Prepare for a post unlike you have ever seen before. This is a LONG one so buckle up! I'm coming off the most fun-filled, packed 4-day vacation of all time. As previously mentioned, me and my roommates' birthdays are all within about a month of each other, so we planned a little getaway together (Olivia's cousin, Quade, and Preston also joined us). And we might have acted like we were 8-years-old all weekend. Too too much fun!
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| At the SLC Airport all ready to fly to Long Beach! Palm trees and sunshine here we come! |
When we arrived in CA, we headed to Panera for dinner. I had to smooch a palm tree of course. Then we headed to my Uncle Jim and Aunt Claire's house. It was so fun to see Jim and Claire! We caught up with Claire for a bit before heading to bed. Come to find out, Jim and Quade are related somehow distantly. Small world!
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| Sometimes you just need to spoon with someone. This was not staged at all as seen by my face |
On Saturday morning, T, O, and I went for a run in the Friendly Hills of Whittier, CA. Running down hills is nice. Running up hills is not so nice. But I decided that morning that I need to live in SoCal. Where else can you run at 5:30am in mid-December in 50/60 degree weather? Pure bliss! Then we got ready for the day and headed down to the Newport Beach Temple to do a session. Claire had family names for us to do, which was awesome! My parentals met us there. I love being in the temple with family and friends. Such a great place! And the Newport Beach Temple is so beautiful!
After the temple, we all went to lunch together. Here are my cute little parentals and me and my Aunt Claire (love this woman!).
We had the waiters come and sing a little cancion to Tricia and Preston for their birthday. That day was Preston's birthday and the next day was Tricia's. Nothing like some birthday flan!
After lunch, it was straight to the beach! Doesn't this sight just bring joy to the heart? Walking along Santa Monica Pier...
We got watch the sunset at the beach! The best!
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| See...acting like we are 8-years-old :) |
From the beach, we headed to Hollywood to see Wicked at the Pantages Theater. It was spectacular as expected! I just love it! The girl who played Glinda was killer funny! We may have imitated her hair toss the rest of the weekend...toss, toss, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.
Walking around Hollywood can be an interesting time, but at least you get to look at all the stars on the Walk of Fame. We wondered what one has to do to get a star because it seemed like everyone and their grandma has one. Random story...I rode with my parents on the way from lunch to the beach and changed into my jeans in their car. I then proceeded to leave my skirt and church shoes in their car. So I had no dressy clothes for Wicked or for church the next day. Everyone wore jeans to Wicked so I wouldn't be the only one. Such true friends! Then I had to run to Kohl's Sunday morning to buy a skirt and shoes for church. Is it ok to break the Sabbath to be properly dressed to worship at church? This was my dilemma. the ox was in the mire, that's for sure!
On Sunday, we headed to Thousand Oaks to go to church with Olivia's mission president and his wife. Quote of the weekend comes from President Ludlow....while talking a little BYU football, he said, "Well, they are never going to get respect if they keep having teams like Sisters of the Holy Cross on their schedule." And then I peed! This guy is a legend! And his wife is equally awesome! After church we went to their house and had dinner. President Ludlow had to stay at church to usher for their Christmas program, but we got to spend a lot of time with Sister Ludlow. What amazing people! O and I decided we need to return and spend more time with them...maybe include a Laker game and a trip to Magic Mountain. We shall see...
When we got back to the Salo's, we played a little Disney Trivial Pursuit to prepare for our next two days. It is confirmed that I know nothing about any Disney movies besides The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and a little Tarzan. I'm not sure if that means I was deprived as a child or that I'm just so old I can't remember anything from my childhood. I really need to brush up before playing this game again!
Trivial Pursuit was followed by this game.... Someone holds a camera up, says an emotion, and then you make the face and they take the picture. Here's me angry.
No matter what emotion we said, P-dawg made the exact same face...that's why we love him!
Tricia scared...
Olivia annoyed...
Quade sexy...
