the great lemon cupcake tragedy of 2012

I love to bake. And I don't have oodles of time to do so (which might be a blessing, I'd probably weigh 300 lbs if I did have oodles of time to bake). As a result, anytime I am asked to make a dessert, I tend to go WAY a wee bit overboard.

Thus the beginnings of The Great Lemon Cupcake Tragedy of 2012, or TGLCT-12. My mother-in-law's birthday was yesterday, so we celebrated on Sunday with dinner. She asked me on Saturday to bring a lemon cake for dessert, since she was going to be making a lemon meringue pie, and not everyone (me) likes pie. My head about exploded with ideas! I borrowed a fancy bunt pan from my mother-in-law and some mini cupcake tins from my sister-in-law. These desserts were going to be legen...wait for it... DARY!

I woke up early Sunday morning, hours before I had to be at church, to start the fun, um, baking. Same thing in my book. I made the cake and the mini muffins, and then came home after church and began the cookies. Everything was turning out perfectly! Well, the cake fell apart a little, but once I melted some lemon frosting and drizzled it over the top, you couldn't tell anyone. (Bonus! I got to use my fancy cake stand we got for our wedding for the first time!) The tiny little cupcakes looked so beautiful and fancy and tart-ish once they had been dipped in lemon frosting and topped with half a raspberry. And my lemon cake-mix cookies with a raspberry in the middle? To die for!

Finally, after home and visiting teaching appointments were over, it was time to head down to the in-laws! Sean and I took the first couple of desserts out to the car and then headed back to the house to get the mini cupcakes and the dog, who was also invited to the par-tay. I opened the door, didn't see Blaze waiting like he normally is, and knew instantly what had happened...

Blaze ate them. Every. Last. Cupcake. 

I wanted to cry. Punch him. Scream. Anything to release the anger I felt to this dumb creature who was inevitably going to have a mondo stomachache later. Then the realization came: he's tried that before. Why didn't you just take them out on the first trip? It wouldn't have been that hard. Even in heels...

So I was pretty much a crank the rest of the night. Sorry Collette, I hope the other two desserts sufficed...

Aren't they beautiful?

Okay, so my weekend was not ruined in any way, shape, or form from this tragedy event. Sure felt like it for a while though. We actually had a really great weekend!

 Thursday: went to La Casita in Springville for Alex's birthday. These guys are brothers and climbing buddies.

La Casita? It's okay. Maria Bonita's in North Orem is better.

We went to SmashBurger on Friday, and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond to spend some wedding gift cards. Yay for my new avocado slicer!

We saw Brave on Saturday! So good. The music was really good as well.

Sean often plays guitar, but rarely do I have time to just sit and listen.

P.S. Blaze suffered no side effects from eating the cupcakes. Must have been the lemon-raspberry combo. You can't go wrong with fruit I guess...

Disneyland Day 2

We decided to start off the day in CA Adventures to avoid the lines. We didn't want to waist time on fast passes in that park for some reason. 

(Anyone that goes to Cars Land in CA Adventure must email me details on how it is. Also Matterhorn was closed the entire time we were there and opened back up on the same day as Cars Land. I'm dying to go!)

Anyway, here's more fun pics from Day 2! Oh and we taped our arches today. But our feet still hurt.

And sorry if these seem like repeats to anyone, I am mostly doing this for documentation's sake. And they are different pictures I promise!

 Monster's Inc! If it is slow, the giant Roz figurine says funny things to the people on the ride. Ask me for what she said to us, it was pretty funny! But too long to post here, and these posts are already long enough...

Tower of Terror. Hey Hayley, why is it the second ride you went on that day, when it was the second to last ride from the night before? Oh because it is AWESOME!

 

And this is how awesome it is; I'm doing my this-is-totally-wicked-cheesy grin.

Check out the adorbs little boy behind us. His younger sister was LOVING the ride, and he hated it.

Oh and all the silly faces we made on each picture-taking ride? Everyone laughed when they saw ours. Score!  

Most depressing thing of the trip; I got sick on Screamin'. Worst thing ever! So we decided the Ferris Wheel would be safe: not. We were in one of the rocking cars. Bad idea.

So we went on the new Little Mermaid ride, which is awesome! It's set up like a lot of the Fantasyland rides (Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White, etc. Monster's Inc. is like that too.) One scene of this ride is completely decorated in bubbles, and Sean says that is what the inside of his brain looks like. If you know Sean, that completely makes sense.

We got lunch after this, Sean got clam chowder and I got Bakersfield broccoli soup, both in breadbowls. Sean's was great, mine was good.

We did all we wanted in CA Adventure that day (well almost, but we didn't want to go on the rapid one because the weather was kinda crappy) so we went back to Disneyland. Sean died in between the parks. Some workers started laughing at us. It was pretty great.

Remember our feet hurting? Did I mention that yet? They were soooo hurting. So we did a lot of shows and sit-down rides. This is us waiting for the Tiki Room show. Which was Sean's first time watching that show. Oh and guaranteed we went on Pirates right before. Told you: I'm obsessed.

