The California Blog Post, or, where I flew with 3 kids by myself and lived to tell about it.

WARNING: OBSCENE AMOUNT OF PICTURES AHEAD!!!

We decided earlier in the year to go to California to have the girls take swimming lessons from my sister in law Karalynne. She teaches in Derrick’s mom’s backyard, so it was super convenient. I flew with all the girls by myself, since Derrick had to stay and work for a few more days until he could fly out. By himself. In peace. By himself. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the whole experience but everything went so great. The kids were amazing on the plane (thank you iPads!) and people were so helpful to me everywhere I went. I was prepared to cram all of us in a midsize SUV and AVIS surprised me with a free upgrade to a mini-van. Sweet! The whole process from check-in in Milwaukee to arrival at Evelyn’s house was flawless. So take that, naysayers!

We had a great time in California. The girls had an absolute blast playing with their cousins. They both cried the first few days of swimming lessons, but Summer quickly stopped and did great at learning how to swim. Hannah, however, cried every single day of her 8 day session, and didn’t really quite learn as much as she could have. When we weren’t in the pool (and we were quite a bit) we were having fun. Going to the Long Beach Aquarium, Griffith Park to ride horses and the carousel, seeing Monster’s U, going to the beach, celebrating Father’s Day, birthdays, visiting cousins, showing the temple where we got married, and eating all the west coast food we don’t get nearly often enough.

 In case you’re wondering, if you show up at Lawry’s without a reservation and the wait is 2 hours and you slip the hostess a $100 bill, yes, you will be seated within 3 minutes. First time trying veggies! Green beans! Look closely at Hannah’s face…A trip to Galco’s soda shop, where we picked up some fun sodas, including a cucumber flavored soda! In front of our usual beach house, which we didn’t rent this year. Tear. :( My little swimmers! A little mother/son piano lesson.