Trip to LA: Days 1 & 2

in , , , , , by Gavin and Kylie Plus 4, 4:30 AM
Grab your favorite caffeinated drink and take a seat!  Today's post is full of a bunch of pictures!

I'm sharing all about our first two days of our trip to LA.  My brother Kolton, and his girlfriend, Emmy, moved to LA in October, so we were excited to head out and visit them.  I was excited to see where they lived and experience the city.
We were out of the house by 2:45 on Tuesday morning for our 5:50am flight.  I think Gavin and I got to bed shortly after 11 so we were running solely on caffeine.
I can't quite explain how excited Treyton was to fly on an airplane to see Kolton and Emmy.  He has flown a couple of times before but this was the first time her really understood what we were doing.  Needless to say, he didn't stop talking or fall asleep on our 1.5 hour drive to the airport.  Taylor actually didn't either and cried for a large portion of our drive.   We were off to a great start.
We made it through security rather quickly with two strollers, three kids in their jammies, and snacks for days.
The girls were ready to go and toddled around the terminal while we waited to board.
Boarded and in our seats!  We waited until the very end to get to our seats which helped them not become stir crazy before we even took off.  There are only 4 oxygen masks per row so there could only be one lap child, and therefore one of us had to sit across the aisle.  We learned several things on this trip, and one of them was to not be too cheap to pay for the seats you want.  There was one flight in which they had Gavin, Treyton, and me in three different rows.  The airline was of no help but thankfully a nice man switched his seat so Treyton could sit next to Gavin.  Taylor and Treyton slept for a lot of the first flight.  Trynlee cried.  We were "that family" with the screaming child, and there just wasn't anything I could do to get her to calm down.  I'm sure it was partially her ears, but she refused to suck on anything or take a drink...just screamed.
Treyton was SOO excited to ride on the shuttle.  We had originally rented a 15 passenger van so that we could all ride together will all of our luggage and strollers.  Our first rental car experience was AWFULLLLL.  They had the shuttle bus drop us off in a parking lot (next to a busy road, in the middle of LA) and a mini van from our rental company came to pick us up.  A very pushy man wanted to take all of us but I refused to put my kids with no carseats in the van with him.  He wasn't overly thrilled but took Gavin to get the van.  Long story short, we waited in this random parking lot for an hour and a half for Gavin to come back fuming with a van that had obviously been rolled, carseats that were not the sizes I had requested (and called to confirm), and they refused to take the back seat out so that we could fit everything in.  Gavin ended up taking the van due to us still hanging out in the parking lot.  We made it work for the drive to Kolton's apartment and then figured out a way to get it returned and rent a different vehicle from a different company.  We ended up with a VW Atlas is 7 miles on it. 
We made it to our AirBnB and got everything unloaded!  It was a breath of fresh air after the van rental debacle. So so excited to be with Kolton and Emmy!  They taught him how to play Jenga which resulted in LOTS of games of Jenga for the next couple of days.

 Our plan for Wednesday was to head to Lego Land.  With traffic though, it was going to take 3 hours to get there, and I just wasn't sure that was worth it.  Emmy looked for other options and found Six Flags was only like 30 minutes away.  Off we went!
It was windy and only like 60 degrees.  Treyton was set on wearing shorts and a tshirt and refused most of the day to put on anything else.

First up was a ride on the carousel. 
Taylor is all about giving kisses and Uncle Kolt got a taste of her famous, open mouth-tongue out, kiss!  I have noticed it more and more as she has gotten older, but she definitely has strong Rottink genes.
Oh how I love these four!
It may have been windy but it was clearly sunny! :-)
The park was EMPTY and we had Loony Toon Land to ourselves.  I can't say enough good things about this part of the park.  It was a section with a bunch of little kid rides and ball zone.  My kids absolutely loved it!  Treyton could ride all of the rides and there was a handful of rides the girls could go on as well.  We hung out here for quite a while and came back while my parents, Kolton, and Emmy hit up some of the big roller coasters.
While my kids loved the ball area, I think my brother may have more.

and Papa!

The girls were perfectly content sitting at the end of this tube that sucked balls up to the upper deck.  Nana and Papa just ran around and got them balls, and they stuck them in the tube.
My favorite 3 year old!  He can be soooo stubborn but guys, we was SOOOO good on our trip.
These planes made me sick to my stomach!  The girls loved the ride and even figured out how to make the planes go up and down.
We grabbed lunch at Johnny Rockets and played the obligatory carnival game.  100 rings were tossed and 0 rings landed on a bottle!
I bet he said Kolton's name thousands of times in the 5 days we were there.
This was by far his favorite ride at Six Flags.  I bet he rode it a dozen times.  He had to have an adult with him but the adults had to sit in the back, and he was is in heaven getting to drive the ranger all by himself.
Kolton also enjoyed himself on this ride.  Because there was no one there.  He got to ride every ride twice before they would make him get off.
Back to the ball area we went!
Emmy may have pelted another small child in the face with this gun.
After some long stroller naps, the girls were ready to go!
The big kid didn't enjoy himself at all!
Treyton was super brave and went on several rollercoasters.

He even rode them with his hands up several times.
So so happy!
Tweety Bird's cage also about did my stomach in.  I LOVE roller coasters....the whole spinning action just wasn't doing it for me though!
Daddy even got to ride the rangers several times.

We left the park around 5 in hopes to get to dinner before our kids were overly hungry.  Our plan didn't work quite as planned.  The girls cried for the hour drive and Treyton fell asleep.  He proceeded to sleep being carried in, slept in the booth, slept on our drive back to our rental house, and slept until 7am.  I'd call that a good day!

We learned LOTS of things about traveling to the city with small children!  I have a post planned for later this week with a list off all of those things.  Just in case you also have small kids and plan to travel, I'd love for you to to know!

Check back tomorrow for our day at Disneyland!  It was wonderful as well!

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