California: Where All Your Wildest Dreams Come True

The first leg of our trip west was to my parents' house in California.  All of my siblings were there and we had a blast.  I have been debating about breaking up the posts or just doing a big one and my laziness won out, so I am just doing one.  But it's okay, because I realized that our time in California can be summed up with the above theme: all our wildest dreams came true on this vacation!  I.e.-

Sand!  As far as the eye can see!

 Yum.

 

Not to mention the ocean- home of scary sea creatures such as sharks, whales, jellyfish, and let's not forget sarcastic fringeheads.  That is pretty cool stuff in the eyes of a 3 year old boy.

 One of those frozen yogurt places where you can put whatever you want in your cup?

An Angels baseball game

 In other words for Marissa- an excuse to stay up way past bedtime, eat treats, and bounce like crazy on mom (my face is probably saying- eek!  is this child ever going to get tired??)

A park with a lake and ducks within walking distance from home

And a theme park with a whole big section with rides just for us.  It was so fun to watch Shane at Knotts this year, last year he kind of just tolerated the rides but this year he was loving them.

You can't really see his face here, but he told me that this was his favorite ride

And I loved hearing his belly laughs on this one with his cousins

 

Marissa even got in on the action too

 I think this one was her favorite, you could count on her to ask for more after it was done

All these things were fun but I think we were just as happy to just get to be with some of our favorite people.  Marissa's favorite was Bryce

And let's face it, he may have been mine too so I could have a moment of peace every now and then!

I think he may have liked her a little bit too, though she can get a little close and personal (and slobbery!) at times.  She doesn't settle for cheeks!

She and Grandpa bonded over Cookie monster videos, and of course food

And miracle of all miracles, she would insist that Shannon brush her hair.  I'm trying to figure out a way to get her to my house every morning!

And who isn't in love with Grandma?

We got to meet baby Livvy, and all quickly fell in love

Unfortunately for Liv, Marissa doesn't quite know how to direct all that love yet.  This was a rare instance she was not lovingly patting smacking her. She was like a magnet to her and could not contain herself.

Jamie knew how to win Shane over and casually threw out deadly sea creature references like nobody's business.

And I loved watching him with his cousins

So thank you mom and dad, for making dreams come true!

Of course, this title may not be true for Josh since he had to stay home and work while we went and partied, but he was working the night shift the whole time I was gone so I like to think we gave him the gift of daytime sleep:)  Thanks for letting us go babe:)