California Trip (Days 1-3)

The company Greg works for required all their contractors to take a week off in April. As a contractor, Greg doesn’t get paid vacation so we haven’t taken many vacation days as a result. However, since they were requiring him to take the week off, we figured we should take advantage of the time and take a trip. We enjoyed our last two trips to California so we decided to head out that direction again. This time, instead of flying or taking the train, we would drive. After our train trip west last fall, we knew there was a lot of beautiful scenery that we’d enjoy along the way.

Day 1 (Saturday, April 16)

Our first day’s drive was through the beautiful mountains of western Colorado and Eastern Utah. We did have to drive through some snow in Colorado but, other than that, the drive was pretty easy. We enjoyed the views very much and took advantage of a scenic view area in Utah to take some pictures.

The girls did pretty well in the car for 8ish hours. Adrianna is very helpful in handing Bree toys when she gets fussy and also will give her snacks if we ask her too. We have Bree still rear-facing in her car seat so she is very lucky to have such a helpful big sister in the backseat with her. Adrianna entertained herself with her crayons and notebook, her active imagination and also our DVD player.

We ended up staying the night at a nice Holiday Inn Express in Richfield, UT. This hotel had one of the best continental breakfasts ever, including warm cinnamon rolls, a pancake machine, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy and other various breakfast choices. While at the hotel, we also let Adrianna open one of her gifts from us: Super Mario Brothers pajamas. She LOVED them very much. So much, in fact, that she insisted on wearing them for the entirety of the next day as well.

Days 2 – 3 (Sunday, April 17 – Monday, April 18)

On Day 2 of our journey, we continued on through Utah, a small and very beautiful corner of Arizona and then on through Nevada. As we neared Las Vegas, we decided to visit the Hoover Dam since it wasn’t far off of our route.

On the picture above, you may notice Greg’s tight grip on Adrianna as he lets her look over the rail. I am so glad he is careful. I am scared of heights and the Hoover Dam has a lot of them. While we were there, a nearby couple with a young child was taking photos too. The wife then proceeded to place her young child, not much older than Bree, on the rail with only her arm around the child so the husband could take their photo that way. I am sure she had a tight grip on the child, but I let out an involuntary and very audible gasp as I saw it happen before my eyes and my hyper-active momma instincts took over my body. I am pretty sure they heard my alarm. It still gives me shivers thinking about it.

While we were there, it was very hot and we had one very fussy baby. She was not a happy camper after the long drive followed by the very dry heat.

Notice her Super Mario Brothers pajamas below?

Adrianna was very pleased that we let her use our new camera. I think she took a pretty good picture for us, don’t you?

After the Hoover Dam and a quick drive through Vegas, we determined that we were getting tired and the hour was getting late, so we decided to stay the night in Las Vegas instead of continuing on. We chose to stay at the South Point Casino, which ended up being the cheapest hotel stay of our trip. It had a 64 lane bowling alley, a movie theater and an amazing outdoor pool but unfortunately we were too tired to enjoy any of that. The major downside of the hotel was having to walk half a mile (not really, but it felt like it) through the huge casino from the parking garage to the hotel elevators. We did, however, enjoy the extra large room on the 21st floor and the cheap price. The girls played a game Adrianna likes to call “baby tag” which consists of Adrianna chasing Bree around and vice versa. We also watched The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on tv, which was very timely since we were/are reading the book and had brought it along on our trip.

On Monday, we ate brunch at IHOP before heading on our way to California.

We were very disappointed to find out that the hotel we loved in Carlsbad was booked up, so we decided to try a new place further north in Huntington Beach instead. Although we enjoyed the beach there the next day (more on that later), Greg and I both wholeheartedly agree that we liked Carlsbad much better. Carlsbad is more laid-back and the hotel itself was much nicer. Note to self: book early for Carlsbad next time!

Adrianna got to open her second present from us during this leg of the journey: a DVD copy of the new Disney movie, Tangled. I think she watched it at least three times over the duration of our trip.

More to come!