Last Day in California

The day after CA Adventure we drove down to San Diego again to spend one last day with my parents and sister.

On our drive back down South to San Diego we took our time and stopped at Newport Beach. I do like walking on the beach ... it's so pretty isn't it? Of course, Riley had fun chasing after seagulls.

I love this picture of Riley. He looks stocky and is still very innocent. Plus, he's such a sweet boy. I am trying to cherish these moments because time goes by so fast and soon enough he'll be in those challenging hard teenage years (for the three of us).

The entire Pacific coast is lovely. I wish I could travel down it more often.

We continued driving down Hwy 1 and stopped at Scoop Deck Ice Cream in Dana Point. Such a relaxing outdoor area overlooking the marina.

Whenever we're back in San Diego we try to eat at our favorite places. I was in the mood for seafood so we stopped at Rockin' Baja Lobster in Old Town for an early dinner.

I just LOVE crab. The seasoning they sprinkle on the crab and shrimp is so good. I don't like to dip my crab in butter. I make my own concoction of lime juice, salt and tapatio. I dip my crab in that and it's so delicious! Whenever we go out for seafood and I get crab Jacob knows that it'll take me at least an hour to finish my food. I enjoy cracking the shell and savoring the yummy crab meat. Jacob doesn't like to work for his food, lol. Obviously I don't mind it.

We finally arrived at my parent's and relaxed for the remainder of the evening. The following morning my sister took us all out for breakfast. Our flight was the following afternoon so we collected our things at my parents, said our goodbye's and headed North.

On our drive up to L.A. we stopped at the Spectrum in Irvine and walked around. The weather was warm and windy ... I kinda liked it. I didn't mind it since we don't have this type of weather in the PNW.

We got to our hotel by late afternoon. We ordered food at the hotel's restaurant ... watched a bit of basketball then we went up to our room.
I'm not a big fan of staying at big hotels. I prefer low key hotels where you can park your car in front of your room. Walking through the lobby, waiting for elevators, walking down long hallways and having no fresh air can be such a pain especially when you have kids with you. Seems so robotic and hectic. I don't like haste, I don't like fancy, and I don't like chaos.

I wasn't too thrilled about getting back on a plane. I said my prayers and off we went. So nerve-wracking! Jacob and Riley don't mind flying.

It's been so long since this trip that I don't remember what volcano this is and I didn't write it down on my travel journal. But it looks cool, lol.

I do know where this is, it's Tacoma.

You bet I was happy once we landed and thanked God for His protection. I couldn't wait to get home, to be around my favorite things, Sophie and of course seeing my two oldest kids. They are so used to us being home and home cooked meals that when we go on road trips/travel they end up missing us a lot. Sometimes they do cook for themselves but they also get a lot of take out. So once we're home they're craving our food. It's nice to know they miss us and our home cooking.

California Adventure

The following day we went to California Adventure. It was my second time visiting but Jacob's and Riley's first time. We were looking forward to the Cars ride, very exciting!

I don't remember much from my first visit to CA Adventure which was many years ago. This visit felt like my first time and it was pretty cool walking around taking in everything.

The Halloween decorations were neat ...

.... and it was especially awesome to see buildings decorated as Cars, the movie. Here is where they sold the pumpkin churros with pumpkin flavored sprinkles. We couldn't finish them. The pumpkin flavor was very overwhelming. We felt bad for throwing half of our churros away. We should have just bought one and shared it.

Isn't this neat? It made you feel like you were in the real movie set, if it was a real set.

We walked around a little. All the decorations and the layout is so neat.

Jacob and I got chinese food ... Riley got a huge sourdough mac n cheese bowl. His dad helped him finish it.

As you can imagine the Cars ride line was SO long, over an hour wait. They even discouraged us from standing in line until a later time but we didn't mind.

Riley kept himself busy. I was admiring the decorative details.

Finally our turn!

I sat on the driver's seat and we purposely sat Riley on the edge so he could enjoy the ride even more.

Radiator Springs

At one point the racer goes super fast ... that was so fun! Riley was giggling.

 Inside the Little Mermaid ride.

We got on Soaring Around the World ride and although it was pretty cool at times I had to close my eyes. You sit down on a long row where your feet dangle, put on a seat belt, then your row raises for I don't know how high but it makes you feel like you're very high up. The screen is all around and you get an eagle eyes view, that at times would cause me to get anxiety. That is when I had to close my eyes. I don't think I would want to get on it again.