 We rode the Monorail! Sean's first time and it may have been my first time too! When you have been going to D-land every year of your life since you were 3 you don't remember a lot of everything...

 We got to ride in the end car with the pointy nose haha. At some point during the afternoon we rode the Disneyland Express around the park too. Just to rest our feet.

 Moosen!

A very big hat...

Yes, we even went on Small World. We played the "Guess where" game and failed miserably. 

Sean had never ridden it before. He has only been to Disneyland a few times, and they were all in the teenage years when your friends that are with you are too cool for the little kid rides. So for most of the rest of the day, we stayed in Fantasyland!

This is the Storybrook ride where you ride on a boat and go through Monstro's mouth. We got popcorn right after Small World and right before this, and while we were in line it started getting really windy and rainy. It went away like 10 minutes later though. But the park wasn't that busy the rest of the day! After this we went on the Casey Jr. train.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

 I can't think of a good enough caption for this... but I love it.

 Some guy in line saw me posing for this and yelled, "Typical!" I wanted to kick him in the shins! Sean didn't let me.

Dumbo!

 

Then we saw...

Love that it is still playing! Rachel, I always think of you when I see Captain EO.

We had picked up fast passes earlier for this. Love it!

So close! Next time...

Sleeping beauty's castle.

 End of the day. We were tired. But Alice and Wonderland ride was calling us...

And then Peter Pan!

Seriously, Disneyland with my bestie is the best. I can't wait until we go again! Until then, we will just have to look at the pictures over and over and over...

Stay tuned for Day 3 of Disney!

Disneyland Day 1

Sean and I got really lucky as far as tickets went. Disney was running a deal on 3-day park hoppers for $199 each. That breaks down to the Southern California 1 park 1 day ticket price! We jumped on them like flies on poop! We bought them with our tax return. (After the bikes too. We got a nice tax return this year.)

Fast forward to our trip; we left Sean and Juliet's around 9 the next morning and headed to Disneyland! It took about an hour to get there. Which I expected. Southern California/Los Angeles general area is not small people! It takes hours to get from end to end!

Anyway, enjoy a whole slew of pictures from the happiest place on earth! It might be another long post, but I am really going to try and only pick the best ones. Especially since most of them are pics of the two of us same pose different rides. I digress... enjoy!

Our tickets had Sully on them! Totally a good sign for the trip.

 

We asked my friend Katie how to get our newly-wed buttons (she is a pro) and we followed her instructions! 

People told us "Congratulations!" all day every day!

 Family picture!

 

First stop? Fast passes for Indiana Jones! Then Jungle Cruise (above) and Pirates of the Caribbean, like 3 times in a row.

We're I'm obsessed with the POTC ride. 

  

Haunted mansion, of course.

Is anyone else kinda bummed when they don't let you walk through the cemetary in front of the building? I love reading the silly headstones!

  

Indiana Jones! We only had to wait like 10 minutes with the fast pass!

After this we picked up our fast passes for Splash Mountain and got lunch, then hit a few more rides! 

Winnie the Pooh! Neither of us had been on that ride.

 

 

"I've got a bright idea!"

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!

Classic. Sean's face was like mine but he broke too soon... Oh well!

We got pretty wet...

Oh yeah. Delicious ice cream break. And then we picked up fast passes for space mountain.

 Autopia! Sean's first time! I let him drive.

Look at that happy face :)

 Star tours! They have completely changed it around. Not sure I'm a fan, I loved the old one!

It's all 3D-ified and everything.

 

Space Mountain! This picture is not edited at all haha.

 Horrible quality but we had a great time shooting Zurg. Sean kicked my trash...

P.S. If anyone has had them email you the picture, it most likely went to spam. Bummer on all the classic pics my family and I have missed out on...

Then it was time for me to face my fears and go on Tower of Terror. I was terrified. Seriously.

I was still trying to decide at this point if I liked it. Don't worry. It is now my fave ride in CA Adventures!

Then we ran back to Disneyland right before it closed to go on Finding Nemo's Submarine ride! My first and Sean's first. Instant fave! It was great!

Lessons learned from this day at Disneyland:

1. Park-hopper passes are the ONLY way to go.

2. TAPE YOUR ARCHES IF YOU ARE PRONE TO SORE FEET! Or if you are going to spend 4 total days walking around parks. We were dying after this day... Taping your arches will save your feet each day of the trip. We should have done it starting with Sea World.

3. Do not waste fast passes on things like Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Star Tours, etc. Save them for these rides: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones. Maybe Big Thunder if the lines have been long all day. Everything else? The line will get shorter if you come back later.

4. If you have 2 or 3 day park hopper passes, do not feel the need to run from ride to ride, no matter how exciting it is to be in Disneyland. You have time!

Fun day! We love Disneyland and I honestly wish we lived as close as I did when I was growing up. One day maybe... wishful thinking.