Are you feeling overwhelmed yet?? Well I'm just getting started. I just might set two records, this one will be the "longest post ever". You have been warned.
Once we returned to Boston (on Saturday evening, August 17th) we had a few days to settle in before we got on an airplane to California for our 10 day family vacation. Andy could tell you just how excited I was. Our first real vacation since being married. I could barely contain myself. With that, I was determined to unpack all of our storage from the summer before we left. The last thing I wanted was to come home to a completely chaotic apartment after our trip. We worked hard and got the whole place cleaned and unpacked. I am not sure I have ever worked so efficiently in my life!
After unpacking our apartment and then packing for our trip, we woke up early (3:30am) on Wednesday, August 21st to catch our 6:30am flight to San Diego. We had called to have a cab van come to pick us up at 4:30am but it never showed up. We ended up having to pack two car seats, 3 suitcases, a double stroller and 5 people (including the cab driver) into a 4 door sedan. It was crammed like sardines, but we made it to the airport on time! The kids were very excited to fly on the plane, but I know they really had no idea how much fun we would have.
Here the kids are at 4:30am getting ready to catch a cab. They don't look very happy, but once we got to the airport they perked right up and were ready for the trip!
It has taken me a lot of convincing to post this picture of myself, but for the sake of the blog I will suck up my pride and share it with you. I mean, we had to document our first plane ride as a whole family!
During the plane ride (we had two), there was a lot of this.....
The kids did remarkably well and I couldn't have been happier. We had no delays with our flights and were able to make it to sunny California without any issues. More than we could have hoped for!
Once we landed in San Diego we got our rental car and were on our way. Thankfully, we were fortunate enough to have some wonderful friends (from our days in the Army) who live in San Diego, who we were able to stay with during our trip. It was a great blessing to us, and we loved being able to spend time with them!
San Diego LDS Temple on our drive to Solana Beach.
Our friends live in Solana Beach, just north of San Diego. Their house was literally a five minute walk from the beach. So naturally the first thing we did when we got to their house was head to the beach. The weather was incredible during our entire stay. We couldn't have asked for better.
We decided that we would collect sea shells during our trip and bring them home to make something with them. I may just end up putting them in a little jar for both kids, but we shall see. Clare loved to collect the shells, and we had a great time just wading in the water.
After a little time at the beach we walked up into town (a 3 minute walk) to grab a bite to eat at Pizza Port. The pizza was delicious and the atmosphere was even better. I loved the beach town feel, it definitely made me miss my days as a California resident.
On Thursday, August 22nd we decided to go on a little trip downtown to see the USS Midway - an aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. The ship was enormous, and there was so much to see. I loved this, especially because it was something I had never done while living in San Diego.
They had audio tours that you would listen to as you toured the ship. You could even lay on the beds and experience things for yourself. It's hard to believe that this ship was once in use, but it was so incredible to see.
After a full day spent seeing the museum, we went back to our friends place for a little rest. That evening we had plans to meet up for dinner with one of my dear friends, Rocio, and her family at their home. I had never met Rocio's kids before and we were excited to spend time with them!
Thanks to Rocio I was able to get some pictures of our evening there. The kids hadn't played with normal toys (since we didn't really take much of anything to Virginia) in several months, so you can imagine how excited they were to play with toys and to play with friends!
The friends we stayed with, Steve and Christy, were the most wonderful hosts. They took the time out of their schedules to spend time with us and show us around. They made the most wonderful breakfasts and we couldn't have been more grateful. On Friday August, 23rd we spent the morning down in Old Town. We ate a little mexican food and tried to visit the Mormon Battalion visitor center, but it was all full with school field trips.
Steve got off early from work so we could spend some time down at La Jolla Cove. Andy really wanted to snorkel and knew I probably wouldn't do it with him (fear of deep water), so Steve was kind enough to go. There was a lot of seaweed in the water, so they didn't see as much as they had hoped. There were also a lot of seals on the rocks around the cove and on occasion one would swim right by Andy and startle him. I am sure I would have had a heart attack, but they had a great time!
While wading in the water a bit, a little Italian lady came up and started to talk to Andy about how adorable Noah and Clare were and, although he could only understand about every 3 words, they sat and chatted for a while. At one point Noah told Andy to watch him while he sat in the water. Noah was so proud of himself and the little Italian lady clapped her hands and shouted, "Bravo! Bravo!" It was the sweetest thing!
While Andy and Steve were snorkeling, the kids, Christy and I all played on the beach. We buried Noah's legs in the sand and made him into a merman and a snake. They were both so at home on the beach, even with their pale white skin and red hair.
After La Jolla Cove, we drove down to Mission Bay to have a little bonfire dinner. We flew kites, collected sea shells, ate hot dogs, made s'mores and even saw the fireworks at sea world. It was the perfect way to end our day.
Saturday, August 24th was Dodger day. Steve and Andy were not only connected by their days in the Army, but also by their love of Dodger baseball. So, when we found out that the Dodgers would be playing the Boston Red Sox that weekend, we knew we had to go. Plus, there is no better place to see the Dodgers play than at Dodgers stadium!
And it would be an abomination to go to Dodgers Stadium and not eat a Dodger dog. So we did our duty and ate one without hesitation.
We picked the kids up a few souvenirs and they were in heaven. Noah was all about being a 'Dodger' and playing baseball. He would say, "Mommy, sit down and watch the Dodger play baseball." in reference to himself. We got good use out of that little ball and bat on our vacation.
