California Day 2–Santa Monica

We got up at 5 am and headed to Anaheim.  We got to the hotel around 9:30 and checked in and then headed to Costco to get tickets for Universal Studios.  Then we hopped on I5 and headed to the end of route 66 – Santa Monica Pier.
It was the perfect day, warm, with clear skies.

The kids hopped out of the car and ran to the beach (without their swimsuits)

Matt had to go put on some shorts and then he joined in the fun:

It was getting close to lunch time so we grabbed some burgers here:

After lunch, the kids got changed into their suits, and we headed to the end of the pier:

We walked around, looked at some shops, and came upon this historic sign:

The kids went back to the ocean and played around.  Jeremy even met a girl, Maya, whilst playing in the water:

Then everyone decided to bury Jeremy in the sand:

Even Maya joined in:
Gabby and I were set on going on the roller coaster and Ferris Wheel on the pier, so we left Matt and the little ones to mark something off our bucket lists:

Then we loaded up the car and headed back to Anaheim to get ready for our 8 o’clock reservation at Napa Rose.  Before the trip, Gabby said she wanted to try caviar, so after some research we found out that Napa Rose served caviar appetizers, along with some other interesting things:

It was a delicious dinner. 

Matt insisted on showing everyone his new “bald streak”

It was a fun relaxing day, filled with new experiences and a lot of new memories!!

California Day 1-Las Vegas

Sunday morning, Gabby came over and we headed to church.  After church we loaded up the car and headed to Las Vegas.  After 5 LONG hours in the car, we made it to Sam’s Town.  After we check in, we had to take a picture of the famous bear:

Then we headed down to Caesar's Palace to have dinner at:
 
It was very tasty, and of course, we had to have the world famous frozen hot chocolate:


And of course, it is not a trip to Vegas without visiting the Bellagio:

Then we snuck the under 18 children into the flower room.  It was Chinese New Year:

Then we headed back to the hotel since we were getting up early the next morning to head to Santa Monica Pier.