Summer Sojourn, Part Three

I left off at when we arrived to Chula Vista after a busy day at Knott's.  My brother had some food for us to eat for dinner and then our family went to bed, we were all quite tired.  In fact, Jonah fell asleep in the car on the last ten minutes of the drive (a pattern he kept with all trip) and we just moved him from his car seat to the crib they had ready and he slept on until about midnight.  Then it was hard to get him back to sleep.

The next day, we all got up and had breakfast and then got ready for a trip to the beach.  We went to Coronado Beach in San Diego.  It was a little on the chilly side for us, overcast and breezy, but we enjoyed our day at the beach.  The kids took a long stroll down the beach with their aunt, uncle and cousins, while Corey and I stayed behind with the babies.  They played in the water.  We ate some lunch.  Corey buried all the kids who wanted to be buried in the sand.

 Eliza tries to cheer Jonah up because he didn't like the sand.

 Caleb and Travis, along with their cousin, playing in the waves

 Westley running from the waves

 Jonah not liking the sand

 Eliza playing in the sand

 Travis getting buried as a way of warming up

 Caleb buried

 Travis and cousin AJ being buried while cousin Maggie looks on

 Caleb digging in the sand

 Westley tries to cheer up Jonah

 Travis playing in the sand

 Eliza playing with Travis

After the beach, we drove back to my brother's place and went to the pool in his complex for some actual swimming and relaxing in the hot tub.  Then we hung out at his house for a while, having a cookout for dinner with hamburgers and hot dogs.  It was a great day of relaxation and fun!

To be continued...

Summer Sojourn, Part Two

The Marti Party

One of the main reasons for our trip took place during the second big leg of the journey. Last September, Corey's family decided to plan a big surprise party for his mother's 60th birthday. The date was picked and we started planning ahead. So when we headed south from my brother's in San Jose, it was to go to Orange for the party. That night, Friday night, we stayed in a hotel down the street from Corey's sister's house, where the party would take place. On Saturday, Corey and his siblings made the final preparations and put up the decorations for the party while I stayed behind at the hotel and tried to keep the kids entertained. We also had a family photo done at the party of Corey's side of the family, so our family was wearing brown as our color. My sister-in-law who lives in Chula Vista came up to do face painting for the kids, to keep them busy (in addition to a craft table that Corey and I provided). She did a fabulous job!  Marti (Corey's mom) sure was surprised when she came to her daughter's house, expecting to have lunch with her three daughters only to find many relatives and friends, and ALL of her grandchildren.

 Corey with our niece Caitlin

 Jonah, "Beach Hunk"

 Kaori painting faces.  She had a line the whole time.

 Caleb the dragon

 Eliza butterfly

 Travis with a dragon

After the party, we headed up north to Nana's house in Apple Valley, a desert town near Victorville, which is north of San Bernardino off of the I-15 freeway.  We stayed there two nights along with Corey's brother and his family, a total of five adults (including Nana--Marti) and eight children in a small two bedroom town house.  Corey and I took our kids and attended church with Nana on Sunday, just Sacrament Meeting, and the rest of the day we lounged about, sleeping, watching movies and just resting for a day.  Later, we had a family dinner that included more of Corey's side of the family--his single sister and then another brother-in-law and three more nieces.

Knott's Berry Farm

On Monday, we went to Knott's Berry Farm with Nana and Corey's brother and family.  The last time we went to Knott's was when Westley was one year old and I was pregnant with Caleb.  The kids had a great time, but Travis was a little sad that he wasn't quite tall enough for most of the bigger rides and the only one that he was tall enough for was very scary to him (the Sidewinder).  But, we had a great time going on rides and seeing the Wild West Show and eating a little amusement park food.

 At Knott's with Charlie Brown

 Caleb and cousin Caitlin

 At the Wild West Show

 More Wild West Show

 Travis in his coffin (in Ghost Town)

 One Room Schoolhouse in Ghost Town at Knott's

 Eliza, Travis and Caleb on a ride in Camp Snoopy

 Waiting in line for a ride in Camp Snoopy

 This was Eliza's favorite ride in Camp Snoopy.  She was with me in our balloon.

 Eliza and Travis on a ride in Camp Snoopy

After Knott's, we drove the two hours south from Orange County to Chula Vista to visit another of my brothers and his family.  This is the sister-in-law that had done the face painting at my mother-in-law's birthday party.  When we got there, the kids were just so tired from all day at Knott's that they all just sat on the couch, staring into space.

To be continued again...

