After planning, working, saving, etc for what seemed like a very long time it was finally time for the Myler California Adventure. I first mentioned the idea to the family in about January 2018 and everyone was excited about the idea. I told them we’d have a “meeting” when we were all together in May 2018 for Derek’s graduation (masters) from the U. We started talking about the trip while we were having lunch together at Cheesecake Factory. We had to talk in code because Chad and Anney didn’t want Finley knowing about it that early. We decided that around the first week in May 2019 would work for everyone, would give everyone time to plan and get vacation time, and would give me time for save more money. I told the kids that they’d need to get themselves there but then we’d pay for entrance into Disneyland, etc and for most of the meals and the housing. As we drove home from lunch we got a text from Anney asking if we could stop by their home in Layton because they needed to talk to us. When we got there they told us they were trying to get pregnant and didn’t know how that would affect the timing/planning for the trip. We assured them that we’d make it work because we wanted Finley to be there. They didn’t want anyone else to know though so I had to field questions from Shelby for months thereafter whether I’d made any reservations yet, when we were going, etc. The Ostler family was also planning a trip in May 2019 and she was trying to work around that. I just had to keep putting her off which was hard. We finally got the news a few months later that Chad and Anney would be welcoming a baby in April 2019....a month before we had planned to go, but when they told Doug and I they assured us that they’d be fine with taking the baby so to go ahead with the planning. I didn’t want to wait until summer because the crowds would increase substantially and it would be so much hotter. We still didn’t make any concrete plans until November after Chad and Anney announced their news in Portland when we were together for Thanksgiving. I had been looking at hotels prior to then and got a bad case of sticker shock when I realized how much it would cost to rent four hotel rooms for seven nights in Southern California. Yikes! I asked everyone if they’d be okay staying in a house together and all agreed that they would.
I must have read hundreds of reviews of different homes for rent and finally found one in Santa Ana that I thought would work well for us. There were ones closer to Disneyland but I figured that the traffic/crowd noise along with the nightly fireworks would be a pain to deal with so we stayed 10 miles away. Shelby and I arranged for our flights to be together so we met them at the airport around 10AM or so. We were on an exit row with an empty seat so Zoë came up and sat with us for a while. She loved looking out the window, playing with the tray table, and saying “hi” to everyone around us. A flight attendant finally noticed her there and informed us that children weren’t allowed in exit rows so I had to take her back to Derek and Shelby.
Everyone was hungry when we landed in Santa Ana so after we picked up the minivan (I put Shelby in charge of renting a vehicle and she wisely found a big one for us) and we paid for it since that was part of the deal. We drove until we found a Jersey Mike Subs shop and had sandwiches there. We still had a few hours to kill before we could check into the house at 4PM and Zoë finally fell asleep in her car seat so Derek just drove us around the area. Shelby found a park on the GPS and when we got there Zoë woke up and was ready to get out and run around. It was a nice big park with a pond with turtles, ducks and geese and she was happy to get out of the vehicle.
Finally got to the home a little after 4PM and I was overall pleased with it. There was a nice big kitchen and living area and four bedrooms so each family could have their own space at night. There was also a “treehouse” in the backyard. The immediate problem was that the master bedroom and bathroom reeked of cigarette smoke. We tried airing it out and nothing worked. I finally contacted the owners. They were very apologetic but there wasn’t much they could do about it but they did go buy us a big scented candle to try and mask the smell. That was my biggest complaint with the house all week because we never did get the smell to dissipate and I had a headache the whole time we were there.
Derek and Shelby stayed at the house with Zoë while Doug and I ran to the grocery store to get supplies for the week. We bought burgers and hotdogs to grill that night along with breakfast foods for the week. Shelby grilled the meat and we were just about to start eating when Chad’s family arrived. Finley came running into the house and jumped straight into my arms and it was so good to see him. We loved meeting little Ari for the first time. What a sweet boy who looks so much like his mommy. I hope his eyes stay blue. Finley wanted to sleep in the treehouse and Chad said he’d sleep out there with him.
There was some sort of block party going on around the corner with LOUD music that started at 3PM and just kept going. Shelby finally called the police at 11PM but it went for at least another hour. I was so upset that I’d picked a house in a bad location and was so afraid that we’d have problems every night but luckily that was the only party night.
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