This year, our awesome friends, Brandon and Annie, invited us to spend a week or so with them at their Grandma's Beach House in Valencia, CA. It was the most fun, relaxing, gorgeous, trip ever. It was just what Ray and I needed before starting school back up again. We decided to leave Mady with my parents and enjoy some time to ourselves with Brandon and Annie. As much as we missed Mady, I loved it far too much! We left Sunday the 23th of July early in the morning, and drove all day. Annie and I slept most of the time, which was exactly what I needed after Girl's Camp. As soon as we got there, we unloaded and went to the beach, which was right in our backyard. It was gorgeous! I also loved that there were two pools and hot tub so we could go warm ourselves up and get the sand out. Annie's sister, Lilie had some conventions for her job in San Diego and stayed with us. She is such an amazing person and so fun to be around. We loved having her stay with us.
Monday we decided to go running, play at the beach, go food shopping, eat at delicious food, and just lounge in our gorgeous beach house.
Tuesday we got up really early again and headed out to Six Flags. Because it was almost 2-3 hours away we got a hotel so we could spend Wednesday there as well. We also had free admission to Hurricane Harbor, we went back and forth playing in the water when we got too hot. It was so perfect. We wore our bathing suits underneath so we didn't have to bring an extra pair of clothes. My favorite rollorcoaster is still X-2. Oh man, I LOVE it! Goliath and Drop of Doom are up there as well. We all had a blast!
Thursday we decided to hang around the beach house again. The girls all went shopping, while the boys played computer games. There were some cute stores right off the beaches, some had so many interesting clothing. Annie and I found two outfits that we had to try on just to take pictures. They were hilarious! I couldn't believe why anyone would sale such things. But I guess Californians have different style. In the afternoon we decided to go to a really nice beach 10 minutes away to go rent surfboards, walk on the pier, body board, and just have fun. Surfboarding was crazy hard. People make it so easy. Ray did really well and got up a few times. I, however, could only get up on one knee; even with some cute surf guys helping me. Besides the lessons, they guys invited me to a bar, even after they found out I was married. Haha too bad they weren't as cute as Ray. :)
Friday we went to Balboa Park. Annie and I went around to see what museums we wanted to see while the boys found a place to park. Us, girls, really wanted to go see the Museum of Natural History, but the boys wanted the Museum of Science. Unfortunately the boys won due to ours being more money. We went around to the free ones and saw a really hot African guy. We HAD to get a picture. After a little persuasion from the guys we finally got to take a picture. Then we had the boys take a picture. Ray wasn't too happy as you can see, but Brandon put on a happy face for us. We then went to eat at the Cheesecake factory and did some shopping. Annie found some super cute stuff. I wasn't feeling too good so I just sat with Ray. We found a gorgeous spot with a fountain, flowers, and trees, with a couch. It was so perfect to just snuggle and talk about anything and everything while we waited. After shopping, we went back to spend time at the Science Museum. It was just as stupid as Annie and I thought. Think the Planetarium in Salt Lake, which if we haven't been to so many times, this one would have been quite awesome. It did have an interesting room that informed you about smells, farting, burping, and so on. It was quite hilarious. The boys had fun having a race with building the tallest woodent tower. Ray won, as you can see, he was quite proud. At the end we got to go to a cute movie about baby elephants and orangutans, so adorable.
Saturday was Ray's birthday. He wanted to go to Sea World, so we got tickets for Monday. We celebrated by letting him play however long he wanted computer games, I bought him a most handsome button up shirt, dress pants and shoes. He looked so hott! We then went out to dinner at what Ray called the most amazing Japanese diner. He loved the food! Which we were so happy. We then went to down town San Diego to go dancing. We found quickly that the clubs were not places that we would like to be, so we ended going back home eating brownies, watching the olympics, and just cuddling.
Sunday was a day of rest, of course. We went for a walk on the beach, the boys went swimming, we took awesome pictures, we watched more olympics, movies, and just hung out. It was a nice romantic day for all of us. :)
Monday we headed off to Sea World. It was awesome. We loved their shows, and all the cool animals we got to see and touch. We really liked their new ride, the Manta. Brandon really liked Alantis. Everything was awesome. We loved watching the Shamu shows. Ray didn't think it was worth the money, which I didn't think either, but I'm glad he got to experience it, even if it might be the last time we do. After Sea World we went out to eat at Buca di Beppo. BEST ITALIAN RESTRAUNT EVER!! And one it coming to St. George. SO EXCITED!
Tuesday was our cleaning day. We packed everything up and cleaned the beach house. We then left and drove all the way home. Brandon and Annie stayed the night and then we all packed up in the morning, they going their way and Ray and I leaving to Ephraim to get Mady and go the Lake Powell for a week. San Diego was soo fun and we're so glad we got to spend it with two awesome friends. We LOVED every second of it! Thanks so much Annie and Brandon for inviting us, we had SO much fun! We love you guys!!
