California Adventure

Although my time in California was rejuvenating, it wasn't exactly... restful. Here are some of my adventures...although they don't include California Adventure (the theme park) they do include disneyland!

I spent a day with my grandparents (mom's side). I hadn't seen them in a year and a half since I didn't go to California last Christmas. It was a great chance to visit and catch up. They are neat people and I'm so grateful for them. And they think I'm pretty great too...I mean, I am the first and favorite grandchild. ;)

I then spent a day with my dad. We visited the casino where he works, watched a movie, and had dinner at In-N-Out (yumm!). It was nice to see my dad, however brief it was.

From there, I went down to SoCal. Arriving on Monday night, and greeted by my former roommie, we headed to Victorville. Here are the highlights...

Tuesday: Kristel was offered a 3rd grade teaching position, woohoo! We headed to Vegas, both in celebration of her job AND for her birthday

Wednesday: Spent the day in Vegas (partly at the pool :)) and drove home in the evening

Thursday: Headed to UCLA to visit with Tiffani. I was also able to wander the campus, meet her faculty advisor, and partake in some fabulous weather (sitting on a grassy null, while the cool ocean breezed).

Friday: Disneyland in celebration of Jenny's birthday!

Saturday: Breakfast with Kristin. Lunch with Jenny. Dinner in Orange at Ryan and Jenny's...watched all sorts of mixed martial arts fighters beat the snot out of one another (UFC)... it was... educational :/. Laughed and cringed a lot. Stayed up late.

Sunday: Slept in. Went to church. I ate at In-N-Out for the third time on this trip (gotta get my fill). Boarded a red eye flight back to Waco.

Although I could go into far more detail, I will save you the ramblings. :) Additionally, I don't have as many pictures as I though I would have taken. Meaning...I normally take oodles of pictures. But many of these memories will have to remain just that...memories.

Kristel and I sitting out at the pool, it was obviously bright :)

In Vegas. Unfortunately, we had been up and ready to go at 7:30 in the morning an by 10:30pm we were pooped. So we headed back to our hotel room to catch a snooze. We then woke up at 1:30 in the morning and gambled for a bit. It was actually great...not many people choose to gamble at 1:30am. We headed back to bed at 3:30 proud of ourselves for .. living it up. Ha. :) This picture was proof we were up at 1:30, only I wish I had taken one at 3:30. But imagine if we look this tired at 1:3o what we looked like at 3:30.

This is a sign on the way to/from Vegas. It cracks me up every time. So this time, I finally got a picture of it! Success!

I met up with Jenny and Eric, and Ryan and Megan (and Aubrey) for some Disneyland birthday celebration. Here's a picture of me, Jenny (birthday girl), and Ryan waiting in line for the matterhorn. We had one car in front of us and the ride decided to have 'technical difficuties'. So I decided it was time to bust out my camera for a quick pick.

Megan and I. :) Random sidenote: 1. Don't straighten your hair the day you to go Disneyland if you decide to ride splash mountain. 2. When they say a child cannot ride in the front for splash mountain, they just mean the very first seat. So don't get tricked into riding in the front. Okay, so maybe that's not exactly how it happened. But Jenny and I did misunderstand the woman who was saying adults had to ride in the front so I ended up in the very first seat on the boat. Both Ryan and I were soaked. But oh how I love splash mountain!

Ryan and Meg have Aubrey. Jenny and Eric's neice (Kaitlyn) and nephew (Taylor) met up with us for part of the day in Disney. Isn't this picture of Aubrey and Kaitlyn holding hands too precious?!Space mountain has been redone and it's better than ever! :) We had to do this one twice!

Jenny and I waiting for the start of the parade, only, the parade wasn't happening. They did, however, have a large fireworks display above the princes castle. Let's just say it was probably the best display of fireworks I've ever seen...music...tinkerbell and dumbo flew through the air...if I ever work at disneyland someday, I want to be the flying singing tinkerbell in the fireworks show. :)

I had a blast and miss my California friends! The community I built there was probably the first time I had what I would deem as 'true' community. So as I mentioned earlier, it may not have been restful, it was definitely good for my soul!