Friday, March 29, 2013

Spring Break Part 2: Anaheim & Newport Beach, CA

We returned from Houston on Tuesday night and made our way back to the airport on Wednesday morning for our next spring break stop: Southern California.  Serendipitously, my Aunt Jana had coordinated a Disneyland adventure with my parents and grandparents that happened to be at the same time as Jonathan's spring break.  They were kind to let us join in on their fun.

The first two and a half days were spent at the happiest place on earth.  Jonathan and I hadn't been to Disneyland in well over 10 years (that makes us sound old...), so it was fun to walk around and re-experience everything all over again.  Admittedly, we aren't Disneyland fanatics.  I think it will be more enjoyable a few years down the road when we have kids old enough to understand what is actually going on.  Let's face it - Lucy wouldn't have known the difference if we walked around Costco for 3 days straight!


Lucky for Lucy, she did get in on some of the rides: The Little Mermaid (pictured below - especially love the hands up pic, how did she know to do that?), Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, and It's a Small World.  I loved watching her face as we rode with her - she was so confused and intrigued by what was happening.



Okay, the churro picture deserves some explaining.  When I was about 7 or 8 my parents surprised my sister and I by taking us to Disneyland.  I don't remember much about it, other than the excitement of the surprise, but one thing I definitively remember is that my dad would not buy me a churro.  So, to make up for that tragic childhood memory, my dad offered to buy me a churro at every single churro stand we passed in the park.  And I took him up on it a couple times!






Our families rented a house during our stay in California, and it came equipped with a swimming pool in the backyard.  It brought back fond memories of the house I grew up in in Northern California.  Lucy loved being in the water - the weather and water temperature was perfect.  Poor girl didn't love all of the sunscreen I lathered on her!




And now for my favorite part of the trip - the beach!  If you know anything about me, you know that the beach is my happiest place on earth.  Not much beats a warm, sunny day on the sand with waves crashing around you.  Lucy did a pretty good job playing on a blanket with some sand toys.  Towards the end she experimented with eating the sand and decided she didn't like it so much.









Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Spring Break Part 1: Houston, TX

One of the major perks of being students again is that we get spring break - at least for the first year of Medical School!  I highly doubt we have this kind of time off in the subsequent years, so we took full advantage of having an entire week off together.

Our first stop was Houston, TX where we spent nearly 4 days with Scott & Jessica (Jonathan's favorite sister) and their cute kids.  As soon as we arrived, we hopped off the airplane and went straight to the heart of Texas - the rodeo!  We didn't actually see the rodeo as that was taking place the following week, but we did have fun walking around the grounds and riding carnival rides.  Lucy even sported her purple cowgirl boots, a gift from the McKays that they picked up at the rodeo last year.  I can't even tell you how many people stopped to comment on the boots.  They were the hit of the night!






Lucy absolutely loved all of the attention her cousins graciously gave her.  Anne, Megan, Riggs and Naomi had to give little to no effort to get little Lucy to smile, laugh or play with them.  I absolutely loved watching them interact.  Children truly have a gift when it comes to being with little babies - especially these darling cousins.







The rest of our visit was very low key and exactly what we needed!  We ate Jessica's homemade bread (so good!) and delicious TexMex.  We watched the kids tumble their way through gymnastics class.  We ran errands, went to church, walked through a park and spent the evenings talking with Scott & Jess.  The weather was perfect, and the company was even better.  

Thank you McKay family for a wonderful visit!!  We can't wait to see you again this summer!