Hello… is this thing on?
I haven’t been around these parts for quite a while. Mostly due to the fact that work has been busy. And then we bought a house. And then I had to pack up and clean out our rental, and then I had to unpack and clean our new place (still a work in progress), and then two weeks after moving in, I had to pack up AGAIN to take a 12 day trip to California. All that = SO MUCH FUN. (insert sarcasm emoji here – mom, you can ask me what an emoji is later)
California was a pre-determined trip planned around a convention that my husband was attending. So it wasn’t something we could back out of, but I was definitely feeling anxiety about being gone so long after JUST moving into our new place. After all there was SO much to do and I can’t sleep until boxes are unpacked and my open shelving in the kitchen is up and contains the perfect display of flea market finds (priorities).
But alas, we packed up and headed West for a very long trip. I flew with the baby while my husband made the 2-day drive with our 2 older kids. It turned out to be a rather wise decision as all the kids did well on their respective travels. Once we arrived, it seemed as though we had brought the rain with us from Colorado (I guess that is fortunate since they are in a drought, but I was rather looking forward to some sunshine), and I was a bit bummed. Luckily we had sunshine a few days while we were there, but most of the time, the sky looked like this:
First we celebrated Mother’s Day, which was a blessing to be able to spend with both of our mothers. I told my husband that all I wanted for a gift was a massage, so on Tuesday I went to a local spa with a girlfriend, where we not only got to catch-up, but also both got some killer massages and much-needed pampering.
Monday was my husband’s only day off while there, so we decided to take the kids to the beach. Luckily the sun was shining and it was the warmest day of our entire trip. We ate lunch at the original Ruby’s Diner on the Balboa Pier, then played some arcade games and ate Balboa bars, and finally let the kids play in the ocean and sand (p.s. it was Graham’s first visit to the beach, and I think he liked it – although he did fall face first into the sand once). All was going well until Mia tripped and fell when running from a wave and got soaked up to her neck. The world basically ended at that point and we packed up to come home amidst the tears and screams… ah, girls.
We didn’t do Disneyland (because why would I want to do that with 3 kids by myself???), but we did head to Downtown Disney with friends to get a little bit of the Disney experience. When we lived here, it never really occurred to me to bring the kids there for an afternoon of fun, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun we were able to have in just a couple of hours for virtually no money (except for the expensive toys I bought them, because we were on “vacation” after all). We headed inside the Rainforest Cafe to look at the fish tanks in their gift shop, then we went to the Lego store where the kids enjoyed building lego race cars and racing them on an outdoor track. We stopped for beignets at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, because they are THE BEST.
Then we went into the Grand Californian Hotel and the kids sat in itty bitty chairs while they watched a Disney cartoon for a good 15-20 minutes. Finally, we headed over to the Disneyland Hotel to Goofy’s Kitchen (a restaurant) in hopes of spotting a glimpse of Goofy, who often hangs out there. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed mid-afternoon, but as luck would have it we ran into Goofy as he was randomly skipping along outside the restaurant. I have no idea why he was there, but we basically tackled him and made him take a picture with our kids (sorry to the sir or madam that inhabits that costume for my loud “GOOFY! WAAAAAIIIITTTT!” yelling). Mia kept saying, “Yeah, he’s not real” (thanks, kid) and Lincoln was interested in him but refused to get within 10 feet. The look on his face above pretty much sums it up. And I was just excited that the kids were able to see a character even though we didn’t enter the park.
Because we have so many friends and family members in California, we spent lots of time visiting with people. I was well loved while there and lots of friends had myself and the kids over for dinner since my husband was working late nights. I did my best to give back by bringing dessert, which is how I happened to try this ridiculously amazing cookie recipe from my dairy-free Pinterest board. I think I’ll make another batch when I get home… my mom (a.k.a. the dessert monster) ate all the leftovers from the batch I made while in California.
As per usual, I sat in some lovely California traffic. You know. On a Saturday. At 2:00 in the afternoon. NBD.
As great as our trip was, it wasn’t without its issues. While my husband was driving to California, a rock hit our back quarter window and it cost us over $400 to replace (what the??). Then he got a parking ticket for parking on the street during street sweeping day (ARGH! CALIFORNIA!). Then when he returned home, he found that half the carpet in our basement bedroom was soaking wet and had probably been so for several days thanks to rain storms in Colorado while we were gone. Who knows how much it will to fix all of that potential damage…
So, maybe my anxiety about our trip was pretty dead on after all. I don’t think I’ll be up for taking any more trips in the near future (What’s that? I have two more planned in June and July? Well, crap.).