Watching from a distance

I have been eagerly anticipating the Royal Wedding since the engagement was announced. I'm not really a Royal Watcher, but I do love a good wedding. Plus the world has been so crazy haywire lately, it's been a nice distraction from all the war, pestilence and calamities. Something to look forward to.

I had real conundrum deciding how to watch this splendid spectacle. I really wanted to stay up and watch it live the middle of the night because I was so excited to see the dress, but I'm not in my twenties anymore and there are massive consequences to staying up that late, so I TIVO'd and watched it in the morning with my SIL Erika and her daughter.

Me and my girls decided to dress up in our finery to watch, because hey...it's a Royal Wedding, why not wear my wedding dress.
Seemed like the most appropriate thing to sport. I was surprised at how many in attendance at the wedding seemed under dressed, especially the Prime Minister's wife who was not ever wearing a traditional English head piece.
Boo!...Hiss! Who do you think you are not wearing a hat!

The Beckhams however, did not disappoint. Did you see the Beckhams.
They looked amazing. Well at least David did. We have to give Victoria a break because she's like 35 weeks pregnant, plus did you see those heals? She's no quitter.

Anyway...it was splendid and fabulous. When we finally saw Kate, she was perfect. Her sister was also radiant. I love that they are commoners with parents who are self made millionaires. I bet they never expected one of their children to be the future Queen of England.

I love this photo of her and her sister. Isn't this just the most special wedding picture you've ever seen?

The music as she arrived at the church was simply overwhelming. I was crying as she started down the isle with her father. I was actually sitting in my own living room in my 7-year-old wedding dress with my two kids watching a wedding that happened 12 hours ago, crying. The crying thing is genetic though. I can't help it.

Alyssa and Alayna were surprisingly disinterested it the whole pomp and ceremony. They did want to see Kate in her dress, but the rest was boring to them. Sunny just wanted me to hold her, which I was able to do despite my disabilities in mobility in my dress.
They will remember this though...At least Alyssa will. She will remember that she saw this and that we made a big deal of it. Hopefully she'll tell her kids about this. Maybe she'll tell them as her and her daughters are watching the wedding of William and Kate's first born.

The wedding was beautiful and perfect. It was worth all the anticipation. The pictures and videos have so many Cinderella undertones. I was surprised at how real-life fairy tale this was. I hope they truly will live happily ever after. William certainly deserves a happy ending.

Day five, a breath of fresh air

March 2, 2011
The last several days, although packed with what we love, were extremely exhausting. So today, we decided to take the day off theme parking and do other California things, namely the beach.

So after sleeping in we packed up and headed out to the coast. Before we hopped into the van, I noticed my favorite flower, so I paused to take my picture with it.
This is a called a Bird of Paradise flower. The first time I ever really noticed one was when I was in paradise for the first time. Aren’t they a fascinating flower. I mean really. Look at this thing. How is it possible that something just grows like this? If this doesn’t prove to you that there is a higher power controlling the universe, then I don’t know what you’re looking for. This looks like the winning project in some sort of heavenly Origami class. The prize for the best project is to have your creation featured in tropical places on earth.

I noticed a big patch of Bird of Paradise flowers as we were driving so I made him pull over so I could get a photo.
We were on vacation, so we had time to do that. I love vacations.

Next we stopped in at our FAVORITE grocery store in the whole wide world, Trader Joes. We bought our nature snacks and headed on our way to our favorite restaurant in the whole wide world, Wahoo’s!

Steve used to live by the original Wahoo’s in Costa Mesa. Since its inception, many people have decided it is their favorite too and it has expanded exponentially. Unfortunately, there are no locations in Utah. Yet. So whenever we are in California we make it a point to eat there several times. Their fish tacos are fantastic. I even tried one once. The thing I really love is the #10 pork plate. Here is a picture of it.
Here is a picture of Steve eating his.
I had to take this picture three times to get him to actually smile. You'd think he weren't happy here, but believe me he was. We are both in heaven here. The girls love it too. They actually love the fish.

Then we finally found our way to the sea. It was not warm by the sea. We knew it wouldn’t be but it still somehow was disappointingly cold. The kids had fun anyway. It is always so surprising to find the water after living in a land locked state my whole life. I always love to see the ocean, I never get over it.


