Cahill Chaos: City of Angels

Luke needed to do some work in Los Angeles at the end of February, so we got away from all this snow and said 'Hello!!!!' to sunshine! Lachlan, Torin, Emily, and I, along with Aaron (brother-in-law) and Evie (niece) met up with Luke and Molly (sis-in-law) in Cali. All things considered, it was a fabulous time. It was just the details that were tricky sometimes--traveling with 2 under 2 doesn't make for an easy travel experience. Doable, but just A LOT of work! We didn't even make it up to the 'check your bags' counter and Torin had pooped through his diaper. Thank you, my child. And since we wanted to make sure we got to our gate with plenty of time to spare, we weren't really able to take care of things until after we checked our bags AND went through security. Picture this: 2 ladies, 2 kids in strollers, 2 rolley bags, 2 backpacks, 2 carseats on a mission to get to our gate without getting poop on any part of us. Let the adventures begin! The boys did very well on the flight, for which Emily and I are very grateful. Lachlan actually was so excited and if you asked him where he was going on Thursday, he would say 'aiwpane!' Taxying was probably his favorite part since he could see all the workers and cars and trucks and planes up close on the runway.

Baby's first flight!

Look who got to sit right behind us!

It was a nonstop (thank you, Lord!) 4 hour flight to LAX, and we needed to make sure these boys were going to be satisfied.

Snack Time

Play time

Story time

Lachlan was Torin's age when he went on his first plane ride as well, and we took a picture by the window, so we had to follow suit.

Lachlan on his first plane ride 8/09

Lachlan on his 3rd plane ride 2/11

Torin on his first flight 2/11

We had some sleepy boys when we got to the hotel!

Lachlan's bed-time friends. His Weezer puppy, his blue puppy, and his 'walla'(koala)

What do I even caption this adorableness?

The next day it was just going to be Me and Emi and the boys, and since it was going to rain all day, we decided to go to a shopping center. Well on the way there it rained a tiny bit and then was sunny. We decided 'shopping center, shmopping center!' Let's go to the beach! So we did and it was GORGEOUS! We even got a little sunkissed.

Lachlan LOVED running up and down the pier-he probably put in 2 miles.

'Ready, GO!'

We saw a humming bird on the way back from the pier in the amazing garden. Can you find it???

Found a playground on the beach! And this little guy went down the slide ALL BY HIMSELF!!

Auntie Emi on Baby duty

Farewell Newport Beach, we had a loverly time.

Friday night as we were trying to put the boys down Emily did something funky to her knee as she was changing positions. After about 45 minutes of trying to figure out how we handle this weird situation (like finding a wheel chair at the hotel and seeing what her insurance covers and locating a nearby hospital) she and I ended up at an ER in Cali. Not expecting that one! It was a late night, but we left with her knee feeling better and pair of crutches. Talk about an awesome souvenir!
Saturday was to be cold and a bit rainy, so the non-workers went to a children's science museum where they had a special Sesame Street exhibit all about the body. Lachlan LOVED it. And I think Evie had a pretty good time as well. We tried a 4D movie, but with a screaming baby who needed to eat and a toddler who didn't want to put his glasses on to see the movie and also wanted to sit on his mama's lap while his mama was feeding his brother, the 3 of us didn't really enjoy the movie. Other than that, it was pretty fun!

They had a HUGE hand imprint thing.

BIG bird!

Elmo's clothes were magnetic!

Yay bum leg!

After naptime we went to Luke's cousin's house for some good food and good family time. It was so nice to see the cousins again! Thank you, Colleen and Andy for opening your house to us!

Auntie Joycie oogling over the Babe.

2nd Cousins!

Colleen and Hannah oogling over the Babe.

The next day was Mass and DISNEYLAND!!! But that is for a whole post of its own....
Monday we packed up and headed west to the beach for one last hoorah. If you drive right past the exit for the airport, you run into the ocean. So cool. So we spent some time there, played in the sand (and even water a bit), ate some delicious Mexican grub and it was time to say 'farewell' to the ocean and the mountains. Alas, how I miss them. The boys did pretty well on the flight home. Again, Lachlan was excited to be on an airplane. And both boys even slept at the same time. We were rudely welcomed back home with a cold slap in the face as we loaded into the car, which made us long for that warm and sunny City of Angels.