Cali Vacation, Part 1

That's right.  We're back.

We were lucky enough to spend nine sun-filled days in Southern California.

Orange County is quickly becoming our go to destination for quick family trips.  Jeff is always going there for business, so occasionally the boys and I will join him.  This time we decided to make it an extended stay, and  allow ourselves to enjoy the beaches, sun, and that little theme park known as Disneyland.

The first question everyone asks when you return home from a trip, "How was it?"

And my response has unequivocally been, "I'm not trying to be dramatic or anything, but I HONESTLY have NO desire to go on vacation again."

Oy vey.

Don't get me wrong.  It was nice to get away.  Well, it was nice to be able to go on vacation, I guess.  It just took 5 or so days of hell to be able to enjoy 4ish days of fun [or as some may argue - forced fun].

Where to start.

Oh yeah, remember that one time Jeff and I decided that since we'd be going on vacation, we were going to pull Kaeden out of preschool the week before just so that our little I-Catch-Every-Cold/Flu/Bug-Possible didn't catch something and therefore compromise our trip?  Yeah.  Remember how we let him go anyway because it just happened to be the big anticipated pajama party at preschool [the one Kade had talked about for weeks]?

Let this be a lesson parents.  STICK TO THE PLAN.

We get to the airport to start our trip, and I swear, the second we pass security Kade's little nose starts running. I ask him if he's sick, he says no, and so we carry on.

I asked Kade for a smile while waiting for our flight.  This is what I got.  In case you were wondering.  That's a smile.   Yep, this kid feels fine.

I was a little nervous how hard it would be to fly with both boys.  Kade, I was sure, would be fine.  We'd have to be creative to keep him entertained, but he's at an age where we can explain to him that we have to be quiet in certain situations, or be patient just a little bit longer.  Plus he's flown so much, the whole experience was nothing new to him.

Carter was the one I was more worried about.  Carter on his own is just a more challenging kid.  I was worried about how he'd handle being in new surroundings, having to sit for two hours, dealing with his ears popping, etc.  But we did okay!

We let the boys get as much energy out as we could before boarding.

On the plane Carter immediately started exploring.  Kaeden went through every item in the seat pockets.
I think the pictures in the emergency brochure were a little too easy for a three-year-old to figure out.  Doesn't that expression scream,"I have to do what is there is a loss of cabin pressure?!?!"

So the cabin door is closed and low and behold, Kaeden's runny nose has turned into a full blown case of the sniffles.  Granted, he's not acting sick, but this could just be the tip of the iceberg.

We make it to California, get our car, check into our hotel, and immediately head to one of our favorite places to officially kick off our California vacation:  Laguna Beach.

Jeff and I like this area so much.  It might have a little something to do with the fact that it reminds us a lot of a little prime-time drama we loved - The O.C., but it really has a lot to do with the fact that when you are in the Laguna beach area, you feel like you are in a different world.  The views and vistas remind us so much of the Amalfi Coast in Italy, something we've vowed we will return to again.

I mean, c'mon, what's not to love?

Kade was immediately interested in the tide pools.  And why wouldn't he be?  For the little bug-watcher, this was an oasis of living, moving, tiny creatures.

We made our way down to the beach, and were wondering what kind of experience it would be.  Last time we were here, Kade loved the surroundings, but HATED the sand.  He didn't like the feel on it on his feet, hands, anywhere.

But this time....he didn't even hesitate.  He ran right to the water's edge, and dug into the sand without a second thought.

It was so much fun watching him run around and just ENJOY his surroundings.  Even though the sun made it blazing hot, he just wanted to keep playing.

Carter on the other hand.... was not a fan.

He did not like the sand, and was very iffy about the vast body of water.

Somehow I did manage to capture this picture though.  I must have set him down and snapped the picture before he realized what was going on.

Since I'm always behind the camera, I asked Jeff to take a picture of me with the boys.  Of course, of the ten shots he took, NONE of them managed to capture us all looking the right way at the right time.  Oh well, it's more true to life, right?

