Chapter started: June 30, 2009.
Chapter finished: July 4, 2009.
Trivia Answer: The Roller Coaster Capital of the World!
Trivia Winner(s): None!
Did You Know: Cedar Point is also ranked the best amusement park in the world by GT awards. There are rumors of a new flying/wooden coaster in 2010.
Author's Note: Well, here's a new chapter…hopefully I'll have this up by the Fourth of July which makes this my present to you guys. I love you all! Toodles.
R.I.P.
Fallen Soldiers who fought for our freedom!
=HSM4: Summer of Friendship, Love, & Loyalty=
-Chapter 6: God Bless the U.S.A!-
(July 4, 2009.)
Many have gone on their way
I thank the Lord for letting me see another 4th of July day
Some take it as a day to eat
I think of it as a day of fellowship & retreat
Being thankful and kind in so many ways
Making the best of my days
showing love to all
Pick up a man when he or she fall
Looking back on those that sacrificed their lives
leaving behind memories of husbands, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons & wives
Life is not going to be perfect but giving thanks in memories...sure makes it worth it
So take time not only on this day
Thank the Lord for making a way
America is home
today
in
everyway.
Live the Dream.
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
BE HAPPY
BE SAFE
--------------
(6AM-Disneyland Hotel, Walt Disney World- Orlando, Florida)
//If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd work for all my life
And I had to start again
With just my children and my wife//
"Wow, aren't we all patriotic today," Greg stated as he watched all ten teens walk up to them defiantly looking patriotic with:
Chad and Zeke dressed in a red and white striped HCO polo, a pair of blue boardshorts, and black and white men's adidas slides.
Jason in a white polo AERO polo with blue and white plaid board shorts, and red flip flops.
Ryan in a red short sleeved shirt, a pair of blue board shorts, and black VANS with a white hat.
Troy in a blue and white striped shirt, a pair of blue and white Hawaiian floral board shorts, and black and white men's adidas slides.
Gabriella dressed in a blue sunset cliffs halter top from HCO, a pair of white denim shredded frayed ripped hip hugging short shorts from AMICLUBWEAR, black graphic surf thong strap platform sandals with a 2 inch heel to them from AMICLUBWEAR, her T necklace with the red ruby, a pair of ruby drop earrings, a ruby bracelet, and (of course) her engagement ring.
Sharpay in her red lace trim V-neck pinched design ribbed tank top from AMICLUBWEAR, the same white short shorts and flip flops as Gabriella, and blue beaded jewelry.
Kelsi in her pipeline blue Aerie pretty padded tank top with lace trimming, bright red denim short shorts, the same black flip flops as Gabriella, and the same white beaded jewelry as Sharpay.
Taylor dressed in her red and white striped Capistrano lace floral appliqué tank from HCO, bright blue denim short shorts, the same flip flops as Gabriella, and the same white jewelry as Sharpay.
And Martha dressed in her white criss-cross back white Dixon lake tank top with rosette appliqué embellishments, bright blue denim short shorts, the same flip flops as Gabriella, and multi-colored (red, white, and blue) beaded jewelry.
"Well, the same thing could be said about you all daddy," Gabriella told her dad noticing that all the parents were wearing either red and white, red, white, blue, or blue and white, or blue and red shirts with jeans and black footwear.
"Alright, you got you me there baby girl," Greg told his daughter with a smile as he placed a kiss on her forehead as she hugged him.
//I'd thank my lucky stars
To be living here today
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
And they can't take that away//
-----
"Look it's Goofy!" Chad exclaimed happily like a little kid at a candy store as they entered Goofy's Kitchen for some breakfast.
"Yes, Chad we see," Taylor said, but then soon forgot about it because she laughed along with everyone else as Chad ran towards Goofy followed by Gabriella and Jasmine yelling 'Goofy! We love you!'.
"Umm, that sure was something," Cristy said as she watched the three excitingly hug Goofy who happily obliged before he posed for photos with them and then with them and other kids.
"Girl, if you're going to be having a summer of fun with us here, you better get use to it because Chad's just like a little kid in a candy store and apparently so is Gabriella," Taylor told Cristy causing everyone to laugh.
"Well, um you better go…um, pry him with a crowbar off of Goofy," Cristy told Taylor.
Taylor gave her a confused look before turning around and letting her mouth drop open to see her boyfriend hugging Goofy tightly while Gabriella and Jasmine going to a table that was big enough for all thirty-three of them.
"I'd better go control my son, I'll be back," Vanessa told them before she walked off, her white tote slung over her shoulder, and then stopped in front of Chad and Goofy, took a picture and then put her hands on her hips, got a good hard glare on her face and said, "Chad Nicholas Danforth."
