Our California Adventure!

As many of you may know, Jer and I went to California last week to celebrate our recent graduation. My parents very generously helped us with travel to get there and then bought us 2-day park hoppers to Disneyland and California Adventure. Needless to say, the combination of time with family, beautiful Santa Barbara, and Disneyland was more than heavenly.

One purpose for coming was to see Anna in her play Tarzan at her high school (my previous stomping grounds.) The play was spectacular and Anna did an AMAZING job as the leopard, gorilla and some sort of half animal called an Okapi :o).

 This was the first time Broadway had released the rights to a West-Coast High School to do the play and they went all out. They brought in pros from L.A. and everywhere to make this possible, just look at the costumes, props and scenery.

 And here we are! So fun to finally be able to support each other. We have both been so busy with our separate commitments that Anna and I have hardly been able to come see each other perform. This was a treat to say the least.

Before we hit up D-Land we hit up one of our favorite Spots:

The Habit in Old Town Goleta. This is one restaurant that was a regular hang out for my friends and I (pretty much all of them worked there except me :o)) There is never a trip to SB that goes by where we don't visit this blessed joint.

We spent a wonderful Sunday with my family and then headed out to good ol' Anaheim. Jer's Aunt and Uncle Kim and John were so generous to let us stay with them in Corona while we spent our two days at the parks. It was really fun to visit with them for a little while on Sunday night.

We chose to do a full day in each park because we figured that would be most time-efficient. The weather was awesome, not too hot and not too cold and the lines were amazing! We literally did not wait in line for more than 30 minutes and that only happened once!

 This picture deserves an explanation: Ever heard of the "Spot the Mormon" game? Kim and John told us you can spot any Mormon at a theme park because they will be wearing some sort of BYU attire, matching T-shirts etc. As we walked into the park and I put on my jacket I realized, "Wow, I'm one of them!" haha, and proud of it!

By the way, it was totally true, all day people were like "Go BYU!" Or, "do you know so, and so who was on the ballroom team?" Or, "Love your jacket, we're LDS too!" It's great to know you're never alone. :o)

 Jer, in line for his favorite ride: Indiana Jones. We did this one twice!

 Splash Mountain. We got COMPLETELY soaked. I've never gotten that soaked on Splash Mountain before. Good thing it was early in the day.

 We got a lot of treats our first day. This was Jer's favorite, plus a Coke. :o)

 Check out the resemblance! I just love this, so hilarious.

 Star Tours.

Autopia! And an end to a wonderful (and exhausting) day.

California (Adventure) Here We Come!

 First ride of the day. Grizzly Rapids. Nice and dry.

 After the ride. Completely soaked. I was the special guest who got to take the brunt of the splashing that came into our raft.

 Our favorite part of the park. Balboa Pier.

 We went on CA Screamin' twice and I had to laugh at the fact that my face and body language is EXACTLY the same in both pictures.

 Screamin was probably our favorite ride tied with Soarin Over CA. Both very different but SO awesome.

 A super fun interactive game ride Toy Story Themed.

 And our final ride of the day. Tower of Terror. I've been on it before but for some reason I built up this huge fear, it literally took me the whole day to muster up the courage to get on it again. I was definitely screaming with terror. But it ended up being fun, as rides tend to be. :o)

 

Goodbye Disneyland! Until next time!

 When we got back to SB, the following day we picked up Anna during her lunch break at school and took her to lunch. We met up with these cuties. Andi, one of my best friends from growing up and her little sis, Danica or as we always called her, DD. These are our mini me's. They are literally our twins from when we were in high school.

 Among other delicious places we ate while on our trip, Blenders was one of our faves and became kind of an obsession. For those of you who don't know, it's like Jamba but WAY better. We literally went there 4 times while we were in SB.

 We got to go to Hidden Oaks golf course and Jer golfed while....

 I caddied and kept score! It was a lovely day and a great walk through the scenery.

 And, as all trips do, ours ended all too soon. We were sad to leave but we'll be back!

Can anyone guess who this studly muffin is in the picture above? Jer took this picture of a picture at our house and I thought it was too good to pass up!

Yep, that's my dad in his rough and tumble wilderness days. Whouda thunk? :o)

Well Jer and I are back and have already jumped back into work and it feels good. On to new adventures!