Girls' Trip

I joined in with some other ladies in my ward who were doing a quick trip to Disneyland. A friend has a condo in Huntington Beach that we were able to stay at while in California.

I flew out Sunday after catching a little bit of Stake Conference. Then I flew home Wednesday afternoon...well, that was when the flight was scheduled. It ended up getting delayed, and I was stuck in the airport with 2 friends for a total of 7 hours. (Everyone else flew home Thursday.) While it's lame to be at the airport for so long, I had very in-depth religion discussions with my friends. (One is Methodist and the other friend's husband is an Athiest.) We got home after midnight and made it into bed by 1am.

Disneyland Girls' Trip

Friends in my ward did a girls' trip again this year. Due to my Disney World trip in January, I told them I was out this year. But then we got the news that the friend, Emily, that hosts everyone in her family time share in CA is moving to Papua New Guinea. This trip turned into the last one for the next 3 years and a final hurrah with my friend, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon. 

A handful of women flew out Wednesday night; the rest of us flew out Thursday night. We did Disneyland on Friday all day till midnight. We got there 30 minutes before it opened so we could increase our chances of getting boarding passes on Rise of the Resistance, a new ride. The previous day the passes had all sold out 6 minutes after the park opened! The park was absolutely silent at 8am when the park officially opened as everyone was busily trying to secure boarding passes. Periodically a group of people would cheer and scream signaling their success. The seconds felt like minutes. But finally 2 minutes later we celebrated as our group secured passes for that afternoon, group 82. 

Our first ride of the day: Cars in California Adventure

Blurry Space Mountain pic

By the end of the night we did kiddie rides that people had never done before.

 Alice in Wonderland

Because one of our friends on the trip had just recently moved from Anaheim and was still technically a Disney Employee (she worked on the Splash Mountain ride), she was able to get us a few nice hook-ups in terms of extra fast passes and some discounts. We waited in line 30 minutes for a couple of rides, but everything else was shorter. We rode a ton of rides!

Saturday morning everyone slept in; we had stayed up talking for another hour after Disneyland. I ran 8 miles along the beach in preparation for my race the next weekend. My friend, Laisa, ran 4 of them with me. Some women did surfing lessons, hiking, pedicures/manicures. I chatted with friends, played games, and went to lunch with Emily and Laisa. We tried going to bed earlier on Saturday night, but still stayed up till almost midnight talking. We were up at 5:30 the next morning cleaning up and heading to the airport for our 8:30 flight. Not a lot of sleep on the trip, but it was fun to get to know new friends and acquaintances on a deeper level. Matt was so generous in pushing me to go and held up the fort just fine at home!

Girls' Trip

A friend at church put the plans for a girls' trip in action! Her parents have a timeshare in Huntington Beach, California. Once cheap plane tickets were found, the trip was in motion. I decided initially not to go because our lives are really hectic right now and it happened to be the same weekend as the half marathon race I signed up for. I hemmed and hawed for a few days with Matt encouraging me to go, and once I checked with my parent's schedule, I decided to book the trip! I was able to defer my race to next year. (It was going to be iffy whether I was going to PR or not, so taking a year off actually took a lot of pressure off.)

We flew out Wednesday afternoon. After landing and getting a rental car, we went to Café Rio for dinner. It felt like 9:30pm to us even though it was 7:30 California time, so we were all starved. It was yummy! Then we got settled into the house. It was a tight fit, but we didn't mind being cozy.

Thursday we spent all day at Disneyland. Taking pictures wasn't a focus--some ladies did better than others about snapping a few--but I actually didn't end up with any pictures of me. Disneyland was a ton of fun! My favorite ride in California Adventure was the Cars ride and Indiana Jones was my favorite ride in Disneyland. Having experienced both now, I prefer Disney World to Disneyland, but I'm still looking forward to taking my kids once. (Then we'll frequent Disney World after that.) It was a full, exhausting day which ended with a good friend losing her phone on the last ride. Not the best end to the day. :(

Two friends that used to live in our area but have since moved to California joined us for the trip. It was fun to see them again!

Friday morning started with a run along the beach followed by games. 

Then we went on a walk and did some sightseeing and ate lunch.

We spent Friday afternoon at the beach enjoying the view. We laid out on towels and chatted or read books. 

Friday evening we went to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that was so yummy! We played more games and stayed up way too late talking.

Saturday morning we had to wash all the sheets and towels before our late afternoon flight. Due to the rain, we stayed in and played more games while the laundry was going. 

The timeshare was beautiful--5 minutes away from the beach and 20 minutes away from Disneyland.

Waiting at the airport

Eating an early dinner at the airport

It was so enjoyable to get away and take a break from being "Mom" for a few days. It was also delightful to get to know these ladies better.

My parents were so kind to help out with getting the boys off to school each morning since Matt was teaching seminary, watch Austin during the day, then help with the after school demands. Unfortunately Austin and Bryson weren't feeling well on Saturday with some fevers, and then Caleb threw-up Saturday afternoon (he said it was the combination of drinking a Fanta strawberry drink and then being outside for 2 back-to-back baseball scrimmages that caused it). I was hoping things would be a little easier for Matt, but for the most part, all went smoothly at home.