Definitely a highlight of our trip, especially for Andy.
After the game we decided to drive down to Hollywood for a little bit. Steve and Christy were going to see Kristin Chenoweth at the Hollywood Bowl, and we thought we would just follow them to Hollywood and grab a bite to eat before heading back to their place.
We didn't stay in Hollywood for long. Every time I go back I remember why I don't love it. It's cool to see, but I think it's one of those tourist spots that is highly overrated. Surprisingly though, even with all the horribly fake characters walking around, we were the star of someone's photo. At one point we were standing off to the side of the walk way when a Korean girl came up and started posing for a picture next to us. Andy kindly told me we should move over so we weren't in her picture and then we realized that we WERE her picture. Maybe it was the kids red hair that she was so star stuck with or maybe I just look like a celebrity. :) We were all still wearing our Dodgers shirts though, so we probably looked like a walking circus!
Sunday was Church, a little time at the dog park with Steve and Christy's dog Roscoe, and a little walk around Del Mar beach. Clare took a real liking to Roscoe. She followed him around, chatted with him and would give him lots and lots of loves.
We only saw the Del Mar Beach from the cliffs above, but it was beautiful!
Sunday evening we drove up to Yorba Linda, CA to stay with Steve's parents who live only about 15 minutes from Disneyland. I was so excited, and the kids had no idea what was about to happen. I think they were still processing it at the end of day two, but we truly had the best time!
On Monday morning, August 26th we got up early, got ready and headed out to our first day at Disneyland.
Here we are on the tram, headed to the front gate. At this point the kids were starting to get real excited and I had a friend that emailed me all the 'secrets' of going to Disneyland with little kids, so we were feeling pretty good!
We got there just as the gates to Disneyland opened and the first item on our list was to see as many characters as we could. This, only after our family picture by the Disneyland entrance...
You can see that Noah is pouting, I couldn't tell you why though. Once we saw Donald Duck all his crankiness disappeared and he was as happy as a clam!
Clare was much more apprehensive about the characters. I am not sure there was much she enjoyed about Disneyland, but she rolled with it and didn't complain too much. Next up, some more of our favorite character pictures....
Meeting the characters really makes the experience all the more fun! Noah loved it. I was really impressed with the new Cars Land and the characters there. It's all computerized so when the kids talk to the characters, the characters respond. Noah even tickled Mater and made him laugh. It was great stuff. Noah got his Woody doll that day and kept holding it up in front of Lighting McQueen saying, "Look! Look!" I loved how much he was enjoying that. In his mind it was the real thing and that was so fun to see.
On our first day, Andy decided that he would take Noah on Splash Mountain without telling Noah about the big drop. Noah was sitting front and center and was terrified! He was soaking wet and as they came to the bottom of the hill he said to Andy, "That was not good, daddy." He still talks about the 'log' ride and reminds us of how much he didn't like it.
Some other fun pictures from our trip...
Clare on the Dumbo ride, she didn't love it.
Clare at Mickey Mouse's house...she didn't love that either.
Saw a lunchtime show at the Golden Horseshoe!
Overall, Disneyland was a huge success. I can't wait to go back. There was only one moment when we had a little scare. We let both kids pick out a couple of toys of their choice. Noah picked some Planes and a Woody doll. We made it clear to him that that was all he was getting. We still hadn't gotten anything for Clare yet and decided that we would go to one of the princess stores to look for something. As we are looking around Noah disappeared. Andy came in asking where he was, and once I realized he wasn't right behind me, we went into a little bit of panic mode. We couldn't find him in any of the stores near by and quickly notified a cast member that he was gone. They have a pretty sound system for lost kids and she notified the right people. Before they really even had a chance to look for him, he came marching around the corner with a scowl on his face. When we picked him up he said, "I was mad at you guys!" He made me laugh a little but it was the longest ten minutes of our lives. I'm so grateful he was ok!
(Don't you love Clare's face in the above photo? What a sass.)
After our two fun days in Disneyland we literally spent the following day recovering! We had such a good time. On Thursday the 29th my friend Christy and I had a girls day. It was so perfect. Manicures and pedicures, lunch at a local cafe, shopping and some frozen yogurt. We had such a great time. While we were off getting pampered, Andy was adventurous and took the kids to Point Loma to see the tide pools. The kids loved it and Noah asked several times to go back...
That evening we spent with another dear friend of mine (Joan, this is you!) and her daughter, who is also my dear friend. I hadn't seen Joan and Susan in almost 8 years, since I left San Diego. I feel ashamed now that I didn't get a picture with them, but this was definitely a highlight of the trip for me! I spent many a car ride, tea time, Wednesday pizza nights and other fun adventures with these two ladies and they will always hold a special place in my heart.
The last two days were spent eating good Mexican food and enjoying the company of our hosts, Steve and Christy. We spent one last day at the beach, got some delicious sushi and hit up a local donut shop! Vacations without good food are hardly vacations at all, that's what I say.
I really can't even express how perfect this trip was. We are so grateful to wonderful friends who housed us, fed us and took time out of their busy schedules to have us in their homes. We are so fortunate to know such wonderful people (who live in such a wonderful place) and are lucky to have spent part of our vacation with them. Seriously though, the people you're with (and the food you share) is really what life is about!
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