Christmas in California!

We decided to have a pre-baby trip! It was fun to escape the cold (although Utah has not been as cold as I would have expected). We drove to California. Our goal was to see Disneyland at Christmastime, but I think we enjoyed all of the other aspects of California while we were there for a few days. Weather being one of them!

During the day we only had to wear long sleeve shirts and in the evening we had light jackets. It was beautiful. That was especially true of the beach! We went and spent a few hours at Huntington Beach. Now, the beaches don't quite live up to our expectations from Hawaii, but there is still something peaceful about the ocean--the sounds, the smells and views. We loved every minute of it.

We next explored the nearby towns and taking advantage of the diversity of California we found a Turkish store and some Turkish restaurants! We were able to buy Kaymak and Bal (honey) for breakfast, we found Limonata, a drink that I have been craving since we left and many many more delights to reminisce about as we ate them.

At the Restaurant, it was so much fun to have some Iskender Kabab, some Adana Kabab, humus, and bubaganoosh! It was delicious! The owners were so excited to have us come and talk with us at the end they brought us some Turkish tea--as you know we don't drink tea, but we did not want them to be upset that we did not drink it. I had a brilliant idea! I would pour the tea into Tau'aho's paper Coca-cola cup from his kid's meal while they owners were not looking! I worked well until our ever oberervant Lucky Dragon saw me do it and asked loudly, "What are you pouring into my drink?" When I tried to change the subject and move on he asked, "What was that you put into my drink?" OK! Time to move on! Hurry, hurry out the door! HAHA...I guess it didn't work so well!

We also ate at Mexican Cantinas and more Turkish restaurants! We were spoiled while we were down there!

We went to Disneyland for a few days (that will be the next post) and spent one day at Universal Studios--all decked out in Christmas splendor Grinch Style! Lady Hiva, of course rode in the wheelchair the whole time with Lucky Dragon on her lap. I did the pushing. So we were never very far from each other for the entire trip! With the Wheelchair it meant we had some front row seating for all of the shows! That actually wasn't too bad! Lucky Dragon's favorite was the animal show where they trained the animals for movies.

He kept saying "take a picture of me!"

We rode every ride we possibly could--well Lucky Dragon and I did--poor Lady Hiva had to wait. Our little guy loves his adrenaline rush. We rode the roller coaster in the Harry Potter park 10 times in a row! He was so proud of himself! He even kept his hands up in the air and screamed the whole time along with me. The only down side was the cobblestones in Hogsmeade looked great but it made the experience too jiggly for Lady Hiva. A perfect trip had to have something wrong, right?! hehe. 

We used our wands to make the store windows do magical things and we had the sorting hat sort us into houses: Dustin: Hufflepuff, Lady Hiva: Ravenclaw and Tau'aho: Slytherin. He was so excited to see which "teams" we were on and would point out the banners and signs the rest of the trip and tell us which team it was.

He was so excited to see the "Flying car from Harry Potter" But he was too busy to take a picture with me

Being sorted

Casting spells is a serious business

He loved this window when the Raven pecks out the skulls eye and it rolls down like a gum ball dispenser. We stood here watching it over and over