Day THREE

Day three of our California trip was on a Sunday. Aaah, a day of rest. Sort of. As much as you can rest on a vacation.

The day started with Sacrament meeting at 9:00 am. This was the main reason we came down to California- to hear Bob and Wendy speak. The meeting was beautiful and they both did superb. I especially loved having Jacob sit with us in Sacrament meeting- that hasn't happened in over 2 months! Which is good, Ty only lasted so long before I had to make an exit with the little squirmer and Jacob could stay with the girls.

I have never taken the time to stop and really think about what a sacrifice it is for an adult couple to go on a mission. Especially a mission for 23 months. They love their grandkids dearly and are very close with them, so leaving them was a big deal. Bob has a successful business that he is trusting is being left in good hands. They are heading to a third world country that is plagued with poverty and crime, and lacks many (if not most) of the conveniences we take for granted daily. But to hear them speak of their resolve to serve, and of their faith in what they are doing and especially who they are serving, was so inspiring. After the meeting, they immediately were set apart as official missionaries! What a great experience to be part of.

Some good friends of theirs were hosting an open house for them later that afternoon, so for our in-between time, we went over to AnnMarie's (Wendy's daughter) house for a bit and let Ty take a snooze. Oh the joys of working around naps. But, it's best to let him get some sleep rather than suffer the consequences.

Oh, I've forgotten to mention the absolute star of the whole trip: our good friend Nueva. AKA the GPS. I have no idea how her name evolved, but somewhere along the line Jacob has named our GPS Nueva. Perhaps it's so named because of the friendly lady who so accurately takes us to where we're going. Random, I know. To make me feel somewhat normal, I'm just going to assume that most families come up with their own silly little querks, and Nueva is one (of the many) of ours. If it weren't for her, we would have been absolutely lost in California. It was so nice to just enter in an address and go right to it. LOVED it. She saved us oodles of time and stress.

So, thanks to our trusty Nueva, we made our way across town to the open house. It was so fun to watch Bob and Wendy interact with all their friends. It is obvious they are well loved and will be dearly missed. I always love sitting back and watching people. I try to take little lessons on how to interact with people.

The house we were at was beautiful, but the back "yard" was breathtaking. "Yard" is in quotes because the word eludes to an area having grass. Instead of grass, you look out to see this on the left:


And this to the right:


And the patio:


Oh, it was beautiful. It was so fun to sit and relax and enjoy the view. The girls of course were enamored with the hot tub that was out there. They stood on the edge of it looking into the water that was just calling to them.



Little by little they got closer and closer until finally they just couldn't stand it anymore and put their feet in. Couple of cute little ladies, don'tcha think?


Jacob trying his best to occupy Ty man and keep him out of trouble:


On the right is Bob and Wendy. They are with Wendy's daughter, AnnMarie, her husband, Adam, and their kids. We had so much fun with them.


And of course our family with Bob and Wendy:


Jacob and Bob:

It soon came time for us to bid farewell and head on over to start the last leg of our trip: DISNEYLAND! Yay! We simply typed "the happiest place on earth" into Nueva and within a half hour we were at our hotel. It was AWESOME to say the least.

The highlight of our entrance into our room was of course the bunkbeds for the girls. They immediately had to climb up and scope out their new territory for the next 3 nights:


The room had a spectacular view which looked right out onto the California Adventure Park. The red-and-white checkered building is the Soaring Over California ride, and the tower in the back center is the Tower of Terror ride.


We had a little table and chairs out there that of course the girls instantly wanted to climb up on so they could see out. Needless to say this made me beyond nervous and they soon learned that they could NOT climb up and hang over the banister or mom would pretty much freak out. Here's Allie scoping out the view:

The slight bummer of the night was that we were scheduled to have what's called a "character call" where Buzz and Woody were supposed to call them up and welcome them to Disneyland, but for whatever reason the call failed. Boo. Oh well, the girls never knew about it so couldn't be disappointed it didn't happen.

Since we didn't have tickets to the parks until Monday, we just spent the evening relaxing and checking out the area. We of course made our way out to Downtown Disney which is right outside the parks and it was fun to get a little taste of what was to come. Especially a little taste of how expensive everything is in the land of Disney. Jacob is still reeling over the fact that he paid over $12 for 3 ice cream cones. Guess that's what you get when you buy ice cream on Sunday. However, I'm pretty sure it was just as expensive on Monday. But, it's hard to escape the Israelsen ice cream gene. It's dominance puts ice cream more of a necessity rather than a want. The girls have obviously inherited it.


Then it was back to our room to rest up for Disneyland Day 1.

Stay tuned!