We thoroughly enjoyed our Fourth of July holiday in Milford. We started the day out with supporting the city by participating in the annual 5k Run/Walk. I have been running off and on this summer and wanted to see how I would measure up to other runners. So I ran my best and came out with a 23 minute race. I don't remember the last time I competed in a race and I'm not going lie, it felt so good to compete again (even though I burned my lungs a bit). Dallon was there at the end of the race to capture the intense finishes. Hopefully by this time next year we can fix his shin splits, so he can join in on the fun.
Next came the parade! We love watching all of the floats, performers, rides, and military men/women carrying the colors of our nation. MahLee danced with the rest of the cheerleaders. I'm not going to lie, it is really weird having a cheerleader in our sporty family, but to be honest, MahLee is such an incredible dancer! It will be interesting to watch her on the sidelines cheering. Aren't Akaydeh, Kinley, and Tay such cute dancers? Kam and Trex rode on the Primary Float and had a great time.
We had a great time at the park for all of the festivities. I was able to get my cotton candy fix for the year and I couldn't have been more excited. All of the kids participated in the annual kid races and here is a picture of Kam ready for his race. For our barbecue I was volunteered to make the deviled eggs.
Right before dusk, we participated in the new Ping Pong Ball Event. People buy bracelets and then Michael Mayer flies in his plane over the golf course and releases hundreds of ping pong balls. Each has a number on it and you can win some pretty great prizes. Dallon and I made out like bandits! We got a couple of free icees, yum, some free blizzards/frosties, a lamp, photo album, American fishing backpack, and half a pig, cut and wrapped! (a $150-$200 prize!)
When I found out that I had won the pig, I screamed for joy and went to find Dallon the great news. As soon as I told him, he got this really confused look on his face and said, "I don't know what that means." I explained how awesome the prize was and he was able to wrap his head around it and then came up to my excitement level.
And to round out this wonderful holiday, we thoroughly enjoyed our firework show at the park. We are so very grateful for the opportunity that we have to live in this country; to live in a place where we are free to choose for ourselves how to live.
Saturday the 5th, we packed up and headed to California for our summer vacation. For a couple of weeks, I put together some travel packs for the kids to help keep them occupied on our long road trip. Kam loved to traced his mazes, so that he could do them over and over again. Stocks was adorable as usual and was a asleep one minute, and then posing his face off the next. He definitely keeps everyone smiling and laughing. He is such a sweetheart!
The first day of our trip we headed to Huntington Beach for a little fun in the sun. It was quite the excursion to find the perfect place for the whole Tribe, but we made it to the beach and had a lot of fun. (Begonia Park was the place where we had lunch (a paradise if you will). Our KFC never tasted so good after trekking all over the coastline for a place to play at the beach).
Also, I always knew that Dallon liked the beach, but I never really knew just how much until we had to practically pry him and Jeep away from jumping through the waves. I don't think I've ever laughed so much in such a short amount of time at all of the tumbles we all took along the shoreline. It was definitely a great time.
Kam and Trex didn't really like the whole water scene, so they spent their time burying things, themselves, and other people. One of the best moments was when Kiana offered to bury Kam and Trex in the sand and she kept saying over and over again, don't move, the sand will get all messed up. So once they got done getting buried, they offered to bury Kiana. When they got done burying her, Kam leaned over Kiana and said, "Wanna get messed up?"
The next day, while everyone else chilled in Anaheim, Dallon and I went to Los Angeles to do some sight seeing. We rode the train through Southern California and enjoyed seeing the incredible scenery. We got to Union Station and rode The Metro down to Hollywood Boulevard.
While in Hollywood, we went on a tour of Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Hollywood Hills, Rodeo Drive, and of course Hollywood. There were so many great things to see! We went up to see the Hollywood sign and while we were there, we were able to get this amazing panorama picture of the Los Angeles Valley. It was a beautiful and clear day, so we were able to get great pictures.
We went around looking at different celebrities' houses like Wilt Chamberlain, Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, Jackie Chan, Katy Perry, Julia Roberts, Michael Jackson's, Robert DeNiro, Denzel Washington, and many others.
Oh and FYI, this picture of our tour bus includes Emma Stone's grandparents, aunt, and cousin! Before our tour started we overheard them talking about Emma and we didn't think it was real, but then the aunt explained that they were telling the truth. It was crazy! So our tour was pretty cool to say the least.
This picture of the Badgley Mischka store is the store that Julia Roberts went to in Pretty Woman! ("Big mistake, huge!")
