Open up! CPD!

Back in March, Kelly and I took a trip to California to visit my little sister Whitney and her husband Austin. He is in PA school so its hard for them to get to come see everyone else. So we took the vacation to them. Which was obviously just one big win-win since a staycation for them can actually be fun, whereas a staycation in Rexburg is death. They haven't had a whole lot of time to enjoy their quant little town (Claremont) and the perfect little village that they live right in the middle of.  So we took full advantage of it.

Austin still had to do a lot of studying and Kelly was missing school for this trip, so while the boys were being studious Whitney, little Marlee (the yorkee) and I enjoyed the town and tried just about every frozen yogurt and ice-cream shop Claremont had to offer. 

In the morning, Whit and I would run through the village, and the beautiful neighborhoods and pick out our future houses just like we have our whole lives. We would run through Claremont Colleges - which are hands down the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen - and yes I've been on the campus of Ivy League schools. They. are. gorgeous. We would explore new places, and old places, and enjoy the full on spring Claremont was in while it was snowing back home for us. (It was storming the day we left.)

We eventually pulled the men folk away from the books and spent a day in Corona del Mar, and a day in Newport. We enjoyed fish tacos in Chino Hills on taco tuesday and ate a ton of other good food. (I was 16 weeks pregnant, so I tried to contain myself, but lets be honest, the food everywhere was amazing.)

We really loved going to Newport temple. It is beautiful, and kind of hidden in a neighborhood across from a tennis club. There was a wedding that day, and it was gorgeous. This temple almost looks like a mission style building, surrounded by palm trees and fountains.

We visited Downtown Disney, and Kelly's favorite place by far was the Lego Land shop where he got to hang out with Gandalf.

We visited Victoria Gardens (a beautiful and huge outdoor mall) in Rancho Cucamonga and Kelly was in heaven being at the Art of Shaving store and picking out pre-shave oils and other shaving essentials for his face. He loved it. I think Austin probably thought he was crazy. But their manliness both came out at Outdoor World (like a billion times the size of Cabellas). Kelly was a crazy good multitasker while we were there, as he had a group meeting for an online class at school so he stuck in his headphones and connected to the meeting through his phone. Thank heavens for technology.

But hands down, the most memorable part of the trip was when someone was pounding on the door at 2:40 am and shone their huge and very bright flashlights through the front window of Austin and Whit's place. We were all startled awake and super terrified. I was pretty sure someone was trying to kill us and we were all going to die (I was only half awake, ok?) Kelly and I were sleeping in the front room, and Austin and Whit hadn't come out of their room yet, so Kelly had tried to take control of the situation and was in the process of locking the deadbolt -which he found unlocked- when we heard "Open up, CPD!" So Kelly opens the door, and an officer is facing us and asks how we're doing tonight. Kelly just told him he was doing a lot better now that he knew it was the police and not some crazy serial killer (he left that last part out).

Apparently a rape or some kind of sexual assault had happened at the neighbors and they asked us a bunch of questions. By this time Austin and Whit had made an appearance (apparently Austin had told whitney that opening the door in the middle of the night was the stupidest thing you could do, but it being the police and all changed his mind. haha)

Eventually we wound down enough to go back sleep, but if any of us needs a good laugh (not that the crime was funny) we just say CPD! to each other and it gets us going. The most ironic part of this whole story was that they had only moved to Claremont a few months earlier from Pomona because it was ridiculously dangerous there. They had shootings and break-ins in their complex all the time, and a pimp and a hooker worked the corner and the parking lot. Little 5 foot nothing Whit carried mace on her keys (still does actually). But no, only when moving to safe little Claremont did the popo wake us all up in the middle of the night. Anyways, thus ends the CPD story. It was a good one to live through.

We had an incredible time and wish we lived closer to them and little Marlee. (How do I not have a picture of the dog on here? Weird.) Their town is a dream, a little piece of heaving in LA county, despite maybe not being as safe as we thought.