Family Vacation to California

FRIDAY 8/2/13

We began our family vacation to California by stopping for the night in St. George.  It was a great way for us to split the trip in half and rest on our first day of driving.  There's always something free and family-friendly to do St. George, which is one of the main reasons why we like stop there.  One of our favorite spots to visit is Town Square Park, right in the heart of downtown St. George.  They have a fantastic canyon-style splash pad there, with refreshing knee-high pools of water, complete with streams and red-rock waterfalls for the kids to play on.  Lizzy and David loved playing in the water and cooling down after 5 hours of driving.  They would have stayed there for hours if we had let them, but us big people needed to rest, too.  We played for about 40 minutes before grabbing some Papa Johns pizza and heading back to the hotel to eat dinner and swim in the hotel pool.  David LOVED swimming at the pool.  He learned how to jump from the side of the pool into the water all by himself.  He's fearless in the water.  I think he's going to be a great swimmer someday.  After swimming, Scott and Emma enjoyed watching a new episode of Gravity Falls in our hotel room.  They were very excited about that.

SATURDAY 8/3/13

Our drive from St. George to Long Beach went smoothly.  I always get excited once we hit the Riverside County boarder and everything starts looking familiar.  It's so nice coming home!  We arrived in Long Beach in the early evening.  The Montgomerys and the Alcudias arrived not long after we did, and it was nice seeing my parents and sisters again with their families.  The highlight of the evening was meeting my new little niece, Claire.  She is adorable!  David was very fascinated by her and kept calling her "Beebee."

The highlight of our trip was meeting Baby Claire.  She is such a sweetheart.  I loved loved holding her for the first time.   David was fascinated, too.

SUNDAY 8/4/13

We went to Claire's baby blessing on Sunday, August 4th.  It was fun seeing all of Rachel's in-laws there and many of her friends.  She has such a fantastic support group of family and friends in Southern California.  It was an amazing turnout.  We took many photos in front of her ward building, including a photo of me with my sisters.  I love them so much!  After taking photos, we headed to Rachel's sister-in-law's house where we had a late lunch and watched the kids play on the swing set in the backyard.  Eric was thrilled to spend time with his cousins.

MONDAY 8/5/13

We took Lizzy to her first trip to Disneyland on Monday, August 5th.  My friend, Shauna got us all in for under $200, which was a fantastic price for five of us (David stayed with Grandma).  It was fun seeing Lizzy's excitement while she watched the Tangled show and when she got her picture taken with Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and Merida, from Brave.  Her favorite ride was the new Star Tours ride, which surprised us all.  We weren't expecting her to like that ride so much.  Scott and Emma enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain.  We loved watching the fireworks late that night, even though our feet were tired and sore from walking all day.  It was a fun time!

TUESDAY 8/6/13

We met up with Rachel, Eric, and Claire at Bolivar Park on Tuesday morning.  It was fun watching all the big children and little children play together on the swings, in the sand, and on the play equipment.  They got along so well.  Claire enjoyed resting in her stroller while the bigger kids played.  It was cute watching her smile and coo at the talking faces that would greet her from time to time.  We had lunch at the new Costco at the Lakewood Mall.  It was my first time going there.  We saw Bishop Bob Ward and his wife, Diane Ward, ordering pizza and drinks at Costco, too.  We talked to them briefly.  After lunch, we went to a new movie and bookstore called "Bookoff" inside the mall. We bought Kiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, and The Last Unicorn on DVD, and we bought Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises on Blu-Ray.

WEDNESDAY 8/7/13

Wednesday's adventure was walking around the El Dorado Nature Center.  It was one of my favorite childhood places when I was growing up, so it brought back many happy memories. Walking on the familiar trails and seeing the trees and lakes instantly brought out the inner child in me.  I took lots of snapshots of plants and wildlife, and of course, lots of my family as well.  My children are my favorite photography subjects.  After walking on the 1 mile trail, we headed to Rachel's house and had lunch.  We watched "Jack, the Giant Slayer" and played Phase 1 Card Game.  Lizzy enjoyed holding her little cousin, Claire.

THURSDAY 8/8/13

Miniature golfing with Rachel and Craig was a blast today!  David and Eric stayed with their grandmas so we could play without the distraction of little toddlers running around.  Lizzy came with us, and LOVED it!  Scott and Emma had lots of fun, too.  We went to Camelot Golfland in Anaheim, not too far from Disneyland. I went there once as a teenager.

FRIDAY 8/9/13

We spent Friday at home.  Grandma Whitcomb ordered a bounce house with a water-slide for all the children to play in.  David wasn't brave enough to go on the slide with all the other children, but Lizzy was, and she loved it.  David had fun splashing in the puddles and playing in Grandma's water tray.

SATURDAY 8/10/13

Saturday was beach day!  We went to the San Pedro Cabrillo Marine Aquarium first, to see a variety of native marine life.  Lizzy's favorite creatures were the sea stars.  Some of them were huge!  We hatched some baby grunions while we were there, too, which Lizzy also enjoyed.  All the kids enjoyed running up and down the beach, playing in the water, and digging holes in the sand.  David just couldn't get enough of the water.  He loved the waves, except for when they pushed him over.  Then he was a little more hesitant.  We had lunch at In-n-Out, then we met Rachel's family and Grandma and Grandpa at Heritage Park in Cerritos.  We love Heritage Park!  Lizzy, David, and Eric loved going down the cool slides on the park's island.  Rachel and I took many photos.

SUNDAY 8/11/13

The highlight of the day was definitely seeing my friend, Anissa.  Gosh, how I love that girl!  We picked her up after church and had dinner with her at my parents' house.  It was nice talking to her and reminiscing the good old days when she and I would see each other every day.  She was so young then.  After lunch we headed over to Signal Hill to go walking together.  Our main goal was to walk to one of the new parks on Signal Hill, but none of us could remember where it was, so we kept walking and walking, and never actually found it until we drove away.  It was a nice walk, though.  We needed the exercise.  We said goodbye to Rachel's family while we were there.

I love our family trips to California!  Crossing my fingers that we get to go again in the near future.