June's Visit to Orange County

From San Diego, we started easy and just drove a few hours up to my mom's condo in Dana Point. Dana Point is just south of Laguna Beach and is truly one of the nicest places in the world. My mom and her husband Ken had finally finished all of their remodel, so the condo was amazing. Plus, it just always feels good to stay in your mom's house. Ahhhhh. 

My mom and Ken are on a mission for our church, so they left every morning to work in the Anaheim Mission Office from 9-5. They had just started, but they already loved serving as administrators in the office where they get to help the mission president, meet and assist all the new full-time missionaries, and show-off their super-human efficiency. It was so fun to see them in action. They had both always wanted to serve a mission and it's exciting to see them "living the dream". 

The sad thing was not having my mom around during the day, but she did a superb job of finding the kids and I all sorts of fun, cheap, non-Disneyland, non-beach (we live on Maui...sorry, So. Cal Beaches don't compare) things to do in Orange County. One day, we took a trip to see their mission office and go to the Anaheim Science Museum/ Discovery Museum that was just a mile away. It's that big cube-like building you can see when you turn off the I-5 to Disneyland. Know the place? Well, it's loads of fun. 

My Lego-loving kids were delighted to spend a few hours in the Lego Castle exhibit that had just arrived. 

They also had some memorable experiences in the wind tunnel booth. 

Elsie laid on a bed of nails for awhile...

And they all enjoyed the pin-art exhibit... which was starting to gross me out a bit thinking about how many other kids had done open-mouthed silhouettes on the same pins. 

The older kids ended up falling in love with the last exhibit we visited, which was three big rooms filled with working wooden models of Leonardo daVinci's inventions and a few color dissections of his major works of art. It was fascinating! The three older kids seriously devoured it. But, unfortunately, Po's not much of a daVinci fan yet, so she was horrible. I finally took her out and she found heaven in eating everything in the snack bag and watching the Rube Goldberg-like marbleworks machine. 

Eventually, the older kids made their way out of the exhibits, and we went on our way. 

Another adventure we enjoyed in Orange County was taking Ana to a tack store with a HUGE collection of Breyer models. Ana is a fanatic Breyer collector, so needless to say, it took a few hours to get her out of here. 

Luvy (my kids' name for my mom) also found this cool seal and sea-lion rescue in Long Beach canyon where you get right up and personal with rescued baby seals and sea-lions. Cool! A tad stinky, but mostly cool! It's also next door to the animal shelter, so we went and visited some psycho dogs, some nice dogs, and some psycho-nice rabbits. 

My mom and Ken have been assigned to a ward (congregation) up near the mission office in Anaheim, so we went up with them for church instead of going to the chapel near their condo. While up there, we visited a forest reserve that my mom had found out about and went for a lovely hike and even happened upon a nice little wedding ceremony. It was a fun adventure and it was good to find some nature and solitude in the middle of bustling Anaheim. 

We also spent more time than I can add up at the condo complex's pool and also much time walking down to the beach from my mom's condo. We really packed the days full. Jonah was also able to work on the car some more to get it more to his liking and more safe to drive. I also made sure to get in some shopping, especially at Trader Joe's, the most missed store while we're on Maui.

Sadly, our visit had to eventually come to an end. Ana made sure to kiss Luvy many many times to let her know how much she would miss her. Ana is in that stage where she still wants to sit on your lap like a child but she's already the size of a small adult. It's hilarious and often painful. 

I can't reiterate enough how much my kids love being with my mom and staying at her house. They think and talk about it all year. They try to find ways to sneak on the airplane to make it back there. I love basking in the joy they feel when they are there. 

Thank you Mom and Ken! Can't wait until next time!