LA Trip 2019

Nate & I wanted to go somewhere to give us a little break from the cold winter here, so we planned a long weekend trip out to California.  Nate's cousin, Alex, and his wife, Lisa, and their 2 year old son, Henry let us stay with them in Long Beach and it was so much fun!

We picked up Coby from preschool on Wednesday and headed straight to Chicago. 

Real life. Please stop wrestling on the airport floor 😝

We got checked in and had lots of time to kill...and the 2 big kids went crazy in the airport and I'm pretty sure no one on our flight was excited to be on the same flight as us. HAHA.

The flight was a little over 4 hours but the kids did great.  Kendry was a little squirmy, but thankfully there was an open middle seat next to me, so we had a little room to stretch out. 

We go into LA, got our car and headed to Alex & Lisa's... but of course stopped at In-n-Out for a late night snack at 10:30pm. We got there, chatted a little and then crashed around midnight (3am Indiana time).  

The next morning we took it easy around the house and then hit up a park to let the kids play. 

In the afternoon we went to the aquarium. They have a big shark exhibit that Jacoby was really looking forward to.

After the aquarium we hit up dinner and then after the kids went to bed, we had a little adult time just catching up with Alex & Lisa.  We tried to turn in early since we had a full day of Disney ahead on Friday.

Friday we woke up, got ready and were out the door by 8am. We spent all day at Disneyland...and I mean 13 hours, so really alllll day.

We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride which was probably the boys' favorite ride...they still talk about how they beat Zurg by shooting their lasers at him 😊

We also went on It's A Small World, the Jungle ride (I think it's supposed to be linked with Tarzan?) and killed time in lines by giving lots of hugs, wrestling 😰, and playing "Three on a Tree" haha.

We hit up Carsland (where Lightning McQueen and Mater drive on the road where you walk!) with a couple rides, walked Pixar Pier where we saw Buzz Lightyear and Mr. Potato Head, and ate lots of delicious food.

We got pictures with Donald Duck and Buzz Lightyear.  We saw Goofy earlier in the day around lunch time and I asked Jacoby if he wanted a picture with him and his reply? "I don't want a picture.  I don't even want to look at him.".... well OK then haha. 

We heard that the light and water show (horrible picture!) at Disneyland Park Adventure was really cool so we opted for that over the firework show at Disneyland, although we could still see some in the distance.  The light and water show was really unique and pretty impressive, but we didn't stay long because it started at 10pm (all 4 kids were asleep in the strollers), it was COLD, and we were so tired!  

After a full day of Disney on Friday, we decided to take is slow on Saturday.  We hung out and let the kids take longggg naps and then hit up another park, grabbed some coffee, met up with another one of Nate's cousins, Ariana, and then walked down to the beach. 

 It was evening and chilly but the kids ran around for a little bit and we got this gem of a picture. We loooove Alex, Lisa, & Henry and beg for them to move to Indiana often 😉

Sunday we got up, packed and headed to the airport to go home.  Maddox woke up with a cold and slept the ENTIRE flight, Jacoby watched a show and was so well behaved....and then Kendry, who is usually the easy one was a complete mess on the plane ride home.  This picture is before the plane took off.  It was rough, we survived, and I had 3 different people tell us "You guys are doing a great job, you do a great job parenting them, your kids are so sweet, etc".  It felt good to know people see our efforts...even if it feels like chaos! A little PSA...if you're traveling and see parents (especially if their baby is crying), don't be afraid to give words of encouragement.  Not criticism or "helpful tips", but just a "you're doing a great job" can really make the parents' feel better.

We got home at 11pm on Sunday night, dropped the kids in bed, got stuff ready for the Monday preschool hustle and crashed hard.

A whirlwind of a long weekend but it was perfect timing for a little first family of 5 getaway.

xox,

Naomi