Steve was in full Papa Bear mode trying to keep the kids out of the water, warm and safe. He did a fantastic job too, everyone stayed dry for the most part.

We did remove Sunny’s pants as a preemptive strike. She's very short. Didn't stand a chance against the water.

My brother’s little boy Hayden was not as lucky. It was his first time seeing the ocean in his 4 year old life. He ran straight for the water and straight into it. A wave came in and washed him off his feet immediately. He didn’t seem to care. He was in heaven. It was really fun to watch him and all the kids play a frolic in the cold ocean.

Alyssa was so cute playing in the sand so I took her picture.
I swear I did not write this. What…I don’t watch 90210….. It truly was written before I got here.

Birds of Paradise at the beach.
They seemed to be the theme for the day.

After we had all we could handle on the sand we walked up on the Balboa Pier.
What a fantastic view. All we think of when we are here however are scenes from Arrested Development one of the best shows on television that got cancelled way too soon. There is always money in the banana stand.
This very pier is where the banana stand would have stood.

Steve has obviously converted our whole family to sunglass wearing.
Interestingly, Sunny is the most committed person in our family to wearing Sunglasses. I think she thinks its a status symbol. This is one of my favorite family pictures of all time.

While on the pier the kids had the opportunity to talk to some fishermen.
They also saw what was in their buckets.
They were pretty grossed out. So was I. Fish belong in the water. Am I right? Or am I right?

After having enough sea breeze in our faces, we took refuge back in the van.
It was such a relief to get back to the car where it was warm, dry and sand free. I was greatly relieved. We also broke out the nature snacks we bought at Trader Joes.

We have a few things there we LOVE and always buy, but this was a new one. I just had to buy it although when it came right down to it I felt rather conflicted about eating it. We have a pet hibiscus at home and I felt like I was eating my pet. That would be hard for anyone right?


It took me a minute, but I got over it and ate some. Delicious. Who knew a dried flower could taste so good. It tasted very similar to dried cranberries.

After some snackage, we headed back to the Hotel. When we got there we walked in the door and crashed on the bed.
Literally. We crashed, the whole family on the bed. It was really fun to have time to snuggle together for 20 minutes. One of my most favorite and best moments of the trip.

We were really out of energy, so it was good that we didn’t have that much planned for the rest of the night. Well, most of us didn’t. I had planned to go swimming with my friends Skyler and Elise. They are of course champion triathlon swimmers and agreed to give me some swim tips.

After relaxing for an hour or two we packed it into the van again and Steve dropped my off at Skyler and Elise’s. Elise was kind enough to take me to what I consider my swimming Mecca. It was some kind of complex of four 50 meter pools. It was a HUGE complex.
The Pan Pacific World Champion Swimming races happen here. It was my greatest pleasure to swim there.

We swam in an outdoor pool that was being used half for lap lanes and half by a synchronized swim team. It was one of the coolest athletic moments of my life. Maybe I am easily impressed, but I have never seen a synchronized swim team with my own eyes, let alone swam next to one where I could hear their music and coaches screaming at them all while under the water.

It was one of the most entertaining swims I have ever had.

As if the swim team wasn’t enough, I was there with Elise and Skyler in an outdoor pool in February! I was also swimming at sea level. Let me tell you, there is a HUGE difference between swimming at sea level and where I normally swim at about 5000 feet. Breathing which takes a great deal of focus and concentration, was no big deal. I didn’t really feel like I needed all that much air. I wasn’t thinking about breathing at all really. Not like I normally do.

Skyler who was watching my technique and correcting it, gave me several challenges, one of which was to swim across the pool without breathing. I had never done this before I have attempted it a few times but never made it much more than half way across the pool. I took the challenge and succeeded with enough breath to let out a great big “BooYah,” when I got to the other side of the pool. I was surprised and shocked. Looking back I credit that to being at sea level. Swimming at a lower elevation after training at a higher one must give you an incredible performance boost.

Anyway, it was so fun to have that experience. To swim with amazing swimmers at an amazing swimming complex was totally memorable. I hope to do it again next time I’m in California in the winter (or summer or spring or fall).

That was the end to a very good relaxing vacation day in California.

