We woke up early (5 am is super early for people who barely drag themselves out of bed at 7:15, and cRaZy early for Cody who had to stay up working until 4 am the night before) on May 28th, and Diane graciously drove us to the airport, where this happened: We got to Long Beach just fine, drove to my Uncle Gordon and Aunt Marlene's house in Chino Hills, and proceeded to enjoy fine hospitality via my Aunt Marlene, and the sound of young children living life to the fullest by playing a dog-tail-flip tic-tac-toe game. We took a quick nap in the same room as a funny turtle (it's Holly and Sam's, Gordon and Marlene are letting it chill at their house until Holly and Sam find a place of their own) after saying hello, spotted some California Jell-O (who knew other states were even aware of Jell-O? :P), then headed out for lunch at Chili's, shopping at Trader Joe's (I LOVE TRADER JOE'S! Why aren't they here already?!) and games at Juan's with Juan and his little brother Isaac.

Sadly, I stink at taking pictures at pertinent times, so we have no proof of Juan's family's awesomeness...or even of hanging out with Juan or Adneisha, but I can gush about all of them with words. Juan's little brother Isaac (he's 15, I think) is funny, skinny, and is a really good sport. All the Reveles kids are good looking people, and we enjoyed seeing Ivory whirl in and out of the house on her way to cheerleading tryouts. Then, Cody and I played some Super Smash Brothers Brawl live with Juan and Isaac for the first time, petted the three little doggies that were running around inside, ate tasty quesadillas (I think) that Juan's stepmom brought us, saw a treehouse Juan's dad built in the backyard, and walked over to 7-11 to get some Slurpee's with Transformers straws. After playing some more games...I think just Bananagrams, we poked our way outta the Reveles' house and headed back to Gordon and Marlene's, where we had a place to sleep. ^_^ To paraphrase Cody, "I got to play games and hug Juan, so it was a good day."



The next day, we were planning on going to go to the fashion district with Juan and Adneisha, but Juan got attacked by a sore throat and phlegm monster early, so we waited a few hours to see if it would clear up, contacted Adneisha, and met up with with her to go to Santee Alley with Cody's family. 'Neisha's such a delightful person, and seeing her again was fantastic. We ran down the street towards each other when we first saw each other, and Adneisha threw her arms around Cody's neck in a hello attack when she first got to him. XD I like that girl.

While shopping with Adneisha, I almost completely forgot to look for anything for myself because it was so entertaining to watch her and listen to her sing along to the songs playing over the stores' speakers. After Cody's family got tired and left, Cody and I drove Adneisha back to her house and got to meet her mom, sister Ebony, her pseudo-brother Tim, and Adneisha's gran; and Adneisha showed us her plushie collection and the artwork that Juan created for her, including this beautiful piece:
Those are characters Juan and 'Neisha collaborated on together, the way they do on a lot of stories and characters. She comes up with the backstories and he draws... The girl is based on Adneisha, is blind, and is in love with an alien...yeah, Juan and 'Neisha are crazy, but that just makes them more fun and interesting, no?

No, I don't have sandals on...these're just my dirty feet after walking around downtown LA in flip-flops:
On Saturday morning, Gordon and Marlene had their family over and Uncle Gordon made us pancakes. :L He makes special shapes on request, so I requested a porcupine, and this is how it came out:
It was really great to see all the California Andersons! They're such fun people, and although I'm not very good at keeping in touch, I'm really glad we got to spend a little time with all of them. Even more, I'm glad that Holly and Sam's baby is all right, and that Brad and Katie's baby arrived safely and had the esophigal problem diagnosed and (hopefully) rectified so quickly.

After we had breakfast, Juan was feeling better so we got to chill at his house while his family was gone, trying out the glory that is Guitar Hero 3 for the first time...which was pretty much epic. Then we met up with Adneisha and Tim and went to enjoy Star Trek and then out to eat at a delicious Chinese place in Hollywood. They even had veggie orange chicken! Woo!!

Sunday morning we left for the cruise, but we tried to go to sacrament meeting with Gordon and Marlene. Unfortunately, we didn't know which building was the "big" building, so we ended up at the wrong place...well, at least we got some church in before getting on the boat. I'm sorry we missed them, though.

And now, more random pictures! Below is a picture of a shopping mall that includes a store called BevMo (that's what we call Cody's grandpa Bevan to each other...)
Tycee after eating with Cody's family at California Pizza Kitchen downtown.
Richard, taken the same time as the one of Tycee above.
Oh, and have I mentioned how awesome Juan is? I requested a portrait last year after finding out he draws, and while we were there he finished a portrait of my little sister Eliza Jane for me. ^_^

When we got back from the cruise, we had a few hours to burn, so we rented a car and attacked Juan again. We played more SSBB with Juan, Isaac, and Isaac's friend Angel, then went with Juan to the downtown LA library and had a docent give us a tour. That place is awesome! I love the artwork throughout the old part of the library, and the new part of the library's artwork is interesting, too.After the library tour was over, we got some food with Juan, found chocolate in our rental car from a previous renter (which I totally ate as seen below, thankyouverymuch), said our goodbyes to Juanny boy and Isaac, and then flew away home.

Overall, I think the best part about LA is the fun people we have to love there.