confused. He was happy to be eating some good food.
And the moment we have all been waiting for....let me introduce you to Barbara. She's my grandma. She makes a mean white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. She also paid for 59 people to join her at Disneyland for her 86th birthday. She did it all in a jazzie. We love her.
We started out the day but strapping on our "I'm celebrating" buttons and heading out to the park. As strange as it may be, even though we spent equal time in Disneyland and California Adventure, we only took about three pictures in California Adventure(they didn't make the cut). The rest are at Disneyland. How does that happen?
We had to take a picture with the 2 wild rides at Disneyland....Grandma's jazzie and Mr Toad's wild ride. 
See these fabulous faces? This is what happens to your face when you're crammed in a too small rocket ship on top of your husband's long legs on a ride in Tomorrow Land. Even though it was a painful experience, it proved to be very memorable and even more hilarious. 
A trip highlight was the dance party in Tomorrow Land. Gabby made me hold her the whole time I danced. Even though it gave me extreme low rise pants and a great workout, it was oh so fun. She loved it as much as I did.
The second morning we had breakfast with Minnie and friends. The kids loved it. Unfortunately, I didn't pull out the camera until the very end so I didn't get any pics of the kids and the characters. But I did get one with this shady individual.
Capatin EO. What more can I say? This was a family tradition growing up. When we caught wind that it would be back for our 2010 trip, there was cause for a celebration. We all met up and saw it together. It was awesome...especially when Gabby was calling Michael Jackson a 'her'.
The Brian and Marilyn family at their finest. Barbara is right in the middle. We took a picture with each branch of the family and then a picture of all 59 of us. Unfortunately I still have not received that picture. My camera was not chosen for that picture and I'm sure it would have been pandemonium at the least to do a picture with all the cameras. I'll be sure to post it when I get it.
You might be wondering about the family shirts. These are a tribute to Grandpa Gutke, Barbara's husband. As you can kind of see on the back of the shirt, there's a picture of a football player on top of the 'A'. That's Butch Gutke in action. We were all proud to be strutting around Disneyland sporting a logo of Grandpa Gutke. The trip was amazing. Thanks Grandma Gutke, for making all of our dreams come true at Disneyland, USA. We love you!!!
Now to address the elephant in the room. Yes, that was a mustache you saw Nate wearing during the trip. I attribute this facial hair to a mid life/turning 30 crisis. He blames it on a)his role model Phil Dunfee and b)not giving into a wife who insists he needs to shave it. He took one last picture in the hotel room before he shaved it off on the last day of the trip. Please notice my unamused expression in the back. If you've made it this far, you deserve a free trip to Disneyland too!!!