Our California Adventures

March 1, 2011 After a good night’s sleep we packed it all up and did it again only this time we did it California Adventure style. My brother Ryan’s family made it to town and joined us for the day’s activities. It was so fun to have my cute nephew Hayden and his pip squeek of a baby sister with us. The more kids the merrier, that's my DL philosophy. First on the agenda was Sorin’ over California so we popped by for a fast pass and went and rode some fun kiddie rides while we waited for our return time. The kids loved the rocket ships, the swings and the Jelly Fish drop.
We went back over to Sorin’ and Steve took Alyssa for her debut ride now that she achived her goal of becoming 40 inches tall. She had been SO excited to ride this one for months. Her cousin Hayden a year younger than her was not as fortunate with his height so we had to doctor him up a little. At 39.25 inches he wasn’t quite tall enough to make the cut. Fortunately his clever aunt who has spent a lifetime being too short made it work. I took paper towels out of the bathroom folded them up a million times and stuck it inside his socks inside his shoes. Voila, 40 inches! The true test came when they pulled out the measuring stick....and....he passed! So he got to enjoy all the same rides as Alyssa. He did get measured at each and every ride. He also passed each and every time. We had a great time hauling our large group around the park. Here are some highlights. We took turns with the stroller and fast passes. We ate our lunch and did our best to enjoy it even though it was quite breezy. The weather was nearly perfect. Not hot, at times we felt like we wanted a light jacket, but not most of the time. Toy Story Mania. One pair of glasses is never enough. We had a few stroller races. Despite what it looks like, we won. It's only right. Alyssa was really brave and decided (only because she didn’t know better) to ride the Tower of Terror. Her cousin Hayden wanted to ride too. As you could see, he was a little nervous about it, but really wanted to do it. She was nervous too, but brave until the ride actually began and she cried like a little girl through the whole thing. Here's the photo from on the ride. She wanted to cover her eyes the whole time, but I pulled one of her hands away so she could see the view from the top. After it was over she told me that she wished she had Kiwi and her Yellow Blankie and she knew they would make her feel better. Here's Alyssa and Me'li after being reunited after the scariest ride of their lives. They hugged and comforted eachother and talked about how brave they were. The kids had an interactive Army Guy drill session which was so fun for them. Sunny got to ride the Merry-go-round. Several times in a row. I found a true to life orange tree inside CA adventure. This is the first real orange tree I have ever seen. After all the day's fun, and with plans for more later in the evening, we headed outside the park for a nice relaxing meal at one of our favorite DL neighborhood restaurants, Millies. It was just what we hoped it would be only better. The place was practically empty, the food was great and we had our own table which meant the kids were able to focus and eat their food. Our kids have an attention problem when it comes to food. They could take it or leave it. After our meal and a quick stop over at the Del Sol where Ryan and Penny were staying we headed back into the park to see World of Color show. The kids were getting tired at this point, but we didn't let that stop us. We staked out our spot and had time to ride twice more on the rocket ships. Then back to our spot where we stood for 40 L-O-N-G minutes waiting for the show to start. Let me tell you something, the human body and mind is an amazing thing. Just when you think you can’t do anymore or stand any longer or hold a heavy child in your arms for another instant...Next thing you know, you’ve been standing in the same spot holding a five year old for an hour at the END of a long day at California Adventure. If I can do that I can do anything. Seriously. What an accomplishment. The show was of course spectacular. Everything they do there is spectacular. I thought it was a little…indulgent for Disney. Instead of an original soundtrack or showing something special, it was mainly a 30 minute montage of all the modern Disney Classics. I mean, I’m not complaining, but…I can see those movies anytime. The colors and waters and lights were spectacular though. They really were. Worth seeing. Unfortunately Sunny fell deeply asleep about 4 minutes before the show started. Hayden had fallen asleep about an hour before the show started. After the show we evacuated with the rest of the crowd out of the park where luckily we didn’t have to walk the mile back to the hotel. Our friends (my former mission buddy) Skyler and Elise who live in the OC came, picked us up, and brought us back to the hotel in thier car. What a relief. They also brought chocolate cake shakes. What the?? Never mind they are my athletic inspirations? They are also major foodies and know how to endulge when the time is right. We ate shakes and talked with them for a couple of hours in the hotel room after we'd put the kids to bed. I just love to hear about their lives and they things they do. It’s always very exciting and inspiring for both me and Steve. After they left, we crashed hard and didn't wake up until 9 a.m. the next morning.