For spring break this year we wanted to do something fun. Neither of us had really ever done anything for spring break before, and since this is Lindsay's last spring break before she graduates, we figured we had to make it count! We didn't have very much money, and so we figured we would do something simple and cheap...like Vegas.
But then a week before spring break our friend Fillup called and asked us if we wanted to go to California with him and his roommates! We were both soo excited! We immediately sat down and made a list of what we would be doing there, and how much it would cost. We wanted a rough estimate of how much the trip would be, but both of us would be willing to go without groceries to go to California.
The week before spring break we were so excited. All we could think about was going to Cali.
Finally the time came to go on our trip. We packed up all of our swimming suits, shorts, and tank tops and couldn't wait to say peace out to this cold Utah weather.
On Sunday morning Fillup and Matty Patty Cakes (MPC) picked us up. On our way to California we stopped in Provo because Fillup's brother was blessing his baby. It was fun to go to church on our way, and Fillups sister was hillarious. When we left Provo it was raining, and we couldn't be more happy to leave Utah!
On our trip we kept track of the top 6 moments of the day, so we'll start with those. It should give a pretty good outline of our trip! Warning: this post is probably going to be extremely long, and probably have a lot of pictures.
The top six moments of Sunday:
1. Leaving Utah- I already explained above why we were so excited to get outta this state!
2. Warm weather in St. George- We stopped in St. George for gas and it was sooo sunny and warm! We could picture ourselves living there some day.
3. Being in 4 states in one day- Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California
4. Stopping in Barstow, California- We stopped in Barstow for gas on our way. I am sure this is probably a wonderful city, but we just stopped in the wrong part of it. We went in the gas station to use the restroom while the boys got gas, and it was a pretty scary experience. The people in there were less than friendly, and very intimidating. There were a few women in the bathroom that really freaked us out, and we were excited to move on to Anaheim! You are probably wondering why this is one of our top moments of the day, but it was actually pretty funny.
5. MPC driving 11 hours straight, and the rest of us taking naps in the car- MPC didn't want anyone else to drive, so he drove the entire way to California. Which is fine if he wants to do that, but it probably sucked because the rest of us just slept. Fillup would sleep for like 3 hours at a time, and we would sleep for probably a half hour, every hour.
6. Arriving in California and exploring the Garden Walk and watching the Disneyland fireworks- Right next to our hotel was this outdoor shopping center called the Garden Walk. It was really cool, it had two levels with a lot of clothing stores and restaurants. There was even a movie theater in it! It was the perfect place to walk around! While we were walking around that night we were close enough to see Disneyland's fireworks. It was so fun to watch them, and really got us even more excited for our vacation!
Stopping in warm St. George! Also, we wear sweatpants under our skirts/dresses.
The Chevron that we stopped at in St. George. We were really documenting everything at this point.
The boys ready to go!
Our first night in California! California Girls!
Our first dinner in Cali at Johnny Rockets! It was so yummy and the waiter gave us smiley faces :)
On Monday our plan was to go to Knots Berry Farm. I think the only one that had been there was MPC so we were all pretty excited. When we drove up to it you could see the huge, and I mean HUGE roller coasters from the street. This is no Lagoon. These rides are serious. Lindsay was pretty freaked out, and was already pointing out the ones she wasn't going to ride...but everyone ended up riding all of them and they were all really fun! Sadly, by the afternoon Fillup got sick, and finished the rest of the day napping in the car. We happened to run into a boy that goes to our school and all of his friends got sick too so he rode rides with us for awhile.
The top six moments of Monday (these are in a specific order):
1. Getting four free park hopper tickets to Disneyland/California Adventure: on Monday night we decided to get into the hot tub at our hotel. There was a family in the hot tub (a dad, mom, and two kids) and we started talking to them. They were from Alaska and told us a lot of cool stories. We talked about our trip, and they told us about theirs. We talked about school and their lives in Alaska. It was really fun and interesting! Then another family came into the hot tub (a dad, mom, and two kids, again). This family was a little more quiet, but they eventually started to talk to all of us. They were from Canada. We asked them about their trip to California, what they had done and when they were leaving. They told us they were leaving the next day. They asked us what we were doing in California and asked when we got there and when we were going to leave. When we told them that we weren't leaving until Thursday they told us that they had bought 4 day park hopper passes for Disneyland and California Adventure, but they were only able to use three of the days, meaning there was still a day left on each of their passes. They told us that we could have them if we wanted them, but that they only had four passes. We were all stunned and just sat in silence, surprised and excited. There were four of us, and they had four passes! We were so excited! They told us we could come up to their hotel room and get them if we wanted them. It worked out perfectly because we had no plans for Wednesday, and those tickets were worth around $91 each. We were so grateful for the kindness of these complete strangers! They made our trip so much better! In return, we gave them a nice thank you not and a handful of laffy taffys. That was about all we had to give.
