Anaheim Livin’

So about a month and a half ago, my family was getting ready to take a vacation in sunny California. Only… we hadn’t exactly figured out what it was we were going to do while we were there.  Being the planning-oriented person that I am (I can’t help it!), I called a family meeting where we discussed possible options (complete with a full presentation via a laptop hooked up to our tv) and then each person wrote down a list of what they were wanting to do.

This, of course, brought out the comedians in my brothers and sisters. And Sean. Sean, in lieu of writing a list, drew pictures of what he wanted to do. If I remember right, he only drew a picture of a sandwich (for Earl of Sandwich), him at the beach, and then a picture of a piece of  pizza. Have I mentioned that Sean loves pizza? A quote from last night, as he was taking a pizza out of the oven, “I love pizza!! I could eat pizza every day. Seriously. As long as it was a different pizza, I really could.”

One of my favorite responses though came from my 21 year old brother Adam. His number one thing he wanted to do? “Anaheim Livin’”.  He is such a dork. But you know what? We did it. We Anaheim-Lived-it-up. To see what other items made it to the list, continue on.

 

EARL OF SANDWICH!!! I can not explain to you how much I love this place. If I could get the funding, I would open a franchise here in Utah and become a billionaire.

My family’s first experience with Earl. (Sorry Emily, guess you didn’t quite make the cut for this photo.)

 

I’m sorry for including this Amy… but I love this picture.  

The Griffith Observatory! Highlights include: the Aurora Borealis show in their really nice planetarium, looking at real-time solar flares through a special lens, seeing and touching real meteorites, and then looking at Venus through their huge telescope (behind us in this picture).

Waiting in line there was a worker answering questions. Sean asked a question about why the moon doesn’t rotate and we always see the same side of it (a fact I did not previously know). After the worker explained it (I don’t really remember what he said), Sean said, “Huh… weird.” To which the worker replied, with a very smug smile, “It’s not weird, it’s physics.” It quickly became evident that this guy had a catch phrase, and we had stumbled right into it.  We heard him say it probably four more times to other questioners (“huh, that’s crazy..” “It’s not crazy, it’s physics”), and he got more and more smug each time he said it. Psh, scientists. Here is Sean looking at Venus through the telescope.

 

Balboa Island for frozen bananas. Yes, inspired by Arrested Development. Huge hit, and soooo good. Ten cents gets ya nuts!

 

Hanging out at Laguna Beach!

The Siblings.

Six Flags! Okay, they have seriously upped their game since the last time I was here. Tatsu? Possibly my new favorite non-Disney rollercoaster. (Disney rides get their own category.) You are on your stomach! And it feels like you’re flying!

This is me doing a classic jazz hands pose, paying homage to dance tours growing up. This is where we would always do our shows at Six Flags. On this burning black top.  Man… it was hot.

We went on an adventure to find the infamous Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake. After a two hour drive to Pasadena and back, we were the proud owners of a slightly-melted Fudgie of our own. He was delicious.

 

But, probably the best part of the vacation were the pool parties!

 

The end of our synchronized swimming routine.

 

Um, do you see what I am doing here? I am jumping into the DEEP end. 

 

Face-down floating made it on the list of things to do. This is a long story.

 

And here we are face-up floating.

 

Night swimming was delightful.

 

All in all, it was a beautiful and very relaxing vacation. The house we rented was awesome, and having our own pool in the backyard was awesome. And the biggest news? I can swim! I got over my fear of swimming!  Anyone who knows me knows how pathetic I am, scratch that, how pathetic I was, when I was trying to swim. Sean describes me as looking like a drowning cat.  Really, such a huge phobia.

But now? I can swim! Well, not amazingly or anything, but enough that I can not die!  Such a huge development.

Another new development? I tried ketchup again for the first time in probably ten years and… I didn’t hate it. I still hate the smell (it reminds me of, well, a down syndrome girl that I went to school with who would dip her hamburgers into huge piles of ketchup.. is that mean?), but it actually really helps out french fries when they’re a little bit dry.  Who knew.

So I can swim, and I can eat ketchup- who am I?!?

 

Well, there you have it, our vacation in a not-so-small nutshell. Nothing but us just, you know, Anaheim Livin’. That’s just how we do.