Newport Beach Palmer Family Vacay was fantabulous. It was
great. What's not to love about hanging out in a condo in California
with the sun and sand for a week?
Seriously it was amazing and sooooo relaxing.
Good thing I didn't leave on my mission this week or I would be so underprepared.... because I was so dang lazy for a week straight...
Some things that happened:
My mom and I went to the Newport Beach temple. So small! But so gorgeous. #qualitytime
I taught my little favorite cousin Colty-poo how to do a fish face.
most adorable kid ever. ugh I just want to snuggle him all the time.
I accidentally stepped on a snail and squished
it to smithereens... (imagine Luke Skywalker's reaction when he found
out Darth Vader was his father.... that would give you a pretty good
idea of how I reacted... sooooo gross)
At the Huntington Street Fair, I saw Jack Sparrow, a
possum with a top hat, and a creepy giant stuffed bear. And flirted with
the guy at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
Chocolate and boys. Best combination there is (other than the #9 at wendy's... heheheheh)
We went to Balboa on the pier... which means...
CHEESECAKE ON A STICK.
my one true love.
Also. It's possible my sister in law and I watched lilo and stitch...
twice in a row... (whatever-- it's a good movie and it has elvis songs in it)
while she kicked my butt in phase 10...
Friendly
reminder that the Steele family is obsessed with phase 10 and sometimes
we stay up until the wee hours of the morning holding phase 10
championships and we play it pretty much every trip to newport
Don't mess with us in the realm of card games because we will kick trash.
Anyway.
I
had managed to score some tickets to Jimmy Kimmel about a week ago, priority tickets. I would expect nothing less of me. (excuse me while I
high-five myself )
So my padre and I spent the afternoon in LA (thank you rental car red
camaro for the experience of a lifetime. no thank you to the crappy LA
traffic that gave me a heart attack every five minutes and
simultaneously made me want to punch every person I saw).
It was a dang funny show though. The guests were Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel promoting their new movie. It was called Sex Tape.
Awkward on so many levels.
Although...
it definitely wasn't as awkward as your boss asking about your
undergarments for your mission.... uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... w h a t
Nevertheless, we scored bigtime when they gave us fifty dollar gift cards leaving the studio.
I mean... I guess that's the least they can do considering they had us cheer so loud and so often I almost lost my voice... score to the max, missionary stuff here I come
Bless you Jimmy Kimmel and your ability to give away large amounts of money at a time
...living the dream.
It
being Friday and all, we decided to check out this beach that Cody and
'Chelle had raved about by Dana Point. It definitely wasn't a bad beach. Not too crowded or anything.
At low tide, you could walk about like a quarter of a mile and be
only waist deep. Pretty legit. Thank you to the thirty something waist-deep surfers for
providing some entertainment while we were sunbathing.
Back to the story.
There was a part that was pretty rocky so we went out to explore
low tide. Thank goodness I wore shoes because I think every step I was
trying my hardest to not step on the little hermit crab shells that were
chilling on the rocks.
trying... and failing..
We got out to a point
and decided to turn around. The water was rocky and knee deep and silly
me didn't raise my foot high enough and sliced my toe open from nail to
bridge
Thought it was just a scrape. Nope. I only discovered the
bloody mass of a toe when I got to where I could step on the rocks and
not submerge the dang thing in dirty salty bacteria-ridden ocean water
As we were walking back to shore (pre-toe discovery), my brother turns and says "Look, do you see that? It's a shark"
It was a blobby shadowy mass in the water until I looked closer...
...
...
It was a great white shark
...
nah I'm totally kidding.
It was just a little three-foot long leopard shark which I may have mistakenly called a tiger shark on multiple occasions.
Big difference.
Ahhhh. my shark-week obsessed self is so disappointed.
Here's the thing: I like shark week. but I hate sharks.
As soon as I saw it, I booked it back to shore
"I will not be eaten by sharks today!" I shouted triumphantly as I ran back to the shallows
(note:
this didn't actually happen. I was too busy getting the hecka out of
there. but it's nice to pretend I was calm and composed...)
Apparently (says the lifeguard who
bandaged my nasty-A toe) they are pretty common in the area.
At least..
on that particular beach
Will I ever be swimming there again?
... nope. hard pass.
On Saturday, we got to go whale-watching with our cousins
We
didn't see any whales but we saw a lot of happy dolphins (like.. hundreds. I have never seen that many in a pod in my entire life) and
some cute seals.
props to xander for yelling "beluga whale" every time he saw a dolphin
youth these days...
So to sum up...
I would never want to live in California but...
I am okay with visiting there every once in a while.
Especially with my family.... #bestfriendsforeternity
