Southern California...here we come!

Several months ago Jon called us and invited us to go to Disneyland with him and his family. We hadn't been there for about 20 years so it sounded like fun! Well, then the planning started! Jon got a great deal on seats, and Tiff booked a hotel near Disneyland. Things were coming together!

Well, as the time came to go...Cam and D's baby decided it was time to come! It was good timing! We already had time off, we just needed to make a few changes to our travel plans. We drove down to Missoula, Montana and flew to Phoenix from there on Friday. How fun it was to spend 4 days with Cam's family during the time D had little Brynnlee! It was wonderful to see her!

 

Then, Monday evening, we flew over to Los Angeles to meet up with Jon, Tiif, Ava and Josh. We joined up with them at the airport that evening and drove strait to the hotel, we were all very tired! The next morning, Tuesday, we decided to drive down to San Diego. We went and saw the San Diego Temple, it is so beautiful!

We had a great lunch on the bay watching a little seal entertain us as we ate. We then went over to Sea World and enjoyed several hours there. Ava and Josh especially liked playing in the open water aquarium. That evening, just as we were settling the kids we heard 'boom...boom...boom'! It was so cool...we went out on to the balcony and there were fireworks shooting up in a magnificent display.

 

Wednesday and it was off to Disneyland. Tiff had some good tips for us, she is a real Disneyland fan, and knew that we needed to get up early to beat the crowds. It worked! However, once we got there, we couldn't get Doug off the merry go round!

 

 

 

We enjoyed riding on several rides without having to wait too long. The weather was perfect! It was fun watching Josh and Ava point and say "ohhhh' and "awww"! But it makes you wonder what Grandpa and Ava were thinking??

 

We loved the fun carnival atmosphere and enjoyed dinner in a New Orleans themed restaurant.

Ava danced and loved the musicians music, and they were very entertained by her!

Thursday was our day to go to California Adventure, just across from Disneyland. It is a little bit of a smaller theme park. We really enjoyed the show put on by the green toy army soldiers from 'Toy Story'.

Doug and Jon had a blast at the shooting and fishing galleries, and were very successful. We went home with quite a few stuffed animals!

We enjoyed a few 'scary' rides...'Hollywood Tower Hotel' and 'California Screamin' really got us all, especially me ...screaming!

Overall it was a great day! Josh and Ava were great little troopers as we spent about 8 hours walking and riding and playing. We really loved meeting 'Dug' from the movie 'Up'!

Well, by Friday we were sad to leave California, it was such a wonderful time to be there with the warm weather and fun theme parks! However, we had to fly back to Missoula that afternoon.

Saturday morning, before driving home, we decided we wanted to get some Romney/Ryan bumper stickers. (Doug now has one on his truck and I think Jon is giving a few out at work in Calgary...funny!)

 

So, we drove home from Missoula on Saturday and stopped in Calgary on the way home to visit with Mark. He told us all about his teaching adventures, both good and bad, but he is fairly content and was even happier when we gave his a Mickey Mouse 'stuffy'!!

 

We finally made it home around midnight and Lindsay and James were there to greet us...they had been staying at our house taking care of our dog, Rachel, while we were gone. We sure appreciate them, and we brought them a 'stuffy', too!

It was a great week, we saw all of all kids and grandkids...Even our newest addition! it just doesn't get better than that!

 

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