Towards the end of the tour we got to see the House of Blues where Freaky Friday was filmed. Once we were dropped off on Hollywood Boulevard we headed to the Chinese Theatre where a ton of stars have their hand and footprints. We then went to the Wax Museum and had a great time posing next to the stars. Some of those statues were amazing and looked just like the real person....others not so much.
After the Wax Museum, we went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. There was a Jimmy Hendrix portrait made entirely out of guitar picks so Dallon had to get a picture with that and I posed next to the world's tallest man to see how I would measure up.
This is a picture of Capitol Records, where tons of famous artists have recorded major hit records. This other picture is the Metro Line Map. We became very familiar with this map throughout our week of traveling around Southern California.
Day two of Cali was dedicated to Disneyland! (Well, California Adventure). It was so much fun watching the little kids light up on the rides or whenever they would see a disney character. They kept us laughing throughout the entire day and made our day at Disney unforgettable.
Everyone had a buddy so that no one got lost and Kam would not let Dallon out of his sight the entire day. It was adorable. Oh and yay for matching backpacks! Also, how cute are all of those ears!
We LOVED Cars Land! It was so great! The ride was even cool for us older peeps. But it was THE best when Dallon rode with Kam during one of the rides and Kam was starstruck when Mater came. Dallon said his face was priceless.
Trex surprised everyone when he went on The Tower of Terror! He did NOT like it all btw. Daezia came out of the ride with him clinging to her. After he calmed down for a bit, he told us that he would never go on an elevator again, well one that had seats. Kam was devastated that he wasn't tall enough to go on that ride, but we explained just how scary it was and then he turned a complete 180 when he told us why it was THE scariest ride because of the ghosts.
The selfie with Tay was taken just after she head butted me to photo bomb the picture with Kam. I didn't even see it coming! So I had to take a picture of her to document the experience. I had to get a picture of Daezia and Frozone because her and Dallon love to quote his super suit lines.
After a long day, Dallon got some snuggles from Stocks. I don't know what it is, but Dallon can get Stocks to sleep within a matter of minutes! It is crazy, but completely adorable.
The adults went to dinner at Benihana and when we came back, we found Kam like this. He was completely exhausted!
The next day we rode the metro again to head to LA. We went to the Guinness Book of World Record Museum. We found the guy that Daezia could give a run for his money. (The World's Fastest Ketchup Drinker). I also got a great picture posing in the world's fattest man statue.
We ended up at Huntington Beach yet again, for another fun day of beach activities. The Spauldings, Daezia, MahLee, and Akaydeh met up with us after Disneyland.
The beach is sooooo gorgeous!! If we lived here, we would definitely come to the beach every day! (Durfey sand photo cred-Kiana Don)
Day four involved another Metro ride into LA. We traveled to China Town and found the restaurant where Rush Hour was filmed. Dallon loves Rush Hour, so we had to eat there of course. The orange chicken was DELICIOUS! Definitely worth the trip.
My favorite part of China Town was the swap meet....it was never-ending! We spent a good amount of time just wandering around, and I'm sure we didn't even make a dent in it. Our golden purchase was a hat for The Chief, (he's been wanting a hat like the ones on Mulan for years! So we became the favorites when we got him his very own).
We then headed to Little Tokyo to get us some Hi-Chew and sushi. We found the goldmine of sushi at Kula, it is a revolving sushi bar, best idea ever! We got to pick and choose a variety of delicious rolls, all at very reasonable prices. Success! While we were eating, I decided to look up some places where a few of our favorite movies/tv shows were filmed in LA. Little did we know, when we stopped at Little Tokyo, we were just a hop and skip from "The Loft"! (Where Nick, Jess, Coach, Schmidt, and Winston live in New Girl) So we walked on over and had a short photo shoot.
We were sad to pack up our things in Cali, but eager to head back to Utah. After a LONG day of traveling, and traffic being horrific, we stopped at the Nevade/California state line to hit up the Fashion Outlet Mall. We all found some killer deals on various products and walked away very happy with our purchases. We then got a couple hotel rooms at Buffalo Bills and spent the night. (I would highly recommend NOT staying at Buffalo Bills, no free wifi and everything closes at 6. Lame!)
One more photo from Benihanas....delicious food, great company!
Our summer vacation was epic and we had a great time! We were so grateful that we were able to spend time with some of our favorite people! We couldn't have asked for a better vacation.
Happiness is:
- Disneyland of course
- The Beach
- Great food and great people to share it with
- The laughter of our cute nieces and nephews
- Ear plugs, best invention ever.
- Road trips singing along to 90's Alternative/Pop
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