2. Photo shoot at Knots Berry Farm: When we walked into the park there were a bunch of people standing there waiting to take you picture. Its a good thing they have going, because the pictures are really expensive to buy later. So this guy tells us to stand together for the picture. Fillup was on one end, and then Lindsay, Jacqui, and MPC on the other end. The photographer was confusing Lindsay asking her to hold up her hand (the one that was holding the park maps) and then telling her to put them down. She didn't know what he meant and after a lot of back and forth and frustration MPC took the maps out of Lindsay's hand and told her to just hold it up (it turns out they photoshopped a little bird in Lindsay's hand). So he took the group picture, two of them actually. Then he said 'let's do the couples!' and we all immediately started laughing because we aren't couples. He made MPC and Jacqui stand together for a couple picture. Then he said 'Okay, now the other couple!' so Lindsay and Fillup stood together. None of us could control our laughter, and these 'couple pictures' became the joke of the day. After the couple picture he took one of just the girls, and one of just the boys. It was hilarious. We are pretty sure that no one else gets an entire photo shoot when entering a theme park. It's a shame we couldn't afford to buy all of the pictures...because we looked at them and they were pretty great.
3. Riding the bumper cars four times in a row: Knots Berry Farm was not busy AT ALL. We didn't have to wait in any lines the whole day. And a lot of the time we would just stay on the roller coaster in our seats and ride it again, and again. So we talked the boys into riding the bumper cars. There was no one else in line, so it was only the four of us in the arena! We decided to share a car, and the boys each had their own! While we were riding around a line formed so they just got to watch us, it was really funny. We had so much fun that we stayed in our cars and rode three more times. This was definitely one of the highlights of the ride. We loved targeting different people, and had a lot of laughs. MPC was definitely ready to get off...but I bet we would've stayed there all day.
4. "Hold your breath mom!": While we were in the hot tub talking with the family from Alaska her little boy who was probably around 11 came up to her, scooped water in his hands and said 'hold your breath mom!' It was really funny. Althought it is probably one of those 'you had to be there moments'.
5. The guy who worked at the bumper cars: We adored this guy simply because he let us ride four times in a row without getting out of our cars, and when we came back later for round 5 he said 'welcome back' and smiled big. He also slid around on the floor a lot, and it was cool.
6 Picture with Snoopy: This was a really happy moment for us, giving Snoopy a 'snoopy sandwich'. The boys weren't too impressed. But they are also hard to please. End of story.
Walking around California our first morning there! We had to cross the street for this picture. MPC was not too fond of the idea, so he stayed on the other side, haha!
Snoopy Sandwich!
Fillup on the bumper cars. Since he flexed, he became our first target. Mistake on his part.
MPC on the bumper cars. He doesn't love them too much.
Pure love and joy. We dominate the arena on bumper cars. It's our new hobby.
Waiting for the show to start. MPC wouldn't enter the room because none of the workers were in there yet, so he stayed at the door and took the picture haha!
Waiting for the show to start!
Cardboard cut outs are always a win.
MPC napping in the car in the parking lot of Knots Berry Farm.
Fillup doing the same. Sick boy :(
While the boys napped...we took pictures!
Sunroof! MPC wouldn't let us do this while he was driving so we had to wait til he was napping.
On a ride at Knots Berry!
The free parkhopper passes to Disney/Cali Adventure!
On Tuesday we had planned to go to Newport Beach. We were meeting a boy that is in our ward and the group of friends that he was there with. The beach was all we had planned for this day, and it was nice to relax. Then we went and walked around Downtown Disney that night. It was perfect weather :)
The top six moments of Tuesday:
1. Running across the parking lot away from Fill and MPC: On our way to the beach we stopped at a grocery store to get food for a picnic. The boys were in a huge hurry, wanting to get to the beach by 10 am, and they wouldn't let us leave their sides. We saw a 98 cent store next door on our way into the grocery store so we wanted to see if they had a bucket and shovel for the beach. We talked the boys into letting us go over there by ourselves, and they told us we better hurry. So we walked quickly to the store, only to find out it was closed. But then we saw a CVS pharmacy across the parking lot and we thought they might have one. We didn't want to ask the boys if we could go because we knew they would say no, so we decided to run for it. What made this funnier is that we were wearing matching tie dye dresses, and stood out quite a bit. As we were running across the parking lot, we kept looking back to see if they had caught us yet. You'd think we were running away from our kidnappers! We made it to the pharmacy to find out that it was still being built and wasn't open. But it was pretty funny anyways!
