California

California with Tony's family was filled with lots of R&R and much COOLER weather. We stayed right on the beach which was nice because the kids could go out and play in the sand while I sat on the porch. The water was really too cold to play in, but Jacob did spend one whole day out in it. Although when he finally came inside he had a hard time getting warm! There was the bike built for four (I forgot what they are called) and the kids LOVED riding it. I may have to get one for us, it was finally a bike they could ride. Addie even got to ride in front. It belonged to the house, so we had access to it all week. They were so cute riding it.

Our first outing was to Universal City Walk, Hollywood, and LA. Notice how Addie is posing like Hello Kitty and Jacob looks just like the Sparky donut kid. The kids liked seeing the walk of stars and the hand prints in Hollywood. Jacob's favorite were the star wars ones and Caitlin liked seeing the Disney ones. We rode the subway from Universal City to Hollywood, which was our first subway ride.

Our second outing was Disneyland, which of course was everyone's favorite! Addie was not too scared of the characters, but she was scared on about 90% of the rides. I was covering her eyes during most of them. We didn't get to do near everything we wanted, one day just isn't enough, but everyone had a really good time. Caitlin loved the parade and Jacob's favorite was getting to make his own lightsaber in Tomorrowland. I think Addie's favorite was the parade and seeing Minnie and Mickey Mouse.

We also got to drive through Malibu, went to the Santa Barbara Zoo and to a boat ride and got to see lots of pretty houses.

The kids enjoyed playing with their "cousins" and Tony and I enjoyed visiting with everyone else!

We had an exciting almost flight back. We were about to take off when we heard a pop and smelt something burning. Luckily we hadn't taken off yet, so the plane pulled to the side but next thing you know there are about four fire trucks, several ambulances, and tons of other emergency cars coming towards us from both sides of the plane. We had blown an engine, but were able to be towed back to the gate. Luckily everything worked out fine and I am so thankful that happened before we took off! Here are some pictures I took from the plane while we were waiting.