The whole Kelley crew meets Mickey before our Disney breakfast.
Today the Kelley family is on the road again. We are just finishing up a vacation with my family in Los Angeles. As usual, we packed a lot of fun and activities into one short week.
One thing we did kind of different on this trip is we rented a vacation house and all lived together. It allowed us to put the kids to bed and still hang out instead of retreating to our own rooms. Plus all of the kids got to sleep in the same bedroom, which they really enjoyed. We weren’t sure how that would work out, but they actually did really well.
We started our vacation off at the Happiest Place on Earth – Disneyland. Actually, we started our vacation off with a character breakfast at Disney. That is somethign my family didn’t ever do in Florida, so it was kind of neat experiencing one. The kids were able to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Daisy, and Stitch as we ate breakfast. It beat waiting in line for a long time to see each one!
The following day was our big Disney day. We were at the park right after they opened, had fun until lunch time, then went back to our house for naps. We were back in the park and caught the 4pm parade. That allowed us to stay at the park until 11pm without too much trouble from the kids. We didn’t get to do all of the rides, but we managed to knock out most of them.
Grandma and Grandpa Kelley with all of the grandkids.
After Disney we spent a few days outdoors. We took a hike at the Oak Canyon Nature Center one afternoon. Then spent the next day visiting where Beth and I lived in 2005 at Redondo Beach. Out of all of the places Beth and I have visited during our almost five years of travel nursing, Redondo Beach has been both of our favorite. So it was cool to see the beach and the pier again.
The Space Shuttle Endeavour was quite a sight to see at the California Science Center.
We headed near downtown Los Angeles one day to tour the California Science Center. The highlight of that museum is to see the big Space Shuttle Endeavor. It is the actual space shuttle that was donated to them by NASA a few years ago. The museum was actually a very good museum for the kids. Very informational, but still enough buttons and play area for the younger kids.
We spent our last day going on the Monrovia Canyon Waterfall trail. It was a 1.5 mile round trip hike. It turned out a little rockier than I thought it would be, so little Cooper had to be carried most of the way. But it was still worth doing.
The week has been very busy with activities, but we have still managed to have a decent amount of down time. The house that we have been staying in had a nice heated pool. Sophia, Sawyer, Sydney, and Riley have all made big strides in their swimming abilities. Tyler has been a virtual fish for a while. The house ended up working perfectly for our family.
Today we are back on the road. We have a 4.5 hour plane ride to Nashville, followed by a 2 hour car ride to my parents house. Then we will have a day and a half to pack up all of our stuff into our cars, followed by a 14 hour drive to camp. Then…..after going from Hawaii to Connecticut in about a week and a half….we will finally be settled at Sunny Camp Chinqueka!
Traveling adventures of the Kelley Family 