sweet retreats

The past two weekends we have been in California. Quick trips with a lot packed into them. The first time we went, we drove down to Calistoga, CA to celebrate Jake's grandma's 90th birthday. This lady is pretty incredible and you would never know she was turning 90! We went on a wine tour, had a surprise party for her at her favorite Chinese restaurant, took a tour of the town, stopped twice at In N Out, and drove home just in time to be back to work on Monday morning. A great time to hang with family.

We got home, worked the week, and unpacked just in time to pack back up for California round two. Jake decided we were past due for a Disneyland trip (we LOVE Disneyland!!), so he decided to take me for my birthday. We had flight vouchers from being bumped when we went to Thailand last year that were expiring soon, and pricelined a decent hotel on the cheap. So it ended up being a pretty darn reasonable trip. We left Friday night, drove to Portland, flew out of Portland early Saturday morning, went straight to Disneyland (after dropping our bags off at our hotel), stayed until the park closed, got up and went to the park for an early morning admission (an hour before the park is opened to the general public), stayed until the park closed, got up the next morning and went to the park from open to close again, then got up and flew to Portland and drove back home. That was the longest run on sentence of my life. Basically we spent 38 hours running around Disneyland in a 56 hour period of time.

It was a blast! My parents, little brother, Jake's parents, and his sister and brother in law all were able to come. We had thrown out the invitation to our families a week before we left, not thinking anyone would be crazy enough to join us- but they were. We tore Disneyland a new one. In the last 40 minutes on our last night there (my birthday), we did big thunder, indiana jones, and with three minutes until the park closed sprinted to make it for one last ride on pirates. An epic feat if you've ever been there. The trip also included the boys riding space mountain shirtless, 9 rides knocked out in the early morning admission, lots of dole whip, bengal beef, chowder bowls, hand dipped corndogs, and hot fudge sundaes, a whole lot of laughs with family, big thunder during the fireworks, and birthday dinner at buca di beppo's complete with a sweet toast (gravy). Thanks so much for everyone who made my birthday so special.