Summer Vacation- California

On May 30th, I worked my last day at Liberty Elementary, and then an hour later we jumped on a plane for our big 4 week west coast adventure! There is so much I could say about the trip, but it would take way too long, and I'm already behind as it is. So, this will be a photo dump with the briefest of explanations... simply for the sake of proving we actually have been doing something this summer!

Our first stop: California. 

We got in late Thursday night and stayed at my brother Chris's house in Valencia. It was fun to see him and Tamra, their beautiful new home, and meet Tamra's cats (who the kids absolutely loved). The next day we ate lunch at IN-N-OUT, which as ridiculous as it may sound, was heaven on earth for the pregnant woman who finally got her appetite back and was able to satisfy her intense craving! We had some time to kill before meeting my family at the beach house, so we went to the LA temple. We enjoyed the visitor's center and walking the beautiful grounds. The kids loved that they could touch the statue of Jesus. Then we headed down to Santa Monica and met my family at the house for our Reynolds Family Reunion. We enjoyed the reactions of everyone to our pregnancy news and the fact that I was already showing! We walked down to the pier on Venice Beach and visited.

On Saturday we spent the day at the beach. It was Thomas' first time, and he LOVED it. Brian spent most of the day playing in the waves with the kids while I lounged on the beach visiting with my mom and siblings. We lucked out with beautiful weather. That evening we went to the wedding dinner at an LDS church where we enjoyed a yummy pasta bar catered by some old family friends, visited and played games.

On Sunday we cleaned up the beach house, had a quick sacrament meeting, and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Paramount Ranch for Chris and Tamra's wedding. The Ranch is where many westerns were filmed, including the show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. It was a cool place. The wedding was beautiful. My dad married them, and following the ceremony was bingo, a nice BBQ dinner, musical performances by both Chris and Tamra and some friends. The decorations were very cute in a whimsical country theme. The kids enjoyed a fun kids area on the lawn with tons of games, toys, and a photo booth. It was a great day! We are so happy Chris and Tamra found each other. They are great together, and she is a welcome addition to our family. That night we drove to our motel in Anaheim to be ready for a day at Disneyland.

On Monday we went to Disneyland! It was the kids' first time. Maybrie was SO excited! Neither of the kids liked the rides that went in the dark, but they loved Dumbo, the teacups, the carousel, and Winnie-the-Pooh. I think the highlight for Maybrie was meeting the princesses and Mickey Mouse. That's the part she always tells people about. It was great weather and not too crowded. We had fun being there with the family, though we were only together in small groups through out the day. We did eat dinner and watch the Fantasmic show together. Both kids crashed at some point during the day. It was a lot of fun.