California May 2011

Well we got home not even 24 hours ago and Jeremy and I are off on another trip. This time Jonathan is with grandma and we are just about 2 hours north of Anchorage in Talkeetna. Jeremy had a conference to go to, so I came along and Jonathan is getting a weekend with Grandma and his uncles. This is our first time away from him for an overnight, it's a little weird leaving him, especially after such a full week together but at the same time I am already enjoying my time. Currently I am enjoying the free wifi and cable television :). And I brought along my sewing machine and a couple of quilting projects that I hope to make some progress on. But for now, I am going to talk a bit about our trip last week. I will try to keep it brief - but any reader of this blog knows I'm not too good at that :).

Hotel Yesterday in San Diego


Hotel today in Talkeetna - I think McKinley is behind the clouds somewhere.

We were able to make this very fun California vacation happen due to a conference that Jeremy attended in San Diego. This really was "how to go on a great vacation on a small budget" type of trip, this is how: Fly wife and lap child on companion ticket that comes with credit card, spend four nights at brother and sister in laws place, the rest of the nights in hotel provided from credit union, we then paid for rental car, tickets to Disney and Sea World, having a child makes eating at a super nice restaurant very unappealing, stayed at an Embassy Suites with AWESOME breakfast. So really it turned out to be an ideal situation for us. It was wonderful to go away for a real vacation as a family of three, the only time it will happen and will be memories that Jeremy and I will treasure for a while, and Jonathan can enjoy the pictures, as I'm sure he won't remember much of it, but it was fun for us to watch him enjoy new things and new scenery.

A few highlights...

~ we got an extra seat in our row for EVERY flight!! So took car seat on plane with us, so was nice to not have to hold him the whole time. oh and best part was if he was unbuckled he could stand up tall and flirt with ANYONE and EVERYONE who looked his way, however for first overnight flight did not sleep until literally the last 20 min of the 3 hr 20 min flight!
~ We got in to San Diego on Wed am, then drove to Riverside (a suburb of LA, where Kelly and Ashley go to school and live) and stayed at their place - unfortunately Ashley was gone on her choir tour, and Kelly didn't get there until Fri (he was in AK for a few days) - anyways we decided to tough it out and despite little sleep the night before go to an LA Angels baseball game. This was our only opportunity for a baseball game in the trip and decided to just make the most of it.
~ Got to Angels stadium and while standing in line for tickets a gentleman came up and offered us two tickets! yay! and giveaway at gate was free Angels hat - this vacation was starting out well! :) We didn't spend tons of time sitting with Jonathan in the seats, but Jeremy and he really enjoyed their time walking around and enjoying the ballpark. And Jeremy enjoyed getting to take his son to his first baseball game. Jonathan loved clapping along with the crowd and overall enjoyed his time.



~~~ agh I was trying to make this bullet points! haha!! ~~~

~~ Thursday went to Huntington Beach - Jonathan LOVED playing in the sand, and mostly loved that there was so much room to run around in! Enjoyed a walk along pier and I got myself sunburned - I sun screened everyone but myself :(

~ Did not take Jonathan long at all to adjust to the warmth, at K and A's, he loved to go out on their patio and play in the sun!
~ Fri we picked up Kelly from the airport and headed to Disney Land. This was a very long and fun day. Of course it seemed like Jonathan fell asleep at all the wrong times, like when we could go on a ride that he could go on, but oh well.

He seemed to enjoy all the people and a couple of the rides. He particularly liked the Buzz Lightyear ride where you get to shoot a laser gun and can spin the car you are in.

~ Walking through the New Orleans district in Disney Land we saw Stevie Wonder - not sure what he was doing there, but he was there.
~ Another favorite at Disney Land was Goofy's Play House - there he could play around on a slide and run around, which was great as he was tired of being restrained all day. There was also a piano just his size, which was a big hit!! He even got possessive and tried to push some other kids off - not a proud parenting moment, but humorous at the same time :)
Playing the piano


This hat was left behind in Disney somewhere - was cute while it lasted though.


Checking out a Mickey Mouse pretzel - no, he didn't want to eat it either, he tore off a chunk and threw it on the ground.


Waiting in line for the Nemo submarine ride

~ We didn't leave DL until 11:40 pm!! yikes! We went back in after dinner at espn zone to watch the fireworks show and then were able to get on a couple of rides quickly, so it was worth it! It was a long day and we got to sleep in the next day.


Trying on Mickey Mouse ears - they stayed on for about 2 seconds, so decided this wasn't the time to buy them :)


I even was going to let him eat some cotton candy but he didn't want it!


Even got our picture with Mickey!

~ Saturday we went to a farmer's market in Riverside (on my list of things I wanted to do, not anyone else's :) ) - but i got some awesome cherries and oranges!
~ We also got to explore Riverside and Kelly showed us around their school (California Baptist) which was great to get to see his life in CA - we also went swimming in outdoor pool at the school! I cannot remember the last time I was in an outdoor pool! So great!


Captured a yawn - this is right after swimming outside, yes he fell asleep shortly after in the car.

~ WOOHOO Oklahoma City Thunder just won!! series tied now!

Ok, I think I'm going to end there for now. And these are only pictures from my phone! It's going to be hard going through all the ones on my camera! I feel a photo book being made soon! :)