Friday, April 8, 2016

Spring Break '16

Go BIG or GO HOME.....well the Osero's went BIG and we did a 16 day RV trip to California.  Yeap 4,635 mile round trip out west.  We were grateful to have been able to bring Ms Emma along with us to help out with Danny and one of Av's friends Jamie so she had someone to hang out with.  It was wonderful for Av to have a good friend along and for her to experience a "sibling" relationship and enjoy the memories with when on vacation. Our 1st plan was to travel over to California via Route 66 but then planned to head over to Mount Rushmore, down to Vegas, over to California, shoot across to Grand Canyon and head home....it didn't go like we had planned but we had FUN along the way.  Of course I took TONS of photos so welcome to our Spring Break cross country trip.
Let's Do this!!  Our home/ICU on wheels.  Yes it has a wheelchair lift and roll in shower right from the manufacture :)  for Danny
 Av n Jamie spent most of their time in the back on the bed watching TV
 Danny chillaxing on his bed and Ms Emma watching over him....well that was until we took a sharp curve and hit a bump which tipped her and the bunks over on top of Danny's bed.  Thankfully Danny didn't get hurt, but Ms Emma had a few scrapes, bumps, n bruises.  Needless to say no more staying on the top while driving.

Right off the bat we called an audible and decided to head south first as the weather at Mount Rushmore was cold.  VEGAS here we COME!!  We had good weather on the way there and it was pretty uneventful raveling.  We were SO excited to see the mountains in Colorado and once we got to the top we decided to hang out for the night in a rest area up there (we normally stop at rest areas or truck stops for the night when we travel, it's Dan's favorite thing to do) .....until we figured out Danny and most of us had issues breathing up there.  So after making some mac n cheese and filling our belly's, back down the mountain we went until we got to a better elevation.  We were up to 10,000 ft elevation when we stopped and then came down to around 6,000 before we started to feel better and stopped for some shut eye.
We were pretty amazed at the amount unused and uninhabited land after Denver....just lots n LOTS of dirt n rock after dirt and rocks.  No trees, livestock, houses.....NOTHING.
The mountains were cool to see but again DIRT and ROCKS.  When you see signs on the road stating next services (gas, water) in 125 miles.......it made you become more aware of our gas and possible needs.
Once we got to Vegas the girls were just awed by the sites and people right off the bat.  We stayed in an RV park just off of downtown Fremont street, how perfect is that?  When we were settled in our "camping" spot we all walked over to the buffet at the Main Street Station Casino & Brewery then over to Fremont street for the sites.  By the giggles and looks on girls faces I'm going to say they had never seen anything close to that before.  They did find the BIG Slotzilla where they do zip and zoom lining and they had their minds made up they were going to do it.  The next day we did some site seeing and went to "Counts Kustom Cars" (on History channel) and to "Tanked" (on Animal Planet).  Both places were exceptionally kind and accommodating for us.
Zoomlining down Fremont St.  They were lucky enough to have done it while the light/music show was going on too :)  Under the word Slotzilla is where the zipline came out of....now go UP from there and you'll see the wall drop down and my monkeys zoom out from there supermaning it all the way down.  Av is the 3rd one from the left, due to her light weight she was trailing behind ~ LOL
Here is a better video of how far down they zoomed.
Making memories!!
Fly baby girl FLY
Zoomline Trio
Counts Kustoms Cars ~
Horny Mikes vehicle
 Danny got a photo with Roli !!!!!
 This security man was so kind and concerned about Danny :)
 Danny aka "The Count"
How we travel in the mini van....
 
