Family Vacation

We went to CA to visit my family over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was the first time my side of the family has been together in over 5 years. It was nice to see everyone and it was even more fun to see Kelsi play with her cousins.

We did not have the best time getting to CA. Kelsi had an anxiety attack (I don't know what else to call it) on our first flight. She started getting agitated on the way to the airport and then it was just downhill from there. I had a whole arsenal of toys and snacks for her and she was not interested in ANY of them. She was so frantic, looking around and she kept saying " We are not falling, I want to go home and sleep in my bed". She kept saying that she needed to "squeeze me" and she would grab my thumb and just squeeze it repeatedly. 30 minutes into the flight she threw up ALL over me. Luckily, her clothes were on the plane so I could change her. Not so lucky for me, my clothes were NOT on the plane so I could not change. We made it to CA and I was able to finally change my clothes and freshen up.

We had a great Thanksgiving, we all ate too much. We also took family pictures. Here are a couple of shots.

On Friday, my sister and I went shopping and that night we went to the Los Angeles Temple to see the lights display. Unfortunately, they were having issues and the lights were NOT on. BUT the visitor center was recently renovated and we spent some time in there. It was pretty amazing.

I had just LOST it with Kelsi that night. We told her we were going to the temple and she got VERY anxious and started whining that "Jesus was not at the temple, he was at the church". I had NO idea what she was talking about, but once we got into the visitor center and she saw the large christus statue, she freaked. She thought he was going to "hit us". I am SO tired of Kelsi being afraid of EVERYTHING. I just don't understand. We decided that night that we were not going to take her to Disneyland. We thought it would just be too emotionally draining for all parties involved. Kelsi eventually warmed up to being in the same room as the Christus, but her daddy had to hold her.

After the temple, we went to one of my favorite places....Didi Reese!!

Didi Reese is a little cookies and ice cream shop in Westwood. When I lived there it was $1 for your fav ice cream sandwiched between 2 fresh baked cookies. They have since raised the price to $1.50...but YOU CANT BEAT THAT!!! Kelsi loved it...and yes those are stickers all over her face. She put them on in the car when I wasn't paying attention and didn't want to take them off.

We had a great time. Our flight was uneventful coming home. Kelsi was great (thanks for the prayers, mom). We had to circle around spokane for about an hour while they cleared the snow off the runway, but we made it in. I love my family and can't wait to see them again.