A Trip to California!

So last month Moira and I made the trip out to Pacific Palisades, California to visit my brother Tom and sister-in-law Allie. Tom is out there going to law school at Pepperdine.

The trip started out great, we met my parents in the airport on our way out and their way in from Alaska (they got to go on a cruise). It was nice to have them entertain Moira while we waited at the gate. Moira was so excited to go on a plane and luckily the flight to LA is just under 2 hours so it wasn't hard to keep her happy.

Our first full day there Moira and I went to visit Downtown Disney while Tom and Allie were at work. We had fun playing at the Lego store, Disney store and seeing the animals in the Rainforest Cafe. I wrote in my last post about how much Moira looooves the PVC Princess figurine set we bought at the Disney store, but I should mention she also loves Pirates. She found Pirate Mickey and Minnie and they were sword fighting (I did not teach her that). She played in the store for at least an hour, it was great!


After Tom and Allie got home from work we went to the beach. Moira looooves the beach and splashing in the waves. She has no fear and didn't even wince when she got salt water in her eyes (which I'm a big baby about). We would hold her hands and the wave would come in, then as it went out she would let her feet drag. Some nice little girls next to us shared their shovel and bucket and Moira had fun playing in the sand with them.
I have to say going to the beach on weekday was a lot more enjoyable than when we went later on the weekend. It was a lot more crowded on the weekend, Moira didn't seem to care though!
After the beach we went to Malibu Yogurt, where apparently there are occasional star sightings, but we didn't see any. It made me miss Golden Spoon, I had forgotten all the fun times of getting fro-yo at the mall and it brought back memories.

Saturday we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. The best part is watching the animals get fed. We saw the Seals and Sea Lions show where they do tricks for fish. In the picture Moira, Tom and Allie are watching the sharks in the petting pool get fed. Moira really enjoyed the many petting pools. She got to pet sea stars, sea anemone, crabs, little sharks and stingrays.
She was however startled when a stingray "attacked" her in the petting pool. She was leaning over the side with her arms in the water splashing and petting and Tom and Allie were standing behind her while I was around the corner taking pictures of them when out of nowhere a pointy wing stingray goes flying across the top of the pool and stops right in front of Moira with a big splash. It happened again a minute later only he went flying at me the 2nd time and it was a little scary. Then I heard a mom yell at her little boy, "Don't grab the tail again!" Dang kid!

After the aquarium we went to visit my Grandma S and her husband Jerry in Oceanside. We had a nice BBQ on their patio and enjoyed their fresh from the tree oranges and plums. It was nice to visit with them for the whole evening. It was a late night for Moira though, but luckily she slept on the 2 hour drive back to Tom's.

Sunday was nice, Moira loved going to nursery and was such a good girl. Tom and Allie have some mentionable people in their ward such as Ricky Schroder and Michael McLean (who played the organ), so there's my name dropping for the trip.


It was hard to say goodbye Monday morning, we had such a great time! Moira gave lots of hugs and kisses.
She was excited to go on the airplane again and it was a very nice ride except that she got a stinky diaper right after they turned the seat belt sign back on for landing so she didn't want to sit down. There was nothing I could do about it until we got off the plane, waited for our stroller at the gate, then made our way halfway down the terminal to the restroom.
After all that it was nice to see Rich waiting for us at the baggage claim, so good to be home!

Moira still talks about the trip and asks where Tom and Allie are. Just two days ago I heard her playing with her Princess toys and they were going on an airplane to visit Tom and Allie.