California Trip - July 2012

 Finally I am getting this post up because I couldn't figure out how to put so many pictures up without taking up half of my blog but now I've got the slideshow! Hooray!.

We had a great time in California. Visiting with family, going to the beach, celebrating two birthdays, and going to Disneyland. The travel was another story. And yes I am going there because I think you can learn from bad experiences and I think it's important to share what you have learned. We decided to fly United airlines because it was a bit cheaper and went out of Dayton which is only an hour from our house. When we got through security Eric decided to check the schedule of flights only to find that ours was cancelled. I thought there must be some mistake. It wasn't. Apparently due to mechanical problems the flight was cancelled and we couldn't get on another plane until 6 hours later that day. That was only going to be for our first flight. If it had just been Eric and I that would have been one thing but keeping three small children happy in an airport for 6 hours is not an easy task. I felt panic rise up inside of me and asked Eric if we could just go home and get a good night's sleep and try again tomorrow. Instead of flying through the night. He didn't want to give up a day of our trip so we stayed. We got to CA around 11 which was 2 a.m our time. Then we hit traffic on the way to my Dad's. Who does construction on the freeway at midnight! I thought, we just have really bad luck when we travel.

We had an even worse time getting home as the flight was moved up that time so we had to leave our hotel at 5 a.m, then wait at the airport for 5 hours, then they lost our luggage and we couldn't leave the airport when we got to Dayton because the luggage lost included the kids car seats. Terrible! The guy who we complained to who works for United told us that he flies Delta. Nice. That's just what I wanted to hear. And my poor baby was running like a madman for the door. He was so sick of airports by the end of that trip. BUT this is what we learned. That when we pray before we leave on a trip in addition of asking for everything to go well and everyone to be safe ,ect we are going to ask that we will be able to cope well with whatever happens. I know that God helped me many times in many small ways during these "trials" by blessing me with patience when I thought I was going to break. By blessing us with kind people around us to help switch seats with my children who were placed all over the airplane and not with us and by warming up bottles ect. By blessing my children with so much contentment to even be on a trip that they weren't half as crazy as I was expecting them to be while spending their day in a boring airport. I did see A LOT of blessings through all the crappy situations we were placed in.

When we settled in at Grandpa's house the kids were very happy. They played a lot and we went out to the beach. Wyatt got a really fun pirate party put on by Grandma and Grandpa. Eric had a little birthday celebration at Ruby's on the Pier. The weather there was super mild. I had forgotten how nice it was and how I was able to stay at the beach so long when I was younger. Michigan beaches are nice but with the humidity and the heat it makes the sand super hot and you are sweaty right after you get on the beach. In California there is a nice breeze, no humidity, it's not as hot so it's easier to stay outside for longer periods of time.

Disneyland was great too. We checked into the hotel, left early in the mornings and came back to the hotel in the afternoon to swim, hang out, eat lunch and then went back in the evening. It took Clark about a day and a half to realized what was going on at Disneyland with the rides but once he did he wanted to go on everything. He got upset when we went on without him. We also discovered a cool thing you can do at Disneyland if you have a baby, they have a parent swap pass so that one parent can take the older kids on and then the other parent takes the pass and can take the kids on again without waiting in line. So the kids got to go on the rides twice in a row. We got to see my sister and her baby boy who is a month older than Clark and that was super nice too. Overall it was a great trip and we are glad we went but I also remember why we only do it once every couple of years! It was a lot of work and we were wiped out when we got home. It was worth it though and we made so many great memories. I am signing off now because I have a little girl who has been begging me to use the computer throughout this post! Someday I will have a few minutes to be eloquent and think clearly. haha.

p.s The slideshow doesn't show up on my ipod so to see pics you may have to go to your home computer. You can also click on the slideshow to see all pics larger. Thanks!