Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Just call us the Grizwalds...

Every year our family tries to get away for a week

and go to CALIFORNIA!

And usually this trip means a very short and sweet
plane ride
from the Salty City
to those Golden Gates!
However this year was a little different...
Troy, Jaylyn, Hallie, Avery and I
DROVE to Cali...
And let me tell ya,
IT WAS BRUTAL!
Let me back up for a sec...just in case you caught that or didn't, Kasey was left out of the list of family members that went on this trip.
Why you ask?
Well she made the High School Volleyball team
and their first two games took place the very week of our trip. So she made the very sad but very good decision to stay home and play with her team!

And I only say sad because we missed her so very much! But I will also say I am so proud of her that she cared so much about her Volleyball, that she would give up a trip to Cali...

Okay, back to the road trip.....we thought it
would make it

easier for the kids, to break up the
ELEVEN HOUR DRIVE
to Cali by stopping in Vegas for a night...
So we hit Vegas hard,
trying to fit in all that we could in the few hours we had
to spend there~
and then it was off to Cali the next morning...
Now this is where the
BRUTAL
part comes into play!
The drive from Vegas to our Hotel in Orange County
took about 4 hours~it felt like 20!
Honestly I don't know why? But it was bad!
I was dying! The kids were dying!
And we were killing Troy

by complaining every five seconds!
I said, and I quote....
"I will NEVER drive to California AGAIN!"
end quote.
Once we were finally there, we dropped off our bags
and went to the airport
where we met up with the SMARTER half of our party
who FLEW there!
Nana, Papa, Ty, Nicco, Kandace, Jett, and baby Axyl...
(Kandace's husband Tyler couldn't make the trip and we missed him very much)

So here goes our trip in a NUT shell.
The first thing we did was eat at our favorite
restaurant in Cali...
~EL TORITO GRILL~
Not to be confused with El Toritos.

They are not the same restaurant.....very different in fact!
The above picture is of our whole party
after lunch.

Then we were off to Balboa Beach~
intending to do a little shopping, but the kids just wanted to play in the Pacific...
and really
who could blame them!

It was absolutely
BEAUTIFUL!

How darling is this pic!
It's probably my very favorite picture from
this trip!
After we convinced the kids that there would be more time at the beach
we walked around the shops
and we all chose the multi~million dollar houses we wanted
along the beach

I guess you could say we were

~CALIFORNIA DREAMIN~
Okay, that may have been a little cheesy

but it fit!

That night we celebrated Troys birthday at
BENIHANNAS...
It was delicious as always!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!


continued....next post





4 comments:

Amanda said...

OK, those were some seriously awesome three posts about California. It probably took you just as long to write the posts as the awful trip in the car. I'm with you on the driving....augh. Hate it, hate it!! Looks like an absolute blast, though once you get there. Cute pictures! I LOVE the one of Avery on the beach, it is great! You should enlarge it and frame it!! (the one in the green shirt, not the one of him sleeping! :)) Miss you!

doezie10 said...

Amanda, funny you should mention how LONG it took to post those three posts......The first time I wrote it, I spent Four hours!It was one giant post. And as I went to post it, it WOULDN'T POST! It was all gone! My internet connection was gone! Yes I was a little pissed!
So last night I decided to start over and try it in three posts and wha'do'ya~know it worked!
And the darling picture of Avery at the beach has already been enlarged! And I miss you too!

colby said...

The Zoo was getting old. Thanks for the new post!

Unknown said...

Wow.... what a great vacation trip!!