California

Just five short days after our camping trip, we headed to California!  TT (Chad's sister) was getting married!!  The kids were super excited to ride on an airplane, visit CA, see TT's house, and be in the wedding.  Well, our first flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago did not go so well for Elsa.  She was incredibly nervous and had a death grip on my hand the entire time.  Gavin, on the other hand, loved it!  When we landed in Chicago Elsa said, "we are walking home because I'm never getting on another airplane!"  Oh boy, little did she know we'd be getting on another one very soon!  

 This was before take-off!  You can see how they were feeling about the flight just from their faces!

Thankfully the "moving sidewalks" in Chicago were a welcome distraction for Elsa...that is until we had to board for our flight from Chicago to San Diego...

The flight from Chicago to San Diego was very turbulent, enough to make Chad and me not feel well, but Elsa was kept busy coloring on the computer and Gavin stayed occupied with the iPad.  So thankfully we had less tears, that is until the descent...I don't know how to teach a three year old to pop his ears!  

Full of smiles now that we've landed and our ears don't hurt anymore!

We got our rental car and headed toward TT's and we learned very quickly that there is a LOT of traffic in CA!  It took so long to get anywhere!  We made it to TT's and the kids spent some time swimming in their pool, then we checked into our hotel, and went out to dinner.  There is a three hour time difference in CA so when it was 9:00 in CA, it was midnight in MI!  Our first night we were exhausted! 

It was so fun to have Uncle Greg, Mr. Andy, and Daddy in the pool.  The kids did a lot of "flying" through the air! :)

Just hanging out

We got to eat our pizza outside...such beautiful weather.  Elsa loved sitting right between Uncle Greg and TT...Gavin was very occupied during this time.  :)  

After dinner the kids found this cool tree on the walk back to our car.  They really liked it!  

Day two - we went to see TT's office and meet some of her friends.  Our family spent a little time shopping in downtown Carlsbad and then headed back to TT's for more pool time.  We spent most of the day there and then went back to our hotel long enough to shower and change and head back to TT's for a large family dinner.  It was delicious and Elsa and Gavin loved playing with Uncle Greg's brothers and sisters.  :)  Back to the hotel for bed and then wedding fun began on Friday.  

TT's office

Who wouldn't like marshmallows covered in chocolate with sprinkles on a stick!?  

Uncle Greg and TT have some pretty cool instruments at their house.  

On Friday the girls went to get pedicures and the boys went to the reception venus to start getting it set up and ready for Saturday.  Elsa loved getting her toes and fingers done and had a lot of fun with all the girls that went along.  We had a yummy lunch and then headed to the beach for some fun.  Chad and Gavin eventually joined us and we played for a bit before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal.  

The wedding would be outside, so the rehearsal was outside and it was hot!  Elsa and Elijah did a fantastic job being the flower girl and ring bearer.  Gavin and Andrew were the sign holders and walked down the aisle right before TT - they struggled a bit because they were tired, so Papa bribed them with licorice and it fixed everything!  :)  We went to the rehearsal dinner and Gavin enjoyed playing on my phone while Elsa colored with Greg's sisters, it was great!  Back to the hotel for a good night of rest before the wedding day!  

Saturday, the girls and boys separated again since the girls headed to TT's hotel room to get hair done and get ready for the wedding.  Elsa did a good job being patient as she waited for everyone to get their hair done and then it was her turn, she was so excited for a fancy hair do and to wear her flower girl dress.  

 When I showed Elsa the back of her hair, she couldn't believe it was really her hair!  :)

We took a few pictures with just the girls...TT was stunning!  Then we went to the wedding/reception venue to get ready.  It was another hot day, but the kids did great.  Elsa was very particular about dropping her petals and did really well walking with Elijah.  Gavin and Andrew played with their signs for the first half of the aisle and then took off running the second half of the aisle, but they made it down!  

Elsa and Elijah walking down the aisle.  (Gavin and Andrew came down too fast to snap a pic!)

Stunning TT!

Let the party begin!  

We had two exhausted kiddos at the end of the night!  But, boy did they have fun!!  

Sunday - we slept in and then spent the day at the beach and the pool.  The waves were huge!  The kids loved it!  Gavin didn't like the taste of the ocean after a big wave knocked him over, but they still had fun jumping in and running away from the waves.  Then we ordered in pizza and went to bed early since we left the next day.  It was good to just have a little down time before wrapping up our trip.  

Our last morning we went out to breakfast and enjoyed some final yummy CA food before heading to the airport.

Our original flight home was canceled so we had to run through the airport and rush on to another flight that took us to Baltimore and then to GR.  Chad lucked out and got to sit all alone in the back of the airplane while I had happy Gavin and sad Elsa surrounding me ;). It took me a while to get Elsa calmed down and the flight attendants were super sweet with her, knew her by name, and kept coming back to check on her.  It actually went okay, once she did calm down and she took a nap and realized flying wasn't all that bad.  

It was a very busy, but fun trip to CA!!