Day 18

Day #18: Tell us a story from your childhood

Once upon a time, my family moved out to Pasadena, California when I was in middle school. This was not a permanent move, it was only temporary. My dad's company needed him out in California for work a lot one summer - so basically the whole family came with to save my dad some travel time! :)

The morning we left for California, since we were going to leave our cars parked at home while we were out of town - we took a limo to get everyone to the airport which was awesome. On the plane my brothers Isaac, Luke and I all sat next to each other and I remember we were obsessed with 2 of the music videos they kept playing on the airplane: A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton and Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow. Yup we were prettttyyyy cool obviously.

Our summer once we got to California was literally JAM PACKED with activities from what I remember. We walked everywhere that was possible [including to the grocery store near our apartment building we were living in, I remember thinking how ridiculous this was!].

The apartment building we were living in had a pool, so my main goal was to just spend as much time at the pool as possibly. My mom's main goal was for us to make the most out of our California time aka we spent as much time as possible on the go. I remember not being a huge fan of every place Mom wanted us to visit and I also remember being less of a fan of the fact that she made my brothers & I journal about everywhere we went either - BUT looking back on this time in my childhood/family's life - what a cool experience and props to my mom for doing everything she could to expose her 4 kids to the California opportunities we had available.

In the short few months that we lived in Pasadena we visited every museum possible - everything from The Getty & Ronald Reagan's Presidential Library to the Guinness World Record Holding Bunny Museum (this was really just a small house shoved full of bunny junk we found out!). We made trips to Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and San Diego. We visited the Tournament of Rose Parade House & Gardens. We went to the library frequently. Pasadena has a super beautiful library - worth stopping in if you are ever in the neighborhood! We hiked (at the time one of my least favorite things we did). We made sure to spend a few days a Legoland. For Mother's Day we went out to Knott's Berry Farm (an amusement park). Mom found a church near our apartment that hosted a free concert series every Wednesday afternoon, so of course we walked to that every week. We made trips to a Target near our apartment that was 2 stories tall AND had an elevator inside which I remember thinking was awesome. We went to a small car race that someone randomly gave my Mom free tickets too. As a family we loved eating at a local place called Wahoo's Fish Tacos. SO GOOD. Just Mom & Peter (who was still an infant) and I spent a weekend in Hollywood. We checked out the Wax Museum, the Guinness World Record Museum & Mann's Chinese Theater. We went to church every Sunday at Pasadena Lutheran - a very old & beautiful church! And this list of things is just what I can remember offhand at 10:45pm tonight!

I'm sure Mom has our California journals somewhere. [Mom if you are reading this, we should find those] I know that I was not a fan of the journaling we had to do the whole time we were there, but looking back on our family's little adventure, what a special time. We survived the 6 of us [at the time] living in a 3 bedroom apartment all summer. Thanks to my parents, especially my Mom, we got to experience as much as possible while we were there. I'm sure now that since tonight I have started thinking more about this memory from my childhood I will later on remember more details about our time there. Definitely cool and almost surreal now 11 years later to think that we lived in California together for a time. Enjoy some pictures I found from our adventures! :) The end.

Playing dress-up at The Getty Museum 

On one of our hiking adventures! Mom & my youngest brother at the time.

More dress up fun!

Peter was so little!

Legoland Trip!

More hiking adventures.

Luke & I at Knott's Berry Farm

One of our many family dinners at Wahoo's Fish Tacos.

Note from my life today: Kind of a rough day overall BUT bright spot, I got to have a wedding dress fitting today so that was AWESOME. Anytime I get to wear that dress is a win. That's all I have to say about that, just wanted to share :)