Creations

Welcome to Creations!  This site will show you my latest projects as well as what we're up to these days.  Enjoy yourself and while you're here sign my guestbook, lend your vote to the poll of the month, and remember I update my thoughts exactly every couple of days.

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Now you can view videos of what we're up to in Phoenix and our vacations!  Visit:   http://www.youtube.com/user/rgallegos74 and see for yourself!   

What do you think about spoiling our children?

What about rewarding good behavior?  Good grades?

Be nice..

It's amazing how many magical moments happen in a 5 day time period..just add Disneyland. 

Thursday evening we arrived at the Super 8 hotel, our home sweet home away from home and met up with Connie, Debbie, John Paul and Victoria who drove from NM.  After getting settled in we walked over to Downtown Disney.  While we waited 2 hours for a table at the Rainforest cafe we discovered the Lego store.  It had an 8 foot Darth Vader and a batman and a giant giraffe.  Musicians played pianos and Island music in the streets.  We watched the fish swim around at the rainforest and finally at about 9:00 pm we got to eat dinner.  Then we were off to bed to get up early the next morning to go to DISNEYLAND!!

Friday we woke up to coffee and donuts and breakfast bars and by 9:00 am we were walking through the gate to the happiest place (homecoming) on earth.  We took pictures by the Mickey Mouse statue and the flowers right inside the entrance then we walked down Main street.  All the light posts and man holes and door signs and basically everything has been changed to gold with a "50" on it to celebrate their 50th anniversary, I had to take so many pictures.  Our first stop was the Tiki room (where the birds all sing and the flowers croon).  Veronica and Paige watched all the birds w/ eyes wide and heads spinning to catch all the action.  Then we rode the water safari ride and laughed at all the pretend animals.  Next door was Indiana Jones.  Connie watched Veronica and Paige so Matthew and I could go together.  It's such a great ride with spiders on the wall and the ball rolling almost on top of the vehicle and since John Paul had already ridden it he could attest that it is a different ride every time.  After we met back up w/ Connie, Veronica and Paige we climbed Tarzan's tree house, formerly the Swiss Family Robinson's tree house.  It was a hard climb and it was harder carrying Paige who decided she wasn't letting me out of her sight again, at least for the time being.  The Pirates of the Carribean was closed while they add Jack Sparrow and Barbosa, to reopen June 26th for the movie premier on site w/ Johnny Depp and the rest of the cast.  While we waited for the haunted mansion I took a picture of the front of it w/ a spider web covering the whole thing w/ a black "50" in the center of the web.  Veronica rode with Matthew and Paige rode w/ me.  I asked her if she wanted to sit on my lap and she climbed up.  I wasn't sure if she liked it or if she thought it was too scary, however when we left the ride she was jumping around shouting "scary ghosts OOOooo"  Then we rode the train that circles the entire park and saw the dinosaurs in the "Grand Canyon".  For lunch we walked over to Tomorrowland and ate pizza at "PizzaPort".  John Paul, Victoria, Veronica and Paige played w/ a big marble ball that rolls on top of a water fountain.  We drove the Autopia race cars and got autopia licenses.  We rode the buzz lightyear ride and shot Zurg and his bad guys.  After the ride we typed in our e-mail addresses and sent our pictures home.  We flew with Peter Pan and Paige was so tiny I held on to her because a few times I thought she could fall right out.  Paige had been insisting we take the Merry go round so that was next.  The sun was setting and by the time we made it through the Dumbo line it was dark.  Matthew and Veronica went first and Paige and I took the next flight.  Paige couldn't see over the side and she still loved it.  Adventure Land was closing so we made our way to the lake side to see Fantasmic.  The girls loved it and we were so close to the ships carrying the characters.  The fireworks were cancelled so we made our way back to the hotel wondering what the next day would be like at a park none of us had been to before.

To Be Continued..

