California Trip 2016

I thought I better write about our trip, before I forget too many details.  It's picture heavy today, but I want to make sure and save as many details as I can so the kids and Dan & I can read back on it years from now.

We picked the kids up at lunch time on Friday and hit the road.  Thankfully there wasn't too much snow on the pass yet, so we were still able to drive over it.  They only maintain this road until Thanksgiving is over, and then the rest of the winter it isn't plowed, so we have to take the longer route.

I loved that my kids are now big enough to sit together on the plane without needing Dan or I.

Until Dan spilled his coffee all over both of our laps.  Then I was wishing to have sat somewhere else.  ;)  It wasn't hot enough to hurt us, just annoying like wet denim is.

And it kept us humble when we walked through the Los Angeles airport.  No big heads over here.  Haha!  We know we're a mess.

We got into Los Angeles on a later flight, rented a car and spent about a half hour driving to our hotel.  We stayed right across the street from Universal Studios.  I loved this hill, with all the lit up palm trees.

The next morning we got up early and went to the park.

This picture cracks me up.  The girls wouldn't do it, but this boy of mine didn't mind making a goof out of himself.

These walking/talking transformers were probably one of the kids favorite things.  They were huge, and moved so well.  Kind of freaky!

We aren't big Sponge Bob fans in this house, but what the heck...

It started to get really busy and we had seen most of what we wanted to see, so we snapped a quick family picture and left.

We walked back to our hotel which was just across the street, grabbed our rental car and headed down to Anaheim.

This is one of the only pictures I took at Disneyland.

It had been raining off and on, and it was insanely packed.  I don't even know if it's been half as busy when we've went there before.  There were people actually directing foot traffic... in the park.  I think we left by 2:00 and just went back to our hotel to relax and let the kids swim.  Note to self, we will never go when it's that close to a holiday.  We should have known better.

The next morning, we drove over and stayed with Dan's parents for the rest of the week.

We mostly just hung out around their pool and relaxed.  I got some reading in, and soaked up as much sun as I could.

Thanksgiving dinner, with wet pool hair.  :)

On this night we went to watch the Sound of Music.  They had a red carpet to stand on, so you could get your picture taken.  I love this selfie that Jesse took.  And the performance was amazing!

We had a great time and we're already missing that warm sun, but we are excited for the rest of this month and all the fun things we have planned.  December is a good month to be home!

XO,