One afternoon, we took the kids to Apollo Park to feed the ducks. They have never done that before so they were pretty thrilled by it!!! While we were out there we also went on the Musical Road!!! It's a road with grooves in it and if you go fast enough the sound of the tires over the grooves plays a song. Neat!!
Stay tuned for the rest of our journey!
Another one of our big trips was to the beach. We spent the day in Ventura at a little beach just perfect for kids. There is a wall up just in front of that beach so the waves don't come so big there and there is a museum with tide pools just across the street. Also, there was lots of shopping and food next to the museum. Perfect!!! It was a little chilly that day, but still warm enough to get in the water. Isabel had been to the beach one other time when she was about 9 months old, but Gabe had never been. Both of the kids loved it!!
One of our day excursions was to Tehachapi. It is a nice mountainy town and my Aunt Bev lives there. We enjoy having lunch at a Bakery there and this time we thought we'd check out "The Loop". The Loop is just that ... the grade is so steep at this point that the railroad built a loop for the trains to go around so that they could gradually go down the mountain ... it is supposedly one of the 7 railroad wonders of the world. Anyway, we found a scenic overlook and parked there to wait for the train. We pulled out lawn chairs and bottled water and settled in. Normally the trains come by pretty frequently, but for some reason on this particular day they weren't as frequent. We waited about an hour before the train came. It made its loop and we packed up and headed home. It was kind of anticlimactic, but at least we can say we saw it! In any case, we got to spend the day with Aunt Bev and that was worth it!
That's right folks, we went to Disneyland while we were in California. Joel was not looking forward to this day, but I think I can honestly say I was more excited than the kids were!!! Druh and Candice were able to come with us as well as my Aunt Susie and cousin Daniel. We decided to try something new this time and go around noon instead of when the park opened. This turned out to be the perfect plan. The kids napped on the way there so they got a good 2 hours of sleep before we started our day of fun. They woke up in enough time eat a sandwich in the car so we didn't have to get lunch in the park. And we only had to endure the hot sun for a few hours before it cooled off. Plus, we got to see the awesome fireworks show. The kids did great. They didn't fuss all day and we were able to take them both on all of the rides with us .... no one had to sit out! I can't wait for next time!!! Wahoo!
Traffic Jam
My window overlooked this courtyard.We stayed pretty close to "home" our first couple of days in California. We had just spent two days in a car, we wanted to be free of that for a little while! My Aunt Susie has a pool conveniently located in her backyard, so we spent our first few days being lazy by the pool. The kids really loved it! Gabe had never really been in a pool before and he was a little bit skittish at first, but he realized pretty quickly that floating around the pool on a raft was a lot of fun! He even comissioned a couple of rowers. Isabel was a little more independent. We brought a life vest along with us, but she was not happy about putting it on. I think she felt like it was more of a burden to her than a help. We insisted and after awhile she began to really enjoy it. She started out by hanging on to one of us, but was soon paddling around the pool on her own and even jumping in all by herself. She even got brave enough to go under the water! She was a regular fish by the time we left.
The adults had a great time too. Candice and I worked on our tans (which turned out fabulously, by the way) and the guys had water gun fights. Aunt Susie even talked Joel and Druh into trying out her water weights!! I'm just sorry all of you missed that ....... it was quite a sight.
Our first leg went fabulously!!! The kids were so good. We stopped three times along the way and none of our stops were due to screaming children. The kids love to have a picnic so I packed a picnic lunch for us and we stopped in Rawlins, WY to eat. There were no parks in sight so we found a hotel with a nice grassy area in back and we pulled our picnic out to enjoy. While we were sitting there, we saw a deer walk across the parking lot. Right in front of us!!! Also we saw a one-legged seagull flying around over head ...... what can I say? Rawlins, WY is a strange place.
After lunch we set out again and we arrived in Brigham City, UT just in time for dinner! We had a great time visiting with Druh and Candice and we got to see their house for the first time. The kids LOVE their Uncle Druh. They wanted him to do everything for them ...... get them dressed for bed, brush their teeth, read them a book ..... they were stuck to him like glue the whole time
The next morning we got up early and headed out again .... this time we had Uncle Druh and Anutie Candice in tow and we were headed to sunny California. We drove through 4 states that day and again the kids did great!! We only had one small section of major impatience as we headed into Las Vegas, NV. It was nap time and the kids hadn't eaten lunch yet due to the fact that the traffic in Las Vegas is a nightmare and it took us close to an hour to find a place to eat. We finally found an In-N-Out and fed the kids and peace returned to our long jouney! We arrived in California at dinner time and were all so happy to finally be able to stay put for a couple of weeks!
Utah is a beautiful state!
You can't see it very well, but towards the right of the picture are fields of purple ... these were lavender fields ... they were gorgeous!
Arizona. Beautiful in it's own way.
Stay tuned for more posts on our many adventures in California.
