Wow! That was a great trip! We left on July 2 and drove to Bend, OR on day one and stayed the night. I thought I could grab some beer from Deschutes Brewery Pub, but I was wrong. I worked a midnight the night before and was exhausted. Thus, I just crashed around 8pm. We then drove to Granite Bay, CA to visit my Aunt and Uncle. The views of Mount Shasta were amazing!

Then on the 4th of July we drove to my cousin Jill’s house in Huntington Beach. She has 2 girls close to our kid’s ages and it was awesome! I can’t thank her and Greg enough for opening their home to us. We were so tired when we arrived, we skipped out on fireworks. We did eat some In and Out Burger that evening. Yum!

The following day we headed to Pretend City – Children’s Museum and let the kids stretch their legs and play for several hours. Then we headed back for naps. Later that evening we at some mexican food at Wahoos in downtown Huntington. We even walked down to the beach and got our feet wet in the ocean right by the pier.

Tuesday we hit Disneyland…early. Great times and lots of smiles and wow’s from the kids. Even Lisa and I really enjoyed it. Awesome! The kids were exhausted by 4pm and we finally left around 6pm.

Wednesday we visited with another Aunt and Uncle in Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills. One of my cusins joined us for lunch. His daughter was there to entertain the kids and she even had some old toys the girls could play with. It was great because we could really sit and visit with others while the kids played. We had a takeout lunch from a place called Appetizers… apparently well known in that area. It was tasty! Then we left around 1 pm so the kids could sleep. We drove around my old neighborhood in  Torrance, then made a drive to where my Grandparents used to live in Lawndale/Hawthorne. Brings back lots of great memories. Then we met my cousin at his home and then had dinner at Ruby’s (a 50’s diner that serves really yummy cinnamon French Toast…even for dinner).

Thursday we headed out to Huntington Beach with my cousin and her daughters. Had a picnic and everything. More great photos were taken…Thanks Jill! After the beach, another cousin came over to visit at Jill’s home. We ate dinner and continued visiting well into the night.

Friday we drove to Riverside to visit my Grandma (dad’s mother) and took her to breakfast. Not sure that the coffee was hot enough for her. She likes near boiling coffee. Anyway – I had a delicious breakfast and the coffee was pretty good too. After breakfast we dropped Grandma back at her place and said goodbye, then headed back toward Sacramento. We only made it to Santa Nella off I-5. Saturday we drove into Bend and then made it back to Spokane on Sunday.

The kids did really great in the car. If it weren’t for Lisa – the kids may not have had such a great time.