We woke up in California the morning after we enjoyed the day at Disneyland anticipating the new Park California Adventure.  When we walked in the park there was a big sun copper sculpture w/ a waterfall in front of it.  We took pictures there and met Minnie and Donald Duck and Pluto and got their autographs.  The first place we went was the movie backlot.  We saw Jojo and Paige wanted to meet her and was waiting so paitently, but Jojo didn't have an escort and was swamped w/ kids.  After a little bit she finally got the kids to move back and gave Paige a big hug and signed her book for her.  I don't think I'll ever forget what Paige looked like right then.  We went to see Crush and the kids sat in the front.  Crush asked Veronica what her name was and she said "Crush".  He said "Hey that's my name too, I'll call you little crush".  John Paul asked him how old he was in Dog years, lol.  When we were leaving, the host said "bye little crush".  Then we rode on the Monsters Inc ride.  It was perfect w/ all the doors flying around on the lines and Sully and Boo hiding between the buildings.  Randal even changed colors for us.  We went to see the Bugs life 3d movie and since I saw it once in Disneyworld I put Paige on my lap so when the bugs bit us she wouldn't get scared.  This movie was different from the one I remembered and Paige was frightened.  Hopper was huge (which I remembered) and when he bug bombed the room it filled the room w/ steam and black smoke (which was much more dramatic than I remembered).  I took her out of the theater and when we got outside the attendant said it was over anyway.  While we waited for people to file out Paige was still frightened and she saw the girl collecting glasses had ants on her clothes.  We went over and asked her if Paige could see the ants and she let Paige touch the pictures on her overalls so Paige could see it was pretend.  Then we walked into a Bugs Life carnival.  The clovers were 30 feet tall and we were as tiny as bugs.  First we rode empty swinging food boxes.  That was special because the 4 of us got to ride together finally.  Next was the spinning ladybugs and then we rode the bumper russian bugs.  Veronica rode with Victoria and John Paul.  She was so cute and tiny playing w/ the big kids.  The catapillar (sp) took us on a ride through his favorite scents.  We smelled watermelon and baking animal crackers and candycorn.  Of course it was all bigger than us because we were still the size of ants.  We ate lunch at the Mission Tortilla restaurant and had yummy margaritas too.  Then we toured the tortilla factory and ate tortilla samples.  Next we toured the sourdough bread factory and ate samples there too.  We walked over to the Tower of Terror and Matthew, Debbie, Victoria and John Paul got in line.  Connie and I sat outside with Veronica and Paige and waited for their ride to end.  Later, as we walked away, we saw Cinderella and Mickey and I yelled "Where are you going" and she said they had a show, so we followed them.  We ended up at a stage watching animators singing about making the characters come alive and then we saw Cinderella, Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan.  After the show we met each of them and got their autographs and took pictures.  They remembered me after I reminded them we saw them on the street.  We walked past the Soarin ride to the river raft ride.  Connie said she would not ride the raft ride so she stayed w/ Veronica and Paige since they weren't tall enough and we rode the ride w/ a guy and two girls.  The guy had a NIN shirt on so we talked about the concerts we'd seen.  That guy and one of the girls he was w/ got totally soaked, but most of our party stayed pretty dry.  John Paul was pretty worried at first and held on to the wheel to save his life, but then he got more comfortable.  When we reached the top of the going up part, Debbie was backward and she thought it was a huge drop but when we got her to look behind her it was about 15 feet, then she felt better.  It was so much fun and so scary but not too scary.  Then we caught up w/ Connie and the girls and went to dinner at Ariel's Grotto.  After we sat down and our food was served, the princesses showed up.  We met Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, Aurora (I think), and Mulan.  Paige thought Belle was so pretty and when Belle saw her she picked her up and hugged her and kissed her and kept her on her lap.  Paige had such an expression of amazement.  It was another moment I hope I never forget.  They signed our autograph books and took pictures w/ us.  Matthew got a picture w/ Snow White.  Connie and Debbie were talking and Debbie said they look so much like the characters and Snow White said "Well of course I am Snow White".  After the princesses left, we were eating and a man walked up to the table and started talking to us and Debbie said "Are you a Prince" and he said yes and I asked "are you Eric" and he said yes again.  Debbie had been teasing me all day for knowing the names of all the characters, since I have little girls.  So Eric signed next to Ariel's name with the bubbles and our dinner was over.  Matthew and the girls got crowns, I'm not sure how I didn't get one, and Matthew looked so cute w/ his on.  I said that's a true sign of a Father, walking around w/ a crown on all the rest of the day.  While we were eating the sun went down.  We found a place to sit and wait for the Main Street Electrical Parade which I had never seen.  It was the most amazing parade I have ever seen.  The music played from the buildings around us and the floats played in sync w/ the music and there were so many lights.  It was beautiful and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  The park was closing, so we walked out and watched the fireworks from the entrance.  It's the only time I have seen the fireworks.    By then it was already 10:00 pm and the girls were asleep so we parted ways w/ Connie and Debbie so they could go to the build a bear store and we took the girls back to the hotel w/ dreams of the beach.

