California Sun

Last year over President's Day weekend we did a little road tripping to SoCal to visit Marc & Michelle and this year, when the idea came up to do it again, we couldn't resist! I was craving this trip for a month before we even went because I desperately needed some SUN in my life!!! And sun we got! Nice, warm, sunny, mid-70-degree weather.... yes, please!

We left Wednesday after work and drove to Prim, Nevada (or some P-named city) where we knew of a really super cheap hotel to crash at for the night. Unfortunately, the very slight rise in the current economy raised Whiskey Pete's prices from $15/night to $25/night... which still didn't stop us. I wish I had taken a picture of this place because it really couldn't decide what theme to go with: deserts and cowboys...... or castles? Anyway, a google image will have to do for now:

Thursday we were up early and on the road so we could swing by the orange groves for fresh California oranges and grapefruit! It was my first time ever seeing a real orange grove (well, besides the California Soarin' ride at California Adventures... does that count?) and I loved the thousands of trees filled with fresh fruit! Mmmm..... we ended up leaving with I think 7 bags of oranges and one bag of grapefruit. I promise, we shared. This alone could trump all of the reasons why I wouldn't want to live in California and force me to move there asap.

After the orange groves, we moved on to L.A. The rest of the trip included (but was not limited to):

• Disneyland (Thank you again, Amy, for doing the Give-A-Day/Get-A-Disney-Day service for us!)
• The beach
• Santa Monica Pier
• In-N-Out (yes, we ate it like it didn't exist 2 minutes from our home in Utah now)
• BJ's Pizza
• Diddy Riese ice cream/cookie sandwiches
• Shopping at the Grove
• Kogi Tacos. This place is a traveling Korean taco stand and you have to look them up on twitter to see where they are that day. This was also on food network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" show. I must admit, the Korean short-rib taco lived up to the hype!
• Macaroni Grill (can you sense the theme? Yeah, FOOD!)
• Valentine's Day... Ryan and I spent a very romantic morning taking turns getting sick in the bathroom while the others went to church. Don't worry though, we got better as the day went on.
• Lot's of olympic watching at night.
• Lot's of playing with our cute nephews, Jackson and Bennett.

And, of course, the pictures to back it all up:

My first (and most likely last) time on the teacups (it helped that Ryan showed Jackson to turn the wheel in the opposite direction from what makes it turn like crazy!):

Besides my awkward "I-still-haven't-figured-out-how-to-smile-with-braces" look, I liked this pic. The one after this attempts to make up for said awkward look (as long as you don't zoom in).

This is the traveling Kogi taco van (in case you can't read the sign):

The waves attacked Ryan right after this pic. He should have taken his shoes off like me!

It was all Jackson's idea to pull up the hood, go jump on sleeping Ryan, and then run away as fast as he could so Ryan wouldn't know who did it:

The End.