California trip plus Brooklyn and Cole's wedding day
September 20-28, 2025
Day 1 of our California road trip
We got out the door just after 9:30am. Parker drove.
First stop was Fillmore hot springs. When we first got there it was pretty crowded but when we got in, everyone got out so we had it to ourselves! The water level was a lot lower than it's been but it was still great. Darrin, Parker, Spencer and Caden all stood on each other's heads too see how deep it went and we figured about 20 feet deep.
Next stop was 35 minutes away at cove fort. We watched the video and did the scavenger hunt there. Spent over an hour.
Then drove to our hotel in St. George (Red Lion hotel). Checked in, got Little Caesars and stopped at Walmart for Sunday food.
Mini golf at the hotel
Swimming and hot tubbing
Day 2
It's Darrin's 41st birthday! I decorated the hotel room last night with crepe paper and brought a gift of trip snacks for him to open. We'll do the rest of his gifts next week though.
We had breakfast, watched Jacobs farewell via zoom and got ready to check out.
We drove to Santa Clarita near magic mountain today and made stops along the way:
Started in St. George
Stop 1. Drove to the Las Vegas sphere (wow it's SO BIG and neat!)
Stop 2. Pinball hall of Fame (free to get in and tons of pinball machines with a huge variety among some other games. REALLY cranky guy who worked there though. Although we were watching our kids, twice he came to tell us that this is "not a place for high energy kids... This is not chucky cheese... It is a museum... Watch your kids" with a nasty stink eye LoL. Seriously, they were opening the candy machine openings where the candy comes out. We were watching them and they weren't being crazy whatsoever. Sheesh. Mom and Dad Simon gave them each money to play some games.
Stop 3. Seven magic mountains (cool stop with the colorful stacked rocks)
Stop 4. Worlds tallest thermometer (laughable, quirky fun quick stop)
Stop 5. Zzyzx Street (cool abandoned spa with a pond and cool Palm trees near a dry lake bed with a old boat too. 0.4 mile walk about. Bummer that the old abandoned buildings were closed off to look through! But still a cool stop I thought)
Stop 6. Our VRBO
Day 3
Austin started complaining about his ear on the drive yesterday and it only got worse. He came in at 1:00 a.m. crying, then at 2:45 and never went back to sleep since just cried and cried. Cried. We did three showers with steam, plus used Tylenol since that's all we had.
This morning we did a doctor on the demand visit and they prescribed him antibiotics which were a pain to pick up because the pharmacy wasn't receiving it but we got them and went on our way to six flags and Mom Simon stayed back with Austin at the VRBO. Poor kid!
Seriously such a ghost town today at MAGIC MOUNTAIN. Didn't wait for anything and went on everything we wanted multiple times despite then closing at 6 and opening at 10:30. Bummer that Superman was closed.
Parkers highlights were X2, viper and tatsu
Spencers favorites were Wonder woman and crazanity
Cadens we're tatsu and crazanity
Rachels favorites were the Batman shooting game and the revolution (she HATED X2 though and was crying so hard at the end. It really shook her head up and gave her a really bad headache (me too-remind me to never ride it again). She said she wasn't scared it just hurt)
Day 4
Universal studios. We're going to be late because of traffic but Darrin cut off 20 minutes so we made it in the entrance line 15 minutes before opening. Went right to Harry Potter land and got right on both rides.
-Met blue raptor from Jurassic Park. Austin was terrified
-Met decepticon from transformers. He was hilarious and commented on our matching uniforms but that Parker wasn't matching and asked what happened. I commented and said "loser". He laughed and laughed and said "you took the words right out of my mouth Commander" he then told Parker "you do that again and I will wipe the pavement with you Soldier"
-the universal tram tour is always a highlight.
-Austin loved the Simpsons ride
-Jurassic Park ride said 30 Minute wait but was 15.
-Transformers ride said 50 minutes and was 15
-Mario said 75 and was 20
-water world show was a highlight as always
-Caden's highlight was mummies
-Parker's highlight was transformers
-Austin's favorite was Mario
Crowds and lines weren't bad at all. Most we waited was 30 minutes and that was due to technical difficulties. It was a fantastic day at universal!
Day 5
Drove from LA to San Diego today. Traffic was pretty bad. Once we got here we bought the 7 Day Balboa Park pass to be able to visit all the museums here for 7 days. $75 for 12+ and $50 under 12.
Today we went to the fleet science center. It was pretty cool typical interactive science museum. At 5pm we watched the IMAX (included with our ticket) about the largest space telescope.
Grabbed Thai food at 55 thai kitchen and it was yummy! Are it at our hotel (comfort inn). First room we checked into smelled terrible like marijuana so we had to switch so we're not next to the boys room now.
After dinner we finished watching the sound of music with the kids and got to bed.
Day 6
Hotel breakfast-impressive!
Balboa Park Natural history museum
Balboa Park model train museum
Lunch at Little Caesars
Got ready for the wedding
Wedding at "the Thursday club"
Social hour with appetizers while Brooklyn and Cole did pics
Dinner and toasts (Rich's toast was reading his last fairy tale story to Brooklyn that he wrote about her life π₯²-so beautiful) and Brooklyn dedicating her bouquet to Dani rather than throwing it which was also beautiful. Brooklyn had hand written notes to each of us on our name cards too! SO SWEET!
Ran to pick up the kids at the hotel (the hotel is about 25 minutes away and they watched a couple movies during the wedding)
Made it for the dance and send off with the kids. Such a fun dance party
Day 7
Woke up to several of the kids in their swim suit begging to go to the beach. That wasn't the plan today but we couldn't say no. So after we went to the space and flight museum which took a few hours (pretty cool museum!), we went to La Jolla children's swimming beach. It was the most perfect day at the beach! Overcast and a little chilly with the water being freezing, but had so much fun playing in the sand, exploring, digging, creating, running from the waves and getting to see the 20 harbor seals there!!
No fighting Between the kids at the beach π which makes me want to live there π.
We stopped at the store for food after dinner, came back to shower and we watched the movie "ever after" that had Leonardo da Vinci in it who we learned a lot about at the space and flight museum. We had popcorn for the movie too.
It was a pretty great day!
Day 8
Museum of us
San Diego art museum
Japanese friendship garden
Botanical garden
Sailing with Kristina's family for about 3 hours in San Diego harbor which was so much fun. Darrin loved learning how the boat worked, I loved getting to know Krisinas kids (evelyee, Lewis, Joe Joe and Bryan) and catching up with Krisina.
Drove to Barstow to stay at rodeway inn
Rachel, Austin and Spencer swam in the cold pool for a bit while I played farkle with Parker and Caden. Watched a little TV and went to bed