So we finished off our little trip to the beach with some more exploring,

and a few more pictures.

And then we headed of to eat at one of our most favorite California restaurants.  Sharkey's!

Any Californian reading this right now might be thinking, "What? Sharkey's?"   It's a little Mexican casual dining restaurant that probably is no more significant to a Californian than the million Greek hamburger joints we have here in Utah.  But for some reason, we just love that place. We happened to stop by there on our first trip to California, and now we go out of our way to eat there [sometimes two or three times] every time we're in Cali.  We've even looked into if it's possible to franchise one in Utah.  It's THAT good.

We headed back to our hotel and officially put an end to our first day of vacation.

The next two days Jeff had a bunch of business meetings planned, so I knew that it would just be me and the boys trying to figure out something to do.

What I didn't anticipate was Kaeden having a full-blown cold set-in.  Because of it, I decided to just stick to our hotel, and hope that lots of rest would help him to recover before the weekend, and our three days at Disneyland were compromised later in the week.

Add on to a sick three-year-old an ornery as crap one-year-old who does not want to sleep anywhere but his crib, and by the end of the second day I was ready to pull my hair out.  By Friday night we could tell Kade was still pretty sick despite the small fortune we had spent on every type of remedy at the local Target.  So we decided to take it easy over the weekend, because we really, really didn't want our tickets to Disneyland to go to waste.  Besides, Disneyland is something Kaeden has been looking forward to since the last time we came.  We may or may not have promised him a trip to D-land as a bribe to potty train.  We may or may not have almost taken a full year to fulfill such bribe.

Meanwhile, for whatever reason, Carter also decided to show us that his brother was not the only one in the family with master puking skills.  It made for fun times trying to clean my clothes and his clothes in the bath tub that the rest of us had to use for cleaning ourselves over the next week.  At this point both Jeff and I were ready to pack it in and head home.

On Sunday Kaeden started pulling on his ear, the tell-tell sign of an ear infection.  So Monday [the first day we were supposed to be in Disneyland], we spent the morning trying to find an insta-care that would accept our insurance.  We were lucky and actually found one in our network.  Because of this, our co-pay for the visit dropped from $80 to $20.  That was a little bit of a relief.  Half an hour with an awkward doctor with a thick German accent later, and we had a prescription.  We filled it as fast as we could and got it in Kade's system, because if we wanted to make our 3 day pass work, we needed to make it to Disneyland the next morning.  We were hoping that with 24 hours of antibiotics in his system we'd be set to go.

At this point is was a waiting game.  Five days into our vacation, I basically felt that all we had done is wait.  I was also ready to have a nervous breakdown if I had to stare at the inside of our budget hotel room for yet another day.  For any of you who know me, you know that having an organized living space is key to my sanity.  Being locked in our hotel room with the two boys meant I spent all day following behind them cleaning up messes just to turn around and clean up another.  I was ready to go postal.  I guess that no matter how appealing those IKEA displays of 500 and 400 foot living areas make me think, "Hey!  I'd love to live in a space that small!",  It just ain't ever gonna happen.

Oh did I mention that when Jeff went down to pick up something at the front desk, the desk clerk asked him the room number.  Jeff told him, and the clerk said, "Oh.  We just got a noise complaint call for your room.  The people below you are fed up with the stomping and loud noises."  Jeff explained to him that we were holed up in our room with two sick children, one of which is a one-year-old who just learned how to walk.  The stomping they heard was merely Carter walking around.  He's not the lightest-footed creature ever.  When Jeff told me, I was so mad [but mostly hurt].  I think at this point pretty much anything could set me over the edge.  What did they want me to do?  Make it so that my child couldn't walk anywhere?  Every time Carter moved around the room my anxiety grew.  I was just waiting for a call to our room to say there were more complaints.  It wasn't until we were packing for the airport a few days later I realized that the front desk might have called, but we had unplugged all the phone lines and hid the phones in the closet [you know, so the boys wouldn't randomly call an escort service or something] our first day in the room.  Whoops!

[TO BE CONTINUED]