It was the only morning on our vacation we slept in past 7:00 am and we needed it too.  We packed our bags for the beach w/ sunscreen, towels, snacks and umbrellas.  After we got driving instructions we loaded the cars and headed for Newport Beach.  It wasn't so bad getting there, however it took two hours finding a parking space.  The beach was loaded w/ people and we found a nice spot right by the lifeguards.  After we set out the blanket and up the umbrellas we settled down to eat our sub sandwiches, yummy.  Debbie and Connie took a walk to the pier, Matthew played w/ the kids and I waded out to battle the waves.  Matthew buried John Paul and Victoria and then they buried him in the sand.  We watched the planes soar by w/ adds trailing behind them.  It was very relaxing and at the same time I had this underlying feeling we were maintaining the peace.  After the umbrellas fell down there was no escaping the sun and Paige was so tired she was laying on my lap w/ her eyes closed, I thought it might be time to go home.  We bundled everything up and trooped back to the cars and back to the hotel, where we enjoyed a relaxing evening of pizza and tv and an early bedtime.

The next day was to be the last day of our vacation to spend at Disneyland and we were going to hit all the places we missed the first times around.  First we headed to Adventureland and specifically the Mad Hatter where we all got golden 50th anniversary ears w/ our names embroidered on the back.  Then we went on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  The Merry go round was the only ride we did again on Paige's insistence, however this time Matthew and I got to ride horses too.  We rode the Snow White scary ride (after we got off that ride I heard someone say "I think we just made it out of hell"), and Pinoccio's ride too.  We went on an animal cracker train which was more fun than I anticipated, seeing the miniature fairy tale villages.  We were inside a caged car and all 8 of us fit in one cage.  After that Matthew and I went on the Matterhorn while Veronica and Paige went w/ John Paul, Victoria, Connie and Debbie on the fairy tale boat ride and the tea cups.  The Matterhorn was so fun and it was a chance for Matthew and I to escape together alone.  Then we met up w/ the rest just in time to ride Alice's wonderland.  They sang a very merry unbirthday which is one of my favorite disney songs and the ride turned and swung around and we waved at all the walkers below us.  The Small World is a lot bigger than I remembered on the outside and the inside.  It's more beautiful too.  Veronica and Paige loved all the dolls and were singing along w/ the song long after we left the ride.  After that we entered Toon Town, a crazy part of the park w/ no right angles and a facade scenery.  We walked through Mickie and Minnies houses and met them.  We rode Roger Rabbit's ride spinning through his world of pop-ups.  We went on the roller coaster and Debbie's hat flew off.  While she got a voucher for another hat I went and took a picture of it in the water below the coaster.  We climbed on Daisy's ship and ate frozen lemonades sitting on the benches in the shade.  Matthew and I ran over to the New Orleans square to the Pirates store and shopped around a bit before everyone met us there for more shopping.  We saw the door for the famous mysterious Club 33.  We went back to Main Street and saw the Disney parade again and headed to California Adventure.  We were just in time for Matthew, Debbie, John Paul and Victoria to ride the Soarin ride which they said was amazingly real.  As the park was closing we found a store called Engine Ears w/ some cool board games and a whole Mr. Potato head section.  John Paul got Veronica and Paige pretend cell phones that take pretend pictures.  Matthew showed them how just like I had been doing w/ my phone the whole time.  We went to Downtown Disney and got seats at a mexican restaurant, then Debbie and I and Connie took off to apply for a credit card to get Disney backpacks.  Dinner was yummy (fish tacos, my favorite) and at the same time sad because that was the end of our Disneyland vacation.

The next morning we parted ways w/ the New Mexicans and headed home.  After a short stop at Matthew's California office we headed home to sleep in our own beds