California!

Barry and I were able to take the kids on a surprise trip to California this last weekend. Barry and I had been planning it for a few weeks, but never let it slip to the kids. It was SO much fun! We left late Friday night (much later than we'd planned of course) and drove the 5 hours to the beach house we were going to be staying at. Barry's sister, Heather, spends time to research and find the best place to stay every two years. She rents the house for a month using the few 2 or 3 weeks for her family, and then it's a free for all for the rest of us. Barry's parents went up before us and his sister Mandy's family also got to stay for a few days before we got there at 2 am Saturday morning. The kids woke up to find that they were at the beach WITH their Nana and Boopah. It was a great surprise. We all had a great time running around and splashing in the waves. Barry bought a wetsuit before we went out there to make sure he could make the most of his Boogie Boarding time.


He spent lots of time trying to catch waves and even talked Rory into trying a few.



Saturday night we took the kids to the Newport Fun Park off the bay side Pier. They had fun on the carousel and walking around. There wasn't much going on there, so we headed across the street the the "Original Ruby's Restaurant" off of the ocean side pier for some milkshakes. There was a ton of people lining the pier for night fishing. The kids got quite a kick out of watching people fish with glow-sicks.
We attempted to go to the local Sacrament Meeting on Sunday morning, but could NOT find the little side street we needed to turn on. After a very noble effort, we gave up and headed back to the beach. I even braved the brisk water to go boogie boarding for a bit myself!








Monday morning we took Rory and Brigham to Disneyland! When we'd decided to go to California, I'd told Barry that if is was less than and hour to drive we were going... it was about 20 minutes! My mother in law was kind enough to take Colton for the day so that we could have fun with the older two. (All reports back say that he was a very good boy and had lots of fun laughing with Nana and playing on the porch with Boopah.) The kids had a great time and it was really fun to see everything decorated for Halloween. There were a ton of characters out and about but with only 1 day to spend there we didn't spend very much time waiting for pictures. We did catch Mr Incredible, Snow White and Dopey and Goofy.


We saw lots of others including Mickey and Minnie but the kids seemed satisfied to at least see them from a distance. We could NOT talk Rory in to going on any of the roller coasters, but she loved going on the rapids ride with her daddy. Brigham was a really good sport about the rides he wasn't tall enough for and hung out with mom while we waited for Rory and daddy. We stayed for the fireworks and hit the Haunted Mansion on the way out. They redo the whole thing to be like the Nightmare Before Christmas, with everything from start to finish almost completely different than normal. I wish they could keep the Haunted Mansion decorated like that all the time, it was great! We headed back to the beach house as exhausted as we could be. Tuesday we let the kids play a bit more and tried to play in the water one last time. It was VERY windy and much colder than it had been the whole time we were there. Barry and his dad tried to go out into the water for a bit, but with the wind it was nearly impossible to make any headway in the water to catch any decent waves. (Pic of Brigham channeling his inner Michael Jackson!)

Then... we packed up and headed home. The drive home was intense and exhausting because it was VERY windy. It had been windy on the beach that day, but we fought it from the time we left until well into the Arizona border. My hands and back were wore and tired but we made it home safely. We also arrived home to find a VERY flat tire on the in-laws van. I changed it this morning and there was some sidewall damage. We don't know exactly when it went flat because we had no problems with steering or driving it. The wind was one thing, but it was fine when we got gas a few miles past Quartzite, which is also where the wind started to die down on the road, so we figure it must have happened somewhere near home. We were very glad that we'd made it home, no matter when the flat happened.

All the prep work and planning was well worth the effort! We had such a nice and relaxing time while we were there. Barry (and I) needed this trip SO badly. I am SO very grateful that we were able to make the trip and that everyone stayed healthy before we left and the whole time we were there. (Sadly, Barry's brother Matt and his family weren't so lucky and had to cancel their trip due to a sick Izzy and mommy! :-( )
The best part of this trip was watching my sweet, very over worked hubby get to spend some really great, quality time with our three kids. I love my little family so much!