Everyone laughed at the mother and son before going to sit down where they saw Gabriella and Jasmine place their totes before they walked up to the buffet, paid the person their thirty dollars, and began to grab a plate with silverware as they traveled around the massive buffet for food.
//And I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me//
"So baby girl how do you think Chinemelu'll do in his first NBA season?" Greg asked her daughter referring to Chinemelu Elonu who the L.A. Lakers drafted to their team from the 2009-2010 NBA Draft Season on June 25th.
"Don't know really haven't watched him play, but if you think he's good then he's good," Gabriella told her dad.
"What makes you say that?" Inez said half-seriously half-jokingly.
"Because daddy can usually see potential when no one else can and he knows a great basketball player when he sees one," Gabriella replied causing her dad to smile brightly at her.
"So Brett how do you think you'll do?" Jack asked Brett who got drafted into the NBA and to the Lakers also.
"I have no idea," Brett replied honestly.
"Brett Andrew, don't say that! You're awesome big brother and don't let anyone tell you different," Gabriella said scolding her brother while everyone around the tabled watched on with soft smiles, actually loving the strong bound Brett and Gabriella seemed to have.
"Same thing about you Ms. 2008-2009 MVP in both basketball and volleyball," Brett told his sister.
"You did?!" Cristy asked shocked and watched as Gabriella nodded her head and then giggled as Cristy glared at Brett and then whacked him in the back of the head and in the stomach.
"OW! Cristy, what was that for?!" Brett asked him.
"You're an ass, that's what it was for," Cristy replied back with an ice cold glare.
"How?!" Brett asked shocked and utterly confused.
"Because you never ever told me that your sister, the girl I think of and love as my sister, got one of the highest honor in any sports career," Cristy replied as everyone watched on amused, never having seen something like this before.
"That's why I'm an ass?" Brett asked.
"Duh. God, you're such an ass! Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Because…I thought I already did," Brett replied honestly.
"No you didn't and that's another reason why you're an ass and that's another reason for this," Cristy replied.
"This, what?" Brett asked confused or as the others (minus Chad) thought of it as pulling a Chad move, the wrong move.
"This," she told him with a smirk as she whacked him in the stomach and on the back of the head harder this time.
"Ow! Woman, would you stop!? It's to early in the morning to do that!"
"Don't you woman me, you ass!" Cristy hissed before whacking him in the same spots again, twice as harder than the last time and just stronger every time.
"Will you stop hitting me?!"
"No, not until you've learned your lesson," Cristy told him as she kept whacking him in the same two spots.
"I learned my lesson! I learned my lesson! So you can stop! I don't want bruises," Brett told her.
"Well, too damn bad," she told him as she whacked him in both placed again.
And while this whole thing was going on Gabriella was recording it with her camera.
//And I gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A//
(7 A.M.)
"So how you feeling son?" Greg asked his son with a smirk as they entered Walt Disney World for the first time since they arrived in Orlando, Florida.
"Sore," Brett said as he shot a glare at his smirking girlfriend who he could tell that underneath her white framed Chanel sunglasses had a victorious look in them.
"Dude, that's because you got to be like me and know when to shut up," Chad who had a pair of black men's sunglasses over his eyes and his fingers laced with Taylor's, said.
"One, why would anyone and I mean anyone want to be like you?! And two, you shouldn't be talking because you…" Brett started.
"Never learn!" All thirty-two of them chorused at Chad.
"Alright, jeeze. Don't have to scream in my ear," Chad told them.
"We're trying to get it through your dense skull so you actually can learn it," Taylor told her boyfriend as they entered Fantasyland through it's main entrance through Sleeping Beauty Castle and passing by and viewing "Story Moment" dioramas of scenes from the film which also included animated figurines since 1977.
//From the lakes on Minnesota
To the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas
From seat to shining sea//
"When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true," Snow White's voice was heard through the speakers in the park.
Fantasyland was one of the many "themed lands" at the many Magic Kingdom-style parks run by the Walt Disney Company around the world. Each Fantasyland has a castle as well as several gentle rides themed after Disney movies. And in the words of Walt Disney: "Fantasyland is dedicated to the young at heart and to those you believe that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true." And in words of others: "Fantasyland is the world of imagination, hopes, and dreams."
As they entered Fantasyland they noticed that the central courtyard was dominated by King Arthur's Carrousel, in front of which sat a sword in an anvil; and as they were told from one of the workers in Goofy's Kitchen, several times each day a costumed Merlin would help a child pull the sword from it.