"Tanked"
 not only did they have fish....but about 8 Macaw's.  BEAUTIFUL!!
 Meet Victor....Another wonderful person that was unconditionally kind and concerned :)

Walking to the strip I had a lil incident while crossing the street I tripped and fell into one of Vegas' roads.  Right in front of 6 lanes of traffic....yeap that was ME, just call me Ms graceful.  I had 2 stones in my hand, some scrapes, and bruising.....but it didn't stop me from enjoying more Vegas
We walked to Bellagio to watch the water fountain show and then we went inside.
 Danny was trying to give his Dad some good luck.......
 The Bellagio is the most beautiful casino in Vegas, in my opinion.  Fresh flowers are everywhere!!
 It smelled amazing!!
 Turtle out of flowers
 Bird made out of flowers
 Check out this amazing chocolate fountain.....I'm in heaven ~ chocolate coming out of the ceiling!!
Two short days in Vegas and we were off to California.
We stayed the week at Newport Beach Dunes Resort.
We rented a cute Lil cabin for the girls to hang out in for the week.
 Our RV was parked across the street
 Their private beach
View from the park from above the hill
 Our view from the front of our RV up the hill
 We had some nice weather to be able to chill out by the poolside
 Ha ~ Mr Danny is still wearing long sleeves with a tshirt over, a jacket, sweat pants, and a blanket over him EVEN in California
We fit in some Game Time
There was many things to keep the girls occupied

We headed up to Ponoma to see the NHRA museum.  Before we got there we stopped at a restaurant that "Guy" from triple D (Diners, Drive in, and Dives) had stopped at, Momma Cozza's.  The food was amazing and the people we exceptionally kind. We had lots of left overs!!

The Museum wasn't what we had anticipated it to be, but we are glad we went.  We were definitely surprised at the state of the Ponoma Race track, surprising it's owned by NHRA.  Unfortunately on our way out of the parking lot, I set the leftover out of the van to load Danny up and then forgot them so Dan ran them over.  OOOOoooops!!
 These two vehicles I could see myself driving.....beautiful
 That's it....nothing spectacular and it wasn't as big as we had thought it would be.  The back drop is pretty cool

One evening we went to a Dinner Show with Pirates ~
 Our Pirate was Orange and came up to say Arrrr to Danny :)
 Great Show and food!

We were that close to San Diego so we had to go to the ZOO.  But on the way we stopped at a fabulous BBQ.  A small place but again wonderfully accommodating people and the food was FABULOUS!
 Bring on the animals
 We started the zoo off on a bus tour.  Seriously more great people....they got us into the tour right away and in front ~ the people were so friendly.
Ms Emma had issues with ALL the stares from the others in the zoo so she decided to make the same face right back at them.  LOL ~ she's a hoot!  We LOVE her
 Danny checking out the giraffe
 Thinking or more like hoping the bus tour would have been it....Ms Av wanted to see the Polar bear as it wasn't present when we drove by.  Of course the dang bear was clear across the ZOO.  We had about an hour to get there and back so it was game to get over to the Polar bear .... they managed to have some fun along the way
 Seriously?!?
 He was such a good example so the girls had to climb on
 Are you sure that was just water in his drink?
 LOL ~ stand back you are in the spray area
 Love these guys!!
We became aware of how lucky we are to have such a fabulous zoo in Milwaukee just 1.5hrs away from us as we've always heard you HAVE to go to the San Diego Zoo.  Even though it was a great zoo I have to say ours is very comparable :)

Lets Parasail ~ Av has wanted to do this forever and what a great place to do it.  We were 800ft in the air
We all are in swim suits and the locals are in sweatshirts with coats on....can you say tourist!!
 Girls heading out!

Watching the girls
Girls getting dipped as they came in


 I think they had a BLAST!
Then it was Ms Emma and my turn ~
 Despite me NOT wanting to get dipped in the cold ocean with HUGE animals/fish that could eat me.  I got VERY wet!
Great Fun!
 Crazy!
Dan and Danny stayed on the pier and chilled out there while we were out.

We ate at Joe's Crab Shack on the Beach.... 
Cheers !
 Dan says it more like a pig trough
 Finally someone who enjoys Crab legs too :)
 As you can see it's all about the sites and the FOOD when on vacation ~ LOL

HAPPY EASTER ~ From The Osero's
Yes the Easter Bunny found us in Cali so the girls are finding their basket
 SCORE!
 Danny got a cool new toy
 Even Ms Emma had to find her candy
My LOVES
 Looking pretty good in the California sun
 We had an AMAZING Easter Brunch at the restaurant in the resort,  I've never seen anything like it
 So great these two have a great friendship that I think only got tighter during the trip.  Friends for Life
 Mimosa's
 The food was never ending and the options.......... WOW
 What an Easter!!

