California!

A few weeks ago, my friend Denise asked me if I wanted to go to California with her. I'm no dummy, so of course I said yes! We went to California right after Summer Term ended. 

California was amazing. We left good ole Utah around noon on Wednesday and drove down. I never realized how short of a drive it was to California from Utah. I guess I have always figured it was a long drive but it was shorter than the Colorado Springs to St. George drive. 

The drive was really enjoyable. Two inside jokes came out of the drive: "Laying in the shade" & "Eating Pie."

The first day we went to California Adventure and it was ridiculously enjoyable. Ashlee and Melanie had never been so we had lots of fun showing them around. It was our friend Bobby's birthday so we made him a birthday video. Funny part is as we were making this video I jammed my finger so bad. By the end of the day it had swollen to three times its normal size. I went to two places I had never been to before in California Adventure: the animation studio (which is awesome!) and the first aid room. Hahaha. 

California Adventure also just expanded with Cars Land. Cars Land was packed! The coolest ride, Radiator Springs Racecars, had a 100 minute wait. We did it as single riders and got through really quickly. :) It's a really fun ride and incredibly well designed. 

I saw two temples I hadn't seen before on the trip. The first one was the Redlands California Temple...

The funniest part of the night though was when Denise's mom walked in and asked, "Denise, is there something your not telling me?" Her mom pulled out a Nourishing Newborns package that for some reason had been shipped to the house. Haha! It was pretty hilarious. 

That night we stayed at Denise's parents' house and of course-ate some pie. :)

Now this night my finger was hurting so bad. So as I was doing my nightly scripture study I stumbled across these verses in 1 Nephi 18:

15 And it came to pass that we were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. And after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days, my brethren began to see that the judgments of God were upon them, and that they must perish save that they should repent of their iniquities; wherefore, they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists, and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof. 

16 Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions. 

I felt pretty humbled after reading that. Haha. So I stopped complaining about my finger. 

The next day was Disneyland which was so fantastic. We met up with Denise's friend Shannon and just had so much fun. The parade went by and a chimney sweep waved right at me (after I air punched him of course). The best part though? We went onto the Storybook Boats right before the fireworks started. The ride stopped right around a bend and the fireworks went off on both sides of the boat. We were in the middle of the fireworks so it was really cool! 

That night we drove to San Diego. The next day spent in San Diego was incredible. I've decided that's where I want to go for my next vacation. It's such a beautiful place. We went to the beach for most of the day. Lots of seaweed was on the beach. The most interesting part was watching seaweed girl. She tried to make a dress out of the seaweed but eventually just gave up and sat in the pile of seaweed. Haha.

Temple #2: San Diego Temple :)

 That night we went for dinner at Coronado Island. Oh my goodness it was delicious Mexican food! They have the best queso ever. There was also a statue of three Mexican Dolls but one of them was missing a head. I went to put the head back on and a head from a different doll fell off. It was so funny.

So that was California. It was a really fun week. :)