"Look there's Sleeping Beauty," Jasmine said as she pointed to female dressed in an elegant blue princess gown with long blonde hair.
"She's hot," Chad whispered to the boys who looked at the girls before they quickly replied back with nods of agreement.
The five females who say this, looked at each other with smiles before they found just the cutie they were looking for and together they squealed, "Look there's Prince Phillip! He's so dreamy!"
The five males hearing this walked over to each of their girls and wrapped an arm around their waist and either resting their hands on their hip on their manhandles or in a back pocket of their shorts.
The girls just inwardly smirked and then looked at each other before they slipped out of the guys' arms, linked arms with Jasmine, and skipped off to where the Prince was.
The parents, Cristy, Monica, Brett, and Quincy all just looked at each other and laughed, took a few pictures of them surrounding the Prince and then more as the guys came up behind each of their females and introducing themselves most likely saying that they we're their boyfriend (or fiancé in Troy's case).
"Momma?" Jasmine asked as she ran back over to her mom.
"Yes, sweetie?" Miranda asked her daughter with a smile.
"Do you have a pen and a tablet?" Jasmine asked her mother.
"Of course I did. I remember unlike you Ms. Thang," Miranda told her daughter handing her Jasmine's Mickey Mouse pen and a medium sized Disney notebook that had Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse on front with writing in gold that read:
Jasmine I. Nielsen's Walt Disney World Memories
Summer of '09.
"Thanks mom," Jasmine said before she ran back over to the Princess Aurora/Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) and Prince Phillip who were posing with the other Wildcats after the girls got done getting their signatures in a similar notebook with a similar pen.
"Have I said yet this morning how much I love Magic Hours?" Chad asked them as they stood in line for the ride Alice in Wonderland that resided next to a second ride, the Mad Tea Party, based on a scene from Alice in Wonderland. With the presence of the two rides based was unusual that Walt Disney said he regretted making it because it lacked a connection to the audience's hearts.
As they got on the ride, the vechicals began the pat of the movie and they (as Alice) followed the White Rabbit down the Rabbit Hole into Wonderland as they heard (but not saw) Alice through the ride's speakers, "My adventures in wonderland began when I followed the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. All of a sudden, I fell! Down, down, down!"
The next character they came to was the Doorknob who began speaking to them, "Dawww! Looking for the white rabbit! Well, ha ha ha, have a look around! Ha ha ha."
During the ride, they spun through the scenes in a madcap fashion, facing the wrath of angry flowers on a golden afternoon and dodging absurd creatures in the forest, with some questionable guidance from the Cheshire Cat. When the Queen of Hearts loses to Alice at croquet, she threatens to chop off the innocent girl's head as she (and the ride vehicles) push their way through brigades of playing cards. The vehicles then left the rid building's second floor (a rare occurrence in a non-trill ride at a Disney park) and descends by people waiting in line on a winding giant lily pad, before heading to the climatic scene at the Mad Tea Party. The White Rabbit ducked as a giant birthday cake with a dynamite candle exploded and the ride vehicle escaped back to where it began.
"Well, that was pretty cool for a non-trill ride," Chad said and some of the others from their group agreed.
"I know, but did you guys notice the only time when seen Alice herself was only in the singing flower garden hidden where she was hiding behind a left to the visitor's right.
Soon later after taking pictures, they rode on the Casey Jr. Circus Train, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Disney Princess Fantasy Faire, "it's a small world", King Arthur's Carrousel, they came to the ride Gabriella and Sharpay were waiting for, the Mad Tea Party.
"Let's go in the pink one with the hearts," Sharpay said as she drug Gabriella over to a pink teacup that had hearts on it.
"Smile, Shar-Bear!" Gabriella exclaimed as she held up her camera to take a picture of her and Sharpay after they got settled in the teacup.
Together they posed in the teacup for all sorts of pictures and then smiled as their loves hopped into the teacup with them.
"Well, this is a surprise! You two in a pink teacup," Gabriella said as the ride slowly began to start up.
The Wildcat group all had fun as the three small turntables which rotated counter clockwise, each holding six teacups, within one large turntable rotated clockwise spun them around and around making a little or a lot dizzy depending on the person that is.
By 8AM, they were finished with their Magic Hours that only let them in the park before everyone else because they were staying at an official hotel located park grounds before they exited Walt Disney World and headed back to their hotel to have lunch and have fun by a pool that they paid the hotel extra to reserve for them today.
