The main reason for heading to California was for Luke and Amanda's wedding. However, when you are in California, and don't visit often, you have to pack in things to do! That we did! I felt like we flew in on Friday and hit the ground RUNNING! We had something planned each day we were there. Events started from when we got up and lasted until we hit the beds exhausted. We literally would get up around 730-8 (except the first morning we were up by 545 AM because we were still on Texas time), and not go to bed until 10:30-11!! It was madness!
Ready for the plane ride
Thought he could sit with her, but that didn't last long!
My crew
John Wayne airport, Orange County
Pretty much EXHAUSTED!
Friday we got to our hotel and had a little bit of time before we had to be ready for the rehearsal dinner. The dinner began at 5 at The old spaghetti factory. After the rehearsal dinner, we decided to walk over to the beach, since it was right across the street, and walk around the beach for a little bit. Well, we didn't really do any walking. Mostly running into the water! The kids were so excited that they ran into the water with all of their clothes on. Awesome! After Ezra was knee deep in sand and water, I realized that he had the pants he was going to wear to the wedding on! Nice! However, just from their excitement and joy, it was all worth it!
My beautiful sister and I (rehearsal dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory)
Siblings
Loved the sphagetti
Sweet baby, Townes
The soon to be, Bride and Groom
Townes and Cousin Aimee
Townes, Aimee, Ashley and I
Newport Beach
Loved this picture. Funny how they are in age order!
My loves..
Saturday, we woke up bright and early: 5:45 AM!! I texted my mom and we ended up going for a 4 mile run before anyone else got up. I couldn't pass up a morning run in Cali. The weather was so nice and cool that I felt like I had so much energy for running! After everyone was up, with breakfast, we packed up the cars and headed to the beach for the morning. The wedding wasn't until 430, so we had some time to kill. It was so gorgeous at the beach. The weather was perfect, the water was cold, and the sand was soft. Such a fun time at the beach. After the beach we headed to In-In-Out for lunch, ( It is a must on our California schedule. That and Del Taco!), and headed back to the hotel for naps before we had to get ready for the wedding.
Newport Beach, again, with proper clothing!
My mom and I
She LOVED the water!
My sister-in-law, Shelby, and niece, Cambelle
IN-N-OUT.. a MUST
Elynn and Cambelle
All the cousins (F: Townes, Elynn. B: Emersyn, Lincoln, Ezra, Cambelle)
The wedding was so nice and beautiful. It was outside, which was perfect for the kids. It was a pretty ceremony. Luke and Amanda were giddy with excitement and love. Amanda looked beautiful. The reception was so pretty, too. It was a perfect atmosphere for kids, also. Amanda, the bride, is allergic to Gluten, so the whole meal at the reception was a Gluten free meal. It was so tasty! I was very surprised. We stayed till around 10 and then headed back to the hotel. We had a full day planned for Sunday.
Family photo at the wedding!
Ashley, Mom and Townes
Luke and Amanda
Mimi on kid duty
My sweet girls
Ashley and I at the reception
Sunday, the day the kids had been waiting for: DISNEYLAND!! Our family switched to a hotel right across the street from Disney, on Sunday. We weren't sure if we would do Disney 1 or 2 days, so we decided to get a hotel room right across the street. Even though we only did Disney one day, I was glad to only have to walk across the street after a full day of it. We were there when the parked open and didn't leave until it closed. We hit every ride we wanted, plus some. Some of our highlights: Peter Pan ride, Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Disney parade, Emersyn getting to see and take pictures with her favorite princesses, Space Mountain, and the fireworks. It was so fun, but EXHAUSTING! After a full day of Disney, we decided to only do one day. I think if Elynn was a little bit bigger, it would have been easier to do 2. Also, the rest of our family was only doing Disney on Sunday, so we wouldn't have had any extra help for day 2. It was so much fun and we did everything we had wanted to do, so we were happy with that.
On Monday, we didn't have any plans, so we asked the kids what they wanted to do. We even gave them the option of going back to Disney, doing California Adventure or the beach. They both, at the same time, shouted, "Let's go to the BEACH!" SO, we did! We put our swimsuits on and packed up in the car, headed to the beach. Instead of going straight to the beach this time, we headed to Balboa Island to walk around there and see the ferris wheel. When we got to Balboa, the way we came in, we were on the other side and needed to cross over. Instead of going all the way around, we took a ferry across. Ezra wasn't sure if it was such a good idea to put our car on the boat. He was a little nervous. I thought it was cool. When we were finally on the right side, we walked around the little boardwalk area, played some arcade games and ate as big as your face, but bigger!, pizza! It was great. After that, we headed back to Newport beach. This time, we rented and umbrella to sit under and a body board. Such good times! We were there for 4 or more hours!! By the time we thought we should head back to the hotel and rest, my mom called and asked if we would be up for seeing an Angels baseball game. Of course!! So, we loaded up our things, took the umbrella and body board back, rinsed off the sand (impossible!!) and headed to the hotel to shower and rest before the game. We were able to rest and shower for a couple of hours before we had to load up once again for the game.
The game was fun. We had great seats. It was good to spend time with my mom and her husband, Ron, and of course, eat baseball Nachos!! The Angles ended up loosing the wildcard game to the Oakland A's, but it was a fun game and we all enjoyed it!
On the ferry, heading to Balboa Island
Yep, that was our rental for the trip!
Balboa Pier
Love this picture of Emresyn. She liked the water, but loved playing in the sand.
Building a castle with a moat.
This girl loved the water and the sand!
How she decided to wear her swimsuit.
Had to get one picture of me..
She was looking for Brent in the water. He was out boogie boarding. Ha!
Me and my Man!
Last night in Cali!
Tuesday, we woke up, packed and headed to the Airport. It was a good trip, but we were ready to just be HOME! We were all so exhausted from the trip. Sometimes, after a vacation, you need another one to recover from the first one! Ha!
All, in all, such a good trip. It was great to do it with my family. Makes me miss them so much. I wish we lived closer. I am thankful for the times we get to spend together!
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