Summer Sojourn, Part One

On Tuesday June 26th, we left Salt Lake City and drove to Elko, Nevada, where we stayed with some family friends of ours.  The next day we drove the nearly nine more hours to San Jose, driving through the pretty Sierra-Nevada.

Scouting for pine cones

In the Sierra-Nevada at the rest stop in Donner Pass

We arrived in San Jose the evening of June 27th.  On Thursday the 28th, we drove into San Francisco with my brother and his family, with whom we were staying in San Jose.  We drove in and over the Golden Gate Bridge where we then parked and walked to the first tower.  Then we drove back over the bridge into the city onto Lombarde Street, the crookedest street in the world, and then went to Fisherman's Wharf, where we walked around enjoying the sights.  We stopped at a chowder house for some chowder (although I couldn't have any thanks to my newfound allergy to clams) and sourdough bread for a late lunch.  That night, after arriving back to the house in San Jose, my brother and his wife treated Corey and me to a dinner out without kids.

Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge

Eliza with the Golden Gate behind her

Walking on the bridge

Caleb with San Francisco in the background

Our hosts: My brother and his family

Driving down Lombarde Street

View of Alcatraz

A Zoltar machine (think the movie Big) on Fisherman's Wharf

At the end of Fisherman's Wharf looking out over the bay

We left San Jose on Friday the 28th and drove to Southern California by way of the Pacific Coast Highway, the PCH, or Highway 1.  We caught it at Monterey and stayed on it clear until we hit Santa Monica.  What we should have done, however, was to drive through central California on the 101 Freeway and then catch the PCH at San Luis Obispo.  The coastline was beautiful but the drive was a bit frightening--high mountain cliffs overlooking the ocean (and often, clouds covering the ocean from above the clouds), which was quite a ways down.  The highway was very winding, so we had to take it pretty slow in a lot of places.  It added about three hours to our drive.  Also, if we ever drive it again, we will get over to the main freeway just before hitting Santa Monica, because it gets really backed up there.  We did get to stop somewhere around Cambria to look at some elephant seals hanging around on the beach, though, and that was pretty cool.  We also stopped at Pismo Beach and got out to walk on the beach.  Travis was the only one who was willing to walk to the shoreline with me.  And Jonah really hated the sand.

Elephant seals on the beach near Cambria

At Pismo Beach

To be continued...

Some Random Family Fun

I didn't even notice what the kids noticed was going on here in this picture, but when they pointed it out, I had to get a picture of it.  In case you can't figure out what's going on, they pointed out that they are all wearing a shirt that happens to be the same color as their dishes--Westley in yellow with a yellow plate, Caleb in blue with a blue plate, Travis in red with a red plate and Eliza in green with a green plate.

Jonah likes to be just like his older brothers, so when Westley got off the couch to lay on the floor to read his Calvin and Hobbes comic book, Jonah got off the couch with his picture book and laid next to Westley to read.  Jonah actually does love to read too.  He is my only child who will sit through an entire book, or more than that, at this age (15 months).  It's adorable.

Eleven Years

Corey and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary this past week.  These are the flowers that he got me, and they are very beautiful.  He got off work at 3:00 and came home and we got ready to go on our date.  We got to go to Carver's, the same restaurant we went to last year for our tenth anniversary, a really pricy steak place, but this time we didn't pay.  Corey's divisional manager and regional manager just happened to choose that day to take us out to dinner to celebrate his promotion to management (something that usually happens right after the promotion, but didn't).  We enjoyed our dinner and then we left to go country dancing at a club in Salt Lake City.  The club is technically for singles but it caters to the LDS standards in dress and activity (no drinking or smoking) and since we are over 18, we figured nobody would care.  We were probably the oldest people there, but we still had fun.

Princess Festival 2012

Last week on Tuesday Eliza and I attended this year's Princess Festival.  We were fortunate that our day of the festival, it was slightly cooler, with a high in the upper 70's, so it was the perfect day to spend outside walking around because it wasn't cold or too hot.  I was hoping that this year Eliza could attend the King's Daddy-Daughter Ball but it turns out we will be out of town for that event, which is the second week of the festival.  Hopefully they can go next year.

Getting her hair done

Getting her nails painted

Eliza with her pretty new hairstyle

Eliza with Tinkerbell

Eliza with Rapunzel (notice Eliza is also in her Rapunzel dress)

Eliza with Cinderella (left) and Belle (right)

Eliza with Sleeping Beauty

Eliza with Snow White

Eliza with Ariel and Tiana

Eliza dancing with other little princesses in the main show area

Eliza with her friends with whom we attended the festival

A pretty picture of Eliza in front of the waterfall