California trip

The last 2 weeks have been so crazy! The day after Christmas, Daniel and I drove out to Hollywood with my whole family. I was a little nervous about it to be honest. I wasn't sure about spending 24 hours for 6 days with my whole family. And Daniel and I hadn't had any time to ourselves since before Vegas. I was right to be nervous. It was stressful at times, and completely exhausting. It is nearly impossible to get 10 people from the age of 20 to 75 years old to agree on anything. Where to eat, what to do, what time to get up in the morning…. And to make it all worse was my Dad's terrible attitude. Every time something went a little wrong (which was often) he would throw a fit. Every time our huge 15 passenger van wouldn't fit in a tiny parking spot, every time everyone couldn't agree on where to eat, everytime the girls wanted to go shopping, everytime we got lost on the freeway. After acknowledging that, the trip was actually really fun at times. We went to Santa Monica pier which was just beautiful. We did a tiny bit of shopping here or there when we could convince everyone else to let us. We got to hang out with our cousins and get to know them and their new husbands better. We went to the Magic Castle and had a delicious dinner and watched some incredible magic shows. We drove to Long Beach and toured the Queen Mary and a really neat Russian Submarine. On the Queen Mary we took a haunted tour which I was very proud of myself for getting through. We spent a whole glorious day at Disneyland (without the over 60 crowd) that was absolutely incredible.

Actually, we drove to Disneyland one day and when we got there it was completely sold out. We went with both our cousins and though we wanted to leave at 8am, some circumstances beyond our control caused us to have to wait until about 9:30. Fighting LA traffic, we didn't get there until 10:30 or 11 and on the busiest week of the year, there was no way we could get tickets. So we ended up driving another hour back to Hollywood, picking up the older crowd and driving another hour to the Reagan library. It was so boring I was practically falling asleep on my feet (who cares about Ronald Reagan's 3rd grade class photo??) but the Air Force One was pretty cool. That morning I also ripped both pairs of jeans that I brought in the exact same spot- the crotch- in less than 2 hours. Which meant I needed to find some jeans quickly because we were going on the cruise before we were going back to Denver.

Another notable hiccup was the fact that our hotel lost water. Twice. Two mornings of the 6 we woke up to no water. I freaked out. I do not function well without a shower. The second time I put on my bathing suit, walked outside to the pool (in 50 degree weather) and dunked my head in. I shampooed it right there on the pool deck and rinsed it out. Everyone else made do with the pack of 24 water bottles we bought from the local grocery store. I'm making the whole trip sound terrible, but it really wasn't. There was some time that was really fun and no matter what it was good to spend time with my cousins and aunt and uncle who I don't get to see very often. After spending 5 days with them, we are all very happy they don't live closer. A few days a year is plenty.

Disneyland, however, was INCREDIBLE!! It was decorated for Christmas complete with a Christmas parade and fireworks show. We missed those, however, because it rained all day. It was a light drizzle, just enough to be a little irritating. I was kind of glad though because a lot of people left making the lines much much shorter. In fact, the longest line we waited in was about 30 minutes. Between Mike's iPhone app, which gave us live information about the wait on all rides, and the fast passes, we did really well. It's a Small World was everyone's favorite I think. They completely redo it for the holidays. The Haunted House was also completely redone for Christmas. It was like a whole new park! I was happy all day long, even with the rain. Because we got there at 7:30am that morning to get tickets, we were ready to leave at about 5:30. It was a fantastic day.

The next morning my family dropped me and Daniel off at the Cruise terminal where we sat on a bench overlooking the ocean until Daniel's family arrived. We got on the ship very early and were immediately served complimentary champagne. The cruise was so fun. We went kayaking on Catalina Island and saw a seal just a few yards away in the water. We went ATVing in Ensenada which was terrifying, but thrilling at the same time. It was a 3 1/2 hour tour through really rugged terrain and with every bump I thought I was going to fly off the back. By the end, I was completely covered in dust and mud. It was awesome! We also celebrated New Years with free champagne all night long. I have no idea how much I drank because they just kept topping off our glasses. Daniel and I danced and kissed and it was very romantic. We ate delicious food (as required on any cruise) and enjoyed time soaking in the hot tub. It was just perfect.

After all that traveling, we were sooooo ready to come home. Our new roommates Hope and Eric were moved in and waiting for us. We had tons of stuff to do in just a couple hours. We already missed the first day of class so we had to get ready to start the new quarter and unpack and do laundry and clean the house because it was pretty gross. We managed to squeeze in some time with friends that night and Daniel even went out to a bar. We have missed our friends so much over the break, and some of them had been abroad for months. Now we're trying to get back in to our routine and adjust to the frigid Denver winter weather. Today it's a high of 25 and snowing all day- tomorrow high of 15!! Brrr!! Next week I start my new job and I am really nervous for that. So it doesn't seem my life is going to get much calmer anytime soon. But I guess that's what college life is all about.