#roadtrip

For Christmas, my parents gave us a weeks stay in Las Vegas. For Christmas, we gave the kids a Disneyland trip. The Las Vegas week happened to be the week prior to the week we were already going to California. Perfect!! Originally I had planned to spend the week in Vegas while Mike worked and play with the kids and my family. We were off track, the kids joined the choir, the choir performance was the week after our California trip and wouldn't you know it choir practice during our break. To avoid missing two weeks of choir practice and work for Mike, we decided to go later and leave on Thursday. But Mike's boss x'd that plan. He denied Mike's request for Thursday/Friday. RUDE huh, boss said something about with your previous vacation and this vacation so close together I really need you to work. So we left as early as could get Mike out the door Friday afternoon, which was 3 o'clock' and headed to our first stop. The boss was really fired up now, Mike also put his 2 week notice in. He asked Mike for an extended 2 weeks since 1 week of his 2 week notice was a vacation but Mike said "sorry" as nicely as he could. Long story but Mike's excited about his new adventure at Uber Doors, Makinzee is freaking out just a little bit! BUT going on faith.

We were in Nevada, and driving towards the hotel. Granted it had been 4+ hours, Lilly asked if she could sit on my lap while we were driving 80mph. She wanted out of her car seat and to go home because she wanted her bed. Oh little one, it was the beginning of our 9 day vacation! She asked for her bed lots in 9 days. The kids all did great traveling, Mike is a fantastic speeder and got us to Vegas in about 5 hours! The 80 mph speed limit helps!

Maddy and Jack got some math division in. We taught her how to figure out the remaining time left on our trip with the number of miles to our destination based on the mph traveling. It was fun for her! Jack hasn't done remainders so it was harder for him to do.
 
By the time we arrived in Vegas and found dinner (In n Out for Mike--he only eats at In N Out with Palm Trees*spoiled from his California Mission - That and we wanted a drive thru!) We arrived at the hotel to find the swimming pool closed. What?? It was only 9pm. SO the kids looked at the pool from the hotel room and we headed off to bed.

The suite was huge, everyone had their own bed and we all slept great. In the morning, Mike went to go find donuts for breakfast and the kids piled in the king bed watching cartoons. The donut places were on the strip and you can't park on the strip so Mike had a heck of a time finding us breakfast. We were headed to the pool when he came back not very happy about his morning.

But we found the swimming pool and Grampa to swim with us. He made the mistake of splashing water on Lilly earlier and she never recovered. She is not a water lover!

We stayed all afternoon til this little fish wore out! The pool was heated, the sun was shining and she loves the water!

Mike took photos from the shade in his jeans! He is sporting his Ute hat, he was sad to miss out on some awesome college basketball games that were happening a block a way. If only we could have gotten in town a little earlier!

eating donuts at the pool

We finally got the fishes out of the pool and headed to our next leg of the trip. CALIFORNIA! We were going towards Aunt Jill's house and to see Grammie who is hibernating there for the winter.
This part of the trip was long. I was mad at Mike, he took a detour that took us on a 40 mph road to avoid traffic in San Bernadino. Come to find out, it was a good short cut but I was still mad! The kids still traveled well, Lilly took a nap and we watched lots of movies and ate. Mike said "you eat when you are bored" because I was constantly snaking! Yep, it's true!

And somehow my awesome $5 shades broke, I couldn't find the other ear piece but they came in handy. Still need to find me another pair, I missed them last week!

We were approaching our destination for the next 2 days. Aunt Jills!! And to our delight, they were waiting for us in the front yard. Jill was doing yard work (her yard is amazing and green and colorful and gorgeous) and Grams was sitting on the front porch. I was especially anxious to see Grams. In February she took a bad fall, she tripped over the cement parking barrier in the parking lot while going to get her hair done. She hit her head and several days later, her face was black and blue from the bruising and blood thinners. She still has a big bump on her arm and a gash in her leg and forehead a month later. But the neck brace is all that really shows of her accident. She is a good sport to wear it because it looks so painful!

During our stay we visited my famous street. Kinzie St, Jill lives off of it and I always get my picture taken with it!

