Family Vacation with a little work!

I just got back from a family vacation that I was able to tie into with a work trip. We sure felt like the Griswolds trying to get things around. My husband woke my kids up at 4 am with the tune from Family Vacation. I normally blog about my journey of health and fitness or the comical Chicken Lady. But, today I'm so tired and have very little motivation, that I thought that would tell you about it. Booking flights suck when you are trying to find the best price.  We ended up taking a morning trip down, got up at 3am  for a 6am flight and then an over night trip back. I thought we would beat traffic.  Packed flights both down and back, just crazy. We arrived back home at 9 am from a 2 hour drive from the airport and no sleep. I literally slept from 10 am Sunday to Monday about 7 am. I got up up once after a few hours thinking I would stay up. I sat on the porch with a glass of water and said screw it and went back to bed. I have no idea if my kids stayed awake or if the even ate for that matter.

It's 7:30 am and I'm in my beach cover up 2000 miles later with a pot of coffee. I think I brushed my teeth, but I can't be certain. I fumble for coffee as my body ached all over from sleeping a whole day away.

Let me start at the beginning. I was asked to do a presentation with a colleague in Anaheim California for work.  What a great opportunity to wrap in a family vacation with a work thing. Now, if any of you have done this combination before you know how pain staking it is to book personal plans with business plans and to not get things mixed up for reimbursement. Thank gosh I work with a good bookkeeper both at home and work.

My family dynamic is a pretty interesting one. I have a tweener that is going on 30 and ready to take on the world, as long as I cater to him to make it easy. Once he even asked if it was an option to live in my basement when he was 30. My other boy is 22 and has downs. He just wants to see everyone happy and he enjoys everything. My husband has anxiety and is kind of a control freak. I can work around it but it gets exciting. His first stop for the flight was a liquor store for whiskey,he found out that he could carry on 3ozs of liquid on the plane.

We were excited and nervous at the same time as this was our first family trip.   Heck it was the first flight we have ever taken together since our honeymoon. We set the alarm for 3 am tried to sleep a little then we packed up for a two hour drive to the airport. Our flight left at 6 am and was a non stop flight to LAX. We have not taken a vacation since the birth of my tweener and we wanted to make the most out of it. I spent hours researching places, prices and timelines for the biggest bang for our buck. We left 4 days before the work part was to begin for a total of 7 days worth of away time. We banged out a lifetime of memories in that short week.

We rented a car and soon discovered that a mid sized car wouldn't hold all our luggage. I was given a free upgrade and they offered a Challenger. My husbands eye lite up  like a kid in a candy store until he played tetras for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get our luggage to fit. We ended up with a pick up truck.

We found the hotel and the room was a tight fit but, we didn't care.  we didn't plan on being there much anyway. But, to my husband with OCD a messy hotel room was at another level for him. Again, off to the liquor store.

The weather in California is nothing like Michigan, With all the sun shine you just can't help but smile and want to be out in it. That must be why Californians are rated as one of the fittest states in the US. The need to be outdoors is overwhelming with all the warmth.

Event though we stayed across the street from Disneyland we opted for Universal Studios instead because our boys are more movie buffs than the Great Mickey Mouse.

But, the Mickey Mouse ears are very part of the landscape in Anaheim. It became comical to see what was not Disney related. Along with Universal Studios we went to the  an Diego zoo and Lego-land.  The Zoo was amazing as they really talked about all the research and headway in saving animals from extinction. I had no problem giving them my money.

At any given time we e would jump off the highway and take side roads along the coast to catch scenery. We had no place to be and no hurry to get there.

It was our goal to eat at different places each night to experience California eats. We did end up at a couple usual's for price sake, like IHOP, We were in the mood for pancakes.

In and Out Burger, was "amazing" to quote my boys. It was my husbands idea to find this place because of some famous TV chef made a comment about it being the best.

Other various places we visited included Cheese Cake factory, Jack in the Box, Ice cream places and other gut busting joints.

We stopped at rest areas, parks and anything else that we could say we visited. I really enjoyed all  the blooming plants and trees.

Needless to say our trip was memorable and exhausting at the same time but well worth it.

We had opportunities to drive up and down the coast line as we quickly leaned that driving in the LA area is a mess of hurry up and stop. We spent an afternoon at Seal Beach, We went to 3 beaches in total and my son collected sand from each in a FUJI water bottle.  Each beach had different textures of sand that my son found fascinating. We didn't see any sharks or marine life but we did get chances to play in the sand and see lifeguards that reminded me of the TV show Bay Watch. We saw some California Highway Patrol and my husband would start singing the tune from CHIPS. We would start in on the song and my my kids just looked  at us like we were weird. Along, with souvenirs my boys did manage to pick up a California sunburn. I clearly did not apply it very even as they looked like they had red zebra strips on their backs.  But, they never let it get them down. Every down time moment my kids had they would walk around in search of Pokeman GO. This game has taken the world by storm and I would catch tidbits of the news and hear stories of people falling off cliffs and getting robbed in search of these little critters. I was nervous about them going off on their own with this game, but we set some rules and all worked out.

Over all it was a successful vacation/work trip as I sit on my deck and reflect with a cup of coffee in the hot humid weather of Michigan, thinking of all the chores I need to do to get my life back in order. Piles of laundry, no healthy food in the house, a burnt lawn with only weeds, and countless work responsibilities to deal with. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day.