L.A. Trip

There was a method to the madness that was our latest family trip. It started when I was told by my best friend that she’d be getting married on Easter Sunday. In Los Angeles-ish. There were some intermediate steps, like my husband saying, “Why don’t we all go?” and my dad realizing that he could move to North Carolina early. Smaller steps like checking the kids spring break and testing week for the little girls also happened.
Then the madness coalesced into a brilliant scheme. The short version: Neil hauled an empty trailer from here to L.A. with our big kids to keep him company, spending their spring break reading and binge watching anime and big kid movies. The little girls and I flew to L.A. Friday morning and timed it perfectly to have Neil pick us up at the airport. Yay for early morning airport breakfast and matching travel sweats! After Burger King for lunch, we visited my sisters, McCall’s dog Reggie, and had In-N-Out to celebrate being on the West Coast. A hike with Reggie and good food left Layna thoroughly done with the whole day. Saturday was moving prep (more on that in another post) and swimming at our dive of a hotel. At least the pool was nice. Meeting Grandma and Grandpa Ballard at The Old Spaghetti Factory (which was once Grandpa’s school) was super fun. We hadn’t seen them since they moved and everyone has missed them. Sunday morning was my Dad’s last Sunday at church and we went to enjoy the Easter service. Afterwards was a spectacular Chinese take-out picnic because all cooking accouterments were packed and buried. Finally it was time for the wedding. It was beautiful and small and simple…and freezing! The breeze off the ocean was positively frigid. Neil ran back to the van to get his Monster hoodie for Layna and our picnic blanket for the other two to make sure no one froze to death. Break at the hotel for more swimming was followed by a lovely reception, complete with entirely too many cupcakes. Monday was more moving work and trip food shopping and the first inklings that the move part was going to get more complicated (again, stay tuned for details). It was also dropping me and the big kids at the airport for our red eye flight home. 1) red-eyes = terrible. 2) flying with older kids = amazing! 3) airport food = stupid expensive.
It was truly an adventure for everyone and we all gained some points in our “rolling with crazy and unexpected” stats.