California Day 1
California!
You guys!!! We are in Cali! I cannot believe that I can even type that.
Y’all know we’re trying to get the kids to all 50 states. The kids also had never been on an airplane. We always knew we would get them on a plane but had no idea when we were going to do that.
Thankfully (Thank you, Jesus!) this all came together seamlessly so we could all go to Cali with Nick for work.
How amazing is God that He gives us the desires of our heart? I am in so awe of that.
So Day 1 was incredible. I was so worried that traveling with the kids would be stressful or something would go wrong but it all went really well.
We drove to Chicago to take a non-stop flight from O’Hare to LAX. So right there I said it…we were traveling in 2 of the biggest and craziest airports in the world.
We also packed everything in basically carry-ons. We had one bag that we checked but other than that we all had one carry-on and one personal item.
We did have a tiny delay when Calvin’s backpack got detained for security to look through further. We learned that nothing freaks out a Calvin faster than detaining his Hobbes for inspection. Thankfully we were on our way in just a jif with Calvin and Hobbes safely reunited.
When we got on the airplane we discovered the free movies that were offered. Nick sat with Emma and I sat with Cal so the kids could each have a window seat for their first flight ever! It was wonderful and so delightful to see his little face when we took off and when we got above the clouds. It was a very bumpy flight. So much so that the pilot got on at one point to assure us there was nothing wrong with the plane, ha. Even with that Calvin randomly said to me “I really like flying”. Little did I know that Emma was two rows behind us not having such a great time. She was one of those flyers that had to puke into a bag. Poor little thing. But other than that we all did great.
When we arrived in LA we retrieved our luggage, got our rental car (Hertz is amazing BTW!) and we were off! It was so great to be in LA after the dreariness of Indiana…even if it was raining when we arrived in Cali.
We quickly found a place for lunch…where else but In-N-Out? It was so yummy and the kids loved it! It was just what the doctor ordered after a long morning of driving and flying. We did have to eat in the car because 1) it was pouring out and 2) there were a kajillion people in the restaurant, so we decided eating in the car was the way to go.
That was Calvin’s burger by the way. We’ve entered that stage where boys can eat you out of house and home. Where Emma, Nick and I order at a restaurant and then we just tell them to double everything and bring it for Calvin. How one teeny little boy can eat so much food is beyond me.
And then we were off to Fresno! We were able to make some stops along the way to break up the 5 hour drive.
First we stopped in Bakersfield to get groceries at Trader Joes. The kids were so cute looking through planters at the shopping plaza. “Look Mom, a roly-poly! Ants!” You can tell we definitely were in the dolldrums of winter back at home for us to be amazed by bugs!
Then we stopped along the side of the road to check out the amazing almond trees in blossom. It was so lovely to see that we just had to stop and get some photos. You have no idea how much I wanted to make Emma change into her Matilda Jane dress but I fought the urge to not be a spazz mom and didn’t make her change. Y’all should be proud of me.
After that it was back on the road for the rest of our trip. We made it to Fresno just in time for dinner. And where did the kids want to eat? Sweet Tomato’s. Have you ever been there? It’s a soup and salad buffet. We used to have two or three of them by us but they’ve gone out of business. The kids were like, spastic, when we told them there was one nearby. So of all the cool places to eat we landed on…Sweet Tomato’s. It was good though and we had a good time. It’s always fun to try new things and to see what varieties of soup they have or specialty salads.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and guess what? We went to bed. Yep, it was 8:00 and we all went to bed. But back home it was 11:00 so we were all tired since we had woken up at 5!
And we all decided it was a good idea to get a good night’s sleep since the next day we are headed for…Yosemite!
Can’t wait! Day 1 was fun and fairly stress free except for the fact that the children bickered and argued the entire day. To the point that Nick was using adages like “don’t make me pull this car over” We should earn some type of award for successfully traveling with preteen children who don’t like the others tone. Oh Lord. As you can see below, we look a bit frazzled.
Oh and last but not least we found where Halos come from! You can share with your kids that we found Halo Heaven! Isn’t it just the cutest?
And that was Day 1! I don’t think you can’t ask for much more out of a first day!
Now…onto Yosemite!