California, here we come ...

We're taking a trip to California soon. Our flight leaves early Tuesday morning, out of Missoula, which is 2.5 hours away. Rather than leave the house at 2am and be zombies all day, we're going down on Monday to spend the night. This will be the first time the boys and I have gone back to California since we moved away in 2006. Rick's sister, Kathy will also be coming from back east, so this will be the first time we'll meet her new husband, Rich. We haven't seen Kathy in years.

We're flying into LAX and then my ILs will pick us up and take us to the Disneyland Hotel. We'll stay there for 3 nights. The boys are really excited about that. From there, we'll go to San Diego and spend 2 more nights. I think we're going to the Wild Animal Park and the Zoo, so that should be fun. On July 26th, we'll drive from SD up to Ojai, which is where my ILs live and where I'm originally from. Ojai Avenue is pictured above. It's going to be weird because my IL's house is right next to our old house. The people that bought our house are really nice, but it's still going to be weird to look out the window over there and see someone living in our old house.

Rick is looking forward to seeing his co-workers from the sheriff's department, so I'm sure he'll be meeting up with some of them. We're also planning on taking a drive to Barstow, 3 hours away, to visit my mom in the nursing home. I've heard she's not responsive now, so it will be really awkward, but something I have to do. I'll probably leave the boys with their grandparents, since they won't understand what's going on with her. They met her when she was alert and I'd like them to remember that, not how she is now. We don't know what else we'll do for that second week, other than visit friends and maybe a beach trip. I do want to go to a fish restaurant I've really missed, as well as some stores we don't have here in Montana.

On Dilly's fanpage on Facebook, I've told everyone that I'll have my remaining copies of the book with me. If anyone from Southern California wants to meet up and get a copy, just email me and we can work something out. I know my ILs are going to buy a few more and I already have one lady interested in meeting up while I'm there. Dilly is excited about going to California. He found out there are huge pickles at Disneyland, so there's no controlling him now. Anyway, we'll be gone for 2 weeks and it should be fun. Nicole is staying home to take care of the cats and house, as well as work at her new job. I'd love for her to go, but she really wants to earn as much money as she can before she leaves for college in the fall.

On another note -- my oldest daughter, Nichelle is doing great in Hawaii. She's doing the discipleship training course with Youth With A Mission. She only has a few more weeks in Maui before they leave for their outreach program. She found out she's going to Thailand first thing and then to Borneo/Indonesia. She's really excited about it. She said they'll be traveling through jungles. This will be good for her. Nichelle is very shy and quiet, so I'm sure this experience will help her with all of that. I talk to her on the phone every now and then and also through instant messaging. She seems to be really enjoying herself and is keeping very busy.

I have the boys almost all packed and am slowly starting my own bag. The last thing I want to do is spend the weekend doing laundry, so I'm trying to get it done now. We're supposed to have a beautiful weekend here, in the high 80s, so I'd love to get to a lake and do some kayaking before we leave. Not sure if we can swing that, but I am going to try. I'll have my laptop with me, so I hope I can post some fun pictures and stuff while we're gone. I plan to be the ultimate tourist and take pictures of everything!