We're Going to Hollywood!

This is a little bit late but I had to still post about it. One Sunday night we were at my Grandma/pa Smith's house and someone casually asked me if I had decided to go to California with them. I thought it was a joke and said yeah! When we going? The answer was that we were leaving that Friday. So in five days! And they were being serious. My grandparents had a week at their time share in Escondido, California and wanted to know who could come. Pretty much none of the adults could come, they all had jobs or something dumb that kept them from being able to come. Well since my mom was currently unemployed and I didn't really have any obligations for the week, we talked to Braden and Annie and they decided that they didn't have any obligations either and we decided that we were all going to go to Cali! We had five days to get packed so we had to get going!

Grandpa and Grandma told us to pack lightly. We were so proud of how lightly we had packed. I was pretty much amazed at how much I didn't take that I wanted to...

Grandpa was not so impressed. He did not understand how we were going to get it all into the van.

Somehow they managed to fit everything in and got on the road! We had alot of fun on the way down. My favorite thing that we did was play school. We learned a lot about the desert while we played. It was so fun! We also stopped and stayed in a hotel about halfway there the first night. We got checked into our hotel and gambled the night away! It was great. I think if I remember right we only lost $9 total between the 6 of us for 4 hours of gambling. Pretty great entertainment! Grandpa forgot some of the rules that you have to follow while sitting at the table playing 21. We even got a song out of it... Hands off the table, hands off the table, looking like a fool with your hands on the table... We had more to it but I can't exactly remember it but it provided us with hours of laughter.

We finally made it to Lawrence Welk! Yay! There were times on the drive that I didn't know if we ever would. On Sunday night we went and walked around Old Town in San Diego. Speaking of San Diego, we got into a discussion about the true meaning of San Diego... Apparently the "older people" haven't seen Anchorman. Anyway...

Here we are at Old Town. It is pretty much just a bunch of shops filled with the same crap. But I have to admit that I totally get lost in the magic of shops filled with junk! I love them all!

The Mormon Battalion Center had just reopened after a huge remodeling. We went through the little tour. It was pretty great.

Brado and I panned for some gold. I had to teach him how to do it. Too bad it wasn't real because I was finding tons!

Grandpa "volunteered" to be the one to get dressed up as a soldier. He sure does look cute though!

We ended the night by driving to the San Diego temple. It is always such a beautiful one to see.

The next day we went to SeaWorld! I hadn't been there for years and it was great!

We had to have our usual churros! I do love them but Annie said that she wasn't too impressed.

I think that she liked it a lot better during this picture.

I think that I pretty much look exactly like a shark in this picture.

I loved these cute little penguins. They are Morgan's favorite animal and so I had to post a picture of them.

And Shamu! We watched the show Believe that starred Shamu and it really inspired me. If you just believe in your dreams, anything is possible!

And the next day was DiSnEyLaNd! I do love Disneyland! We only spent one day there, which I am NOT used to but it was so great because the place was virtually empty! I believe ther were only 2 or 3 rides that we even had to wait for!

Brado and my mom were too wimpie to go on Splash Mountain and so Annie and I went by ourselves. We wore our ponchos to "stay dry." That didn't quite happen though. We kind of got drenched!

Here are Brado and Annie eating our must have ice cream cookie sandwich! Mmm!

Here we all are waiting for some 3D ride, maybe Toy Story?

Apparently that is the end of my Disneyland photos but that was not the end of our day... So we were walking down Downtown Disney right out of Disneyland, just casually making our way to the shuttle to go back to our car when all the sudden we see this crowd of screaming girls. Since I usually love whatever 14-17 year old girls scream at I had to find out what was going on. I asked some lady coming from that direction if she knew what was happening and real casually and sarcastically she told me that Nick Jonas was up there and that I should start running. I thought she was probably lying but I decided to run just in case. Well at first when I got there this is all that I could see...

I couldn't exactly see what was going on from this point so I had to get up front! I don't exactly know how many children I stepped on or accidentally pushed out of the way.

Obviously I got right up to the front and obviously the lady was right! It was possibly one of the greatest events in my life thus far. He was giving a private concert to promote his new solo CD. It was so great! I really felt bad that Morgan was not there! She loves Nick so much!

The next day we went exploring the beach.

During our travels we found this new delicious restauant that is Baja Style Seafood. Mmm! I loved those greasy shrimp! They pretty much ruined my brand new sweats but the shrimp were pretty much worth it!

Annie and I had a photo shoot on the beach. We are pretty hot!

Braden and Annie having a special moment on the beach! Precious!

One disgusting thing that could make me cry if I look at this picture for too long is remembering these creepy huge rat/squirrel things. There were literally millions of them living on this hill. They were so gross and some of them almost tried to attack me when I tried to get closer. They were so gross!

One thing that was so great about Escondido was that there was a Chick-fil-a and an In-n-Out right next to each other. It was the best thing ever! So I got my Chick-fil-a and brought it over to In-n-Out. Everyone was happy!

They are really enjoying their animal style burgers!

The last day we went to some shops. They weren't the greatest but I did find this really great flower to take a picture with.

I loved California so much! It was such a fun trip and such a fun getaway! I am so glad that Grandpa and Grandma invited us to go with them! I can't wait to go again! One last thing that I found in our travels that pretty much sums up the way I feel about life...

Isn't that perfect? I am pretty sure that I need this sign so that everyone knows what mornings are for!