Longest post ever about the best vacation ever...

A quick intro. Danny and I decided that we desperately needed to get out of town for a while. Now that we're both working full time and he's in school--we don't get to see each other. We really needed some alone time and with a surprisingly large tax return, we took a portion of it to go on a great escape. We went back and forth about whether or not to take Cole but ultimately decided that Cole probably wouldn't endure the rigorous partying that we wanted to enjoy (like full days at Disneyland and Six Flags). It was the right choice. I only cried the night before we left and the night we had a video chat with him. I missed him so much so I know I must not be the WORST mother in the world.

Day 1

We get on a plane and leave the gross inversion of the Salt Lake Valley! We get to our hotel at Redondo Beach which is kind of a dive but we don't care. It's 3 blocks from the beach! The funniest find at the hotel was this:



I guess if you're going to wear a shower cap, it might as well be luxurious...

Day 2

The Happiest Place on Earth

We bought our tickets from a genius eBayer and got less than half price the tickets. If you want his info, let me know. It sounds pretty shady because we had to go pick up the tickets from his office and he picked them up from us when we were leaving the park--but we kind of don't care because it was wicked AWESOME :) The weather was P E R F E C T. Absolutely beautiful. It was some random Thursday in February so it was totally slow. The longest we waited for any ride was 25 minutes and that was for Space Mountain. Everything else was about 5-10 minutes. We didn't really even need fast passes.

The new Toy Story ride. Loved it.



My first picture with a Disney Character. We totally hugged after the picture. She wanted me bad.



I'm kind of embarrassed that I begged Danny to let me stand there and watch the entire performance of this float:



After the photographer took this picture she said we seemed cool and that she wanted to come hang out with us the rest of the day. Ha! Can you imagine us palling around with some total stranger because she thought we were cool?



Day 3

More Disneyland! It was more busy because of the President's Day Holiday coming up (I'm sure most people took a long weekend). Plus, it was Friday. But even still it was very reasonable!

Hopefully I don't have to explain this one:



It was a beautiful night!



By the way, I don't have a picture of the Finding Nemo Submarine ride, but HOLY SHNIKES that ride was awesome!! I actually took a 12 minute video of it to show Cole because I know he will love it. I totally felt like we went on a 15 minute submarine ride in the OCEAN. Very cool.

I'm all buckled in for the rollercoaster.



And so was Danny.



Danny's face in this is hilarious. Of course he knows right where the camera is so he knew when to pose. I pretty much rode the entire ride like this because I didn't know when to look pretty. Hahaha...



Just because Danny's Utah Drivers License has been revoked doesn't mean he can't drive a fake car at Disneyland.



Kidding about the revoking.

Day 4

We celebrated Valentines Day on Saturday. We drove down to San Diego to the Sunset Cliffs and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. We wanted to have a nice dinner at a local joint we'd never heard of so we used our handy GPS and found a place called Old Venice. It was perfect. Candlelight and quaint. It didn't look like anything grand on the outside but it was the perfect little place for a romantic dinner.



We took this with a mini tripod in my purse. We didn't use the flash because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves. The nerds in the corner taking pictures of themselves...





Then we went and did a session at the San Diego Temple. It was well worth our drive down South. What a beautiful building.





Day 5

Started off Valentines Day at the beach...we were one with nature so it was very spiritual. Almost like being at church.



I was being very reverent...



It was insanely beautiful and peaceful. Oh, how we love the ocean.



We drove around looking at the huge houses and found this random little park for our picnic dinner.



It was incredible. Look how green and pretty it was. We had a great view of the ocean.



Even our cupcakes were romantic...





I'd never watched a full sunset. I've been so deprived. It was breathtaking.





Day 6

We take on Six Flags. Yeah baby. We are both big roller coaster geeks so this was heaven for us. We started out the day by defying death on the X2.



Our very favorite ride was the Tatsu (you are harnessed in really right because you're on your stomachs like you're FLYING. It was out of control in a good way). My sunglasses busted from being crushed in my pocket. It was worth it.



Then my earring got lost on the next ride. REALLY?! I'm holding my loner earring. I had to throw it away :(



We rode all the big rides and even some of the dinky ones. I laid in bed that night feeling like I was going upside down on a roller coaster. Good times. Our feet hurt and we both had headaches at the end of the day but it's a sacrifice that was necessary for the joy of thrill rides.

Day 7

Back to the beach and a nearby park for a mid-morning picnic. Another beautiful day.





Then we were off to Downtown Disney to get some souvenirs for Cole. The Lego Store was our first stop (duh!)





Guess how many comments/compliments Danny got on this shirt over the course of the week? Somewhere in the ballpark of... a million. And he didn't even wear it every day. I had to put my foot down. :) Kidding.







Don't let Danny's face fool you. He was loving every second of this fluff-induced coma.





We get to the airport and are anxiously awaiting the poundage report on our luggage. 50 pounds is the max and it was a little over 50 lbs on the flight to LA (Thanks Skycap for being so nice :)) On our way to SL it was EXACTLY 50. I had to take a picture. The Delta employee was extremely impressed. This was a big deal. There was no way we could fit one more ounce of ANYthing into our carry on luggage so there was no other option but our check-in suitcase.



We flew into Salt Lake and immediately had to put our coats on. Stupid Utah weather...

It's been really hard to be back. The weather is particularly hard on me this year...I'm not sure why. I still haven't caught up on laundry or our life. Our routine is still kind of jumbled but it was WELL worth the time alone with Danny. It's true that even married people need to take time to be alone together and date. Marriage takes work! Especially with us living with my parents and Grandpa. It's extremely rare for us to be alone. This trip was just the ticket. I'm so glad we did it and even though it was hard leaving Cole, I'm glad we did it. He's still too young to resent us for it. Heh.