My last day in CA....

There's so much to tell you about that had happened in the last few days. We had the most AMAZING time at Disneyland and I will blog about all that we did tomorrow. What I do want to blog about is the emotions I'm feeling right now.....

I had to say goodbye to my Sister's family. It was the most difficult goodbye's I've experienced in a very long time. I held my tears until my sweet niece Kolbi came to give me a hug and kiss. Tears filled her eyes and I was already feeling the tears start to build in mine. You see, Kolbi Wolbi as I like to call her is the 3rd born of my sisters 4 children. Brianna, Lantz, Kolbi, & Rikki. Lantz is the only boy but Kolbi is the middle girl. She's the same age as Alyssa and like another daughter for me. Her personality is not like any of the other kids. She's a lot like me...low relational and she and I have hit it off...big time. We're so much alike that we seem to have drifted towards each other. I just LOVE her to death. I wanted to just pack her up in my suitcase and take her home with me. I am going to write to her and send her cards so she knows how very much I love her and how very very special she is to me. Please don't get me wrong...I love all of my nieces & nephews...but Kolbi holds a very special place in my heart.

Time to get the rest of my stuff gathered up. I'll tell you all about our Disneyland Adventures tomorrow.

Disneyland

We arrived in Los Angeles at 5pm...can you say RUSH HOUR??  We made it to Disneyland in 4 hours.  The girls were so excited and very very good on the drive down.  We got checked into the Disneyland Hotel.  We headed to Downtown Disney to eat at the Rainforest Cafe.  We got right in because we were willing to eat on the balcony.  After we ate, we decided to do some shopping and Kolbi has never experienced Build A Bear so in we went.  Kolbi found a golden retriever...could be a yellow lab like hers at home and Alyssa picked a cute bunny rabbit.  They stuffed their animals and then cleaned them extra fur off of them.  At the Disney Build A Bear they have exclusive Disney outfits for the bears.  Both of the girls wanted Tinker Bell outfits, but they were all sold out.  So...Kolbi got a Belle outfit and Alyssa got a Snow White outfit.  After we finished at Build A Bear we headed back to the hotel, but decided to stop at the trading pin store.  The girls each got a lanyard and 4 pins they wanted.  The lady that checked us out explained how to trade pins.  So we purchased a box for each of the girls with 4 pins that they can trade with the Disney employees.  They can't wait to start trading.  We decided we needed to get back to our room as the fireworks would start at 9:30pm and our room looks out over the park.  the girls ewwww'd and awwwww'd at all of the beautiful fireworks.  They can't wait until tomorrow when we actually go into Disneyland.

California- Day 5

Dad took me to pick up the rental car today to use for our trip to Disneyland.  Alyssa & Kolbi are so excited about going.  After we picked up the car we went to one of my top 5 restaurants to eat at...Sunrise Kitchen.  This is a true Chinese food joint  It's a little hole in the wall and has always been one of my favorite places to get my Chinese food.  Well, the food wasn't nearly as good as it was 3 years ago when I had it last.  It was definitely missing something.  I scarfed my lunch down anyway.  When I went to throw away my trash I pulled a major DUH and dropped my keys in the garbage can.  I tried to fish the out and was unsuccessful so I had to ask for assistance.  They don't speak English to each other so I'm certain they were saying "what a dumb blond white girl".  Oh well...hehehe...I got me keys and headed home.  

Mom got home early as we needed to head out to Mendota to watch my oldest niece Brianna play softball.  She plays short stop for Laton High School and is the lead off batter.  I did my very best to keep my mouth shut and just enjoy the game, but found myself halfway through the game yelling out instructions....hehe...you may be able to take the girl out of the ball, but never the ball out of the girl.  I was very proud of Brianna as she played a great game. 

 I found the time to play with Alyssa & my two youngest nieces Kolbi & Rikki.  They took turns wearing my sunglasses and Rikki gave me lots and lots of hugs & kisses.  After the game as we were walking back to the car Rikki insisted I carry her so I did of course and as I walked across the grass I twirled around and Rikki let out the biggest belly laughs.  She insisted I ride in the car with her so of course I did because Rikki gets whatever she wants....she is so spoiled.  We had to take a quick run through the drive through at McDonalds to get a "burgercheese"...it's so funny to hear her say it too in that little girly voice.  

After the game we traveled back to Fresno and went to yet another one of my top 5 favorite restaurants...Javier's.  It's a really good authentic Mexican food restaurant.  I had tacos and hmmm hmmm hmmm....they were OUTSTANDING.

