The Lee Family: California: Day 5

I woke up at 7am which was hard after such a long day at Knott's. I really wanted to sleep in later but we'd made plans to meet up with my Mom's best friend, Kris for breakfast at 8:30am and we needed to pack up and checkout of our hotel before meeting her. I got the girls up and convinced them to dress themselves while I packed the rest of our things together. Traveling with two little kids adds a little difficulty in that you need to do things without them, yet don't want to leave them alone. I finally decided to leave them in the hotel room while I ran our two suitcases down to the trunk of the car. We have backpacks, purses and bags with us and need all of our hands to carry everything. It worked out fine and we were soon loaded in the car and checked out by 8:15am. We were meeting Kris at Flappy Jack's a really popular breakfast place that I've seen for years, but have never visited before. I got a little lost on the way there, even though I should know how to get there. I have to use GPS for every trip we take since I just don't remember how to get to and from places anymore, even though I lived in the area.

We made it to Flappy Jack's and met up with Kris who was already sitting at a booth. She looks fantastic and exactly the same as she has the whole time I've known her. She talked about her family, Jim, and getting back into jewelry making and crafting. My Mom and Kris used to dream up elaborate craft projects and then would usually do them together. They both had such incredible creative minds together and were always in sync on ideas. Kris always sends me a really cool and creative Christmas gift each year that she has created and it's always my favorite gift of the season. She is so talented and I am so glad to hear she's getting back into her jewelry making. Kris gave Sofia three Harry Potter companion books which look awesome and Sofia started reading immediately. She hasn't been into Harry Potter lately and so it was great to see her dive right back into them. Kris and I split an omelette, which was a great decision because they are huge! The girls ate pancakes and enjoyed them, although Olivia wasn't quite awake yet and kept climbing into my lap to suck her thumb and cuddle.

After breakfast, we said goodbye to Kris after such a great visit, and told her she needs to visit us in Texas. I love spending time with her and wish we lived closer to each other. We had a little extra time before we planned to meet Alice, Grayden and Audrey in Burbank, so we headed to Michael's for new scratch pads. Before coming on our trip, I'd picked up two scratch pads that the girls love! Sofia has literally spent hours on her's carefully scratching off the black layer to reveal the puppy or other animal. Olivia has enjoyed it too but spends about 15 minutes and is done with the entire book. They were both done with their scratchpads and I told them they could each pick out one new one. The Michael's in Orange, which was closest to Flappy Jack's, had a great selection of scratch pads and Olivia immediately picked out a mermaid book while Sofia chose one with dragons, castles and knights. Right up both of their alleys. They wanted to buy one of the plastic animal figurines but I told them they could play for a bit with them but that we didn't need more things to carry with us on our trip. They played for maybe 20 minutes while I browsed, then we checked out and loaded into our car. We were less than 3 miles from my Mom's house on Churchill and it felt weird not to be going there after Michael's.

Earlier in the week, Alice had texted me when she saw a post I made on Facebook about us being in California. She, Joe, Grayden and Audrey recently moved back from Hawaii and are now living in Camarillo. It will be Joe's last tour in the military and Alice is excited to be close to all of her family and in a great house! I wish we could visit her new house because I'd love to see it, but it will have to wait until our next visit. I told her I just didn't have it in me to drive all the way up to see them but could meet halfway. Traffic in California is terrible and I'd like to be in it as little as possible. She suggested we meet at the Discovery Cube in Burbank at 1pm. My GPS said it was about an hour drive, so we headed that way after Michael's and a quick stop at Starbucks for a cup of coffee and chocolate milks. Olivia fell asleep in the car ride up while Sofia worked on her new scratch pad.

Alice, Grayden and Audrey arrived and I woke Olivia up. It's so great to see Alice and I'm so glad we were able to catch up for a bit. Despite seeing each other numerous times over the years we lived down the street from each other in Washington D.C., Grayden and Sofia didn't remember each other at all! We arrived to pay and thankfully they have a reciprocity with the Perot Museum, so we ended up paying just two entrance fees instead of six. The Discovery Cube actually reminded me a lot of the Perot Museum, with science experiments, a focus on the environment and interesting exhibits. The kids loved the tornado machine and kept starting it up, changing the color of the lights and running through it. We continued through the different exhibits and enjoyed the recycling race, grocery shopping and the race car displays. We ended up hanging out until 5:30pm instead of 4pm, as I had planned on leaving. It was just so fun to visit with Alice and watch out kids reconnect a little bit. We said our goodbyes and I hope we see them all again soon. I talked to CK after saying goodbye to Alice and her kids and caught up a little bit. I'm so used to being able to drive and talk, but it's illegal in California so I sat in the car and talked.

We got on the freeway around 6pm and it was solid traffic! We were heading to Chuck's house in San Dimas, which is only about 20 miles away yet my GPS said over an hour. Even in the carpool lane it was stop and go! We finally made it to Chuck's house at 7pm and was pleasantly surprised that San Dimas actually reminded me a lot of Villa Park, but up against the foothills. It's such a pretty area and Chuck's house is up the hill a bit and awesome! His house is so comfortable and in a quiet and cozy area with a great backyard and pool.

We unloaded our bags and Chuck took us down into town to a Mexican restaurant which ended up being really delicious - maybe because we were all really hungry. After we got back to Chuck's house, the girls changed into their swimsuits and jumped in the pool. I was ready to swim too but the water was frigid compared to the pool water at our house. Thankfully Chuck heated up his hot tub and we were all hanging out in the increasingly warm water. Sofia was the only one brave enough to jump into the pool and then get back into the hot tub. We enjoyed the hot tub for awhile before I got both girls out and they got into their pajamas and brushed their teeth. Chuck has two guest rooms and Sofia flat out refused to sleep with Olivia, so I told them they would be sleeping together if I saw either one of them come out of their room before the morning. I planned to sleep with Olivia the first night and Sofia the second, whether Sofia wanted company or not.

After putting the girls to bed, Chuck and I stayed up and watched the movie "Woman in Gold" which I'd never heard of but was really interesting about the painting by Gustav Klimt of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which was stolen by the Nazi's in the 1940s and the niece ended up suing the Austrian Government for it's return and winning. Ultimately, she sold the painting and donated all of the money to the arts. It was an interesting movie that I knew nothing about. By the time the movie was over it was 1:30am! I haven't stayed up that late in memory! I snuck into bed with Olivia who was sprawled out in the middle of the bed, but thankfully once she's asleep she doesn't wake easily. I pushed her over to one side and cuddled in with her. We planned on visiting Universal Studios the next day.

Sleeping girls