California Dreamin'

That was a pretty cliche' title, but I'm not really feeling the creative vibe right now... We got back from California about a week ago. It was great. We were so sad to miss our Newport vacation last year since Mimi and Ed were on their mission. But we totally made up for it this year!So, here is the view of the backseat--on the way to the kennel to drop off Daisy! And then we were off...

On the way down, we stopped in Parowan to see the "Petroglyphs" which is really cool Native American grafitti drawn on a rock in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how old it is. If someone really wants to know, I'll do the research. Or ask Dave.

Then we were back in the car and headed for Primm, Nevada. For those of you who are un-acquained with this little town, it is about an hour past Vegas and has casinos, shopping, etc. But the very awesomest thing it has is Buffalo Bills where we stayed. Here is a picture I got off of the internet. I couldn't get a very good one without standing on the freeway.

The rollercoaster is called the "Desperado" and here's a little quote from Wiki-pedia:

"According to the roller coaster database, Desperado is one of the tallest roller coasters in the world with a 70-degree, 225 foot drop; a 209 foot lift hill; and top speeds around 80 mph. On the 2 minute, 43 second ride, riders will experience almost 4 Gs.[1] A portion of the ride runs through the interior of the casino. The coaster was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's tallest roller coaster in 1996."

So, who would be crazy enough to ride such a death-trap? Why, Ben, Allison and Me, of course!We got up the next day and finished our drive. We were so excited to see Dave, Jana and Zola (from Pennsylvania) and Marshal (from Chicago). It was a bummer that Lindsey couldn't come. She just started a new job and couldn't get time off for sheer awesomeness, yet. These are pics of my 2 brothers at the beach. Oh and Jana and Zola are the beach babes.

We tried something new this year and visited the "Wild Animal Park" which isn't actually in San Diego like I had thought. Thanks to Dave's friend, Jeff for telling us how to get there. Oh, my gosh, some monkeys escaped! The guy with the map is my dad. Or in this case, our fearless leader directing the safari.We had an actual "wild animal encounter" when James got pooped on by a bird at lunch. Do you know what that white stuff is in bird poo? More bird poo.

We had a super-fun time at Disneyland. It wasn't too hot or too crowded. Everything was perfect.We ate fried chicken at Ed's favorite Disney Restaurant-- The Plaza.

While James and Ben went to ride some rollercoasters with Frank, Joey and Andrew played in the Bugs' Life fountains. This picture of Joey cracks me up. You just know it ended badly. I don't know if you can tell or not from these pictures, but everything in this part of the park is HUGE, so you are the bugs when you play there. That thing leaking water on Andrew is like a huge hose with a leak in it. I love that about Disneyland. It is so much fun even for grown-ups to look around at all the details they put into everything.

Andrew became Indiana Jones at Disneyland. I hope he never gets too big to pretend to be living some kind of adventure all the time. It is so funny. The most awesome thing that happened for him, was when we were in the store buying all that gear, "Indiana Jones" came running in the store chased by a guy in a turban. He waved at Andrew and told the cashier that he'd be back later for provisions. Andrew was so excited. He kept saying, "I saw the real Inny-anna Jones, and he's really real!" Thank-you, Disneyland!

Joey was a big fan of the carousel.

Until it was time to get off!

By the end of the day, the 2 little boys were wasted!

But that's not all, don't forget the beach!!

The Guys all worked really hard on this enormous sandcastle that they named "The Shire." They dug moats and fortified the walls around it,

But, it wasn't enough.

Here are just some random pictures:

We ate at Ruby's Diner--Mmmmm...

On the last night there, Dave made his world-famous crepes! For those of you who don't know, Dave served a mission for our church in Southern France and this is just one of the many blessings he brought home! Crepe-expertise. Seriously, I know lots of people think that they make good crepes. They are probably fine, but I'll tell you right now that nothing compares to these babies. If you don't believe me, next time you're in Pennsylvania, look up Dave and he'll school you in what crepes should taste like.

This is just one of those pictures that doesn't need an explanation.

On the way home, we stopped in Cedar City to see the new statue of Henry Lunt (my great-great-Grandpa). Ok, so I'd been in the car for something like 10 hours by this time.

I was going to put a cute picture of the backseat when we got home to wrap up this post, but to tell the truth, we were pretty tired, a little sick of eachother, and the back of the van looked like a bomb went off. Thanks Mimi and Ed and my brothers and sisters and their families (we missed Richard and Lindsey) for making this trip one for the record books. We loved it!