Charlie will be arriving tonight and I cant wait to see him.  I've really missed him and so has Alyssa.  He texted me earlier today and told me he was "On Vacation".  I hope all goes well at the store while we are gone.  I do miss all of my friends in OK, but it's worth missing them to get to spend time with my family.  I'm hoping I will be able to come back home again in the fall over fall break.  Two of my nieces may come back to Oklahoma over the summer.  Brianna wants to attend the OU Women's basketball camp and Kolbi just wants to come visit and play with Alyssa.  I hope we can make it all happen.

California - Day 4

Another bright sunny day here in sunny California...did I mention it's warm and SUNNY here?  Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday but I was having connectivity issues with the wireless network I'm hacked into.  The skies were clear enough to see the snowcapped mountains.  It takes about an hour to get up into the Sierra Nevada's...around 5000 feet.  We use to go there all the time to camp and have fun in the great outdoors. 

 

Yesterday was a pretty uneventful.  We went to Al's Cafe for breakfast.  Al's is one of my top 5 favorite places to eat.  I had homemade tamales with beans & rice.  Mexican food here is California is so much different than Mexican food in Oklahoma.  It's truly more authentic.  And did I mention how yummy it is??  

 Dad took me by the Grizzlies baseball field that is new since I was here last time.  The Grizzlies are the AAA baseball team that is the farm team for the San Francisco Giant.  It reminds me a lot of Bricktown Ballpark.  They were working on the field and the guy at the gate said they were getting ready for opening night in April.

I got to do some IT support for Aunt Patty.  Her printer had died and wanted to get a new one, but needed help getting it set up.  We went and picked up a printer at the "W" store (don't tell ) and headed home to hook it all up.  I got it all out of the box and guess what??  No USB cable to hook it to the computer or black ink cartridge.  No wonder it was so inexpensive.  We headed back to the "W" store and I got a USB cable and a black ink cartridge.  While it was installing I sat and watched Celebrity Apprentice with Aunt Patty& Alyssa.  I am not a huge reality show kinda person, but I have been watching the Celebrity Apprentice since the first night.  I only with Donald would have fired both Dennis & Tom...they both deserved it.

Mom got home from work and we took a quick trip to the scrapbook store.  My second trip there.  Mom really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the "STUFF".  It's a very nice store.  We came home and Mom whipped up a quick and yummy dinner.  Then off we went again...Mom & I headed to JoAnn's.  Mom's been wanting to make one of those fleece tie together blankets so I got the stuff to make my niece Rikki a Tinkerbell blanket.  I also found these cool straps to use in our post bound scrapbooks that makes adding more pages MUCH MUCH easier.  When we got home, I fixed all of Mom's albums and we watched Dancing with the Stars.  Alyssa begged me to make the blanket so I gave in and we got started.  Mom couldn't believe how easy they were to make.  We had fun...us three girls...sitting on the floor making a blanket.  

California - Day 3

Did I mention I'm in VERY sunny California...temperatures in the 70's...and SUN shinning????

Yesterday morning I decided to go to church.  I couldn't decide i I wanted to go to Fresno Church of Christ or Clovis Church of Christ.  I headed down Clovis Ave thinking I'll go to Fresno CofC, but apparently Gettysburg Ave doesn't intersect Clovis Ave so I continued north and decided I was going to go to Clovis CofC.  

I pulled into the parking lot it looked like a very nice church.  Grounds perfectly kept, relatively new building.  So I parked and walked in.  Everyone was dressed in their Sunday bests and of course all I had were some jeans and a t-shirt as I'd packed very lightly for the trip home.  So I sat down in a pew a couple rows from the back.  I sat there for a few minutes feeling like I was being "checked out".  Then I was welcome by a gentleman, then another then another then another.  I explained to each of them that I was visiting my family and that I lived in Oklahoma City and was a member at Oakcrest Church of Christ.  The one thing I found to be interesting is that not one woman said good morning to me.  Only men...about a dozen of them.

  

 The service was very nice and the pastor, Scott Young gave an AWESOME message about bearing fruit.  That it takes more effort to produce nothing than to produce something.   By the way, he was one of the dozen or so who welcomed me before the service began.  Come to find out, he spent some time in Claremore, OK as a CofC minister.  Most of their service was just like ours at Oakcrest.  The praise & worship was all done from the hymnal.  No new praise & worship songs.  BUT...I knew 3 of the 6 songs...woo hoo.    The church had a capacity of about 300 people and it was pretty full.  I'm glad I decided to go...good message, good people, and I got my spiritual tank filled. 

My sister came into town and we all went to Red Robin for dinner.  Then we decided to take in a movie.  My two nieces had not seen the Jonas Brother's 3D concert and my sister had NO desire to see it.  So Brianna, Kolbi, Alyssa & I went to the JoBro show and my Mom, Sister, Lantz, & Rikki went to see the Witch Mountain Movie.  I had so much fun with the girls.  And of course the JoBros were amazing.