Move over Utah--HELLO California

Ok, so on Saturday, the 27th Richard and I decided to go to Cali on Tuesday the 30th. We didn't know until like noon on Monday the 29th if we were going to be able to go or not but alas my young friends we were able. Thanks to our well saved stimulus we were able to take a 4 night, 5 day vacation (if you would call it that) through Vegas and on to Disneyland.
Not that anyone cares but here is the story of our trip:
Tuesday we drove to Vegas and stayed in the Excalibur on the strip. I heard of all sorts of fun family things to do there so we went and checked them out. I'm sad to say everything was a flop except for the fountains at Bellagio which were so cool.
The next day we drove to Anaheim and stayed right across from Disneyland in the Portofino. It is supposed to have 1 seperate bedroom but we found that the glass sliding french doors with an inch gap doesn't provide any darkness or hardly and sound proofing to allow us to even watch a movie. Oh well. We got lots of rest...Except for the fact that the Geunter girl woke up every morning around 1-3 a.m. and required to sleep horizontally in our bed.
Anyway, that day we arrived in Cali we went to Newport Beach. Abi loved playing in the sand and chasing seagulls. Too bad it wasn't warm enough or else we would have stayed longer and would have played in the water.
The 3rd day was our day at Disneyland. First I must say that Abi was an angel driving down and trudging through crumy Las Vegas. She was wonderful! However, she was not so sweet on the day we went to Disneyland. She was so tired. She usually loves being scared and doesn't mind the dark or anything like that but she hated the rides at disneyland. We first went on the Carousel and she didn't care one way or the other about that. Then we went on pinochios adventure or whatever it's called and she screamed the whole way. Then we went on Dumbo and she didn't like the cold air in her face. We went on the circus train and that was all right. We went on It's a Small World which was all done in Christmas themes and she LOVED it. We then went to Toon town and met Mickey and she was ok with it.
We then went to lunch and she took a 30 minute nap after which we let her run around for a while in the hotel. After that we went to a 3D bug's life thing which we had to leave early and a little caterpillar train which she got scared in because she thought it was going to be bad just like everything else. We then went on the jungle cruise which she hated and then the tiki room which she actually liked. We watched the parade which was torture trying to keep her still to wait for and she liked quite a bit of it but she screamed when Santa came by (it was their Christmas parade). We left after that and let her run around the hotel room. We got some food and when we went back to the hotel, she kept climbing in her stroller because she wanted to go back to Disneyland. We were so through. We weren't going to attempt that again. The next day she found the disneyland tickets in Richard's wallet and she kept whining because she wanted to go back. Stinker is all I have to say.
Friday we went to the zoo in Santa Ana which she LOVED. They had a farm their and she said "Cow" when we saw the cows. She loved the monkeys. They were awesome. We went when they were getting fed and they were all so lively. We even rode on an Elephant (yup, a real live elephant). It was pretty cool. Abi got freaked out again though. Dr. Wise is right that there is just something about this age. We drove back to Vegas and stayed in the Hilton--which was way better than the excalibur. Saturday we drove back and got in late that night.
It was a nice vacation. I wish Abi had been happy the day we went to Disneyland. We just needed to get out of the house and we're again grateful for our Stimulus!!!
So, to the title of my post--if we could afford it, we would absolutely pack our bags today and move to California. We love the climate, the humidity, the beach and even the people. We had so much fun talking to locals and other vacationers. People were soooooo much friendlier in California than I have seen here in Utah. That's sad. Even in Vegas people with glazed over eyes held the door open for me or Richard as we pushed Abi around in the stroller. I can count only once in the last 6 months or so that someone in Utah has held the door open for me. That's pathetic. Even at the distribution center 2 weeks ago I had my arms full and was pushing Abi in the stroller and people walked right past me and wouldn't hold the door for 2 seconds longer. Anyway, if I had my way we'd be out of Utah in a milisecond.

Abi and Daddy in Vegas

Mommy & Abi at the Bellagio

Abi at the Beach

Abi and Daddy on Dumbo

The Castle all decked out for winter

Abi loved this piano which made some pretty sweet sounds.

Abi, Daddy, and Mickey

Abi learned that each hotel has paper and pens just waiting for her to use.

Abi liked the goat. Her favorite was the cows and the monkeys.

Why only these pictures??? Because the Not So Cool camera we recently acquired scrambled the data on 1/3 of my pictures (which were mostly from the zoo where Abi was the happiest) and so I lost 1/3 of my pictures!