Ok, so after a week of Dan being out of town and my life feeling like it was going to end, I finally can breathe for a minute and blog. I would love to go into detail about my week from hell, but I've talked and cried about it so much over the past few days, I don't want to think about it anymore. So on to blogging my fabulous trip to California that happened on October 9th-12th. It was a quick trip, but very fun. My only brother, Matt and my sissy-in-law, Lauren had their first baby, Mattison, on August 26th. They decided to bless her on October 12th. We would have loved to have been able to take the whole fam, but with money being tight for everyone, we decided on a sisters/parents trip. So my parents, Laurel, Missy, Karen, Heidi and I headed to California in one mini-van (mine) and met Jenny (who lives in Arizona) there. (Amy is still on her mission in Texas, but we brought her head along). The drive there was fun and didn't feel like it took very long. Now of course the Skousen's are not going to drive all the way to California and not visit their second home. So of course, we planned one day at Disneyland. On Friday, we woke up bright and early and arrived at The Happiest Place on Earth at 7:30 am where we met Matt, Lauren and little Mattison. It was out first time meeting her. She is a doll! The park opened at 8:00 am and we swiftly walked to Fantasyland. Of course we didn't have any kids with us, but if you know us, you'd know that doesn't matter. We still go to Fantasyland. I took a lot of pictures inside the "Dark Rides" (ie Snow White, Peter Pan) which was really funny because most of the time my fam didn't know I was taking a pic of them so they turned out pretty funny looking. We rode pretty much every ride we wanted to. In the afternoon, we headed over to California Adventure so we could ride a few of our favorite rides over there, but everything was an hour wait and all the Fast Passes were already sold out for the day. So we ate lunch and hung out for a while anyway. The park closed at midnight and Main Street was open until 1:00 am. Of course we weren't going to waste one second by leaving early. So we hung around Main Street until after 1:00, waiting for everyone else to leave so we could be the last ones out of Disneyland. We finally were and it was a happy day. We were in Disneyland for 18 hours straight and it was lovely!
On Saturday we slept in a bit and then headed to Lauren's parent's house to meet up with them for lunch. We went to a fun burger joint called Legend's and some weird, psycho guy that was eating at the counter, kept turning music on at the Jukebox and dancing. It was hysterical! After relaxing at Lauren's parents for a few hours, we headed to a different hotel that was closer to Matt and Lauren's then went to find a place to eat dinner for Karen's 32nd birthday. It was getting late and we were hungry and haggy. So after getting raged at The Olive Garden, we went across the street to a Soup and Salad place. After we all ate, we were much happier.
On Sunday, we went to Matt and Lauren's church for the blessing. Matt did a great job and Mattison looked beautiful. We ate delicious food at Lauren's grandma's afterwards then we were on our way home. We got home in the middle of the night so we were pretty tired. It really was a fun trip and great time was had by all! Some of the highlights of the trip were:
Getting to see Matt and Lauren
Getting to meet Mattison Brooke for the first time
Mom sitting in the back seat of the van, holding the handles, yelling "WEEEEE!" Now you all know where I get my gayness from.
Laurel wearing her maternity pants backwards on accident.
Me and dad riding in wheelchairs after the park closed. Then I tried to convince the candy store workers (while sitting in a wheelchair) to let me into the park the next day for free so I could buy caramel apples for my kids, which they were out of. It was all my kids wanted me to bring back. Then I accidentally stood up out of the wheelchair to see the cast members name tag, then Karen yells "It's a miracle!" I hurriedly sat back down so they wouldn't know I really could walk, but they knew. Then I tried to steal the Toffee I was holding, while trying to roll out of the store in the wheelchair. Ok, I wasn't going to really steal it, but it was dang funny.
Dad being left off Space Mountain because they didn't allow us enough to sit down and buckle up. He went to get on and the gate closed on him. We started to ride off and we turned around and Dad was standing there with his arms up, like "What the H?" So he rode alone. Then they gave us passes to get back on without waiting in line. The picture of Dad by himself on the ride is dang funny!
On the drive home, Karen had unbuttoned her pants to be more comfortable since she's prego. We stopped at a gas station and as she was getting out, she hit her knee on the side of the van and came spilling out of the van, while her pants fell down. A man was standing there filling up his car with gas. Needless to say we pretty much peed our pants!
The man who saw Karen fall out of the van
Karen's injured knee
While relaxing over at California Adventure, some guy was just sitting in the middle of a bench, while we were all trying to cram on a separate bench. My mom nicely asked the guy if he could scoot over so she and Heidi could sit on the bench. He looked at her like he was stoned and ignored her. We almost peed our pants from laughing. So Karen took this picture so we could remember it.
Enjoy more pics here on the slideshow!
