California Love. . .

So for this last Christmas in the Whitesides family a decision was made. Jay and Peggy would not be giving the couples presents, but instead would pay for lodging for a family vacation. Well after MUCH deliberation it was decided that southern California was the place to be! So this trip will be broken up into two segments: the trip as a whole and then DisneyLand. (I told Josh that there was NO way I was going to be that close to DisneyLand and NOT take Cannon.  So that's what our trip was centered on.) Jay and Peggy rented out a beach house in Sunset Beach and it was just perfect for our family. Every one who decided to go included: Me, Josh, Cannon, Jay, Peggy, Nick, Ben, Ness, Jayben, Lincoln, Jona, Gloria, Zoe, Desi, Kia, Helaman, Ammon, Cass, Tay and Scarlett. Everybody arrived in California the same day but we all left at different times for what worked best with all our different schedules. So I will just be describing mostly what mine and Josh's little family did. 

Day 1: Arrive in California!

When arranging the trip Josh and I were the first ones to actually book our flight. Janessa had found an awesome deal on Jet Blue that we couldn't pass up. It was $49 one way from SLC to Longbeach Airport! So we flew separate from everybody else, and our flight was a couple of hours earlier. Cannon was SO excited to fly on an airplane and I was super nervous and prepared for a temper tantrum but he did AMAZINGLY well! As you can see we bought him a donut for breakfast and he was happy! The best thing about flying Jet Blue is that every seat has a TV so he just watched Cartoons the whole flight! (You can also notice my pregnant belly. Feeling well in my second trimester!)

Since we arrived earlier than everybody else we couldn't check into the hotel (we spent the first night in a hotel) so we met up with Vic, Catherine and Shelley. Yes.. Shelley was able to arrange a business trip around our vacation so she could come and spend a couple of days with us! So we had to wait for Vic to pick up Shelley at the LA Airport before we could meet up with them. So in the mean time, after renting our car, we drove around Seal Beach and went to a farmer's market. We then met up with Shelley, Vic and Catherine at Catherine's apartment and ate lunch. After eating some yummy tacos Vic and Catherine took us to Laguna Beach. It was actually pretty warm and we had a blast! Cannon was able to see a hermit crab and some star fish! At first he was a little scared of the waves but then after holding Josh's hand he thought it was fun. Side-note: Aren't Vic and Catherine such a cute couple! I REALLY like her... hint hint Vic! ;) 

After hanging out with them we went and met up with the Whitesides clan and checked into our hotel. Shelley stayed with us the next two nights and we (Me, Josh, Cannon and Shelley) had a room to ourselves. Then for dinner Vic and Catherine took us all to a yummy BBQ restaurant and Aunt Deb was able to meet up with us too! So much fun to be with family!!

Day 2: Shopping

Day two started out with eating breakfast at the hotel, continental of course. Then we were able to drop our luggage off at the beach house while we headed out to explore.

 Cannon obviously slept well in the hotel bed. I'm not sure I can say the same thing for Josh, who shared a bed with him. 

We ate lunch at a burger grill place, we were able to eat outside and enjoy the warmer weather! 

After eating lunch we followed Jona and Gloria's idea of going to the LA Fashion District for some good shopping deals. They are cheap markets and we had a lot of fun shopping. Peggy found a shop that had darling baby girl dresses for a really good deal. So... I bought 4 and Shelley bought 1 for my little Hazyl. (Oh yeah that's the name we have decided on, by-the-way.) We ended up shopping the day away and then hit traffic on our way home. Cannon was all tuckered out. ..

Once arriving back in the Sunset Beach area Shell, Josh, Cannon and I ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. It was SO small and we were the only customers but it was SUPER yummy!

Days 3-5 we spent at DisneyLand so I will post about those separately, otherwise this would be the world's longest blog post!

Day 5: Last Half of the Day

The third day we only spent half of it at DisneyLand and then we headed back to the Beach House. I thought it was too cold to head to the beach but Cannon and Josh wanted to go, so we went. (And yes I was right... it was too cold. At least for me.) We still had fun and ate some hot dogs on the beach and Cannon dug in the sand and found sea shells. 

The last night we were there Ben and Ness had left and so had Jona and Gloria, so we were able to spread out a little more and each couple had our own room. Cannon and Josh shared a bed that night. They sleep the exact same! I was trying to capture it with the next pictures. Oh how I love my boys. 

Josh and I left the following morning, March 16th. We made it just in time for our flight.. walked right onto the plane. Again Cannon did amazing on the flight and Dave was nice enough to pick us up from the airport. It was an exhausting but FUN trip!