California Road Trip

Ah, I can't believe our long-awaited Cali trip has come and gone.
It was so much fun, I love Cali !
(minus the traffic, you will hear more about that in a bit)
I took 1,074 pics and edited them down to 499 which is still almost impossible to blog, so sorry about all the collages- click on any to make them bigger OR the entire album can be found here:

California Trip 2010

DAY ONE

We left bright and early to Vegas.
My car reached 100,000 miles!

We went to dinner at a place called Dick's in the Excalibur
Our waiter yelled at us a lot, hit on my mom, gave my boys giant pitchers of Mountain Dew, and kept calling Tyler gay- kinda funny.... kinda lame, ha ha

We went to the pool and it was so nice and HOT ! Just what we needed....

We walked on the strip for a bit and Max got to meet Freddy Krueger! (Linds and Chase didn't have Marley- she came later with Nick and Steph- so they partied hard and passed out at 4pm, ha ha ha) The rest of us went to bed at 8pm- man we are getting old!

DAY TWO
We woke up early and had breakfast on the strip,
then headed out to Newport Beach, CA !

We made it!
And we went straight out to our mini beach in the harbor.
Jacky was loving it:

Nellie came out to play in the sand, and Max was going crazy in the water!

Our beautiful views from the front deck of our beach house, awesome!!

DAY THREE
This bed was one of my favorite parts. It was like sleeping on a cloud, listening to the sounds of the ocean...

We walked out to the real beach, just 2 blocks away. It was VERY windy that day!

Max is such a beach babe!!

Playing in the water

We walked down to Linds and Chase's place (about 2 miles down) and the wind was crazy!! The waves were HUGE!!! Park was riding the waves, but I couldn't- the ocean was sucking me under

We all walked back to our place- it was nice and calm on the harbor side. I love this pic of the men chilling in front of our beach house.

Marley finally got there!
The boys were so happy to play in the sand with her

DAY FOUR
The parents all went to Catalina Island and the kids went to Universal Studios

We saw Spongebob right away and Jacky started screaming!
He was so excited and wouldn't let go of his hand.
Spongebob left and Jack was crying for him, it was so sweet!

Our HERO !
HOMER SIMPSON

We were in heaven in all this Simpson's stuff, oh man... The ride was so cool- Max was laughing hysterically the whole time- I wish I had gotten it on video!

Mummy ride- awesome, but way too short. Jurassic Park ride- my favorite! I love taking Max on all the big rides. We attempted to take the kids thru the scary movie walk-thru, made it about 2 minutes before Max, Jack, and Marley were crying, ha ha woops...

This may be the greatest picture ever taken

The studio tour has gotten sooooo boring since King Kong burned down, honestly who cares about seeing the Desperate Housewives set? NOT ME.
But Jaws was still cool....

DAY FIVE
We saw a seal on the pier!

And, we saw Dolphins in the waves!
They were so close to us- it was amazing

Ah, a much needed beach day.
I LOVE this pic of Park and his fam- so sweet!

It was hot, we had yummy drinks, LOVELY!

Mars- what a babe

DAY SIX
DISNEYLAND !
Soooo happy that we waited in line for Mickey,
the boys were so happy to see him!
Jack was laughing and saying "Mickey Mouse!"

Jack AND Grama Mary got to go on the Matterhorn,
both were scared but only one of them screamed- guess who it was? ha ha !
Pirates is my favorite- especially with the new addition of Johnny Depp!

Max got to drive the jeep in Indiana Jones, he kept saying "Did I drive good?"

I LOVE both of their faces in these pics.
Max looks so satisfied and happy,
and Jack is just crazy :)

We stopped for ice cream- a much needed rest.
It was hot and our feet were aching!

Matty's favorite ride- Nemo!
WOW, that ride was so cool.
We had so much fun and can't wait to go back!!!

DAY SEVEN
Lunch and shopping on the pier-
have you ever seen anyone so happy to be eating a burger?
hee hee

Another beach day with Sammi and JM

It was cloudy, but that didn't stop us from wave surfing- the waves were perfect!
Max was so brave, the waves would engulf him and he'd run back for more!

Nellie wave surfed too!
If only the water was warmer...

We had sushi at the restaurant on the end of the pier,
It was BEAUTIFUL

Here are my brothers being twins, with the Tyler face then the Parker face.
hahaha that entertained me

DAY EIGHT
We got up, cleaned up, and left by 9:30am,
stopped at Best Buy for Parker and got on the road at about 10:15am,
15 minutes later, about 10 miles up the road from us, a tanker trucker flipped over and exploded. The freeway closed and were stuck on highway 91 for 2 hours.
We were forced to go back the same direction and EVERY freeway leading to Vegas was a parking lot. It took us 11.5 hours to get from Anaheim to Vegas (a 4 hour trip)
OH MAN, it totally ruined our pool day and we went straight to bed that night.

2 good things:
1. If we hadn't stopped at Best Buy- we could've been AT the explosion. That is scarier than traffic.
2. We got to witness a man stop his car in the middle lane of traffic, drop his pants down to his knees, and pee all over the road- it was the funniest (and weirdest) thing I have ever seen! ha ha

Here is a picture of the tanker truck...

DAY NINE
We got up and headed over to Fremont Street for breakfast,
what a cool, whitetrashy place! We loved it!
They had a freaking LOBSTER claw machine.
You pay $2 and if you catch one, they'll cook it up.
I was so close!

We are happy to be home, but sad to be so far from the beach!
Thanks for the AWESOME time everyone,
especially Mom and Tony- Best. Christmas present. Ever.
Love you all!
Can't wait for the cruise next year! :)