California Trip

So in Southern California (a little town called Thermal) there is a horse show called "HITS."   To groom their arenas they use Parma Company's "Arena Groomer."  Which is actually a pretty big deal, at least I think it is.    HITS does different shows all over the country and tons of people go... and they only use P.Co's groomer....am I the only one that thinks that's cool?

Anyway, Austin decided to go to the show. Me and the boys tagged along to make it a little family vacation!  Most of this blog will just be boring little details so that I don't forget.

We left on Friday (March 15) at 6 am! ugh! But it was worth it cause the boys slept for a while.  We met my  Grandparents in Twin Falls, but I totally forgot to take a picture with them...I'm pretty upset about that because I hardly ever see them. Then we hit the road for 8.5 more hours to Vegas.

Cute Reecie on the drive to Vegas.  The boys were SOO good! I couldn't believe it.  

We didn't even have a dvd player.

The only picture I took in Vegas.

 Liam was just trying to

 postpone going to sleep, darn babies!

The next day (Saturday) we drove from Vegas to Palm Desert, which was just over 4 hours-so not too bad.  We dropped Austin off with his co-worker who was already there, and we went to this place.

It was pretty fun and pretty cheap, best of both worlds.  It was perfect for the boys because they were so sick of being in the car.  It was exhausting for me cause I didn't have Austin to help with the boys, but still fun!

 This car had so many layers of paint...I wonder if they scrape it off after a while? 

 Reecie was so cute playing with all the big kids.

Liam refused to look at the camera.

I feel like a lot of my pictures are of Reece exploring/destroying the hotels.  

Those cute kids get into everything.

On Sunday (Reece's Birthday!) we went to the horse show with Austin.  It was super duper hot and we were in the sun the whole time.  No shade or grass and the building we ate lunch in had no AC.  It was still cool to see and experience a different culture (those horse show people are pretty darn rich and they know it...just sayin.)

 Poor Reecie didn't sleep well...soo here we have a grumpy birthday boy.

 This is the only HITS picture I took, wish I had remembered to take some more. It was really pretty and there were some cool horses.  And doesn't that arena look great? wink wink

 After the horse show we drove to Anaheim, which is a 2 hour or so drive.  The boys did not make one peep the entire time! It was awesome.

After getting settled into our hotel, we WALKED to Downtown Disney.  Our hotel was a little ghetto, but we loved that it was so close.

 Reece and mommy

I tried to take a real picture of these boys, but they are just too silly!

We wanted to eat at Goofy's Kitchen, but it was $38 a person! But they did have a bunch of Disney characters there.  Anyway, I can't remember the name of where we went, but it was yummy and we spent $28 total, haha.  Much cheaper!

Poor Liam, he picked up this Buzz toy every store we went in (they are everywhere) but we are just too poor.

The next morning (Monday) we went to Disneyland! 

 Waiting for dad to buy the tickets. 

It was a little chilly that day, but after sweating to death on Sunday, we were ok with that! It was just cool enough to be refreshing.

Here we go!

We tried to take cute pics of Liam, but he would not hold still.  Too much fun!

Our first ride!

This is the series of pictures I found on my phone after riding on the carousel! Love my boys! 

Dumbo was next! They actually let babies go on most of the rides, which was so nice.  I think Reece loved it just as much as Liam.

I really hate this pic of me, but oh well.  The guy who took it messed up my camera and I couldn't take video for the rest of the day. grr...

We went to California Adventure...but it was just a little too old for our kiddos.

 Car's Land was pretty cool.

We ate dinner there and it was delicious, probably my favorite of the trip.  We also got a huge ice cream cone at Ghiradelli but I forgot to take a pic.

Then we headed back to Disneyland for the parade.

This pic makes me laugh. Stop picking on Reece!

Cutie.

This is what happens when we tried to take a picture of the boys in their cute shirts:

 Reece is actually happy here, I promise.

Liam has such a fun personality, a little crazy sometimes though!

Austin has some video of the parade on his phone, so I will try to get him to load those to Facebook.

The next morning we packed up to head to Escondido, which is where I was born and lived until I was four.

 We stopped by the beach in Oceanside. It was freezing and not nearly as pretty as Oregon beaches.  California beaches are only good when it is warm, I have decided.  

Here is our house! My family owned this from 1986 to 1993. 

I had to hurry cause I felt like a weirdo.  Thankfully no one saw me.  When I texted this pic to my dad, he said to go knock on the door and go inside! haha Too scared.

Here is the pool by our house...I know my family might wanna see it.  

We went to the Wild Animal Park, which apparently is now called San Diego Zoo Safari Park, lame.

Tradition in my family is take a picture on the rhino. Mom, can you find the old ones?? Who knows where they could be...

 I'm so sneaky, you can't even see me holding Reece up there.

 My boys checkin out the lions

 Gross snake, right above his arm.

I didn't take any video on the actual safari, what is wrong with me? Too distracted I guess.  We did see a baby rhino running around with its mom.  Cutest freaking thing I have ever seen.

The boys both fell asleep towards the end of the zoo.

 Liam just sat down and was out cold in a couple minutes.

We got a lot of laughs as we were leaving.

After the park we drove to Vegas, it was rough.  We were exhausted.  We got to stay in a pretty hotel though!  The Vegas hotel prices all drop during the week. So that was fun!

The mirror had a TV in it! It was actually pretty nice when I was getting ready the next morning.

Big enough bed for ya, Reece?


On Wednesday we were all exhausted, so we got off to a slow start. We didn't leave Vegas until 11:30...which means we got home shortly before midnight.  It was rough, but we are (mostly) glad to be home.  I kinda wish we were still there! So fun!

We decided if we ever go again we should definitely fly to Vegas, cause that car ride is boring and super long!


I think silly Reece is glad to be home:

And just cause Reece is cute when he 'waves' or whatever he is doing:

And yes we are gonna be in our jammies all day, ignoring all the laundry and cleaning that needs to be done!