Cali Trip...day 3

On day 3 in Cali we headed to the beach. It was a little chilly...but we had to go!

The girls applied sunscreen!

Lots of running around and splashing happened!

We were the only ones there for the most part. No one else in the water. A few people walked down the beach in pants and sweatshirts! We were troopers and stuck it out for a few hours!



At one point Camden decided to throw a cracker to a seagull. BIG mistake. They wouldn't leave him alone...so this is how Camden and Easton finished their snack....under their sweatshirt and towel...they would tell me they wanted another cracker and I would slip it under the towel. Addie kept telling me to chase the birds away...so I would run after them...they would fly away...and return a minute later. Camden has vowed to never feed a seagull again!

We then went back to the hotel and swam until Neil was finished with his meetings. We all went to pizza (heaven...haven't had pizza forever!) We sat and ate pizza with the view of the temple out the window. Addie decided she would get married in this castle temple instead of a pink castle!

First sign of spring!

Spring is here! How do I know? The 60 year old, bikini clad speed walker is oiled up and soaking in the rays and she cruises down the parkway trail. I knew it was coming, but why does it make me take a double take every year (day if I am being honest). So along with that comes the beautiful weather. I just wish it would last (the weather, not the bikini walker)!

Cali....day 2

Our second day in California we went to Balboa Park. Let me just say that I could spend a good month there. Balboa park not only houses the San Diego zoo but there are also a ton of museums! We went to the air and space museum. It was very windy that day so we didn't want to be outdoors. The girls and I loved the museum.

The boys thought it was boring after about 10 minutes. I could have stayed another 2 hours!

We did learn a ton of interesting facts.

We were only asked 3 times this day if "all those kids" were mine. We were only asked once if we were Mormon! I guess 5 kids in California is a lot?!

After the museum we went to the park and played. The kids had fun on the slides. We then went back to our room and ate and went swimming. We swam until Neil was done and then spent time with him. It was a nice relaxing day after spending the day before walking and playing like crazy!

Blast from Christmas past

I forgot to post these pictures in December. Each year around Christmas the kids start circling things in the ads they think they want. Such as this:

Easton thought this gun in the rite aid ad would be awesome. Then I turned the page and saw this:




Wait for it:





Awesome! My kid obviously has no idea what beer is. He must think it is root beer! Awesome!

Spring Break....Day 1....Legoland

In January Neil mentioned he had a conference in San Diego. It happened to be the week of our spring break. We packed up and headed to the warmth....but got lots of rain and wind. We still had a great time! Our first day there we went to Legoland.

Camden is wearing his "chicks dig pink" shirt. His cousin wore this same shirt to legoland 2 1/2 years ago when we went with him to legoland!

Our 5th kids (aka Sam our neighbor) came with us. It was a little overcast that day. That meant fewer people at the park. I was told there were 3000 people there that day, in the summer there are 8500! The lines were short and everyone got in all the rides they wanted!


On the way in there is a Lego family!

We had our picture taken with them and used the dad as our substitute dad for the day!

While we were there we met the dark side:

Took a nap on a park bench with a stranger:

Saw where the three little pigs were hanging their drawers out to dry:

Went on an African Safari where we saw Zebras:

Saw dinosaur eggs:

We even rode on a camel:


Our friends the Werners were also in San Diego and we had a great day with them! We took a ton of pictures....maybe I need to just make a slide show out of them....but overall we had a great day with no whining!

Give up?

This morning Camden asked me this question, "Mom, when you were a kid did you ever have to give up on a dream that you had?" Wow! I asked if he had been discussing this at school and he told me that he hadn't, he just was thinking about his dreams. He dreams of winning the pinewood derby tonight! We ended up having a great discussion about how some dreams we can work at and others are full of luck. If he dreams of being a doctor there are things he can do to make it happen, but winning a contest is full of luck! What a smart kid!