Our front of Jill's house, she had a new side walk put in, someone naughty wrote 4 cute children's names in it.

But it was off to the pool for the kids! They'd been riding for 4 hours from Vegas and needed to get some more swimming in! And did they do that, this pool was going non stop every day we were there!

For dinner my cousin Ethan and his new bride Elmira came for dinner. The kids aren't shy at all! Lexi was on their lap all night long. Even Lilly loved the attention from the cousins. Lexi has only met Ethan 3-4 times, but I have a picture of her on his lap at every occasion. Someone should teach that girl some etiquette and manners. I thought maybe she got it from Mike, and he said no way she is her own creature! Love our Lexi Lou!

Oh and don't forget the reindeer that was in all the pictures, somehow when we snuck out at 5am the next week to come home it got forgotten. oh darn!

Here is our gracious host! I have special memories of spending summers at Aunt Jill's. Not sure the kids remember our road trip 5 years ago when we stayed at Aunt Jill's, but I'm positive they will always remember the never ending juice boxes, picking lemons, oranges, and  grapefruit and making freshly squeezed juice for breakfast, sleeping in a king bed, swimming, roasting marshmallows, delicious meals and eating outside in March, spending time reading to Grams, playing the baby grand piano, oatmeal cookies, and wheat bread, almond milk (lol not really a fan), and everything else in between! Thanks for an amazing time at your house!

Later in the week, Erica my cousin came over also. My kids enjoyed trying to wake her up, she spent the night on the couch and they are early risers!

Sunday, we went to church (everyone thought we were new and were excited to have us--but we were just visiting--unless Mike can find a job in Cali because we will be moving into Jill's house!). We had plans to go to the beach with Ethan and Elmira who live in Santa Monica but the California marathon was that day and ended at the pier and as you can imagine traffic was crazy as it is always in California but even more so. Jill was helping Erica who was moving into her new duplex, so we decided to stay home with Grams and swim a little, take a nap and enjoy the day at home! 

This is as wet as Lilly got the whole trip. She isn't a swimmer-but that's okay with me the lifeguard!

Monday we went to the beach. I think it's safe to say we need to live closer to the beach!! We all loved every minute of it! 

Esp this girl who doesn't really love the water. She however does love sand!

The water was cold--esp compared to the last ocean I was in. Can't really compare the Pacific California ocean to Hawaii.

 Nice shoes huh, some guys offered them to me because they found them and they weren't their style.

Couldn't find someone I trusted enough to take our picture--there were some homeless people also enjoying the beach. So we didn't get a fam pic but that's ok because I'm not a fan of my pic in a bathing suit! These 5 look fabulous however!

Behind Maddy you can see the Santa Monica Pier. So much fun, Mike and I went here one night on our honeymoon and as a child I came here lots to rollerblade the pier and play. We didn't have time to go over this trip--we were saving our roller coaster experience for later in the week.

While Jack was playing in the water, Mike took this pic of me and the girls! 

LOVE IT! 

She could throw sand all day long!

We played at the beach for several hours and then headed towards Anaheim our next destination. We checked in and of course had to check out the pool.

We stayed at the Homewood Suites. They had a shuttle to Disneyland which was 1 mile away, they had breakfast in the morning and dinner in the evening. After swimming, we headed to the restaurant to eat dinner. Salad bar was good but we aren't chicken wings fans. We went to the store for bread for lunch and got a dozen eggs to make eggs and toast for dinner before heading to bed that night. Our room was cozy, it had a couch and 3 beds along with a kitchen. We didn't spend too much time at the hotel but it worked well for accommodations. Each night we would ride the shuttle back to the hotel for dinner and then back to Disney with jackets for the evening. We spent 12+ hours a day at Disney. We played for 3 days, despite sick kids, sore feet and tired kids! Mike was our fast pass "king" he would run (we are walking we're walking--someone told him when he was rushing to get our Radiator Springs fast pass) from one park to the next where me and the kids were.

That night Jack grabbed my razor in the shower, it was brand new, it had 5 blades and there was BLOOD everywhere in the shower. I was afraid he needed to go to an ER, he was super brave and whimpered himself to sleep. Ouch. First of our many experiences on our #roadtrip! Disney to come!