Long awaited post of the California Anniversary trip in August!!

Josh and I went on a really fun anniversary trip to California with My sis Karlie and her husband Paul, and My Brother Chace and his Lovely wife Julie. We left the kids at home with my parents and had so much fun for the 5 days that we were gone!!It was a road trip, and this was the first thing we saw as we climbed into Paul and Karlie's van! See the clever yellow wire holding up the laptop so we could watch movies? That was Pauls doing!We drove all day and finally stopped in Vegas where my mom had arranged for us to stay in one of her Trend West resorts! It was a really nice place! Thanks mom!Chace and Goolie!!!Us!I am so proud of this picture! I took it and it turned out awesome!Paul and Karlie! Ooohh!We all decided to go when Karlie won a trip to Disney Land and Invited us to go along with her! it happened to be around all of our wedding anniversaries.Chace and Julie's anniversary was August 5th which was the exact day we left! how fun!!Sweethearts!Honey Bunnies!Sweetie Pies!The Men! ha ha haha!!!The only thing that we went to see was the Bilagio fountains! They were beautiful!! We stayed long enough to see two water shows!We were all getting tired and still wanted to go swim at the resort so we left after the show ended.The swimming pool at the resort was so nice, and way fun! They had a lazy river, and we went wading on tubes for about an hour. we were splashing and dumping each other and causing quite a ruckus so I am sure that every one was glad when we decided to go play some water volleyball in the other pool! We played boys against girls and had a great time! it wasn't really easy but we all got a good work out I'm sure! We finished by sitting in the hot tub until the pool closed. we all showered did laundry and went to bed to wake up at 5 in the morning so we could drive the rest of the way to Disney Land. I couldn't help but take this picture of Josh, especially since he was the first one to zonk out! Arriving at Disney Land the first ride was rode was the swamp ride??? I have no Idea what it was called, but it was cool. I hadn't been on this ride since I was 12 years old! A picture of some of the cool things we saw during that ride!Can I just say that I totally LOVE Disney land and all the rides and princesses and characters!?!! No matter how old I get I still get excited about it! IT is just such a fun place that I don't know how you couldn't love it!!We rode on the Buzz Lightyear ride and shot at things with our Lazar guns. of course Josh beat me, but let me tell you on the toy story ride over in California adventure we were dang close, and that was a way better ride!!I totally loved the Star Wars simulator ride, and it seemed to me that I was the only one who didn't get sick on any of the rides when we were there! Correct me if I'm wrong.Chace, Julie, me and Karlie!Funny thing about this picture was that I was standing way behind so he looks big and I Look little!This is the Screamin roller coaster that we rode on 5 times! it goes from 0-60 in like 3 seconds. It was way Awesome and one of the funnest roller coasters I have ever been on!This is the picture of me, Karlie and Chace riding the roller coaster. Of course I knew where the camera was so I had to be crazy for the picture! Me and Josh in front of the Mickey mouse Farris wheel in California adventure!!We had to get Ice cream!and we had to pose all weird in front of the fake backdrop!Chace actually couldn't help but pretend like he was a ice cream eating giant trying to go to the movies!The Holly Wood tower of terror was one of the only rides that I held my breath on the majority of the time, and I felt like I was going to pass out when it finally stopped dropping us!My silly husband!Paul and HAPPY Karlie on the Indiana Jones ride!Indiana Jones is one of my favorite rides!The second day in California We went to Universal Studios! I am soooo glad that we went there!! IT was a blast and we got to see and do pretty much everything they had! This is Josh and I in front of the Jurassic park ride, that I of course bought a poncho for so that my hair would stay beautiful!!Can you see why?? just look at that splash! everyone was making fun of me, but I was happy because They all looked like they had been swimming in their clothes, and I was dry! Plus my bangs are oh-so important! hahahah!Josh with Alex the Lion!The set they used while filming The Grinch!This was one of the sets used in the movie War of the Worlds. They actually bought a perfectly good plane had it delivered and cut it open and ripped it to pieces for 1 scene in the movie! Can you imagine how much money that cost???Josh and the Incredible Hulk!Jason Bourn! Josh looks just as happy as I do...Strange.The animal show they did there was fantastic! All the animals that they use in the movies are sooooo cute! This monkey was darling and you could tell that he really loved his trainer! after he was done showing us what he could do he kept hugging and patting and kissing this guy! it was so cute!Spins a web any size, catches thieves just like flies! Watch out... here comes the Spider Man!!!The scary white shark that only my brother would still put his head in for a picture! too bad I didn't get that picture!Me and my sweetie in front of the Universal studios fountains!We went out on the strip next to Universal Studios to look at all the cool shops and get some dinner!We ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was Crazy LOUD and had weird lighting, but the food was really good! We ate with Chace and Julie, and got a really good Nacho appetizer! Then Josh and I shared a huge bacon cheese burger and fries! Yum!!A very bad shot of me in front of the restaurant.They had this cute Star Wars show at Disney Land the next morning that we watched for a few minutes!This is the outside of it's a small world. I know that everyone thinks this is a boring ride, but it is actually very neat! I really enjoyed it and I took like a hundred pictures, but I only posted a few!You should see all the cool stuff they have built throughout this little gondola style boat ride!Josh is trying to remove the sword from the stone, and although his muscles are rippeling it would not budge!We took this specifically for Draycin! He just Loves Cars!!This is in front of the Bear country log flume ride where everyone got their wish and I was the only one that got soaked! I covered my bangs though... so they still looked fabulous! ha ha ha!!I just Love this picture of us on the Holly Wood Tower of Terror! Karlie- Laughing, Me-SCREAMING!! Josh-smiling, and Chace waving to the cameras. was I the only one who knew what was coming???The last day at Disney Land we rode all the rides we wanted, and stayed to watch a parade and the show at the castle! It was a lot of fun! I especially liked when they had Tinker Bell fly over the castle with the fire works!!Here is a glimpse of mickey at the parade when they were dancing and singing!!

Josh and I on the old train roller coaster. so cute!

I had to make everyone think I was scared, especially because Josh has that oh no... I just crapped my pants look on his face!!

Over all the trip was a total blast and I enjoyed it all!! I can't wait to get back there and take the kids someday!! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

-Shari