We walked over to Plaza de la Familia. We like the movie Coco so it was pretty neat seeing things from the movie.

Jacob and Riley got on the big ferris wheel. I didn't want to. It's just not my thing. Jacob said it was nervewracking because the baskets they were riding on would swing outward whenever the ferris wheel would be in motion.

We definitely want to come back and spend more time at CA Adventure. Hopefully whenever we visit again it wont rain because there was a water ride that seemed fun that we would like to go on.

The last two days had definitely been a lot of fun but my feet were super achy from walking too much and standing for way too long.

Disneyland 2018

Forgot to add this picture to the last post.
After we left Coronado we stopped by our favorite Greek food place and got it to go. We had our lunch at Balboa park where they had this cute Fall display.
Riley looks so big in this picture.

It's always exciting, fun and nostalgic to visit Disneyland. At first Riley wasn't too thrilled about standing in long lines. This was Riley's 2nd time at Disneyland but we were reminding him of how things work and what we expected of him, hence the pouty look on his face. Relieved to say that he resigned about the long lines after the first ride.

After taking pictures at the entrance the next thing we always do is head over to the Indiana Jones ride then to New Orleans Square . A total must for me, after that it doesn't matter to me what we do next.

I was excited for Riley because now he was tall enough to get on all the rides. I was laughing hard whenever he would get scared as we made our way towards the ride. In this particular area you feel a quick air gust resembling arrows being shot from different directions. The noise it made had Riley looking concerned. The look on his face is so funny.
He was scared so he had his eyes closed almost the entire ride. I told him he missed out on seeing a lot of cool stuff. What a wasted experience!

This is my favorite ride at Disneyland. Has been since I was a kid. I especially remember the smell, kinda like mold out in nature.

Next, the Haunted Mansion. Riley was a bit apprehensive about this one too but excited. He enjoyed himself.

We had never tried beignets before so we bought a couple. If it wasn't for the powdered sugar they definitely wouldn't taste good. We didn't think it was anything extraordinary.

I should have taken a picture of our lunch. We ate at the restaurant that's right next to the Haunted Mansion. We got an oven roasted chicken leg quarter with mash potatoes, gravy and green beans and we couldn't believe how delicious it was. We were very surprised because at most theme parks the food isn't really that good but this was. We'll definitely eat at this place again.

We walked quite a bit, checked out several stores before we got on any more rides. When our food settled we headed over to Frontierland to get on Thunder Mountain.

It is so weird, whenever I'm out anywhere I often come across the numbers 1012 or just 12. 1012 is my birthday. Whether I glance at the clock or an address on a building or whatever I often see these numbers. Of course it means something special to me because of my birthday but other than that I don't know if it means anything more.
When it was finally our turn I was told to stand on number 12. I smiled and said to myself "naturally". Weird right?

Riley loves roller coasters ... has ever since he was like three years old.

Small World

Watching the parade. It's always super fun seeing Woody and Buzz. They are our family's favorite!!!

We didn't get on Space Mountain. Star Wars hadn't been built yet and the Matterhorn was closed for renovations. The last ride we got on was Splash Mountain. I don't usually get on this ride mainly because I don't want to walk around wet. But, I decided to get on it this time.

While we waited in line it began to lightly sprinkle.

We were smiling because we knew that the big drop was coming up. That nervous feeling one gets is no joke.

I got soaked!! My pants were drenched. I had to tie my sweater around my waste because I didn't want my undies to show through. I was wearing light pink linen capris. We all got super wet. The boys tennis shoes had water in them. Good thing I wore my Mayari Birkenstocks so my feet weren't uncomfortable.

Here's the picture from the ride. LOL! Jacob's and Riley's face is hilarious!!!

We were headed out of the park when the rain began to pick up. We could hear thunder.

Such cute Halloween decorations.
I love seeing decorations. I love it when people decorate for every American holiday. It's tradition and it's a fun thing to do. Even when my kids are out of the house I will still decorate my home. Holidays are a good way to have something to look forward to in the midst of trials and break the monotony of life plus it brings joy to others. And who says you gotta stop decorating just because you're grown. It's healthy and fun to be a kid at heart.

We had a lot of fun at Disneyland.

As we were on our way to take the tram back to our parking lot we were told that they had closed the trams down due to the thunderstorm. We were "are you kidding me?!!" It was about a twenty minute walk in the rain plus we were already soaking wet from the ride so we were freezing our buns off. It was such a crazy experience for sure!

You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or 

when. You can only decide how you are going to live. Now.