Christmas in the Sunshine? (Pt. 1)

During our two week break between semesters, Jason and I were able to take a trip to California to visit the Cowles family. I must say it was really nice being in 70 degree weather and quite odd not to be surrounded by snow, although; we currently don’t have much more snow here in Idaho.

Our first official night in California, Jason, Jessica (sister), and I went to Newport to watch the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade - only in California. We didn’t realize until an hour of waiting that we were at the end of the parade. While waiting, we had the chance to spend time together and cuddle with our hot chocolate. There were different kinds of boats in the parade including sail boats, pontoons, speed boats, and the larger boats that people have dinner on. The boats were all lit up with Christmas lights – some more extreme than others. My favorite was the one that looked like a pirate ship with a crocodile following it. Another fun one was the SpongeBob Square Pants themed boat. There were also boats just full of lights or a large Santa Claus. I felt like the boat parade made it a very Californian Christmas.

Jessica and Jason

Pirate Ship :)

Crocodile (I know it's poor quality)

American Pride?

Spongebob!

Monday we took a family trip to South Coast Plaza where Jason and I split up to shop for each other’s gifts. Do you know how hard it is to buy a gift for a 24-year-old guy?? After stressing over what I wanted to get Jay and finally purchasing his present and hiding it in the car, we met up together and stood in line for an hour and a half to see Santa. We were definitely the oldest ones there. When it was finally our turn, I sat next to Santa, but he told me I could sit on his lap and then he had Jason sit on his lap too. I tried to not put a lot of weight on him. It was quite a funny experience, but it got us in the Christmas mood. Later Jason showed me a picture of the same Santa he visited when he was just eight years old – I was more interested in how adorable Jason was than the fact that St. Nick hasn’t changed.

Waiting for Santa

Santa Claus!

Tuesday Jase, Jess, Dad, and I went to Disneyland and California Adventure! It was a little crowed since it was Christmas break and all, but it was still a lot of fun. We started on the Tower of Terror – I wasn’t too excited about that. I can’t start on a ride that I’m going to scream my head off. The closer we got to going on, the more freaked out I became. Jason and Jessica kept teasing their dad that he was going to have a heart attack on the ride. Pretty sure I was closer to having a heart attack than he was. If you don’t know which ride this is it’s the one that takes you super high in the air and drops you down, down, down. You’re inside, but don’t worry, they open a “window” before they drop you so you can see how high up you are. My stomach is flipping just thinking about it. I screamed a lot and Jason laughed at me a lot. I was a little shaky after that one.

Don’t make fun of me, but the first Disney characters we saw were Phinias and Ferb! They were dancing and singing in the middle of the park (yes, I sang along). After embarrassing myself in front of Jason’s family, we went on a water ride. We didn’t get too wet, but I did feel bad for this little girl and her mom who got soaked. We also went on the Haunted Mansion ride that was decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas stuff and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride: both classics. Walking around, we saw a lot of characters including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto, but the lines were so long! I tried to stand in line for Minnie, but the dumb lady told me Minnie was leaving – they always do that to me because I’m old. Jason got his picture with Captain Hook – he’s mean.

Phinias and Ferb

I was excited :)

Not too wet after the water ride

Haunted Mansion

We just wanted to try them on

Queen of Hearts

Jase and Captain Hook

Thursday Jason’ mom and sister and I had a girl’s day while Jay and his dad spent time together. We went to get our hair cut, our nails done, eat at Café Rio, and get tinsel in our hair. We had fun spending time together and I had fun doing girl things – Jase always makes me do boy things.

Mom made us waffles

Jason made his smile

I just wanted to eat mine, not play with it

Sandy!

She wuvs me :)

She sits like a bunny.

It's kinda hard to see my tinsel, but it's purple and there.  

Playing Christmas tic-tac-toe

           Friday we went to Orange where we went to Watson’s Diner. This is where the movie That Thing You Do with Tom Hanks was filmed. I haven’t seen this movie, but I definitely plan to. I just think it’s really cool to go places where movies were filmed. The food at Watson’s was really good, especially my thick, creamy strawberry shake. We then walked around a little bit and made a visit to Chapman University’s campus. On our way home, we drove through Newport and stopped by the Newport LDS Temple. We were sure to get out of the car and take a lot of pictures. It was such a beautiful day. 

My Strawberry shake and ham and swiss melt. MMM...

Chapman

Newport Temple

Stay tuned . . .