A Real Vacation!

So, finally I'm getting to blogging about my first vacation since having kids! At the end of May/beginning of June I went to California, thanks to my bless-ed friend, Lisa! I don't want to embarrass her or test her humility, but I must say that I would've never made it to California in the first place, gotten to eat a thing, enjoy anything I did, or fly back home without her funding it. I'm still working on her thank you card...this is not something you can just whip up on the fly for such a spectacular five days. Anyway, here's some of our fun.

Oh, first let me say that Michael started his job on Wednesday, 5/28 and I left on Thursday, 5/29. THANK YOU, MIKEY! He was amazing to start a new job and take care of the kids while I was gone. And thank you, too, to Danica, Rachel and Chris who took our kids during the day. I didn't worry about them for a second and I just focused on having fun! Yea!

So, our first day we went out to Santa Monica. The one and only reason for that trip was for me to get a haircut. Actually, needing to get a haircut is what starting this whole trip to California thing in the first place. I found out about this lady, Ouidad, who is the so-called expert on curly hair. She has a salon in New York where she charges $250 for a haircut. She developed a technique for cutting curly hair that you have to be certified in by spending two weeks with her (I think I'm getting these details right!). She has written books and has many high-profile clients. Anyway, there are only about 20 stylists in the whole United States who do her "carve & slice" technique, and one of them happens to be in Santa Monica. I made an appointment about a month before my trip and it was hard to get in even then. The lady who cut my hair was not too warm and fuzzy and probably used to pretty rich clients. The technique was super interesting...I had never seen hair cut that way before. I tried to memorize everything about it so I could show my sister (who cuts my hair, though she's not licensed), but it was very complex and I botched up my presentation to her. Anyway, when she was done with me, I couldn't stop staring at myself. My hair looked amazing! I was pretty sure when I walked out of there that I was going to be followed by paparazzi (only half kidding here, people!) and have people wanting to take my picture. I stared at myself in every store window we passed. Ha! It was worth the *#&)*@ amount of money I paid for a haircut. For those of you wondering why someone so very poor would pay *#^)* for a haircut, remember that this is pretty much the only thing I paid for the whole time and I decided that was something I wanted to do for myself with a little bit of tax refund money. Relax! :-)

The rest of the day we spent shopping The Third Street Promenade just down the street. We at yummy food (of course!) at PF Chang's and took a quick trip to the beach.

Just consider this my "before" picture. No, not before the haircut. Before the weight loss! :-)

For those who don't know, Lisa is my longest-running friend. :-) She moved around the corner from me just before 2nd grade started and we have been friends ever since. She moved from New York so she said a lot of words funny. I still tease her to this day. She is always, always laughing. Seriously. However, when we were teenagers, at the height of our hormone crisis, we would order pizza in the wee hours of the night, play sappy love songs on the tape player and cry over the boys we just loved so much and didn't get love back from. Ha!

On day number two, we started the day off just right...with a massage! With all the massages I've had (many of these thanks to Lisa, again!), I've never had one with a heated massage table. Now, that was nice and cozy! Afterwards, we drove to the Redlands temple, which was beautiful. I really enjoyed walking around it and taking in all the gorgeous flowers and Palm Trees! Yes, the palm trees. The only things I really miss about California are my family members who are still there, my friend Lisa, and the palm trees. As gorgeous and green as Oregon is, we will never have palm trees here and that is just a sad state of affairs. Some lovely pictures for you...

After the temple, we went to visit with my Uncle David, who lives in Yucaipa. What a wonderful time we had with this handsome guy! He is one of the most amazing men I know. He is loving and tender and I was brought to tears a few times while I was with him. One of the reasons was just because I love him so much and I miss seeing him more often. They used to live two houses down from Lisa and right around the corner from us growing up. It was great being so close then. Anyway, we talked for a long time, cried a bit, and then he took us out for lunch and frozen yogurt. Yum! After that, we stopped at his chiropractic office and he gave me an adjustment. Aaahhh... I was reminded about how important regular chiropractic adjustments are and have vowed to get the whole family in to the chiropractor more often. Thank you, my handsome, wonderful Uncle David, for the wonderful visit we had with you! I love you!

After a yummy dinner with Lisa's parents at their house, we set out for our hotel across the street from Disneyland. No, I could not go to California without going to The Happiest Place on Earth. It always was when I was growing up, and it still is. Though DisneyWorld also fits in that category. :-) We got to spend two days there, though it wasn't enough. One more day and I could've done all that I wanted to...although my feet would've never held out that long. As it was, I was limping through the airport the day I left. Ha! I loved getting to finally see California Adventure, which was under construction the last time I was there. I loved the California Screamin' roller coaster! We got to go on all of our favorites plenty of times, so that was nice. And we got to see Fantasmic!, which I just love. Here are a few pics from Disneyland.

Every time we're at Disneyland together, either I get a picture of her in her Autopia car or she gets a picture of me. Here I am.



Our first day of junior high (back in the day before they started making them "middle schools"!), we wore the same outfit that we had gotten from Miller's Outpost. A striped shirt with a zipper (red and white for me, blue and white for her) with coordinating shorts. We end up getting the same things a lot of times when we're together. Here we are in our twinner visors, courtesy of Lisa, of course!

Just a beautiful sight!

With our bug eyes after the 3D It's Tough To Be a Bug! show. Love that one. The bees stinging you in the back get me every time!

Gotta love Minnie! She's always so stylin'. It was a great trip. Great to relax after a year of lots and lots and lots of work, almost no breaks, and mothering, mothering, mothering. I got home and the kids were great. We all appreciated each other much more...for the first two days at least!