Home Again

Well our trip to California is done :( It was a blast. There will be no pictures this post. I don't have much time, and I'd rather just wait until we get back from Oregon and upload them all at once.

Thursday we flew into LAX. Kennady was sooo good. We caught a shuttle to our hotel in Anaheim. LA drivers are insane. I was so glad to not be the one trying to drive the freeways during rush hour. I'm pretty sure it would have been a terrible start to our vacation. We checked into our hotel and then headed to dinner. We we're told we were crazy for walking 2 blocks with our kid in a stroller, it's much too far. We loved the walk though and looking at all the palm trees. Plus we had to scout out our route to Disneyland. I found Fire & Ice gift certificates on Restaurants.com before we left, so we could try out a place I'd heard was great, that would normally be out of our price range. The food was awesome and it was entertaining. You put everything you wanted into a bowl and then they cooked it up on a big grill in front of you. And it was all-you-can-eat. We spent quite a long time there, especially since we had to eat in shifts to chase around our monkey. Back to the hotel for some swimming. I said it was ridiculously cold and refused to get it. Ben and Kennady got in and were back out within five minutes.

Mom's flight got delayed by two hours, and she ended up not getting in until 1:30 a.m. LA time, which was 3:30 a.m. her time. Regardless, we still got up super early the next morning, because we were all too excited to sleep. We had some great insider tips (thanks Rebekah!) and it was not very busy, so we rode tons and tons of rides without waiting in line for more than 10 minutes. The longest line of the whole day - waiting to see Tinkerbell, which was still only 20 minutes. Kennady was so good and loved all of it. She got to fly on an elephant, see Tinkerbell's house, meet Mickey Mouse, and drive a car. As the day went on the park got busier and busier and hotter and hotter. That's when we did a lot of the shows and air-conditioned rides and used FastPasses. It was awesome to be able to do Disneyland in one day, and that day was free because we did the Give a Day, Get a Day Program earlier this year.

Kennady took a short nap in the park, and then was up and ready to ride more rides. Some of the rides are a little scary for a 2-year-old. She handled them pretty well, only by the time we rode Winnie the Pooh, the Hephalumps and Woozles were too much for her, so it's the only ride she cried on. Her favorite ride was probably Autotopia. Ben's was Splash Mountain and mine was the Jungle Cruise. Mom's favorite ride- the Haunted Mansion, was closed. Boo. And we never got to ride Space Mountain because it kept shutting down.

We left the park around 7 pm and went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Yummmmm. Kennady and Mom were done, so we went back to the hotel and got Kennady tucked into bed. Then Ben and I headed back to the park for the fireworks show. Awesome! By that time there were so many people in the park, it was crazy! I didn't consider the fact that this was Labor Day weekend when I originally booked it. I'm glad we went on Friday!

Saturday we got up and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped at Seal Beach. Um, I didn't know the water was so cold! I guess that's the Pacific Ocean for you, but I was a little disappointed. It was also very foggy and somewhat chilly. So we didn't swim. Just played a little in the sand and walked down the pier. We thought we would go back to the beach later in the day when the fog had cleared.

Then we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. I also wasn't aware that an aquarium is an all-day event. Or that aquariums are partially outdoors. That's what I get for growing up in a land-locked state. There were a bazillion people there, but Kennady loved it! We got to pet sting-rays, which might have been the highlight of our vacation for me. They are like little puppies. Rory, Robin, Lauren and Leyna went with us, and we all had fun. Kennady started melting down towards the end and we decided it was time to go (we didn't even get to see everything). We also hadn't put on sunblock properly and it was super hot and we knew we were all getting burned. Rory invited us to movie night at his house, and we thought that sounded more relaxing than the beach.

We checked into our motel at Redondo Beach and then headed to Burbank for the outdoor movie theater. We ate hotdogs and popcorn and played in the backyard and watched Sleeping Beauty. Kennady thought it was just as good as Disneyland. Late that night (after forgetting the diaper bag, losing a driver's license and making a stop at the grocery store) we drove back to our hotel. It wasn't scary (at least it was in a good neighborhood) but it was pretty run-down. Thankfully we were all so tired no one cared, so we just turned out the lights and went to bed. The next morning we were happy to get out of there, and I have way more laundry to do than I should because the room smelled funny and made all our clothes and bags and everything smell funny too.

Sunday we drove to the airport and checked in. Then we found out they had shut down security and cleared out the whole security island. So the line was backed out the door and around the corner and we were starting to wonder if we would be making our flight. Then as they were moving the line, we were told to take the elevator to the 4th floor. We jumped the whole security line! Woohoo! It pays to travel with an infant. Mom was going to come join us after she dropped off the rental, but they wouldn't let her check in for her flight, so she ended up sitting around the airport by herself for several hours, and then it only took her 5 minutes to get through security! Kennady was not so good on this flight. She fell asleep as we were landing. And was mad to be woken up not even 20 minutes later. We made it back in time for me to take a shower and then get to church. And, of course, Kennady slept at church and didn't take a nap when we got home.

Today she slept in until 11. She is one tired little girl. We are all pretty tired. Now we are packing and getting ready to head to Oregon to see Dan get home from his mission and Marlene get married.