Alvera or Olvera Street

On Tuesday of this past week I went with my mom, Johanna Phelan, and her four beautiful daughters to Olvera Street, which I always want to spell with an A (Alvera). The Phelans used to be in our ward and now live in Glendora and my mom used to work for John Phelan with his landscaping business, so she keeps in touch with them and serves as a surrogate grandma for the girls because they don't have grandparents in CA.

Johanna and the girls had never been to Olvera Street or on the train that goes into LA so it was a fun experience to go down with them. My mom has taken me and my sister since we were little (well, not on the train because it wasn't there) and I think my mom even went when she was little, too.

We got on in Pasadena and you get off at Union Station which is awesome and so pretty. It looks like early Hollywood style. It's so cool!

Then you walk across the street and Olvera Street is right there. My mom said it's the first street in Los Angeles. There are vendor carts, shops you can go inside, restaurants, music, churros, snow cones. It's fun to go down for a couple hours and check it out. Even if you've been tons of times like I have, I still love going down because it's fun to go and do something different.

Carly Jo with one of the umbrellas we bought to shield from the sun.

The greenery above the walk are grapes!

Carly Jo with a Mexican statue and her beloved churro.

Britney, Brooke, Claire, and Carly Jo in front of a fountain on the street.
(I gave Carly Jo a penny to make a wish in the fountain and she said she wished to get a toy.)

You basically feel like you've been on a trip to Mexico without actually having to go South of the border. I think the girls had fun. Carly Jo is so adorable and wanted everything she saw, but settled on a stuffed cat...or dog...I'm not sure what it was, haha! I think she named it Lucy and it slept in the pocket of her dress. Britney and Claire got some bracelets. Brooke decided on this cool looking owl purse that was purple with some pink, made out of real leather. Another success for Olvera Street!

Canadian Consulate, eh?

Yesterday my mom was kind enough to take me to downtown LA (which isn't so fun when you have to deal with traffic) and we went to the Canadian consulate. As I have written before, my husband and I will be moving up to Canada soon. He's a citizen so going through the border is no problem, but we thought that if an American citizen rolls up with a car full of stuff saying "hey, I'm coming to live in your country now...eh?" they might not let me through. 

We've had issues before with getting through that dang border (pretty much all on Mark's end...America is so prejudice against Canadians!). So we thought we wouldn't chance any problems for me getting through. Mark called the border people and the girl there said the best bet would be for me to get a visitors visa. So we go about doing all this work for it. I had to deal with the very lovely Walmart passport photo taker man who, even though he said he knew how to do it, I still had to go back because the dimensions weren't right. They wanted everywhere I had worked in the last 10 years. They wanted all my siblings names, birth dates, addresses, marital status'. I have nine full/half/step siblings and I don't even talk to some of my siblings (or they don't talk to me...we're dysfunctional). They wanted a lot of other info that I can't quite remember right now. Then we have to go to Staples and make copies of everything, stop at the bank down by the consulate to get a money order for the fee, pay the parking people $10, and finally go to the consulate. 

My number's called. I go up to the window. The lady behind the counter is surprised and says, "Are you American?" and I tell her "yes" and go through my explanation of why I'm applying for this visa and once living up there will apply for permanent residency. Then she tells me "American citizens don't need a visa to go into Canada. They can stay for up to six months, no questions asked. Then if you stay longer you file a visa extension if the residency hasn't gone through yet." She handed me a paper that said this exact thing (which I will be taking to the border along with all my visa info I put together so they can't say "you actually need a visa" to which I will say "I tried, you idiots, and the lady at the consulate told me I didn't, gave me this paper that says so, and here's my packet I tried to give to her!!!")

Then she told me all we'd have to deal with at the border is custom stuff and gave me that website as well. So any Americans reading this, just know that if you want to go up and visit Canada for six months all you need is your passport.

Luckily I got some good pics for Instagram:

love the Los Angeles skyline

110 Pasadena freeway -- it's pretty