Our Family Vacation Well, this year has past by fast!! Can you believe it is almost Christmas! My baby girl is about to be 5 in a few weeks, too! She wants to have her b-day party at Chuck E. Cheese, so I bucked up and said okay! I HATE that place, but it is HER birthday, so I need to stop being such a Scrooge. The weekend before Thanksgiving we went to Los Angeles for Taylor to particpate in the Model and Talent search and she did awesome! In her division alone there were 300 children. Plus all their parents, and grandparents, there were probably close to 1000 in the grand ballroom! She had to do her runway segment and she did great, but I could tell she was scared! Then right after that she did her photo shoot. She did great there, too! I was proud of her! Then, after that, she had to go to the commercial room to shoot her commercial. There, I think she did her BEST! She walked up to the mic and accidently bumped it. She giggled and said she was sorry. The agents laughed with her. Then she did her commercial. I was so proud!!!!! You know, I don't know if I could have done all that. I would have been terrified of the huge crowd! But, she did it and she did a darn good job... and she is just 4!! At the end, she did not called, but the assured us that that does not mean that she would not get called in the future and they invited her back for next year, too. Geez - I am just so proud of my baby girl! While we were in California, we visited Newport Beach. That was Taylor's first visit to the ocean and she feel in love. The water was chilly, so we just waded in it. At one point we turned our backs to the water (when the waves came in, they only came as high as our calves)... well, as I said, we turned our backs to the water, and a HUGE wave slammed into us!! It was at least to my mid back! It scared the crap out of us all! We thought Tay was going to get washed away... and she almost did! But I grabbed hold of her and the damn wave pulled us back out... that is when I learned that wet sand can skin you like concrete can... hmmm... We also got to visit Sunset Blvd and Hollywood Blvd. We saw Grauman's Chinese Theather where the stars do their handprints and footprints. It was pretty neat. We got a lot of pictures. On the way back we stopped by Beverly Hills, saw Bel Aire... but darn it, I never made it to Rodeo drive... not that I could even AFFORD buying anything there. Sunday we took Taylor to Disneyland and she had a blast. Andy and I didn't really... they place was just WAY too crowded. Next time we will do Leggo Land or Knottsberry Farm... Or maybe after the show go to San Diego and go to the zoo and Sea World... who knows. We had a great time and that is all that mattered. We were ready to come home though. The plane ride back was bumpy... and I actually got scared. It did not help that Taylor was chanting that we were going to crash. I had to tell her to hush. I am sure the other passengers did not like that chant either! So, I slept on the way back, so I wouldn't worry. Thanksgiving was nice. The whole weekend was nice and relaxing. Very good, since we had just gotten home from LA and needed a break. So, have you gotten all your Christmas shopping done?? hehe.. me neither. I just BARELY started. Tay's big Christmas gift is going to be a 12ft Trampolne. We were going to get her an 8ft one, but then the day after Thanksgiving sale was going on, and a 12ft on was only $10 more!! Don't worry... it has the safety netting around it, so she will be okay. Well, heck, I gotta get to class! Hope everyone is doing okay!