Mick had called and said that I should come a few days earlier than planned because he would have 3 days off to spend w/ us instead of having to work all week and try to do things together after work. We were very excited to go see him and get to spend some time w/ him.
Mick gets paid every Fri and they don't do direct deposit (who knows why) so I had to wait until she got it printed and go get it. The time to pick it up was changed a few different times, but i was finally able to get it around 4. Came back to Meridian, deposited it and then went to pick up the car, which was a Dodge Charger that I am completely in love w/, I need one of those cars! I asked the kids if they wanted to leave that night and get to Winnemucca or get up early and try to drive all day. They opted to leave that night. So we came home and loaded up the car, got some diner and hit the road. I don't think we left until 6 or 6:30p, it was ok, and now looking back I'm glad I broke the drive up.
The kids are at the perfect ages to take a road trip with. They were absolutely perfect. No fighting, actually had conversations w/ one another. It helped that they each had some kind of electronic to keep them entertained. Clay rode in the front the whole way to Winnemucca, he was my little navigator, helped w/ the GPS and when we were getting close looked up hotel numbers and helped book a room for that night.
I forgot the time change so when we got their I couldn't remember what time was what, so that was annoying. :) I didn't sleep hardly at all, was up at 6 and got the kids up and we were on the road.
I am a no non sense driver. When we have 10 hrs ahead of us, we don't stop for much, gas and a few potty breaks. My mother called practically the whole time we drove to make sure we were going to get there, I guess.. haha.. But that's what mom/grandma's do.. Thanks mom!!
We got to Cali around 7p, when we got out of the car at the hotel, the air was thick and hot. WOW, that was interesting. Seeing Mick was like we hadn't seen eachother in forevver!! He's such a good looking man, I love him like crazy!! He was hungry and wanted to eat, so we headed out. Found a Pizza place, which was very exspensive, $20 for a small.. Wowzers.. Anyhow, went back to the hotel, I was exhausted! The bed was soo comfy, I don't think I have slept that good in a long time, it felt great. I need to get a new mattress, ours totally sucks compared to that one!
Thursday we got up and had decided to the Aquarium, it was in Long Beach which was 2 hrs away. The kids weren't excited about being back in the car again but once we got there they loved the Aquarium. I didn't know it was on the Ocean but the water came right up to the Aquarium. It was huge, a lot of different fish, sharks, sting rays, jelly fish etc. The kids had a great time, you were able to touch a lot of the fish so that was probably more exciting than just looking at them. We touched baby shark, bigger sharks, jelly fish, sting rays coral, star fish. It was great!
Afterwards, we walked out on the boardwalk, their were a ton of beautiful boats in the water and we saw a sign that does tours around the harbor. It was pretty cheap and it was leaving in 45 min, so we bought tickets and took a tour around the harbor. That was a lot of fun to learn about what was around that island and see some of the huge cruise ships docked.
Then it was back in the car to head home. OMG, we were stuck in California rush hour traffic. it was 3:30-4, I so didn't think it was rush hour but honestly every hour seemed like rush hour. I think we were at a slow pace for about 30-45 mins, yea that sucked.. ;)
Got back to the hotel, the kids wanted to go swimming so we all changed and hit the pool. It was probably 105 degrees outside but a little overcast. It was fun to hang out in the pool and relax, the kids had a blast and Mick and I sat and talked. That night we had dinner at Red Robin. We like to eat at places that we are familiar with, i don't like to go to too many new places on account that it might irritate my stomach plus Mick has a very sensitive stomach when eating out.
Sat we got up and were going to go to the San Diego Zoo, the kids weren't excited again about having to drive almost 3 hrs to get there and then I realized I forgot the coupons at home and we weren't too excited about spending $150 just to get into the Zoo.. So we changed our minds and headed to a town called Cabazon, we saw this mall off the freeway and wanted to check it out. It had very exspensive stores at it, Prada, Gucci, Coach, Loui Vitton and a ton of other stores that I know my mom shops at, had to text here where we were and she really wished she was there.. :) We bought the kids some new sunglasses, Sis a new pair of cute shoes, and Mick a new pair of shoes so that he can wear his shorts instead of pants.. haha! Some of the exspensive stores we just had to go into to see what the sell, and yea, nothing in my style or taste..
Mick wanted a new pair of Wranglers or Carhart pants and trying to find those in Cali was very hard! I happened to get off the freeway to go into Palm Springs and we found the one and only western store, that looked closed but was open when we got there.. She sold wranglers, but not in Mick's size. He needed a 32x38 and all she had was the opposite 38x32, most are shorter and rounder I guess.. :) So we didn't find him any but I did find a new pair of bling sandals, that she was clearancing for only $40!! YAY, there were 3 to choose from and being as I already have a brown pair I got the black one!!
Mick got a guy that he use to work with at CP a job their in CA w/ him. He left Sat morning and was traveling all day. We were checking in w/ him to see where he was throughout the day. Diner was coming up again and by this time I was soo tired of eatin out. I felt like I put on 10 lbs, I wanted a good salad and the restaurant we thought we were going to wasn't there anymore so we went w/ Buffalo Wild Wings, I had a chicken salad and the rest of them shared wings and potato wedges.
After we got back to the hotel Curtis arrived while we were at the pool.. I am very glad that Mick has Curtis there to hang out w/. He had been sharing a room w/ Gilberto, and Mick said he snores, and always wanted to watch the Mexican chanel that Mick couldn't understand and he was in bed by 6p every night, so he was really looking forward to hanging out w/ Curtis.
Sun we were suppose to go to the Knott's Berry waterpark, but when we drove into Palm Springs, it was pouring rain. Mick said he hadn't noticed any rain the whole time he's been there. So were weren't able to go, it didn't stop raining until 2 and Mick still needed to do his laundry for the week and go get some groceries. It ended up being a great slow day. We all ate at In n Out, that was great food and pretty cheap. Steve, the boss, flew back in from being here at home, so then we all hung out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. I was working on my tan, the guys didn't put on sunscreen and got pretty red.. They never listen, so it's their own fault. haha
All of the rest of the guys started showing back up to the hotel, so we met them and it got busy around there. Mick was moving into a different room w/ Curtis so he was moving all his stuff into the other room but we were still staying in his room he shared w/ Gilberto until the next day. They all made their lunches and got all there stuff in order for the next day. They wake up at 3:15 and are out the door by 4. It takes them 40 mins to drive to the job and then they have a 15 min safety meeting before work everyday.
Mick's alarms were very loud, and they started going off at 3:15, they woke up me and Michayla. by 3:30 someone was knocking on the door and Mick was up and left by 3:45.. It was fast and i wasn't able to get all sad, Sis cried for a while. Once I am up, it's very hard for me to go back to bed, so I decided that it was actually 4:15 our time and I got us loaded up and out the door.
It was a very fun filled 4 days. Mick knows his way around that town already. It's just a huge square so it really isn't that hard to figure out, but I am glad to know that he knows what he's doing down there.
We got home around 7:30 grabbed some Subway for dinner and hit the hay. The dogs were happy to see us and Chloe purred and purred. I love my animals!!
We had a good time and I am glad that we got to see daddy. It will be just about a month that he will be gone before he comes home, that would have been way too long. We are buying him a laptop so that he can skype everynight w/ us. I'm very sad that he's gone but I know this will benefit us in the long run.
I'll share pictures later, unless you're on my facebook, you can look there too..
