CA trip

We had a fantastic trip out to Southern CA. We had nice weather (at least 70 every day with no rain), fun things to do every day, and spent a lot of time outdoors and with my family. We also ran Izzy ragged so she was exhausted every night as we put her to bed (which made bedtime REALLY easy). :-)

FRIDAY

Friday afternoon's flight out to CA wasn't terrible. It was Wes' first flight and he would randomly get loud and annoyed that he was stuck in a car seat, but it wasn't the worst four hours of our lives- or for the other passengers around us. 

Pro tip when flying with an 18 month old- stickers are a big hit! I brought a bunch of stickers and some paper and Wes would tell me which ones he wanted and then would place them on the paper (usually on top of each other in a small section of the paper but who cares!). This kept him busy for 30 minutes!

Sticker fun on the plane

Of course he didn't sleep the entire flight until we landed in CA at 8pm IL time (no nap!) and as a family we didn't eat dinner until 11:30pm IL time (9:30 CA time) after getting into our hotel but we had enough snacks for the kids on the plane to keep them happy.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning we were all still on IL time so we woke up early, had breakfast in the hotel and headed over to Disneyland right when it opened at 8am. We had a slight hiccup with our free tickets which got worked out quickly and we rented a stroller for Wes. We had absolutely NO plan and no FastPass because I had no idea what I was doing, so we just winged the day. In hindsight, we could have planned out the day a little better, but oh well.

First ride for the kids was the carousel. 

Then Izzy and I headed over to meet some princesses since that was the number one thing to do on her list. Before we left she had told us that "the princesses aren't real. They are just people in costume." Damn girl you are only 4! We weren't sure how to respond, so we agreed with her. She still seemed in awe/a little shy with meeting the different characters though.

Showing Snow White the different colors of her dress 

Meeting Tiana (not being a Disney person I had no idea who this was)

Izzy was most excited to meet Ariel

With the princesses checked off the list we did a bunch of rides around the park, some that Wes could go on, some that just CP and Izzy did together. We decided meeting Mickey was a must, so we waited for about 30 minutes to see him. 

Mickey gave Izzy a twirl before this picture- what a pro! After this picture the rest of us got into a family picture with Mickey and predictably, Wes started crying and grabbed onto me so we have another Santa-like picture. LOL

As Wes took a short afternoon nap, Izzy and CP went on a real rollercoaster and Izzy LOVED it. I think that she is hooked!

Showing off her new ears and her fun popcorn holder

Tired Wes with his new ears

My one complaint about Disney is that we would see a character, get in line to get a picture/have Izzy say hi and they would take one picture and then say they needed to get somewhere or their handler would whisk them off.

SUNDAY

We packed up and headed out to Palm Springs. The afternoon was mostly spent watching CP's Patriots beat the Jaguars and then my EAGLES beat the Vikings for a Superbowl spot. That's right, this Sunday my team and CP's team are going to vie to be the winner of the Superbowl!! We did have a few minutes during CP's halftime to have some fun in the pool.

MONDAY

We met up with my parents to go to The Living Desert Zoo. 

Izzy liked wearing her Mickey ears everywhere

The zoo has trained three female cheetahs to run from one side of their enclosure to another. That was pretty cool to watch a cheetah run- even though it was more like a jog to them.

The three cheetahs check out the mountains after their run

After some quiet time for the kids we went to the pool late afternoon. It was a little cold, but the kids didn't care.

TUESDAY

My sister and her husband arrived the night before and we decided to head our first hike- Tahquitz Canyon. The hike does cost money, but the money goes towards conservation of the area so we were willing to pay. 

The 1.8 mile loop hike gains 350 feet in elevation and ends in a 60 ft waterfall. CP and I went in the water pooling below the waterfall and it's freezing! Izzy did the whole hike by herself which was quite impressive, but towards the end was starting to melt down because she needed lunch. My BIL thought he had found a lunch place but took us to the wrong one....which ended up at a bar with this sign in the ladies restroom. 

CLASSY

We ended up eating outside and it worked out, but wow. Super happy that Izzy can't read yet. :-/

More swimming in the afternoon as CP and I took turns taking Izzy down the water slide (which she loved!).

WEDNESDAY

We headed to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The tram cars are the largest rotating cars in the world and bring you up to 8500 feet above sea level. 

View from the tram car on the way up to the top

After getting to the top we decided to do a hike in the San Jacinto State Park. We were a little short on time before the kids got crazy hungry and my parents decided not to join us so we walked out to the first notch and then walked back. Next time maybe we will do lunch first and then hike.

Cool downed trees on the way to the notch

HUGE trees along the path

Izzy hanging out on a fallen tree

View from the first notch down to Palm Springs

Queen Izzy at 8500 feet

Afterwards we sat down to a nice lunch at the top and then a fun afternoon of swimming.

That night my mom watched the kids while CP and I got to go out for a nice, kid-free Mediterranean dinner at Catalan.

THURSDAY

My family was busy with other things so we headed to the Coachella Valley Nature Preserve. It is a really cool area with tons of animals and hiking trails. We were steered towards a hike out to a really cool oasis.

Sometimes it is hard to get a picture of these two

The loop trail led us to an oasis in the middle of the desert. The oasis formed due to water coming up to the surface from the San Andreas Fault. This picture was taken looking up at really ridiculously large palm trees. 

That afternoon CP hung out with the kids while they took naps and I had a wonderfully relaxing facial and pedicure with my mom.

FRIDAY

On our last day in CA the whole family decided to go to Joshua Tree National Park. We came into the park from the southern side since only CP and I had been there before and the landscape is quite different. In the southern section it is all cholla cacti, not joshua trees.

CP decided to buy Frozen band-aids the day before so Izzy suddenly had lots of "owies"

Cholla cacti

Wes among the cholla cacti

Izzy in the cholla garden

We ended up getting out of the car a bunch to do some short hikes.

Skull rock

For our long(er) hike, we did the Barker Dam hike towards the northern section of the park.

Roots of a joshua tree

After the hike we headed out of the park to make a quick stop at the visitor's center to buy some tshirts and two stuffed animals for the kids (gotta support the parks!) before finally getting to lunch by 2pm. Amazingly the kids were doing awesome because we had lots of different snacks throughout the day. Poor Wes was pretty exhausted and looked like he was going to fall asleep during lunch with his new stuffed animal, Owl (a word he can now say!).

SATURDAY
Due to a breakfast that took too long for no apparent reason, we had to rush to the airport to make it on our flight in time. I sat next to Wes and he was easier this time around- I even got a one hour break when he napped! He even got compliments from passengers in our area! We made it home without an issue and tried to lay low on Sunday to get ready for the workweek.

It was an awesome trip full of beautiful landscapes, not too many meltdowns, and good times with my family. It truly is nice going on vacation with grandparents because we didn't have to parent as much. :-) I'm looking forward to our next vacation....whenever that is.