California Adventures!

Despite the name of the post, we didn't end up having time to go to California Adventure, the theme park, but we had plenty of adventures of our own. The original purpose for the trip was to come out for the annual Five Star Painting Conference, but since Ryan was born in Southern California, both his parents were raised there, and all the extended family is there, we decided to go early and visit people for a few days before the conference started. Last June when we bought the tickets we figured that there wouldn't be much of anything going on in the painting world the week between Christmas and New Years, so why not?!

One of my favorite things about the trip was that I got to see Cassie Jones a few times! It was so fun to see one of my best high school friends again after so long! I think the last time we were together was for Mallory's wedding, which was like 3 or 4 years ago (I lose track!). Anyways, the day we flew in we met Cassie and her two cute girls at the Balboa Pier in Laguna Beach. We had a picnic on the beach and played with the girls in the water and sand while we talked. They live a little ways inland, but she was awesome to drive in and hang out with us for the day!

We had awesome milkshakes from a restaurant at the end of the pier

Balboa Pier, oh, and this was also the first time Cassie got to meet Ryan!

In the evening I took Ryan to a Pirate Dinner Show that I bought him for Christmas. With Ryan's deep and abiding fixation with pirates, costumes, and awesome sets, I knew it was sure to be a hit. For the hour or so before the show started they had people in pirate costumes walking around with appetizers and then they did a bit of a pre-show in the lobby to introduce the characters for the show. Each section of the theater (which was in the round) was designated a certain color, and that matched with one of the pirates. The pirates had various competitions they had to do as part of the show, so there was fun audience participation. The food was just ok in my opinion, and I was super exhausted so I don't remember as much of the show, but the sets were absolutely amazing! I don't think the pictures even capture it!

Huge indoor Galleon that was decked out with every pirate-y detail!

On Tuesday was our Disneyland Day, which was my Christmas present from Ryan. We weren't sure at first how many of the rides I'd be able able to ride since I was pregnant, but it really wasn't a problem for me. Since about the week of Christmas, I've pretty much felt fine and back to normal as far as health and the pregnancy goes, which is great. (I never really felt THAT sick anyways, but any that I did have has disappeared, and I'm starting to have much more energy again.)

On the tram from the parking garage, ready for my FIRST DAY AT DISNEY!!

Entrance to Disneyland first thing in the morning before things got too crazy. It was wall to wall people in a matter of hours. 

Disneyland was SUPER packed because it was New Year's Eve. Maybe that wasn't the best day to go, but it was the day that fit into our schedules the best. They didn't have any parades I think that they usually have because I'm pretty sure they had the full staff just directing traffic. They pretty much had every pathway designated as one way because the throngs were so intense. Because of the crowds, it was hard to ever stop and take pictures much, so I only got a couple. But it was a fun, and magical day. The Disneyland rides, while not really all that exciting or thrilling, are just incredible because of their sets and how everything is so complete down to the last detail. Some of my favorites were the Buzz Lightyear ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, and the Matterhorn. We had kind of bad luck with being in a line when a ride broke down (it happened 3 times!), so we just missed being able to ride Indiana Jones because it broke just before we got to it, but couldn't stay and wait too long because we wanted to make the last showing of Fantasmic. Other times we just waited it out and they got it fixed pretty quick.

Haunted Mansion, one of the rides that broken down just before we reached the front of the line. But we still got to ride it as they fixed it quickly.

Fantasizing over our dream treehouse while in Tarzan's treehouse. 

What a beautiful view!

A divine break we took with dinner at the Mexican restaurant. It caused us to miss the fireworks, but we heard them!

Very difficult to get a photo of the castle lit up at night, but isn't it beautiful! I snapped this on our way out.

Because it was New Year's Eve, the park was open until 2 am, but they were saying that if you stayed until after midnight to expect up to a 2 hour delay in getting back to the parking garage and then a lot of traffic trying to get out of the area. We left around 11:15 as we were exhausted and ready to go anyways. I knew I wouldn't make it through that kind of a wait.

The next morning Ryan's dad flew in and we picked him up from the airport and drove down to Oceanside to stay with Ryan's grandma (Stu's dad). She's 92, but still lives in her own house and gets along pretty well still. We went with here and Ryan's aunt and uncle who also live there down to the water and ate at a restaurant for lunch. The next couple days we spend down there with them and had a good time. One day we went to Torrey Pines State Park. Apparently this particular pine tree is very uncommon and only grows in a couple of places, so they make kind of a big deal about it. It looks like any other pine tree to me! But we took a cool walk down through some trails that had some beautiful overlooks of the ocean.

What feels like a green oasis to those on the west coast, felt like a desert to Ryan and I after being accustomed to the lush greenery of Virginia.

It was a beautiful sunset from one of the lookout points

Nothing like a "half-mountain" pose in front of a sunset to look like a boss. 

The last day I ended up being pretty sick. I couldn't keep food down and threw up after every meal, or at least whatever I could eat of each meal. People wanted to chalk it up to me being pregnant, but I think I caught a 24 hour bug or something. I hadn't thrown up at all during my pregnancy to that point, so it didn't make sense to just start that day. And by the next day I felt much better and it hasn't bothered me since. Friday night, even though I'd been sick all day, Brandon and Cassie drove in again with the girls and we all went to dinner. It was so fun. I've never spent much time with them together since they've been married, so it was fun to get to know her husband and for the guys to talk business. I wish we lived closer, they are such awesome friends!