2. The little boy at breakfast: Every morning for breakfast we would sit on a second floor patio under a giant umbrella with the view of gorgeous palm trees (paradise?). This particular morning we were sitting at our table eating, and the other tables were filled up as well. This little boy who was probably about 4 came up to the patio by himself holding a muffin, and didn't have anywhere to sit. So this nice couple moved from their table and told the little boy he could sit there. He said "thank you", and all of our hearts melted instantly. The couple said "your welcome", and then the little boy, in a mean little voice said, "That was our table, you took it!" Everyone on that patio was in shock that the little boy could be so mean! We of course started laughing, and then the little boy looked over at us and glared saying "Shut up yous!" he told us that a few times, and then his little sister and mom arrived, and he told his little sister to say "Shut up yous!" too. So we had a four year old and a two year old telling us "Shut up yous!" It was really funnyl
3. Naps on the beach: speaks for itself.
4. Quotes by MPC: These also might be a 'you had to be there thing' but they were funny anyways. "Fill you've gotta stop mumbling. We have this discussion all the time." Fill is a really soft spoken guy, and we can hardly hear him. Haha apparently MPC and his roommates talk to him about it often. "I'm going to snuggle you so hard tonight!" MPC said this one to Fill as well. It was funny because he was threatening Fill for some reason, and he just looked Fill straight in the eyes and said it with a very serious voice. This was probably one of our most overly used quotes the rest of the trip.
5. MPC putting sunscreen on Fillup, but not on himself: When we got home from the beach Fillup's back was sunburnt...but only part of it. It looked like he had put on his sunscreen very poorly. When we asked him about it he said MPC put it on him. So MPC obviously didn't do a very good job. Then we looked at MPC and he was sunburnt from the top of his head to his toes...it was bad! He said that he forgot to put sunscreen on! We thought this was hilarious because he put it on Fillup, but forgot to put it on himself?
6. MPC shopping at downtown Disney: We went to downtown Disney and were looking around at all the stores. We went into the Fossil watch store and the boys were looking around. MPC looked at a watch, and he didn't like it. Ten minutes later, he was buying it. Forgot to mention, but the watch was $100! He is a big compulsive spender! It was funny!
Newport Beach! Gorgeous!
Playing mermaid on the dangerous rocks we climbed out on. Notice the girl in the back!
This was not planned...
Enjoying the waves and the warm weather. We are serious sometimes...
Happy..notice the smiles.
Our friends we made on the rocks. They had escaped rehab together-true friendship.
They found seashells that they were going to make into BFF necklaces.
Me and Jacqui were glad we ran into another group of best friends.
We regret not getting a picture with them.
We ran into them once more on the beach, and they told us they were going back to rehab.
We couldn't be prouder.
Jacqui digging in our hole. We spent a lot of time on this, it was really deep!
Writing in the sand
Enjoying the ocean from the lifeguard stand.
It's the little things in life.
Lifeguard Jacqui
Lifeguard Lindsay
Wednesday was a very exciting day for us! We were going to Disneyland and California Adventure for free!! We could barely wait. It was even better because there were hardly any lines. The longest we waited was probably only ten minutes! We didn't even care that we were all sunburnt from the beach. What was even better was that the temperature was in the 80's this day. While everyone back home was enjoying a nice blizzard we were enjoying sunshine and shorts. Anyways...
The top six moments of Wednesday:
1. Going to Disneyland: The happiest place on earth. Enough said about this already :)
2. The lady we met on one of the rides: While we were in line (a very short line) for one of the rides at Disney this lady and her mom came up behind us. The lady had some type of disability, and she was so excited for the ride she was throwing her arms up and cheering. Naturally we (Jacqui and Lindsay, not the boys) started to talk to her. She was adorable! She kept saying "Come on girls! 1, 2, 3, Woooo!" and then all three of us would hold up our arms and shout Woooo! It was so fun! Her mom told us that she has a season pass to Disneyland and likes to ride the rides a few times in a row. We had so much fun talking to her. She even said 'hi boys!' even though the boys were a little shy, we know they enjoyed her too. Fillup later told us that out of everyone in the park, she met the right people! We take that as a compliment. We will never forget her!
3. Getting free dinner: We (Jacqui and Lindsay, not the boys) tried really hard to not spend a lot of money on food. We wanted to stay on a budget and eat cheap. We only spent $28 dollars each on food the whole time we were there. Our parents were really proud of us. Lindsay's step dad Brad was really proud that we were trying so hard not to spend a ton of money so he offered to buy all four of us a nice dinner! We decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory after Disneyland because it was close to our hotel. We were all so happy and grateful that he did that for us. It really meant a lot to each of us. It was nice to have a really good meal while in California. Thank you Brad! From all of us!!
