cAliFoRnIa dReAmiN'

Well, this past week was an interesting one. Throughout the year we had been preparing to travel to California to watch my younger sister compete for a national title in Anaheim. Well when the idea of a house popped up and we decided to go for it, we also decided that only I would be traveling to California to watch with my family. Since it would be strange for just Cody to go with my parents and brother and sister.

Prior to leaving for California, I had noticed some strange things happening when I ate certain foods. I was diagnosed with food allergies before this ( May 2007), but just to nuts. Well I have been really good about avoiding things that can hurt me for this mere fact. I had started to notice it when I ate things that didn't have nuts, I was having reactions. So I called my doctor and set up a time to have some more testing done to see if there was more lurking around in there. Well the only opening that they had was for the Tuesday before I left for California. Well as I suffered through the days without allergy medications and trying to eat very carefully since I couldn't stop a reaction if I had one.. I prepped for Tuesday. Well after the test ended we have come to the conclusion that I have developed more allergies and become more allergic to the ones I had before.. The new ones that we added are the following... Wheat, Soy, Sunflower Seeds, and Sesame Seeds. Well I don't know if you have taken the time to read the labels on foods... but Soy and Wheat are in like EVERYTHING!! So I was a tad concerned. My doctor is running blood tests to see just how allergic I am to all these things.. sad. Well this added and element of "fun experimentation" to the mix on the trip.


This is my arm at the end of the scratch test..lovely huh? All the red marks are things I am really allergic to.

Well I left on Wednesday afternoon and the adventure began.. it started with my dad forgetting the Disneyland tickets and having to have Cody drive to the airport before our plane left to drop them off. Talk about a great first challenge and before it even started!! Upon arrival at LAX, which is a MEGA-AIRPORT--talk about huge!!, we prepared to get our rental car. Well, we boarded the Alamo shuttle and rode to their office only to find that we had made our reservations with Budget. So we re-boarded the shuttle and rode back to the airport, wandered through and found the Budget rental shuttle.


Here is Mom and Jarett (my younger brother - he is 13) on the ride back to the airport.. the first adventure of many.

The next two days were filled with time at Disneyland and California Adventure.. we rode a ton of rides!! Every night I was so tired and my legs were cramped up and sore from all the walking. I loved the rides, they are so fun.. we only got stuck in one once.. ha ha Indiana Jones broke down with us inside the ride. Needless to say we ended up spending about 5 minutes in the ride stuck on a ramp. It was funny. We had fun though.


This is me and my sister (Kellyn - she is 17) being "scared" stuck inside the Indiana Jones ride, notice dad is scared too..

The third day was what we had come for. Kellyn and her team, GO TIMPVIEW, competed for the championship. We spent the morning sitting around the pool and catching some lunch before heading over to watch. There were 5 teams in her division, and it seemed to take a while before it was their turn. They did good. They dropped one stunt, which takes off 2 points. We waited until about 6 and they started announcing the finalists. Timpview made it in with one other California team, Aliso Negaro. Well them entering the finals, meant we would be returning again the following day to watch them again.

Upon finishing at the competition we traveled to Downtown Disney where my mom had made reservations for us to eat at the Rain forest Cafe. We sat down and I began to wonder what I could eat without the thought of dying. I chose pasta. The food came, I was hungry and started eating. About 3/4 of the way through my food I started to react badly to whatever had touched the pasta. My throat swelled and I felt like I couldn't swallow, I got hives all over the inside of my mouth. I hurried and took a benadryl and prayed that it would ease up. - Which thank heavens it did after about 45 minutes of not knowing if I was going to need to visit a doctor.- After finishing dinner we decided to go into the park again and ride some rides before it closed at midnight. Let me just let you know that being on benadryl and being at Disneyland is an interesting combination. EVERYTHING made me laugh and not just giggle, but hysterical laughter. I think I creeped my dad out in the line for Autopia, by laughing at the lame entertainment jokes they had playing. It was fun though.


This is me under the influence of benadryl... don't I look great?

After the night of fun, we went home to pack, we left the next night and we had to be ready because Kelly competed about 4 hours before our plane left. I hurried and packed and then fell straight asleep. We woke up finished packing and checked out and we were off to Disneyland for a few hours of fun before leaving. We rode Tower of Terror, Screamin' California, Big Thunder Railroad, and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a blast. We finished up and raced the the competition. We watched as they took Nationals. CONGRATS!! We rushed off to the airport, we arrived 2 hours early.. phew!


Kellyn after getting her award and trophy at Nationals.

We landed at 12am. Killer. By the time we got home it was 2am and we were all grumpy and tired. I rushed down to see Cody, who had fallen asleep - surprise... It was a good trip. I missed Cody and cutie Tyke, but it was fun to spend time with my family. I do however have to admit it is FREEZING here... it was a nice 76 degrees the day i left California only to return to 38 degree weather, off the plane.UGH. But I am so glad to be home.

Lastly I thought I would update you on the house progress, I don't have pictures but here is the news... The carpets and minor final touches go in this week. The driveway will be poured this week and the sidewalks will be done next week. We are looking at closing at the end of this month!! YAY!

Until next time..