Family Vacation

FYI: I "stole" Jody's picts! Thanks Jody. If I add my own I'll never get this post up!!

I have been searching for months for good tickets to LA. Most of Danny's family is out there, and it was time for a visit. God provided us with awesome tickets! A friend recommended a new airline out of Des Moines, low and behold, we found tickets for under $200 each!! We were stoked! On top of that it was a direct flight, praise the Lord, that was so great!!!!!

Well, needless to say, travel with two small children is never easy. 2 huge bags, 2 car seats, a double stroller, 4 carry ons...and security check...come on. Taking the kids out of stroller, de-clothing them, sending stroller through x-ray...ok not an easy task. All of which at the Des Moines airport isn't that huge of a deal, but try doing it at LAX when your kids haven't sleep well in 9 days!

Our flight was a 8:20pm which seemed like a great idea, until our 2 yr old didn't sleep the whole time. We get into LAX( the craziest airport) around 11:30pm(pacific time) or time it's 1:30am!! Yes, he's still awake. We have to take our 100 bags outside the airport, get in onto the shuttle to go get our rental car. Are you kidding me? We were about ready to get back on the plane to head home. The shuttle bus took over 30 min to get there. Once he got there I asked him to just help me get the stroller(loaded with kids) on the shuttle. After a 10 minute stop and go ride to the rental place, we try to get all our stuff into the place, finally Danny gets in line. We are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel....until Townes starts THROWING UP!! Yes, throwing up! Finch was screaming at this point, Townes throwing up into his sweatshirt and I'm trying to get Danny's attention to hurry up!

So now it's about 12:15am and our kids are wrecks, and Danny comes back over to me ( which I thought ok it's time to go) Not so fast...we had a problem with our card. ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW! Little did I know you have to have x amount of dollars in your account in order to be able to rent the car. Why did you not tell me this when I rented the car! argh!!!


Poor Kids, Townes was absolutely GREEN! I think he was overtired and got air sick too!!

It's now 2:15am our time, Townes is still throwing up, finch still screaming...both are completely exhausted and so are we. We have no idea what to do. Jody (Danny's sister) didn't pick up the phone to come get us, which she's at least 45 mins away anyways. My big idea is call DAD, he always comes to the rescue.. after about 15 phone calls to wait him up...he answers in a frenzy. "Dad I'm sorry to wake you up, but Townes is pucking, as you can hear Finch is screaming, we can't get a car, we are stuck and they are going to close"....." I already tried transferring money for my savings account, but my cell phone is going to die". Dad says " no problem, I get some money to to fix it"...a few tears, an hour, and a new online banking account..we are ready to go. So we get our tiny little car, barely fit everything in it, and head to Jody's at 1:15am ummmm which is 3:15am our time. Finally, as we are getting into the car, both kids pass out!!

We get in, put the kids down and head to bed. With a wake up call from our little monkey's at 5:45am!! The sleep for 4 hours! What are you crazy, is this how the whole trip is going to be! I was very worried to say the least. But God has a great way of answering lots of prayers!!!

We had a rough first couple days getting into the swing of a new schedule and getting over our initial night. We had a lot of 5:45am wake ups, and 11am crashes but overall they did AMAZING! We were so thankful that God was not only providing the trip but helping the kids with little sleep and eating out most meals(which means not the healthiest choices)!

We spent our first weekend at Jody's house in Upland, CA. A very cute cozy home, that Jody has decorated via thrift stores. I tell you that girl can shop! She's looking for a job to support her habit!:) Thanks Jody for opening up your house, we had a great time!! Bev (Danny's mom) came down from WA and stayed at Jody's too, so we got some time with her as well. Which it's always great to spend time with Grammy

. We were a little worried about the no A/C with 100 degree temps out, but we survived it with a couple sweaty nights. Then the temps were perfect! We got to spend a lot of time with both Danny's paternal and maternal grandparents, and also extended family members. Everyone got to meet Finch for the first time, and see how much Townes had grown.




Monday we headed down to San Diego for a little family vacation. It was great, we had an amazing 4 star hotel, with a view of the pacific. Wow, thank goodness for hotwire! We stopped by Grandpa and Grandma Hyde's on the way and got some In n Out with them. The kids really enjoyed being around them. It was so wonderful to spend that time together. We have memories will cherish for a lifetime. Grandma, hasn't been doing well lately, but she was so delighted to hold Finch in her lap. You would have thought someone gave her a million dollars, oh, she was so happy sitting there holding her. Finch just fell in love with her. Kids really do have a way of understanding how people are feeling, they are very sensitive to that.

Monday night we swam, walked out on Seaport Village just had a wonderful time bonding as a family.

Tuesday we went to the World's famous San Diego Zoo! Boy, that was cool. It was perfect weather, we had jackets on. The kids loved it, the polar bears swimming was our favorite. We got back to the hotel( with a quick stop off at the ocean) exhausted after 8 hrs of walking the hills of the zoo! Ordered a yummy veggie pizza and watched a movie! Fun!

Wednesday we spent the morning at the ocean, ah man, did the kids LOVE that. Townes was crying so hard when it was time to go. I think Danny was too! He really missed surfing and being near the water. We should have just made our whole trip to the ocean! We stopped by quickly again at the Grandparents house, then headed to Covina to see Grandma Vasquez. Some of you may know that Grandpa Vasquez died right before Finch was born so we didn't' get to go to the funeral. It was an unexpected death, that has been very difficult for everyone. Grandma brought a guitar to Grandpa's grave site for Danny to play a song he had written, that they played at Grandpa's funeral. It was beautiful. We also visited Danny's dads grave site and had Townes and Finch take some photos with Papa's gravestone.



Thursday was DISNEYLAND! Danny's cousin Donnie works there, and got us in for FREE!!! Yeah, thanks again Donnie!!! It was so great, oh man, we underestimated how much Townes was going to love it there. He's been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on occasion at Bibi and Papa's house and so he know who everyone was. He stood perfectly in all the lines, waiting to hug them. He would say " mama, I hug him". It was so sweet! Finch loved them from far away but close up she'd start crying! Townes was over the 40" mark for the rides so he got to go on some pretty cool rides. He totally didn't mind standing in lines either. He has his first roller coaster ride, which scared him a little and me alot!!!!
We had a wonderful day there with Jody and Grammy!! Thanks girls for coming along, it was so fun!!















Friday morning we headed to LAX to come home. Not much excitement, which we are thankful for! I thought of the genius plan to drop Finch and I off with the luggage at the airport, then return the car! Oh man, that saved a lot of headache. We got through security fast, due to have a stroller! amen!! and the kids actually slept most of the way home. Thanks to Calms Forte for kids!!! Love that stuff!

We have been trying to get back into the groove this week. Most mornings it's been 10am before anything gets done. Today was pj day until about 2:30pm. Yes, so we have a couple more days then I'll get back into it. I figure it took a week to screw up the schedule, it will take a week to get back!