Life's a Beach Part 7: The End

Alyssa and I just watched 5 hours of the US skating championships to find out who is going to the Olympics. Have you ever watched ice dancing? I never had but I have been missing out because it was really spectacular. We were so happy when Mirai Nagasu finished 3rd in womens figure skating because she was my favorite in the last Olympics, and I love her name. I had never heard that name and I got obsessed with it in 2010. I usually only like traditional names but if I had ever had another daughter I think I would have campaigned to name her Mirai. Anyway, after hours of intense emotional investment in all of the events and skaters she finished 3rd, but they decided to take Ashley Wagner instead. Super bummer that they are allowed to just eliminate people who earned their spot. It makes Seth furious when sports are allowed to be subjective and I have to agree. If it is a win or go home situation you win, or you go home, even if you were favored and coulda , woulda, shoulda won on any other day, but it is what it is. We are still excited to watch the women, men, pairs and ice dancers in Sochi next month though. I love the Olympics, but we'll geek out about that next month. For now, let's finish the CA posts.

We didn't leave until the 5th but I only have a few pictures after New Years. I guess I got camera lazy, but here are the things I pulled out the camera for. 

On the day when we drove around and went hiking at those cliffs, we also ended up in San Pedro, where they now have a battleship, the USS Iowa docked. We didn't have time for a 2 1/2 hour tour that day but we went back to my mom's and found a deal on a 4 pack of tickets online. I told Glenn about it and since Glenn really likes to find deals so he grabbed the tickets a few hours before the December 31, 2013 expiration date and one day the boys (Glenn, Jeff, Seth, Steven and Alex) went to check it out and Seth even texted me a pic for documenting purposes. 
While the boys were at the battleship, my mom, Val, me and the 5 kiddos went to lunch at Downtown Disney and then went ice skating. Alyssa really wanted to skate while we were there and when we saw that Downtown Disney had an outdoor Frozen themed rink for the holidays, all other rinks seemed inferior in comparison. However, our ice skater was highly unimpressed. The skates were cheesy rentals for a seasonal rink and she was not at all pleased with their quality or lack of toe picks, and skating outdoors in 80 degrees created some slick mushy ice, which she compared to skating on broken concrete. For the rest of us though, it was a great time. 
 
Do you like Chloe's Harry Potter scar? We got that at Whimsic Alley and it took many days to scrub it off her face. I am glad I never put on the giant image of Snape's face that Valerie got for me.


 
In this picture everyone else was trying to keep moving and get out of the way of the people around us, but Chloe was ready, as always.
 
I forced the others to look at me for one second. The people behind us could wait or go around. I would have waited for them to take a picture. 
 
Audrey only lasted about 5 minutes on the ice before we passed her to grandma off ice. I like how the lady in the holiday shack poked her head in to this picture.

 
The first time we went to Balboa, we noticed that the Fun Zone had a couple of new attractions. The one Alyssa wanted to try was broken and the one Al wanted to try involved water so we figured he ought to be in a swimsuit so we told them we might go back another day, and we did. This is the hamster wheel that Alex had his eye on. 
 
It was hard to get a decent picture, but the ball has water in it and it rotates (as fast or slow as you prefer) and you can try to run in it, or just sit down and slip and slide. Fun stuff!
 
Alyssa's chosen attraction was once more up and running...the mechanical bull shark. You got to choose whether you wanted to have a nice slow, fall-free ride, or if you wanted to get bucked. She opted to go fast and have a true rodeo experience.




 
When she was falling, she kept trying to climb back up in the saddle.
 
Eventually she ended up in the ocean.
 
Chloe chose to do the bungee trampoline. We tried to talk her in to something new since she did this the last time we were in town, but she was set on the trampoline.

 
Of course we had to walk around the island and ooh and ahh at people's houses. One of the new houses had a huge TV in the living room and as we were gawking in the windows, we noticed that we were on the screen. Ha,ha. They totally caught us being peepers. I had to take a picture of my mom and Glenn holding hands as well. While we were in town my mom made the comment that she had never known anyone with a happier marriage than her and Glenn. We all cracked up. These two are not your traditional, lovey dovey image of the happiest couple. They are full of quirks, but I will say that I can not imagine them apart, or with anyone else. So there they are, the happiest couple in the world.
 
Kelly let Chloe borrow a hat to go out to dinner the last night we were in town and she pulled up a stool and just stared at herself in the mirror. She loves to look in a mirror. In fact, one day while we were in CA she was looking in the mirror and I heard her say, "I look gooder than I thought." When she started posing for herself in the mirror again, I figured she must once again be impressed with the resulting reflection and that I'd better get the camera. She is so funny to me, and I think it is partly because I see nothing of me in her. The other two are so full of me so I know what to expect, but this one carves her own path and keeps me on my toes.





And I guess that is the end of the journey. Thanks so much to my mom and Glenn for flying us out and for everyone who slept on couches and air mattresses, and drove long distances repeatedly to get as much time with us as possible. You all make me feel so truly loved and I am beyond blessed to call you my family.