Birthday Week! It Was A Blast!

It was my birthday week and it was a BLAST! The best part was that I spent every moment from Friday to Tuesday with Lady Hiva and the kids. The worst part is that I am now exhausted because we did not stop! I will get into that later.

Lady Hiva and Lucky Dragon have been planning for a few weeks on what to do for my birthday. They were really secretive about it. All I was told was I needed to take the day off and find someone to cover placing realtor signs for us (our side job that funds our trips). I did as I was told. haha. Lucky Dragon would not tell me either. I tried to get it out of him, but he was a professional at deflecting the question. He should be a diplomat! Lady Hiva just kept dropping ominous hints that she was really excited for the weekend.

What ensued was driving over 1,750 miles being in 3 states, playing in the ocean, immersing ourselves in several different cultures and most of all, enjoying our time together. I had so much fun. We started out our weekend driving to St. George. Just a little fact that it was one of the hottest weekends of the year and we were driving right to the "Dixie" of Utah! HAHA.


Lady Hiva found a cute bed and breakfast for us to stay in. It is an old Pioneer Era home in the historical downtown of St. George called, 7 Wives Inn. Apparently, the original owners hid polygamists in their home after the practice was outlawed. One of those families was a man named, B.P. Johnson and his 7 wives. The home has several themed rooms each named for a different Johnson wife. We stayed in the "Sarah" room. She was the 5th Wife--she had the most children, 11 in fact of all the wives, so the largest room was named after her. An additional fact is that wife #4 and wife #6 were her biological sisters! I just can't even wrap my head around that dynamic. 

Her "Elsa" cape (from the Bubble run) and her bling purse full of chapstick. 

 

Lucky Dragon did well with the angle...just needs to watch the fingers next time! 

 
The home was well done. We had fun exploring all the history and details. Lucky Dragon and Koala Bear had fun running from room to room. He--as is his new habit--wanted the phone to take photos. He is becoming quite the little novice photographer. Sarah room is quirky. It has an old petrol pump in the corner of the living room. The headboard is an antique restaurant refrigerator, and there is a Model T jetted soaker bath tub. This last aspect was quite a novelty. In a chicken-and-egg fashion I cannot decide if someone decided to make the car-tub for the room, or if someone made the room theme around the car-tub! The kids took two baths in it. At one point I told Lucky Dragon to turn on the jets by pushing the button, but someone had pointed one jet straight up and when the power started a fountain of water shot over the kids heads, over the windshield and hit the wall on the opposite side of the room! I was clamoring over the tall tub with jets spraying me all over the face trying to turn it off again!!! HAHA. It was quite comical.  Of course when Lady Hiva came in to inspect the first thing out of their mouths was, "Dustin shot water all over the wall!"

 
One of the things Lady Hiva was most excited about was the Breakfast! It was delicious!

 Madre, Kell and Pickles met us in the evening for dinner and then we went to The Tuacahn for a show. The Tuacahn is an outdoor Broadway style theater. We watched "Wish Upon A Star." It was perfect for the two Muggles. The music was all the popular songs from Disney movies. There were animals, dancing, singing, fireworks, and acrobatics. Even though it was late, both kids stayed awake and loved it. So did I. I had to laugh that this is what Lady Hiva chose to do. She is a self-proclaimed musical hater...but we seem to see plenty of them and she likes them! (She don't tell her that we know her secret).

#straightoutofhollywood

The next day we decided (impromptu) to drive to California! YAY! It was so much fun. We stayed in Anaheim right next to Disneyland (Thank you Hotwire.com for the deal as we drove). We drove up the coastline to see our nephew on a mission there. Probably broke the rules doing that, but it was worth the drive! We gave he and his companion some food and some money to cut his fluffy head! hahaha. The drive was amazing. I loved seeing parts of California that we have never seen before.

I especially like stopping at the beach. These two little people could be on the beach for days and never get bored. Lucky Dragon was in heaven with all the drift wood and rocks to collect. Soon he had an art sculpture created. Koala Bear would chase seagulls squealing with joy as she streaked passed!

 

 Looking into the Missionary Apartment while waiting for Kona to come home (not creepy at all haha)

  

We also went to LA Fashion District. We love it there. So much culture and chaotic busy-ness. It is very similar to the markets of Asia or the Middle East. Haggling and yelling can be seen everywhere. People crowd the sidewalks peddling wares from flowers to animals (our favorite were the baby turtles). From shoes to suits. I shopped for some new suits...but to no avail. The ones I liked Lady Hiva told me they were not conservative enough...actually she said, "you will burn if you wear that to Church!" LOL so violent! Or the pants were so slim cut they would get stuck on my calves hahaha.