Random California

Well the time has come, we are finally heading home from California. We had a great time hanging out with daddy and also having a little fun in the sun during this cold winter. We will miss daddy but at least we know he's almost done (he comes home Feb. 26th for good). We also are missing home. I miss my family and all the cute little kids. I can't wait to get back to all the chaos (it's a little too quiet here sometimes) and to laugh with the family again. I'm sure there are a few people that will not be overly happy to see me return, I hear it's been a gluten-fest since I left, now back to boring non-gluten meals. :) I can't wait to come home!  That is, if it stops raining for ten seconds so that we can fly out of here.

I thought I'd post a few pictures showing the random things that happened here that didn't make it to any of my other blogs. Enjoy, or not, whatev!!

Cute Hannah Bo at the beach.  Emma was convinced that that thing you see out in the water to the left was a pirate ship, it was too funny.

The Sponge Bob store, my girls were in heaven.

Running on the beach

Are we the only place that actually has red fire hydrants???  The ones in Dallas were silver and here they are white??

We did a lot of driving . . .

 . . . and we got bored.

You can't see too much of the beach, it was amazing.

Hannah feel to sleep watching a movie

Emma climbed a rock wall

         

The girls in a giant bird nest thing at the Aboretum

Hannah and daddy waiting while me and Emma went on a ride

Hannah sleeping on Emma's bum.  Too funny

I really don't need to buy them a fort.  The spent half a day playing under these cupboards

Emma in the worlds most giant bathtub that was in one of our rooms

Their Disneyland hats, they got to decorate them their selves

Emma chose the blue hat with the 3D Mickey ears and a pirate patch

Hannah went for the pink hat with fur, the bedazzled ears and a Pluto patch right on the top.

Funny Hannah

We were at dinner the other night and all of your orders came out with fries except for Hannah's. Hers came with a side of cooked veggies. She was a bit upset that she was the only one that didn't get fries but after a minute she announced that she was going to eat her broccoli. They were still pretty hot but she picked one up and put it in her mouth. She then quickly spit it out on her plate and started wiping off her tongue. Dan then asked her "Was it too hot?' to which she replied "No, it was too disgusting!!"

Disneyland!

Well, we spent three wonderful days in Disneyland. We had so much fun hanging out with our little girls and seeing their happy excited faces. It was so much fun but it will be nice to give our poor feet a rest for a day. Hannah was a trooper; she walked most of the time. We only picked her up every now and again when we knew it was too much walking for her. I even saw some kids Emma's age being pushed along in strollers. Emma was so cute, she kept asking to go on Big Thunder Mountain again and again. It is her most favorite ride. She is tall enough that she can go on just about everything in Disneyland and California Adventure now. The only thing that she wasn't thrilled about was the Tower or Terror. She went twice last year when we came but she only did it once this time and it was a bit too scary for he so she didn't want to ride again. She acts like her daddy sometimes when she keeps asking us how many times the workers check the rides again and again. What a worry wart. I'm so glad that we were able to come out here and take our girls to Disneyland!

Emma being silly

We got to meet Mickey Mouse, too bad Emma was asleep, she would have liked to see him (hehe)

Hannah's turn to be silly

I think I make a good Goofy pirate.  I seem very excited

Even more Emma sillyness

 . . . and some more

Climbing Tarzan's rope

Your eyes do not decieve you, that is me with a box of Minnie's GLUTEN FREE cookies!!!!  I love Disneyland!!!

You didn't know she was big enough to drive, did ya

Emma was so excited that we got the yellow car.  We must have been in merry old England because the steering wheel was on her side

You may have to look close but as we were walking along a bird swooped by and pooped in Emma's hair.  She was not too happy about it so Dan had to sneak and take a picture.  She will laugh about it some day.

Ready for one of our favorite rides, Toy Story

Family picture

Seriously, I have no idea where she gets her sillyness from.  Me and Dan are so normal.

Hannah picked Pluto as her toy

Emma picked Bambi

Dan took this horribly unflattering picture of me, but I'm going to embarass myself and show it to you anyway.  I love the fact that I look up at him with my one eye.  I wasn't trying to wink, he just said my name and I looked up.

Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures!!  We will be home in four more days.

More California Fun

Today we ventured over to the Discovery Science Center. It was a lot like the Children’s Museum in Utah. The girls had a great time playing with all the fun stuff. The funest thing was a little room that you went in to and it simulated the winds of a hurricane. I just had to show the cute pictures of this.

From California

Universal Studios, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo

Yep, we've been busy since we got here last Thursday. We finally made it here a little late on Thursday but we did make it. When we got to the airport my boarding pass said that we leave at gate C4 so we got there a few hours early and we sat and sat. Apparently sometime while we were sitting there they switched our gate to C12 and replaced the flight at C4 with another flight going to California at the exact same time. I knew we were flying into John Wayne airport and apparently our flight said to Orange County and the flight that replaced the one at that gate was to Long Beach. Needless to say I didn't get the info on the switch and didn't realize that it was going to the wrong airport until it was too late. No big deal though even though Emma started crying because she was scared. We got on the Delta phone and she booked us on a flight a few hours later. Finally we made it to California. That night we went online to check out any deals that we may be able to get on the local attractions. We decided to get the southern California City Pass. It lets you go to Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Universal Studios and three days in Disneyland for a low price. The next day while Dan was at work we went down to the beach to waste some time until he got off at noon.

Digging for sea shells

More sea shells.  It was a beautiful day

Emma made a slide down the sand

When Dan finally got off work we headed up to Universal Studios. I know I've heard about the traffic here many times but it's amazing to actually experience it. You are driving along and then everything just STOPS so you crawl along for a while thinking there must be a giant wreck coming up and then nothing. You finally just start moving after a while. No one uses blinkers and they will squeeze in front of you if you making you slam on your breaks if you leave the tiniest bit of room in front of you which forces you to be on the bumper of the person in front of you just to keep from being cut off every five seconds. Anyway, we made it to Universal Studios.

The girls are getting so big

Hannah and George

Off we go on the tour

Cool!

The girls being interviewed by Billy Bush

Dan and Nancy

Awesome view!!

After we finished we decided to head down to San Diego for the weekend.  It was a LONG 2+ hour drive, in traffic, in the dark to get there but it was worth it.  The next morning we headed over to Sea World.  We caught most of the shows in Sea World and the girls thought it was so much fun.  Who doesn't love Shamu.

The girls and a whale

Hannah was scared in the polar bear cave

I LOVE this picture!

So many penguins

There was a flock of flamingos wandering the park

Emma was scared on the sky tower

Dan was hot so he stuck his face in the fountains

The girls in the bounce house

Shamu

Me and Emma didn't want to get wet so we stayed up high

These two crazies were all the way at the bottom

Hannah was so wet but so happy

The next morning we headed over to the San Diego Zoo.  I can't believe how big and amazing it is.  It really does put the Hogle Zoo to shame.  Anyway, we had a fun time seeing all of the animals but didn't end up staying all day because we knew we had a long ride back up to Newport Beach and the girls were a little tired of walking.  We tried to rent a stroller to push both of them but they were all gone when we got there.  It really is so big that you do need a stroller for the little ones or you should pay for the bus tour that goes around the park.  It still was a lot of fun and it was exciting to see how big everything was.

The girls got friendly with a gorilla

Dan was getting tough with the gorilla

At the petting zoo

Too cute!

These tortises were ginormous

Dan thought this gorillas bum was funny so he took a picture

They both got monkeys to take home

After we made it back to Newport Beach something amazing happened.  Take a look at this picture -

:)

Yes, that is me eating pizza.  How is this possible you may ask? (Or not, you may be confused if you don't know all my problems)  I was looking online trying to find any local gluten free food and there was a pizza chain close by that makes gluten free pizza called ZPizza.  I was so excited I told Dan we had to have it for dinner and because he loves me he said it sounded good to him.  I still can't believe I had pizza last night.  That made my day!!!  I will be posing more of our adventures soon!!!