Vacation Time!

At the end of February Chris and I got to go on a 4 day vacation with our good friends Collin and Kristel, and we didn't bring any kids! This was big for us because I have never been away from the kids overnight. Ever. I didn't even end up leaving William when Isaac was born since I had him at home. Anyway, some getaway time was overdue! And even though it seemed like the fates had aligned against us, we decided to go through with it. We left at midnight to catch a 6:30 am flight from Salt Lake, tried to catch a few minutes of sleep on the floor of the airport, boarded the plane and 2 hours later landed in Long Beach California!

After picking up our rental car and getting some breakfast we went to fulfill Collin's dream of going to Knotts Berry Farm. He we incredibly excited, so I'm not sure why he was making this face! Hmmm...we must have been up all night!Here we are at the entrance. You can see the super long jerky wooden roller coaster in the background. I used to love roller coasters. I could ride them all day. I found out at Knotts Berry Farm that I must be getting old because they make me somewhat motion sick now. Funny thing is that Chris actually really enjoyed them, and he is the one that usually gets terribly motion sick. Weird.
This is after riding the xcelerator, which goes from 0-30000 in less than a second. Collin made us ride it twice.

After spending a couple of hours riding the rides we were all incredibly tired so we checked into our hotel. I was so tired that I walked into the hotel room, dropped my jacket and shoes fell onto the bed and was instantly asleep for several hours. That evening we walked down the street to a restaurant, and then walked to Target and got some icecream which we ate back at the hotel. Then Chris and Collin tried out the pool while Kristel and I relaxed and just hung out.

The next day we spent at Universal Studios. It was SO COLD! The weather kept rotating between hail, snow and rain, but it was actually kind of a plus because there were no lines and most of the rides are indoors so they didn't shut down because of the weather.

We're so cute!

I think Chris got a little nervous when he saw King Kong.

Sporting the 3D glasses!

We were supposed to be looking "cool" in this picture, but I just look like I'm pouting :)

We took a little trip through Whooville,

and Jurassic Park,

and saw some sweet cars!

We froze as we stood in front of WaterWorld forever while they kept telling us, "There is a fifty percent chance this show won't happen." "We are waiting on the weather." And a bunch of stuff like that till long after the show was supposed to start. They finally let everyone in and did the show (probably because they couldn't get us to go away!) Kristel and I are rocking our ponchos. The boys were too cool to wear them.

And for some reason I find this picture hilarious, so I'm putting it up.

I think my favorite moment of the day was when we were sprinting to go to the Shrek ride before it closed (and to warm up) and some voice over a loudspeaker from somewhere we couldn't figure out said, "Hey, why are you guys running? Are those guys chasing you? (The Hunters were a little way behind us) Hey, what's the hurry?!!" And on and on. It was hilarious!

Because of the short lines we were able to do every single thing we wanted to do at Universal Studios in one day. We even stopped and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in the middle, and took our time. It was great!

The next day was absolutely beautiful weather probably in the 60s and sunny, which worked out great because we had wanted to spend the day at the beaches looking for tidepools and such. This is the first beach we got out at and it was like something came alive in me that I hadn't even known was lying dormant for all these years. I LOVE the ocean!!! I mean, I've always known I liked it, but this was different. This was a connection, a yearning for, a need! I told Chris that we were going to have to live by the ocean at some point or else. :) Actually he probably got really sick of hearing me talk about how much I needed to live by the ocean. Not just vacation. Live. It was a glorious day!! I'll mostly let the pictures talk.



(Note: I'm not sure why, but in all the pictures from this day I look like I'm not wearing any makeup. Maybe I forgot to put it on?? I have no idea!!)

Karate Kid!

We ate at the Fisherman's Restaurant right on the Pier at San Clemente. The clam chowder that Chris was eating in this picture was amazing! And my salad was very good. Other than that however, we were somewhat disappointed in the sea food. We were hoping for some amazing fresh lobster or crab or something, but they didn't really deliver. Oh well. Maybe when we go to Oregon this summer?!
This picture makes me laugh! You notice the fishing pole next to us? Well there were a bunch of people fishing off the end of the pier, and one guy had a bunch of rods out and kept going back and forth between them. Whenever he was away from one, Chris would think he was getting a bite and would barely be able to restrain himself from grabbing it and setting the hook. It was pretty funny. We had to leave because he couldn't stand to watch it and do nothing!

Sunset on the beach. Is there anything more romantic? :)That evening we all went down to the pool. Kristel was a good sport. She had shingles (remember the whole fates aligned against us thing? That was part of it!) so she couldn't get in. She was nice to come down with us anyway though!

The next day we checked out of the hotel, found a big outdoor shopping center to kill some time in :) and shopped for a while before we had to catch our flight. We then had a crazy drive to the airport with all of us shouting directions at Collin, made our flight with some time to spare after all, and then boarded a plane back to Salt Lake.

Once in Salt Lake none of us really wanted to go home, so we drove to Layton, went to the mall for a while (where I FINALLY bought some boots) went out to dinner and then finally started the drive home. We got home a little before 11:00 pm to adorable sleeping kids, and went to bed.