Tricia spiritual (I think she saw angels)...
Quade goofy...
That game is just too much fun!
The next morning we jogged around the Friendly Hills again, but this time it was in the rain. Then it was off to Disneyland. Hurray!! It rained all day so we were making ponchos look good all day long. We didn't mind. It was a little chilly, but there were zero lines. Worth it!
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| So dang excited for some D-land! |
Just when I think I need to live in CA again because there are palm trees and the weather is awesome, we spend forever in traffic. Then I remember why I don't live there. Tricia reading the sacred works while sitting in traffic and Preson reading Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson...equally spiritual reads.
On the tram to the park...
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| First ride...Matterhorn...had to just get this jerky one out of the way. |
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| Ready for Star Tours. It is confirmed that I can no longer ride these types of ride. Made me ill. I closed my eyes through 80% of it. |
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| Midway Mania...the first of many rounds on this awesome ride! |
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| We love California Screamin'!! |
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| The roomies at Disneyland...love it! |
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| Chili in a sourdough bowl...yummmmm! |
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| Me and my "Man"wich.....hubba, hubba! |
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| Hard core in Buzz Lightyear |
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| We rode the Tower of Terror about 10 times...so fun! |
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| Tower of Terror....so scary!!! |
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| While we were riding the Monsters Inc ride, it broke and we had to walk out. My first time breaking a Disneyland ride. |
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| 8-years-old |
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| Midway Mania again...might be the best ride ever. |
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| Tower of TERROR |
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| We are on the back row. This was our favorite game...making different faces in the pictures on the rides, then hurrying to the screens after the ride to see how awesome we look. We really crack ourselves up. 8-years-old. |
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| After spending several hours at California Adventure, we headed back over to Disneyland only to find that it has closed at 6pm for an employee Christmas party. Excuse me? And you still charged me full price? We weren't very happy to say the least! |
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| It really cut Preston deep. |
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| This was our hot ride all weekend. We headed to PF Changs for dinner to try and salvage the evening. It turned out ok. We were exhausted anyway. One more day at Disneyland awaits... |
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| The Salo's have this sasquatch statue in their courtyard. We love it!! |
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| Catching a few more z's on the way to Disneyland. You definitely don't have the energy of an 8-year-old when you're in your 30's. That's what we found out! |
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| Yeah...no rain today!! |
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| Poncho free!! |
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| This really is the happiest place on earth! |
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| The aftermath of Splash Mountain...soggy bottoms. |
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| And for some reason we immediately rode it again....soggy heads to match our soggy bottoms. |
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| 8-years-old |
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| I got this fortune at PF Changs the night before...so so funny! |
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| Someone had told me I had to get a corn dog from this corn dog stand at Disneyland. I try to never pass up a good corn dog. It was the longest line we waited in all weekend, but so worth it! |
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| Sweet bliss! And we got to see Mary Poppins walk by while we were eating...she's practically perfect in every way just like this corn dog. |
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| The fast pass machines were totally closed on Monday because of the small crowd. We rocked the fast passes on Tuesday. You didn't really even need them on Tuesday either. Hurray for short lines! |
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| Midway Mania again....sooooo fun! |
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| Shoving food in our faces again! |
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| So hard core! |
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| I LOVE DISNEYLAND!! |
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| Worst thing you could ever seen! |
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| On the tram on the way back to the car...sad, sad time! |
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| Best vacation of all time with these awesome people! Wish we were still there! |
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| We really tuckered these boys out... |
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| Awesome birthday celebration complete! |
So that was our action-packed 4 day vacation to SoCal. It was seriously the best time ever. How could you not have fun with these people while at the temple, beach, Wicked, Ludlow's, California Adventure, and Disneyland? We were the happiest group of 8-year-olds on earth!!
And Izzy was busy saying "lights" a thousand times a day and wanting his "mama". Sure do love that little boy! It was fun to have several day with him and Kara and Ryan.
