Trip to California

This past week, we returned from a trip to California for a family reunion and celebration of Jes's grandfather's 90th birthday.  

Even though Caleb had been on an airplane many times, he did not remember and this was Piper's first time to fly.  Both were equally nervous and thrilled!  If you've never been to Houston, you might not know that we have 2 major airports (and innumerable small) here, one in the northern area and one just south of downtown.  Jes works at the northern airport, but we ended up getting flights into and out of the southern one, so we had to leave very early to arrive due the the extreme traffic going into and out of downtown Houston.  We ended up waiting for quite a while, so the kids got a kick out of watching the planes come in and go out.

Once we made it on the plane, P had a minor freak out (all nerves), but the iPads and a little hug cured that and we were off!

Since we had to leave so early and spent a good part of the day travelling (it was 2.5 hours from LAX to my sister in law's house, where we were staying), the kids just vegged in the backseat.

My mother in law is a huge fan of all things tea, so we let the girls (Sarah has 4 girls) all dress up and have a tea party while all the boys went fishing in a pond down the street.  They had so much fun!

This is Piper with her great grandfather and great grandmother.  P's middle name is the same as her great grandmother's.  The last time I had a photo with her and her great grandmother, she was just 1 year old, so we had to have an updated photo!

The kids had such a good time playing at a local park.

Piper and her youngest girl cousin, Bekah.  These two surprised us all by being inseparable, despite at least 2 years difference in age!

One day, we all went to Discovery Science Museum of California.  This skeleton was in a display just outside the front door of the museum.  I just happened to turn away for a second and looked back and saw P doing this.  She seriously cracks me up!

This museum is where the space shuttle Endeavour is now displayed, so we had to see it.  It was so cool to see an actual space shuttle up close and personal.  They also had a great timeline of the shuttle program, which both of the kids were super interested in!

There was a really cool room that had a giant aquarium that we could have hung out at all day!

This museum also has a huge rose garden that had every type of rose I had ever heard and not heard of.  So cool!

Of course, Piper's favorite part of the whole museum was the section on the body.  She says she's being a zombie here.  Yeah.

This was an awesome display where she could watch an actual surgery, as if she was there.  I had to literally tear her away from this one.

Caleb really enjoyed the ocean displays.  Here, he is driving a submarine using actual controls.

The last day we were in California, we went to Long Beach to see the Welden side of the family but since we were early we stopped in a local Kmart.  I hadn't been in a Kmart since I was a kid, so I might have been a little excited...

Last time we were in California, we took a photo of all the kids with Grandpa Welden, so we lined them up again, as best we could, and got another photo!

Piper and Caleb with their Great grandpa Welden.  We love him!

The next day, we headed home and had a layover in El Paso, a small, but lovely airport.  We had such a fun trip and can't wait to go back in November!