california dreamin

So last week we took a trip to California with my family. We spent four days in the sun and we had an awesome time. It was a nice little getaway. Here's a rundown of what we did:

Day One - Disneyland

We all had a good time at Disneyland. I sat out on most of the rides and was sort of disappointed every time I walked up to a ride and the sign said "not recommended for expectant mothers" with a picture of a pregnant woman and a big red circle with an X through it, like "going on this ride is as bad as smoking." Oh well, I'd rather be pregnant than be able to ride the rides at Disneyland.

The big kids outside of Indiana Jones - the best ride at Disneyland

Scott, Thomas, Will, and Meg with Buzz Lightyear

Tom waiting for Jedi training. He is a Star Wars FREAK! But not as freaky as the kid sitting to the right of him. This kid came dressed for the occasion and Tom kept staring at him like he was nuts. We were laughing pretty hard at the faces Thomas was making at the nerd.

Libby LOVES Scott. In fact, all my brothers and sisters love him. It's more of an obsession and I think Scott was glad to get some alone time when we got home. But I love that they adore him.

Scott's other best friend - Will. Will would not leave Scott alone and I had to lecture him a couple times about coming into our bedroom before knocking. He just had to know what Scott was doing at all times.

My mom is so cool.

The always-beautiful Lauren. Here she is either saying "No pictures please." or "Talk to the hand because I miss Brandon." One night while shopping she told Meg that she needed to get home because she had to make a phone call. Like we didn't know who that phone call was going to be to.

Scott and me getting ready to enter the Haunted Mansion. It was one of the three rides I went on. The other two were Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo. FUN HUH? And yes, I am that pale. Sorry if any of you are blinded.

Mom, Meg, Libby, and Tom on the Teacups - the second best ride at Disneyland.

Day Two - Universal Studios

I don't have many pictures of Universal but it was still just as fun. It was not crowded at all so everyone rode The Mummy and Jurassic Park at least three times. Libby and I became best friends while we sat out of these fun rides. We all went on the studio tour, which is the best part anyway.

This is how Libby felt about being left out. Just kidding, she was actually quite happy because when everyone went on the rides, my dad always slipped me some cash to get treats. He did this because Libby is his favorite youngest daugher and I am his favorite oldest daughter (and he felt bad that I had to sit there and babysit while everyone else had fun). He's the best.

Day Three - the beach

We stayed in a house on Hermosa Beach and boy was it awesome! The house was really nice and the beach was beautiful. The waves were big enough to be fun. We rented some boogie boards and everyone caught some good waves.

Libby having the time of her life.

Some of the kids laughing at Tom after he was taken out by a huge wave.

Libby was so excited to find sea shells. She found some pretty neat ones.

Libby again. Sorry, but I just love her so much.

Two beautiful beach babes. After some hard core boogie boarding, Emma lost the big yellow bow on her swimsuit. Sad huh? It's a cute swim suit!

And you can't leave the beach without burying at least one person in the sand.

Day Four - California Adventure or the worst day of my life so far.

Just kidding, it wasn't THAT bad. But it was pretty bad. It was 94 degrees and California Adventure is pretty much all outside. At Disneyland they have gift shops right outside of all the exits, so I would just go chill inside the nice air conditioned building. But this was not so at California Adventure. It was hard. I got really ornery and was only happy after I had eaten a good meal in an air conditioned restaurant and basically you will see later in the post what the effects of the heat had on my pregnant body.

This is actually at Disneyland on the train. We went back to Disneyland after the lines at California Adventure were 70 minutes long. Totally not worth it to stand in a line for 70 minutes in 94 degree weather.

This is Libcorn from Cornis (she made that up herself).

On the way home from California Adventure we decided to drive down to Huntington Beach (which is amazing by the way) and then take the Pacific Coast Highway back to the house. I guess Emma got a craving for popcorn, so we stopped at a movie theater and bought her some popcorn. Libby spent the next two hours crafting this hat from the popcorn bag and when we stopped at a grocery store, this is what we saw. We asked her what her name was and where she was from and she said that she was Libcorn from Cornis. That weekend she was also Wigglytooth from Toothville because she got her first loose tooth, which by the way was one of her favorite parts of the trip. Funny what kids think is entertaining. She is such a goofball sometimes and I just love it.

Driving on the PCH was beautiful when we were in Orange County and once we got to Los Angeles County, it just got really ugly. I'm never living in Los Angeles or the vicinity. It's just not very attractive and when we got home I was really grateful to live in such a beautiful, clean place.

So this is what happened to my body when I spent the day walking in really hot weather being pregnant:

Not too bad when you're looking at them from an angle and they're being raised in the air. But you can definitely tell the left foot is retaining a little bit of water.

But this is what they look like from straight-on. GROSS HUH? I'm okay with you laughing at them. I actually laugh really hard every time I see this picture.

So what it boils down to is that I'm not looking forward to the summer. This was not cool. Luckily they have gone back down to their normal size. When we got home Sunday morning, I ran immediately to the bedroom, grabbed three pillows, placed them on the couch in the comfy corner, laid down with my feet elevated, and didn't get up for probably six or seven or eight hours. It was really cool to have an excuse to lie there ALL DAY LONG.

So all together, we had an awesome trip. We seriously love my family so much and we were so glad to get to spend a couple days with them. We were DEFINITELY ready for some quiet time when the trip was over though. Thanks to Mom and Dad for making it happen!