//From Detroit down to Houston
And New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart
And it's time we stand and say//
(Magic Kingdom-Walt Disney World, Florida-9:22 PM)
"This is going to be so cool," Gabriella stated as they stood right up in front of Cinderella Castle getting ready for Disney's Celebrate America: A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky, which was the name of Magic Kingdom's Fourth of July fireworks display.
"And pretty," Sharpay added with a smile.
"And pretty. Most defiantly because Walt Disney World itself is defiantly pretty, especially at night all lit up," Gabriella replied with a smile as she leaned back in Troy's arms who smiled as he glanced down at her while he listened intently on what Brett, his dad, and her dad were talking about.
"Girls, look at the castle," Vance told his daughter and the girl he thought of as his daughter.
Gabriella and Sharpay turned to look at Cinderella Castle to find that the top half of the castle was lit with red lights and the bottom half had a blue background with white stars so it resembled the American Flag, their freedom.
"That's so pretty," Gabriella and Sharpay said together as they finished taking pictures of it that turned out fantastic.
And at exactly 9:25 PM, the time the show was about to start, they heard sounds of fireworks shooting up in the sky as a guy spoke through the speakers throughout all of the park, "America. Al and where eagles soar since history began, it's people have celebrated the magnificence of this land."
"Wow, look at those!" Sharpay said as she pointed to the fireworks she was talking to as she video taped the display as were most the people in the Wildcat group and throughout the park.
//That I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me//
"Tonight, we celebrate America. A land with many people, a country that continues to grow, a nation of courage and independence. America, the beautiful," the guy said again through the speakers and as he said 'America the beautiful' trumpets started going off and a big "explosion'' of red fireworks shot straight up in a line and exploded beautifully into yellow bursts in the sky.
The red ones were soon followed by blue and white ones as the trumpets joined by bells added the magical affect.
And as the fireworks faded in the sky and trumpets and bells slowly drifted to a stop, the guy began to speak again, "To honor Independence Day, we welcome you to our Fourth of July celebration as we commemorate the great day of this great nation. With joy, we celebrate The United States of America. A vas mosaic of individuality and inspiration. A vibrant pallet with its cultures and colors. A country who's pioneering spirit continues to live on. Arts, lines, and people who cherish freedom in this land and around the globe."
//And I gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.//
And as the guys finished off the fireworks started again as people sang God Bless America and then it was followed by the instrumental version of Yankee Doodle.
"That one was really pretty," Jasmine told Kelsi and Jason as a red and blue colored firework explored beautifully into the sky.
"Wow, that's a lot and I mean a lot of fireworks and it's not even the finale even thought it kinda reminds you of one," Chad started as he kept his camera and eyes locked on the sky where fireworks were going off from left to right, non-stop.
"The spirit of America continues to inspire those you believe in their dreams. From sea to shining sea, we are proud to share all of what this great and beautiful nation has to offer. In the words of melodies and beloved American Folk songs, that enduring spirit is found in the music of the land," the guy said as the fireworks stopped again so the sky could stop.
The fireworks then started up again after he finished talking and as the fireworks started up so did the song This Land is Your Land.
//And I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me//
"Check that out!" Kelsi said as fireworks shot from either side of the castle diagonally in the sky and then exploded into beautiful colors.
"That was cool," Jason agreed with his girlfriend.
Four minutes later, little fireworks that made the big booms (and leaving your ears ringing or deaf) were the only thing going off up in the sky until the bigger ones started up three minutes later.
The last firework, one that exploded into three mini fireworks with big booms, went off in the sky and the sky started to clear and the band stopped as the guy began to talk again, "Just as the fifty stars and the fifteen stripes are so grandly united upon with glory. Our nation's flag unites us all. Let's join together in salute to the red, white and blue, and cheer the hopes and dreams that continue to shine throughout America."
The music continued as it came to the finale of the fireworks of the display and they watched as the castle started changing colors as white stars moved around on it and soon later the music stopped and people began singing The Star Spangled Banner to finish off the night with.
"HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!" Was all that the people in Orlando and all of Florida could probably hear as it was screamed at the top of everyone's voices in celebration….
//And I gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A//
TBC….
Well, there you all go. I hope you enjoyed it! I hope you all have Happy Fourth of July and safe one at that! God Bless the men and women in uniform serving us or who have served and sacrificed the ultimate price to keep us free! My prayers are with you! Enjoy the fireworks everyone! Much love. I love you Cloe! XOXO
Toodles..
Trivia: Just have a safe, fun and happy Fourth of July! Do you all think you could do that for the trivia?! You'll all be winners if you do!
"One flag. One land. One heart. One hand. One Nation evermore!" -Oliver Wendell Holmes
