California Vacation - April 2011

View from the condo we stayed in.

Kaija was so obsessed with the DVD's she had to carry them around the whole night one night. She thinks they are a toy.

Story time, the kids slept on a hide a bed that was in our room. Most comfortable hide a bed I have every laid on.

Seriously good cupcakes!

Mikko had a great time at Magic Mountain. Glad he got to go.

You might think she is jumping but really she just falls towards me and I pull her in. She has not mastered the jump.

In March Kanani invited our family to come to California with them cause they had 3 condo's available on a time share they have. So Kanani, McKay, Alvin and our family all went down to Newport Beach during their spring break. I was really concerened about driving that long with the kids but once Mikko heard that they were going to Magic Mountain he was all for the trip. So I prepared as well as I could. I could little toys and books and prizes that they could have every hour on the trip to keep them occupied. Way too much candy and movies got us through it. It was a little rough but we survived. On our way down we spent the night in St. George and my Niece's, Amanda's home and that was great. The kids loved to play with her kids and it broke up the drive just right.

We got to California Saturday late afternoon and the fun began. The kids just love playing with their cousins and even though their cousin's are older they seem to have a great time and my nieces and nephews are great to play with them. Each night the siblings took a turn providing dinner for every one at that was fun. We would just get together outside the condo's and share a meal. Sunday we went to a Newport Ward that met in a building right next to the temple so it was nice to walk around the temple grounds after church.

We enjoyed plenty of time playing in the pool, we went to Huntington Beach, it was a little chilly but if you laid on the sand it was great. Kaija was not excited about the beach this time but Kaleb loved it.

The day everyone else went to Magic Mountain McKay and I took Kaleb, Kaija and Eloise to ......Island where they had a little fun park for kids. They rode on the carousel and ferris wheel, we played in the arcade and enjoyed some ice cream. Fun was had. Kaija was funny on the ferris wheel I thought she was going to start screaming but the thrill kicked in and she LOVED it. When we had to get off was when she threw a big fit.

The thing I wanted to do was go the MAC store which I did and then go to Sprinkles, a famous cupcake bakery. I thought they might not live up to the hype but they were really good. $3.50 a pop is quite steep but it was a fun thing to do.

We left a couple of days earlier then everyone else because I was a vendor at a bridal show that Saturday and had to be back for it. On our way home we stayed the night in Las Vegas and we arrived around 9pm. We drove down part of the strip and the kids loved the lights. Kaleb said when he grew up he wanted to live there. We reassured him that you don't want to live on the Strip just visit it.