Day 12: New Year's Eve

It's almost our first free day for errands. And while doing our errands, I got to eat Cold Stone, the ice cream I've been craving for for ages.

We welcomed the new year at Tita Lynda's place at Hemet.

Tita did not just provided our New Year's dinner, but provided games and prizes for everybody. The kids had so much fun, and the adults too. Summer earned lots of money for Mama hehehehe.

The party started with a song number from the kids - a christmas song from abs-cbn. Then they had games for kids and adults. We even had Hemet got Talent where the girls danced, Amiel did a Michael Jackson number, babies sang, and Karina played the piano.

We had our toast after the program then everybody went to look for their own place for a short nap for our trip in the morning to the sin city of Nevada.

Happy New Year!

Day 11: Family Reunion at San Diego

We were invited by Tito Memen for lunch at San Diego. Tito Memen is my Dad's cousin.

Their place was an hour and a half drive from Ate's place. They served good food and we received lots of gifts again.

Thank you Tito Memen for lunch!

Day 9: Shopping!!!!

Woohoo! Time to hit the factory outlet! Cabazon, here we come!

We started the day late and we did not expect the heavy traffic going there due to road construction. And parking was full!

So with little time left, we were able to buy a pair of plaid shorts for Winter, a pair of jeans and a colorful sketchers sneakers with lights for Summer, 3 pairs of shoes, a pair of pants, and a bag for myself, and a pair of shoes and jogging pants for Omar. Kaka-guilty!

AJ and Jaz invited their friends at home for dinner to meet their cousins from the Philippines. They had fun eating Filipino food - not all are Filipinos, and playing guitar and ukelele.

A tiring but a very happy day for me. Who wouldn't be happy shopping? hehehe

Day 10: Happiest Place on Earth

A reunion with Mickey and Minnie!

A day at Disneyland!

And it was full-packed! They stopped selling tickets as early as 10am, it's that full!

Summer was able to see the Princess and the frog characters on parade. We've brought Summer to Disneyland HongKong and Florida but she's never been to the Small World so I pleaded everybody if we can take her to Small World here at California. Everybody obliged since my kids are brats and spoiled. Summer was so happy with the ride while Winter was sleeping the entire ride.

After the parade, some went home early while I stayed for the kids even if I was tired already so we can let the kids see the fireworks and Fantasmic. While waiting for the shows, we went to California Disney for the teenagers turn to take the adult rides. Omar and I just shopped for the kids and did not take the rides anymore. We just sat in one place for Summer and Winter to rest for a while. I'm getting old, I'm starting to get tired of theme parks. Sadly, Summer fell asleep and wasn't able to see the Fantasmic.

And while waiting for the teen-agers from their rides at our meeting place, I saw Mickey and Minnie with a very short line for picture taking. It just made my visit at Disney complete!

Day 8: A Blessed day

Oh, we we're so blessed! And we're so thankful!

We woke up on a bright morning - bright not because of the sun but because of snow around us, it was so white! We had snow storm and it was unexpected.

We were so supposed to leave early since it's going to be a long drive for us so we can catch the Sunday mass at Moreno Valley but since it was storming, we had to delay our trip. We were travelling in 2 vans and only 1 is equipped with a snow chain. We waited for the storm to finish and hit the road.

And as we left the lodge, barely a kilometer away, our van started sliding. Kuya was driving, he stopped stepping on the gas, backed out a little, and tried driving again and we started sliding again. Kuya stopped again, backed out more, drove more and we were still sliding. Until we decided to back away more all the way to the resort.

When we returned to the lodge, there were 2 vehicles who left and some remained when they saw us return. We were waiting for the city plower to plow the snow along the roads but since it was a private road leading to the lodge from the main road, it was not the priority of the city to plow. Turned out that the 2 vehicles got stuck and the lodge was just informed by the new guests who arrived at the resort and saw the vehicles on their way to the resort. There was no signal along the mountain so there's no way to call for rescue. Good thing we decided to go back.

It was after lunch already when the sun was shining and the snow was starting to melt when we decided to hit the road again. It was a success this time. We took the longer route but less mountain trip and less snow.

We weren't able to hear mass anymore but I bet we prayed more that day.

Yosemite is still very well recommended.

Day 7: Range of Light

After travelling hundreds of miles and spending for the accommodation, might as well take the tour to get to know Yosemite better. And we took a child-friendly tour - they call it the Range of Light tour.

We were 3 vans and joined with a family of four.

The guides brought us at the half dome, bridal veil, yosemite falls among others.

We took so much photos and one of my favorite is the photo of all the kids positioned according to their age.

After the tour, instead of taking a rest, we walked our way to the frozen lake and had more photos taken. We had dinner at the restaurant of the lodge and had smores for desserts.

During the tour, Winter discovered the joy of eating candy. He behaved at his car seat throughout the tour just as long as he has his ring pop with him - that explains his blue mouth at the pictures.

Yosemite is a very much recommended place to visit.

Christmas Day to Yosemite

We started our day early and drove our way to Yosemite where we will be spending our next 2 days for the holidays.

It was an 8-hour drive to the mountains of Yosemite. We checked-in at Ever Green Lodge.

It was like a postcard. It was like staying at Camp Rock. It's so nice! We got 2 2-bedroom units. We brought enough left-over Christmas food for dinner. We were so tired we weren't able to try the free smore but Paeng was able to bring home some for me and Summer.

The bed was so warm while looking at the scenery outside the window full of snow.

It will be a long day tomorrow with the Range of Light tour. Excited!