Unexpectedly, we ended up having the Olsen Family Reunion in California this year. Normally we have it at Duck Creek by Cedar City, which I have loved, but of course I love my sunny California! The weather was so perfect, as always, not too hot and not too cold. The only downside was Sheldon being sick pretty much the whole trip. Sheldon has really bad timing when it comes to getting sick, but we still had a fun trip.
We were able to meet up with Sheldon's brother and his family for lunch and a trip to the park. The park was a really fun park, but absolutely no shade so the slides were all to hot to slide on.
After the park we had to go cool down and have some ice cream at Farrell's. I had never been there but it was a crazy party place. It felt like the waiters were always singing, there was a lot of birthdays and they even sang to us when we finished our ice cream, even though we didn't really finish it.
Halle was getting a little tired at this point and not very happy as you can tell from her face.
This is the 'trough' of ice cream we ordered. It was huge, but very delicious. We ordered cookie dough ice cream and Sheldon let me dig out all the chunks of cookie dough.
If you finish your trough of ice cream they sing to you and make you hold your nose like a piggy, then they give you ribbons. We didn't come close to finishing our ice cream, but they were nice enough to sing to us and give the kids ribbons.
We got to go to the beach twice while in Cali. It took Halle a little bit to get used to the sand, she wouldn't even touch it at first. But after a little while she would dig and play. Tucker was in heaven running around and chasing seagulls and knocking over my sandcastles.
I think I've posted on here about Sheldon's awesome power kite. It is so fun to fly but it wasn't quite windy enough at the beach.
My awesome sand castle I built. Yeah, it's not very cool, but Tucker doesn't let you build very much before he wants to knock it over.
It is tradition to bury Tucker in the sand, he loves it. Maybe next time we will be able to bury Halle. Since she was just starting to play in the sand we didn't think it would be a good idea to bury her.
Lots of fun at parks, the farmers market, and the pool at my parent's condo.
Although we couldn't make it to Disneyland, we did walk around Downtown Disney. The Lego Store is amazing of course and Tucker could have spent forever in there. I loved these muppet hats we found at one store. Tucker makes the funniest cheese faces sometimes.
We stayed at my Grandma Weather's house for 2 nights since it was closer to all the action and we didn't want to drive all the way back to my parents every night. Tucker and Halle loved all of my Grandma's stuffed animals.
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| I love this picture because it is cute of Tucker and Halle, but also because of Sheldon in the background blowing his nose. A Perfect example of what the trip was like for him, poor Sheldon. |
The USS Iowa just came into port by my parents house. If you are from Iowa it is free for you to tour the ship! Not that I know many people from Iowa, but just in case. We had fun touring the ship and it learning its history since it sailed in WWII and other wars.
For some reason I thought this picture was really funny. It's instructions on how to perform CPR and of course watch out for those loose dentures when performing CPR :)
This is the picture they take before you get on the ship. I love that it looks like Sheldon's head is getting blown off. And there's the condensed version of our trip, congratulations if you made it this far! It was lots of fun and we are counting down the days til the next reunion.
