USC vs UCLA Game and CA Trip

Right as soon as Thanksgiving dinner was done and the house was cleaned up, we all hopped in our cars and headed down to California to watch Porter play in a USC football game against UCLA.  We drove as far as St. George and stopped for the night and then continued to head on down the next day.  We were caravanning with Dan & Suz family and Grandma & Grandpa.  Suzi insisted that we stop in Barstow to take a picture by the big thermometer.  I have driven past this thermometer when it has said 117 degrees before!!!  It was only ringing in at 54 degrees on this November 27th day.  

This stop turned out to be the best stop ever!  We went into a little convenience store to grab some snacks.  It was the craziest store!  They advertised that they had over 500 different drink flavors.  Some of them were pretty crazy!  I had to buy some for white elephant gifts.  There was a whiteish drink called "pimple pop" that looked totally disgusting, a Stallin drink called "Stallinade", an Osama Bin Laden drink called "Seal Ya Later", a red drink called "Bloody Nose", a yellow one called "Pirate Piss" and tons more!

I couldn't help but make Jens grab a picture of this guy in his Superman shirt.  He was about 5' 3" tall, a little stocky and most likely mentally handicapped, so I really shouldn't have.  But the devil totally made me do it!  I know, I know, I'm mean and will most likely end up in Hell one day.  But there was not ONE person in that store who didn't notice him!

We stopped our first night to eat the the Original Corner Pantry Cafe.  This place claims that it has not closed its doors since it opened in 1924 because it has ALWAYS had a customer in there.  They advertise that their doors have no locks.  It survived the depression and is still going strong.  They even stayed open when they moved locations in 1950 to make room for a freeway on ramp.  They served lunch in the original one and dinner in the new location - on the same day.  It's know for serving cole slaw to it's patrons in the even ing even if you order breakfast.  If you want breakfast on any regular day, you need to get in line clear down the sidewalk at 7:00am to eat at 10:00am!  They're known for their breakfast and it is served 24 hours a day.

There are no menu's, all the food is written up on the board.

The next day we got up and made our way down to the stadium.  We stopped in the shop to get ourselves outfitted in some USC gear and then headed over to watch Porter do the walk into the stadium.  Then we grabbed some lunch in the stadium and found our seats.  We were all sitting all over the place.  Somehow Whitney and I ended up with all the little girls.  Molly, Ellie, Emma and Gracie.  They loved the game.  They loved watching the fans holler and yell and they loved having their face painted.

All the adults and teenagers had field passes and were able to go down on the field pre game.

It was a great game!  Porter was able to start and played great the whole game.  USC won which made it perfect!

After the game, we all met back up and went out to meet up with Porter.  I think there were 54 of us that traveled down to watch him play.  Jeff & Tammy, Hillary and Carson family, Jordan and his wife, Duane & Julie, Dan & Suz family, our family, Sam & Whit family, Joel & Julie family and John and Scarlet's family all came from Utah and Cody & Heidi's family all drove down from Idaho.  Several of the teenagers and brought a friend too.  It was a big group and we couldn't have asked for a better way to spend our Thanksgiving break!

After the game we drove over to The Grove shopping center.  Its an outdoor mall that was AWESOME!  I loved the place!  You can't really tell from the pictures but they had snow blowing around, a GIANT Christmas tree set up, Santa and his Sleigh flying through the air and the cutest Santa's workshop you've ever seen!

We swung in to the American Girl Doll store.  Molly and I had ourselves a time in there!  We picked out some Christmas gifts for Molly and LOVED being in there.  Its too cute!

 Then we grabbed some dinner at Cheesecake Factory, went back to our condo, swam a little more, visited and laughed some more with the family, went to sleep and made the long drive the whole next day.