CALIFORNIA!

We went to California last week and had a great time. Shawn left last Monday for a business trip in Portland, OR. The kids and I along with Grammy flew out the next day (Tues Oct. 18th) for California. We flew into Los Angeles. My sister Rebecca picked us up at the LA airport because she happen to be out there that week having job interviews thru her MBA program at BYU. We drove up to Rich and Katie's house, about 20 minutes away. They live in Pacific Palisades with their 3 kids. We went to dinner with Katie, Nicholas, Clara, and baby Ezra. Rich was able to join us for a few minutes, but he is pretty slammed with work right now. By the time we finished dinner it was getting late (especially for Utah time, an hour later) so we quickly took a tour of their house, picked up some maternity clothes Katie donated to me, and checked in at our hotel in Marina Del Ray, about 10 minutes away. Rich and Katie's home is cute but not big enough for us to sleep there. On Wednesday we woke up and took our time driving down south. We stopped at Huntington Beach where I spent 4 years of my life after college. It was fun reminicing! We drove past the house I rented, the stores I shopped in, walked at the beach and on the pier, and of course ate lunch at my favorite place, Wahoos. They have the best fish tacos EVER!!! :) We continued our drive down south and reached Ryan and Naomi's place at about 3:00 p.m. It was just in time for the girls to get home from school and to watch Mia's soccer practice.
Watching Mia's practice

At about 5:00, Naomi had some babysitters come over and the girls went shopping and the kids stayed home. It was heavenly. First of all, they have the best stores in California, and second, I rarely shop without the kids and it is a whole different ball game without them. Plus the kids had fun playing with each other at home. We shopped and had dinner and it was amazing. On Thursday me and the kids drove about 20 minutes north to visit some of my long time friends. It was fun to see Maggie and Lindsey and their cute kids. We just had fun chatting and catching up and the kids had fun playing. Later that afternoon, once Mia and Sahsa were done with school we took all the kids to the Irvine Spectrum and we rode the ferris wheel and had hamburgers at Johnny Rockets...then it was time to pick up daddy! Rebecca and Grammy enjoying some time int the sun in Naomi's courtyard on Thursday!

Cruz was getting really excited to go to Disneyland and Legoland. Rebecca has never been to Disneyland and she had Friday off so we decided to go there on Friday and Legoland on Saturday (Rebecca left early Saturday morning back to SLC). Last minute Naomi decided to pull the kids from school and they were all going to join us too. They have passes so it isn't as big of a decision for them :). We had a blast at Disneyland on Friday. It was nice having Naomi because she knows the park so well we were able to navigate pretty well. It was decorated so cute too for Halloween. As the day went on though, the crowds kept coming. It was pretty crowded, but Cruz didn't care, he had fun anyway. It was a long day but all of the kids were great. Isla and Alegra even took naps in the middle part of the day which helped.
The Tram ride from parking to Disneyland!
Isla, Naomi, and MIa on the tram!
Alegra and Isla in the stroller together. Naomi had her double and I had my double stroller and it worked out good to have that many seats. The kids took off turns where they sat!
Sasha and Cruz just chillin'
The gang! Grammy was taking the picture
Waiting to drive the cars! Cruz got his own license and when we got home Shawn filled out the information for Cruz and put his picture on it and taped it all up to look official, pretty cool dad!
Riding in the cars!
Alegra so proud to be tall enough to ride some of the rides at Disneyland (32").
Headed to "It's a Small World". Isla loved Shawn and if Shawn was holding Isla, Alegra needed to be held by him too!
Going in to "Its a Small World"
Cruz loved it!
Our goofies!
Nap time for Alegra, such a good girl!
Cruz is in the nose of this pumpkin!
Alegra grabbing a quick bite while Cruz isn't looking!
Mom and Alegra and Naomi and Isla
We took a boat over to this island that had all of these cool caves and bridges and things to push. The kids loved it! They ran around like mad. Cruz and Alegra pushing and pulling this water contraption.
Mia, Sasha, and Cruz turning this huge wheel.
Cruz hiding in the Mickey Ghost!
Dad, Mia, Cruz, and Sasha in the Winnie the Pooh ride!

We were slow to get going on Saturday, I think we were all exhausted from the day before, but we decided to head down to Legoland at about 11. Naomi and the girls came with us there too. Ryan was in Europe the whole time we were in California, so I think they enjoyed having company. Cruz absolutely LOVED Legoland. Everything was made out of legos. It was pretty amazing. We didn't do a ton of rides but Cruz really wasn't into the rides, he was more into looking at all the legos, and trying to figure out what he was going to pick at the end. We promised we would buy him one thing if he was a good boy and if it wasn't too expensive. We received his Lego Magazine right before we left for this trip and the kid was entranced by it on the plane ride, in the car, etc. He told everyone about all the things in the magazine and he even had to show them pictures from the Lego magazine, so needless to say, the kids loves legos. They park started out not very crowded at all but as the day wore on the crowds came. They were having some sort of Halloween party that night so everyone was showing up in costumes. Although it got crowded near the end, it was a fun time to go to see all the decorations, etc. My favorite part was mini land. It was basically a bunch of U.S. cities built out of legos. It was amazing!!!! At the end of the day we did go into the store and Cruz picked out a Lego Police Semi truck. He has been working on that thing every free second. It has been a struggle to get out of the house to do anything, school, playmates, etc., but at least he likes it! :)
Finally, LEGOLAND!!!
Cruz and Sasha in Lego Pumpkin
A Lego Elephant in the water, totally cool!
A Lego Surfer guy!
Cruz inside the Lego sharks mouth!!
"Mini Las Vegas"
Cruz and Shawn trying the "Raptor Climb"
Naomi's kids are really into games. We didn't want to waste money so we found a game the kids won no matter what, that seemed to make them happy!
Family picture with this Legoland character that jumped into the picture. The closer it got to 5 the more dressed up characters we saw!
Cruz telling this guy all about the lego things he wants.
Mia, Sasha, and Cruz on this lego donkey!

On Sunday we went to Ryan and Naomi's ward with the girls. After church we headed down to the San Clemente Pier. It was sunny for a bit but then the fog rolled in. It was rarely clouded at the beach but that didn't stop the kids from having a grand time. Actually the weather for Disneyland was perfect, about 70 and sunny. On Saturday though, the fog never lifted and it was a little chilly. On Sunday we were hoping for some good weather but that didn't pan out, at least it wasn't raining! The kids had a blast.
Beach time!!!!





We had fun playing with cousins, going to Disneyland and Legoland, and just hanging out!
We had to wake up VERY early for a flight on Monday morning. The kids did surprisingly well with how early it was. By the time we got to the car and started to drop Grammy and Dad off at work they were both out!!!