Anaheim

Jeff had another work thing that took him to Anaheim. We tagged along this time, because last week was just a horrible week without him. I had a sty and I looked pretty hideous...but that's a whole different story. We stayed about 3 blocks from "the happiest place on Earth." It was cool because we could watch the firework show, every night, from our hotel window. Anyway, while Jeff was busy with work the kids and I enjoyed ourselves with long walks, shopping, swimming, Downtown Disney, Huntington Beach, Target (yes I said Target, I love that store) and yes we even actually made it inside Disneyland but only for a short hour.

We heard about a shopping pass that allows you to go into the park for an hour and shop, of course. Anyway, if you pass the hour then your credit card gets charged the admission price, pretty simple. I decided to take the kids, on my own (not a good idea), and maybe spot Mickey or Minnie for a picture. Because really, that's all that Veronica really cared about. We saw Minnie and Goofy and then I realized that David had grabbed my phone from the cup holder on the stroller and dropped it. So I was pretty annoyed at this point...so much for the happiest place on earth. I went to the lost and found (and waited in line for 15 minutes) and luckily someone turned in my phone. So once again it became the happiest place on earth. Somehow Veronica was convinced that Downtown Disney was Disneyland, so she was happy.

We had an awesome time! Thanks for letting us tag along Jeff!

Veronica was pretty excited about this, she loved her shoes.


Huntington Beach. Yeah, it was late and kind of chilly, but the water was nice and Veronica got her skirt wet so I took it off her and she ran around like this. Hey, when you're 3 you can run around in your panties and get away with it.


Jeff and Vero are picking up little shells and David is trying not to freeze.


Nothing like ice cream after freezing at the beach.

Earthquake drill

I think it was a couple of weeks ago that we had an earthquake. I had the kids sit under our kitchen table until it was over. The kids thought it was fun and Veronica has added "earthquake drills" to her play schedule. I took these pictures of the kids practicing for "the big one."


Doing some computer time.

Are we there yet?

Jeff and I must both have short memories or else I don't think we would have been as anxious to decide on driving to Portland, OR for our summer vacation. Jeff's parents grew up in the Portland area and so lots of extended family still live in the area. I guess it was a mini reunion, all of Jeff's sisters and husbands came along and so did Jeff's parents.

We started the trip Friday morning and decided that we should split the travel into 2 days, prolonging the torture as long as possible. Anyway, we recently went to San Diego with Jeff for one of his work conferences and discovered that Veronica gets carsick. It happened about 30 minutes on the way down to SD and about the same time on the way back from SD. So, I guess I was being hopeful that Veronica's carsickness was just a one time thing, because I didn't think to bring anything for her in case of an accident. Anyway, 30 minutes into the long drive Veronica asks me for a bag and I scramble to get her a bag in time for the vomit. She only managed a little on her shirt so it wasn't too bad. Still, it was pretty gross. During all this excitement David was snoozing...then he woke up 20 minutes later and decided that he too wanted to join the carsick club and so he began to throw up. His was much worse, only because he's a baby and can't understand the concept of throwing up into a bag. He spewed all over himself, the carseat and the door...and even on his hair. That was ultimate gross...and I had to clean it all up. One can only imagine what I was thinking...only this, "it's going to be a long drive."

We stopped a few hours later and had lunch and watched as this lady became irate at the people who mistakenly put mustard on her cheeseburger. Anyway, we arrived in Redding, CA and spent the night in a very 1 star hotel. I won't go into details. We left Redding pretty fast, we didn't want to be there much longer than necessary. Why delay the misery?

Back in the car. Some one mentioned something for carsickness and so we stopped at a drugstore to get some stuff, it's called cola syrup. Anyway, it didn't work. Veronica, like clock work, 30 minutes into our drive asked for a bag and started to throw up. We were more prepared...but the bag I had given her had a hole in it and needless to say it went everywhere.

After close to 15 hours of driving we finally arrived in Portland.
It was fun and really nice to see Jeff's family. Veronica loved playing with her cousins, especially Hannah. We went to a family picnic, the Oregon Zoo, Downtown Portland via trains/bus, hiked Multonomah Falls, drove to the Oregon Coast (Cannon Beach and Seaside), went to Tillamook Cheese Factory, and my favorite...picked blackberries. I guess blackberries grow wild and are considered a weed. Crazy, huh? We picked a lot. I've been eating blackberries for breakfast everyday for 3 days now.