California Fun!!!

This is what we woke up to as we opened our garage at
6:30am on Wed Feb 11, 2009. It was our worst fear as
we had a long day of driving and hoped for clear roads.

NOT!!!

We finally got clear roads right after Wells, NV. Gerald was a great
driver and I tried to sleep so I would not be so nervous
watching the road. The kids did great on our trip.

Paige and Braden keeping busy

We had 3 books on tape and 3 DVD players with over 15 movies
to pick from. Lot's of food and snacks helped get us through.

Jordan & Paige
This tells the story of a 14 hour drive to San Marcos, California. We
made great time and had great roads in Nevada and California.
We arrived at Chad & Michelle's by 9:00pm and were happy
to be walking around. It was fun to see Chad & Michelle's beautiful
home and their wonderful children. It was a start to
a crazy, fun, tiring, wet, warm & then cold but memorable couple of days.

This says it all and we had a great time in California!
There is so much to do but so little time. Our Children had never been to Southern California and had never been to Disneyland. They weren't sure what to expect and were not sure they would have any fun. YEAH RIGHT! The most magical place on earth and we were going.
We saved some of the other attractions for our next trip to California.
You could not do it all in one trip and not have
your legs fall off.


Thursday, February 12, 2009
California Adventure

Here we are outside of California Adventure ready
for a day of fun and excitement with Uncle Chad!!!
My brother Chad is so ready for fun always. He treated us
to a two day trip to Disneyland. You would have thought it was
his first time at Disneyland!! He had so much fun riding the rides with
all of us. What a tour guide!!

Our first ride was Soaring over California. It also was our last at
the end of the day. We loved this ride. We had so much fun!!!

We did not ride the wet rides because it was
only in the low 60's but it was sunny. But we loved the
wolf mountain in the back. What a place!

Nice glasses!!! Ready to ride Toy Story!!We had to get a picture next to Mr. Potato Head. GO IDAHO!!

Paige & Kristin
Whipped around and shooting all we could shoot!

The California Screamin was the funnest ride however we forgot that Paige has never been on a roller coaster and has never been upside down before. She's a dare devil usually but not this ride. It was a mistake. She hated the big drops and cried the whole way. Gerald snapped a picture of her while she gripped the handles tight. The Tower of Terror was definitely out of the question.

Jordan wasn't sure that he wanted to go to Disneyland
and ride the little rides with all the little children. This picture on the
Screamin sure looks like he isn't having any fun!!!

How old are those two crazies in the
back seat of the Screamin? Chad!!!!

Paige was happy being away from Screamin!

We also saw the Aladdin show and it was amazing!!
The kids loved it. Kinda like a mini Broadway play.

This was definitely the ride for the boys only.

Braden & Jordan not sure what they are in for!

Paige's favorite ride at our local fair but not as cool with all the other
neat rides at California Adventure. It was a great day at California Adventure!!

Friday February 13, 2009
Oh yeah, we should have known that our luck
would not last when it's Friday the 13th!!!

The day started out with the whole group and much cooler weather.
We were not sure if it was going to rain but we made the most
of the bright skies in the morning.

Our family, Chad and his 2 girls Kate and Emily and their
cousin Maddie.
Us on Disneyland's Main Street!!


Michelle took this picture of me because I looked like a tourist.
Me, my backpack and my 1st Visit to Disneyland pin they gave us!!!
I'm looking good!!!

The Jungle Tour
We caught Jordan having fun kinda like on that Carnival
cruise commercial where the teenager seems
like their not having fun but you catch that I'm having fun smile!!

Indiana Jones ride
We didn't have to wait in too many lines with Fast-Passes but
before the torrential rains came there were more people to wait in lines with.

Happiest Place on Earth!!
(maybe before the rain but after Wettest Place on Earth!!)
Here we are in line for Jordan's favorite ride It's A Small World (NOT!!!). We thought it would be a good ride to get us out of the rain but it was a long wait in line with everyone else with that idea. When we came out of the building in the boats after the ride, we got just soaked sitting in the rain waiting to get out of our boat. Every time we past that ride again Jordan made the comment "I hate that ride, It sings that song over and over again!!!"

