Our California Adventure

Our California Adventure started out with an evening flight into Vegas and then a long middle of the night drive the rest of the way to LA. I love Marc's family but sometimes the things they do to save money are outrageous. Now, his family had nothing really to do with this crazy crazy crazy plan, but they have been brought up to save money wherever possible. Most of the time it really works. This time, however, I'm not sure the money saved was worth it. Granted our tickets were like $50 a pop and the rental car costs (gas, etc.) weren't too bad, but when we made this plan we didn't take into account the time we'd have to wait to get our luggage at the airport and the shuttle trip to the car rental place so we figured we'd get into LA at midnight or so. WRONG!! It was 2 am. If I could do that part over again, we'd definitely just put the extra money into flying into a local airport! Anyway, we got off to an exhausting start but the rest of the trip was super fun. Rather than bore you and strain my brain on how to verbalize our activities I'll just skip to the highlights:

• We attended Marc's commencement dinner and celebration where he earned two awards. One for graduating with a 3.8 GPA, (about 1/3 of his class received this award) the other was called "Promise to the Profession." He was chosen for this because of the research and presentations he did during the program, the clinic he is currently opening, and because he's done all this while remaining a dedicated husband and father.
  
• We caught up with most of our friends which was important to me, but most important was seeing Carter with the friends he loves and continues to talk about even after being gone for 5 months. One night as they watched Spiderman together the moms, myself included, spied them discussing the movie and running around shooting spider webs at each other. These friends are priceless. And it's just too bad that these boys (all six of them--the older ones all have younger bros the same age, too!) will not grow up together.
  
• Our gracious hosts, Sumi, Ian and Faith had three dogs that my kids adored.
  
• We went to Disneyland! Sumi took Faith and I took the three boys--yes we are brave for going daddy-less--and we had the time of our lives. The Halloween decorations were fantastic and festive and we had so much fun on the rides, especially the mini-coaster and the Buzz ride. We met Mickey and Buzz Lightyear and ate Mickey pretzels and suckers. We went to Tom Sawyer's Pirate Island where I saw Carter the happiest he was all week finding the Pirates Treasure and navigating the wobbly bridge. Oh, I want to go back tomorrow and I'm kicking myself for not going while we still lived only an hour away.

It's was difficult for me to come home to Colorado because yes, we've made friends, but no, they don't yet compare to the dear, dear people we miss in California. I saw the skyscape of LA in a show I was watching last night and told Marc, "I love that city." He looked astounded. Yes I am serious. As far as I'm concerned, Los Angeles will always be home, even if I have a home elsewhere, too. Sending hugs and kisses to all of my friends there!