California Here We Come!!

Two days after Christmas we loaded up the car and headed out to California to spend a week with Jarod's family in Newport Beach, California. Mom and Dad V. swapped their time shares in Hawaii for Newport, so that we could all enjoy a second Christmas at the resort. Many thanks go out to them for hosting such a fun week. It felt like such a whirlwind vacation, and as usual, we felt like we didn't have enough time together.

Our first morning there we made our traditional trip to JCPenny for family portraits. They turned out really well. I'm excited to get them. Then it was over to South Coast Plaza for lunch. After waiting in line at the Rain Forest Cafe for over 30 minutes, we jumped ship and went over to Claim Jumper. Quite delicious. The best part of it all was eating for free...that's right. As luck would have it, we experienced really bad service. So much so, that my brother in law Damon complained, and ended up getting all our money refunded. Woo hoo!!

After lunch, we sent the Wilsteads and Elle home, and walked around the mall for a few minutes until we had to leave to pick up Navarre and Catherine at the Long Beach airport. I was glad we stayed because the kids got to ride the Carousel, and they LOVED it!