The rains came in the afternoon and did it rain. Our raincoats were in the
car and it would have soaked us through to have gone and got them
so we waited it out. We did everything possible to keep out of the rain.
We rode the train around a couple of times and spent
time riding inside rides. It was hard to get warm when it was only 53 degrees and
there is no heaters in Disneyland because it is rarely that cold ever. It was Friday the 13th remember! That great part was after the rain we were able to ride
Thunder Mountain over and over again without any lines. YEEE HAA!!!

Paige didn't get to see the Tinker Fairies because of the rain out but
she did get to sit in Minnie's chair and meet Mickey Mouse!!!

Paige with Mickey Mouse and riding in his car with her cousins!!

Braden and Jordan with Mickey the man!!

The group all wet and tired ending the day with Mickey Mouse!!!

The Main Street at night as we left the park!!

(I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open!! Hee,Hee!)

Saturday February 14, 2009

Oh yeah Valentines Day!!!
It was a much better day with no rain in site.
We decided that Universal Studio's was too much for
our tired legs so after checking out of our Super 8 hotel we
met with Chad and his family and headed for HOLLYWOOD!!!

We decided to drive downtown Hollywood and go see the Kodak Theater (American Idol) and the Chinese theater where all the stars have their footprints. It was a sunny but cold day but we decided to take a star tour around the hills of BEVERLY HILLS!!!

Here we are on our tour in our convertible van. We had blanket to help keep the wind from freezing us out as we became crazy star stalkers.

This is David Beckham's house.
He broke my heart last year when
he didn't come to Salt Lake to play
soccer and I had bought tickets for my
birthday just to see him. I'm still mad!!

Rodeo Drive

We saw lot's of nice houses and cars but no stars. Hollywood was crazy because the Oscars were only a week away. They were setting up things and shutting down lot's of roads.
They said all the stars would be in town next week. Too bad for us. It was fun
but the little kids fell asleep and were very bored.

After of day in LA, we headed back to Chad's house in San Marcos. As we drove on the 101 we stopped to see a beautiful sunset over the ocean at Carlsbad. It was beautiful and cool!! After that we met Chad and his family at IN & OUT for some burgers. The kids loved them. The boys had a Halo tournament with Chad that night. I was not that happy to see how good my two boys are at hunting down people to pick off. WHATEVER!!! They had fun with Uncle Chad.


Sunday, February 15, 2008

We woke up and went to church with Chad and his family. I helped him in his nursery calling. There are some super cute kids and Andrew my nephew is one of them. Chad is so funny with the kids. He has a brown paper bag puppet he and his girls made that he uses to teach the
nursery children the lesson. He has more fun than the kids!!
After church, Michelle cooked us a wonderful chicken & rice dinner that was heaven compared to all the fast food that we had eaten in the last few days. I love a home cooked meal.
Thanks Michelle!!!! We ate it all up over a long discussion on the economy. YUCK!!

By 6:00 PM we had to say our goodbyes. Chad acted like he was crying as we left. What a ham! We will miss them. We usually only do things when we are all together in a big group at my mom and dad's house. Rarely do we do things with just two families and it was nice to just be with them and enjoy their family. I love my other brothers a lot but it's nice to get one on one time with each of their families.

We arrived in Primm, Nevada at about 9:00 pm and got our $4 rooms. Everyone teased me all week about the $4 rooms I found at Buffalo Bills. I was a bit nervous but to our surprise it was great. The kids got their room and Gerald & I had a room to ourselves (a late Valentines present). We woke up on Monday and headed for the outlet stores in Vegas where we spent all that we had saved by getting our $4 room. Good deals in Vegas!!
We didn't leave Vegas until 1:00 pm so we had a long trip home.

Our trip home was broken up by our stop in Vegas so it helped. However, it was a rough trip due to weather conditions. We ended like we began. We made it safely home on Monday night late.
We had a trip to remember and a longing for a further trip back to Southern Cal someday.
It was GREAT!!!

HOME TO THE SNOW!!! Boo HOO!!