The Groves

The Groves

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

CALIFORNIADVENTURE Part Three: Grandma and Grandpa's House!!!

Okay, I've been hearing about this house and how great it is for almost 5 years now, so I was pretty excited to finally see what the fuss was all about. And man, oh man! The hype was REAL! We have the best grandparents in the world and they have the best dang house in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. It was so wonderful to have a few days to relax, rejuvenate, and sun worship (mostly me on that last one). I am so grateful to have married into such fantastic grandparents. Grandma Pam (or as I affectionately call her, Gramela Pamela) is the absolute most wonderful dream grandma ever. I'm hoping she can get her back better so we can go hiking and do yoga together on our next adventure!
And basically, this entire post is going to be photos of their ridiculous, adorable, spoiled Jack Russell named Skeeter. Pet photography is a blast, especially when you don't have a dog like mine who absolutely REFUSES to look at the camera (lol). So, sorry for the Skeeter overload. Hehe!


Finally officially an Eagar grandchild with the shoe picture!
Endless poolside tug-of-war.
FLUFFY BABY MINIS!!!!!! There's a farm nearby with tons of minis.



All day, erry day.


Grandpa's cat, Simon, is super gorgeous.







He is wicked fast. Seriously!




I promise I have a top on. Honest.

The tan by the end of the trip. Seriously incredible.
I LOVE these people!!! <3
On Sunday afternoon we headed back to LA with a quick stop in Santa Barbara to visit our Aunt Jen (Uncle Mike was at work, which was a bummer). We quickly hatched plans for many bike rides next visit! Haha. Despite ugly traffic (I cannot live in California. I cannot) we returned our cute little Escape just in the nick of time and barely made it on our flight (our rental car shuttle driver was a little over friendly and took FORTY MINUTES to drive like, 4 blocks)! Before we knew it, we were home with our pup and our kitties. It was sad to come home but I'm so glad we had the chance to visit! Such a fun trip.

CALIFORNIADVENTURE Part Two: Disneyland!

Woohoooooo!!! Dinneyland! Even though it was WAY WAY WAY more crowded than we expected (isitpacked.com forecasted 'Ghost Town' status for both days we were there, with 10-20 minute waits... yeah... more like 35-45 minute waits), it was a serious blast. I even survived Splash Mountain, which I hate, as you will see. We didn't take a ton of pictures because we were trying to just enjoy every minute of it! And I took a couple of videos that somehow got corrupted on the camera, so I'm a little bummed about that. :( But alas, we still rode Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and the Matterhorn twice, Haunted Mansion and Radiator Springs Racers (which was way fun but had a TWO HOUR WAIT... thankfully we got fast passes, but even those we got at 10am and weren't good until 615pm!) once, and Big Thunder Mtn Railroad four times. Yes, four times. It's my favorite, and it had the shortest wait times of pretty much any ride in the park! I might like Space Mountain itself better, but that wait time is just the pits, so Big Thunder edges it out based on wait time alone. Regardless, it was still a blast, but I won't be going back for many years- until they open Star Wars land!


Brady is a little large for Autopia...
The perfect dichotomy of our personalities.



Whoosh.


They don't have the smells on Soarin' Over California anymore! What the actual freak??
Welp. Guess I gotta watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire now.
Day Two went a bit better, mostly because we were prepared for it to be busy. We also took a bag in this time because Disney is way more chill about bags than Universal was, so we got to have some treats and such to help us survive the day.

Brady and his new little buddy on Screamin'.
INDY!!!!
Big Thunder again for I think the second time? Just watch it. It's worth it for my scream-cackle-laughing alone.

Can you guess the ride? Here's a hint- I HATE IT.
The photo was super overexposed but I just had to include this face.
Hatred.

Serious, deep, abiding hatred. ...okay, it actually wasn't as bad as I remembered and it was way less awful than the stupid Jurassic Park ride at Universal Orlando... but I still don't like it.
Trying to be deadpan like Brady on our 3rd go around of Big Thunder.
Must... be... deadpan...
MUST... HOLD ON... TO DEADPAN....
OH, FORGET IT!





It was a pretty awesome fun time, even if it cost a small fortune (seriously, more than our airfare), and I'm looking forward to going back when I have even more money to spend on all of the delicious food there! But after that it was so long Disney, onto GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S HOUSE!!