4. Running into our friends at the Cheesecake Factory: When we were walking out of the Cheesecake Factory Jacqui was walking in the front and she noticed our friends from Logan, Trevy and Saul. She stopped and just said "Lindsay, look who it is." We were shocked! Out of all of our friends to run into in California, of course it had to be Trevy and Saul! I think all of us were shocked to see each other. What are the odds that we would be in the same restaurant at the same time in a different state?? It was crazy. We didn't even know each other would be there. It was really fun to see them, and then even let us try their cheesecake! We got to meet their friend Tommy Boy and his dad the bishop. They said "It's good to see you guys are still crazy in California!" Haha!
5. Space Mountain shutting down: While we were riding Space Mountain for probably the 3rd time we got to the top before you start winding down, and the lights turned on and the car we were sitting in came to a complete stop. For thoes of you who have never been on Space Mountain it is a roller coaster in the dark! It was crazy to actually see what the inside looked like. We had to wait for a worker to come up to us and get us out of our seats. Then we had to walk all the way down the rollercoaster! It was really cool to get a 'behind the scenes' look at one of our favorite rides!
6. The Tower of Terror ride: Our favorite ride at California Adventure was the ride called The Tower of Terror. It is a big hotel, and you sit in seats in the elevator. It goes up and drops down really fast and is completely random. You have no idea which way you are going! It gets to the top and doors open and you look out over the theme park, it is really cool! It was definitely our favorite ride, and we rode it probably 4 or 5 times. If you are ever at California Adventure, make sure you try it out! "Thanks Shaun!"
Disneyland! The happiest place on earth. It really is magical.
On a ride at Disney!
In front of the Castle! Lindsay's dream come true.
Goofy Sandwich! Jacqui's dream come true!
In line for a ride at Disney!
The inside of Space Mountain when it broke down!
On Thursday morning we woke up around 5 to go back home. We ate breakfast one more time, said bye to California and hit the road!
The top six moments of Thursday:
1. Fillup's new laugh: We saw a lot of different sides of Fillup on this trip. So many we lost count. When we were leaving town Fillup started laughing. It was a laugh that none of us had ever heard before! After he stopped laughing Fillup said, "I have never done that before."
2. Fillup getting a chance to drive: MPC drove during the whole entire trip. He didn't feel comfortable letting anyone else drive. He told Fillup that he couldn't drive in Salt Lake, Vegas, or California haha, so that definitely narrowed down Fill's chance to drive. When we stopped in St. George for gas, MPC let Fillup drive! It only lasted 2 or 3 hours, but it was a big deal!
3. Getting to wear our new souvineer shirts: We got new souvineer shirts, and we were so excited to wear them that we even slept in them the night before. Jacqui got a Goofy shirt, and Lindsay got a Minnie Mouse shirts. Jacqui said they fit our personalities because Lindsay is more girly. They were both really cute and we love them!
4. Rollercoaster ride in the car: When the road would get wavy or bumpy while Fillup was driving we would put our hands in the air like on a rollercoaster. Fill would warn us before so that we could be ready! It was fun! Thanks Fillup!
5. Getting home: Leaving vacations is always bittersweet. Staying in California would have been nice, but its always nice to come home.
6. Jacqui leaving her purse in the car: Lindsay got dropped off first in Salt Lake and then Jacqui got dropped off in Roy. About ten minutes after Jacqui got dropped off and the boys got back on the freeway they realized that Jacqui left her purse in the car. So they had to back track to give it to her! Typical Jacqui :)
Overall our spring break was a huge success! The four of us got to know each other better than we probably ever imagined! We made so many memories on this trip and had so much fun. It was definitely needed, and we deserved it! It was such a fun little vacation, and actually turned out to be a lot cheaper than we all planned on! We are so happy that we went on this trip, and we will never forget it!
Back at home wearing our souvineer shirts! We love them!
Our trip motto: "Live on the edge, sleep on the edge."
Our trip song: Fireflies by Owl City (we listened to this cd probably at least twelve times...)
Our trip awards: Fillup- The best sleeper on the trip
MPC- The best eater on the trip (he ate a whole thing of crazy bread, 8 pieces, and 3 pieces of pizza in like ten minutes.)
Lindsay & Jacqui- Giggling award (because the boys claim that we never stopped-lie) & the High award (because people think we are high because we giggle so much)
Our best singer on the trip: MPC. He maybe thinks he is professional. We would have to stop singing in the middle of songs and bite our tongues to keep from laughing. He's is just that good.
Friendliest on the trip: Lindsay and Jacqui. We made friends everywhere we went...Disneyland, the beach (good luck in rehab boys!), anywhere.
