California Thanksgiving ----ish not all photos included

first and last day of our trip ^^^

This was Thanksgiving day and Thanksgiving night. it was about 90* that day!

Kristen was a wonderful host and even got Stori her very own snowman apron

And they crafted some Oreo turkeys. You better believe she licked every one just to confirm again that she doesn't like them.

We had plans go to Disneyland on Thanksgiving, but decided to save $600 and just go to the Irvine Mall on Friday instead. haha. the kids seriously loved this place. We were there from about 1:30-8:30: we shopped, took pictures by the beautiful ferris wheel (almost got brave enough to ride it), watched people ice skate,  rode the carousel a few times,  played in a fountain and on the toys, paid a visit to Santa, and ate Chipotle. we ordered the kids each 2 sides of tomatoes and guacamole----and they downed those. My kids are so weird. Chocolate milk? no thank you, pass the tomatoes! What? 

We let Stori ride it one last time right before we left, but I guess we should have paid for Sylvie to ride also. 

Our California Santa. He was in board shorts and a hawaiin shirt. The kids actually really liked him, and he even called them by their names. :) Unfortunately it was called "Selfies with Santa," and my arms weren't long enough to get a good picture.

looking down at Laguna beach

Kristen and Rick were nice enough to watch our kids for us on our last night there and we had so much fun. The town of San Clemente was doing their "Welcome Christmas" festivities. All of the downtown area was blocked off and the streets were filled with booths, christmas choirs, Frozen characters, Santa, Outdoor movie, and the town christmas tree. It was such a fun date. (and our first date in…oh…uh I can't remember our last date) We ended it with a local Mexican restaurant, La Fiesta.

This was our last day in California, and we roasted hot dogs and s'mores on the beach. Stori hates hates hates the ocean we found out. Hates the sand too, but loves the aspect of it. She was very content just sitting by the fire all night. I love her crossed legs in 2 of these pictures. Sylvie found herself a seat underneath a picnic table, and stayed there the whole night haha… cute little bug. (that is a picture from the real camera dangit).

a little slide on the beach helped entertain the kids while we were getting the fire going.

Target shenanigans. She walked around the whole store wearing these, and cried when I took them off.
 We hit up 3 different Targets while on vacation.

entertaining the kids with the extra long drive home.

Only iPhone pictures for now. I don't think I can make my brain upload the camera pictures yet, because they are on dan's hard drive. Nor can I write a worthy post of all the fun we had in California! Stori loved her aunt Kristen and keeps pretending to be pregnant with a baby, that is due on Christmas, just like her. :)
She also hasn't stopped talking about California. So I'm definitely glad we made the trip there (along with every other Utahn---took us an EXTRA 4 hours to get home because of the solid traffic). But despite the long drive, we still can't wait to go back and see the new little baby girl!