It was definitely sad to leave Newport ... what a beautiful place.  But reality is calling so we packed up the RV and started to head back to Wisconsin.  BUT............... Not without a few stops along the way.
We detoured our trip for one night and drove down to Lake Havasu AZ to visit our good friend and former neighbor Patti.  What a beautiful place....a gorgeous lake right in the middle of a desert.
The Guys ~ Just hanging out.  Right after this photo was taken we were talking about how sassy Danny can be about being out of the RV and manipulating the situation so he could go back in as it's his favorite place to be.  Well Danny turned his head from a complete left all the way to the right made the biggest pouty face ever, like STOP TALKING ABOUT ME!!  I so wish I was able to capture that as many don't think or believe Danny is aware of what's going on.  I tell you HE IS THERE!!
 Patti and her "toy"
 RV camped right on the beach!
 Mom do we really have to go?!?

Above you see Av walking around in a tshirt and wading in the water......a few short hours later and still in AZ we went up to The Grand Canyon where it was a balmy 36 degrees with high winds and snow at times.  Brrrrrrrrr!!  Seriously, Mother Nature?!?  We didn't stay long as it was VERY cold with a feels like 17 degree, but we were able to snap some photos and say we were there.
Are you sure we are in Arizona?  It's cold!!!
 Breathtaking
 Feeling on top of the world!
After a quick visit to the Grand Canyon it was back in the RV and complete the uneventful stretch back home.....
Or so we thought!
While in OK having some lunch at Jason's Deli (YUM) I received a phone call that our credit card had been compromised and someone had been doing some fun internet shopping on our card.  SPECTACULAR!!!  Thankfully it was caught early and that Dan brought our business card along with or it might have been a tight ride home trying to fill up the RV with gas with just the cash we had leftover from our trip.  Now to deal with the inconvenience of changing everything to a new card. BLAH!!
We went a few extra miles with another detour to a suburb west of Chicago to pick up something VERY special.  On our way into Illinois we hit some EXTREME HIGH WINDS that was throwing us around the interstate like a cardboard box.  Unfortunately before we could get off the interstate the wind grabbed a hold of one of our awnings and tore it completely off ~ fabric, pole, brackets and all.  Thankfully it didn't hit a car, injury are kill someone...so very grateful for that.
Check out this wind...Dan says I sound like someone on Twister.  The long awning you see on the RV in this video is the one that was sheared off.  GEEZ!!
No awning anymore....

I'd like to introduce to you the newest member of our family
Meet INDY!!  
She is a 8mth old dalmatian mix.  She comes from a High Kill Shelter in Texas and was rescued by Rescue Warriors in IL.  We have been looking for a dalmatian for some time and came across her profile while browsing the internet coming home on vacation.  Everything came together and we were able to pick her up on our ride home.
 She was LOVED and SNUGGLED the whole ride home!!
Indy has been a wonderful addition to our family.  I have to say she is the most shy, loving, kissy, smart dog we've every had.  She is VERY laid back and the 2 boys Gunner and Sully have taken her into their wing with no issues.  
I think a toy store threw up in my living room.

Back to reality now that we are home.  Av has been practicing very hard with Dive as she has a meet in Chicago this weekend and she hasn't practiced in over 2 weeks with us being on our trip.  Dan is getting the race car ready for the start of the season and starting the build for the second space in our retail building for Little Caesars.  He is finalizing the paperwork for the 3rd space soon and that is going to be a Thai restaurant.
I hope you enjoyed our trip!  Thanks for stopping by and checking in on us.  Hoping Spring finds us soon as it is snowing here once again.  Where's this global warming ?!?

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