This year, Dad got the beach house for an extra day so we headed out on Friday! It was a little busy... Travis shot a commercial in the morning, the boys went to school for a 1/2 day, and I went to a viewing for a man in our ward. But by 12pm we were on the road!
We left at kind of an odd time, so we grabbed lunch in Maricopa. I guess it was the first time the kids had eaten Arby's and we got the giggles hearing Collin ask for more "A-rabies" sauce, lol.
Tanner did awesome on the drive so we made pretty good time and pulled up to Pacific St. as the sun was setting.
Be still my heart.
Our week in paradise had begun!
The Goodmans and David and Abbey were already there and Marcie and Austin pulled up when we did. It was the craziest thing, we were about an hour away when a white Tahoe pulled onto the freeway right in front of us. We started joking that you gotta go faster than that when getting on a California freeway, then realized it was Marcie and Austin! Hahaha, what are the odds?!
Mom and Dad were still a couple hours away so we all went to Chronic Tacos together for dinner.
Here are some stock photos of the palace! 5 stories, but one story was shut off for the owners. It's on the street we've been on for the past who knows how many years. My parents, David and Abbey, and Jefferson took bedrooms on the top level. Marcie and Austin got the master suite on the main level. The Goodmans and us took the second to bottom level (and Craig) and the boys took the bottom level.
This was the beach level that the boys stayed on. SO NICE that they had their own space to be in.
This is the room that Trav, I and Tanner bunked down in. Seemed OK at first. But then we realized it was directly below the kitchen. And the kitchen had the most obnoxiously loud chairs in that world! Every time someone moved a chair, it would scratch loudly on the floor and became amplified even more in our bedroom. Like nails on a chalkboard. Very, very loud nails. And just imagine how many times chairs were moved with a family of 22 sharing a kitchen! Woof.
There were so many bedrooms that Olive and Lindi got their own!
It was weird waking up the first day and having it be a beach day! We're so used to Sunday being our normal first day. The boys always have ants in their pants in the morning to get on the beach. The tide was funky this year though. It didn't really go out until noon or 1pm. So one of us adults would usually go sit on the rocks and play lifeguard around 10am so the boys could get in the water. Gradually, we'd all filter out and just sit in the backyard talking until we had enough beach to move everything down by the water.
This beach house had a jacuzzi in the back yard!! Very novel.
I LOVED hearing Olive call it a "ka-CU-zzi".
Scarlett's sand uni-brow was on point!
Aunt Marcie for the win, playing 3 flies up with the nephews! Look at that form! :)
Twinner glasses!
(But let's not play "who wore it best", mmmkay? ;)
I remember taking Collin to the beach at this age and we'd dress him all up in a swimsuit, rash guard and hat.
Pfff. First time parents.
Tanner was in a onsie all day, errr day.
I think he had a legitimate panic attack once he was buried.
Oh to be that skinny!!
Weston loves his wiffle ball.
There goes Marcie again, being the sweetest Aunt. Playing Boggle with kids who don't know how to spell requires patience at it's finest. They loved her for it.
11 o'clock church is niiiice.
I had just enough time to give Lindi and Olive matching hair.
Being able to enjoy a Sunday school lesson AND Relief Society lesson was a double bonus. I've been in Primary for a year now, so it was refreshing to be amongst grown-up talk.
We had the traditional taco salad for dinner and hot fudge sundaes for dessert.
Every night was game night!
We tried a few new restaurants this year. I am now a not-so-secret admirer of Alysias Cafe in Carlsbad.
This cheese danish was off the chain.
Trav and I went halfsies on this benedict and their Creme Brulee French Toast. Yes, you read that right. A custardy treat smushed in the middle of two pieces of French Toast with a fine crust of caramelized sugar on top. I was soooooo darn happy.
It's all fun and games until you let 4, sandy cousins into the hot tub. Poor Grandpa was draining and cleaning that thing all week.
One of my favorite memories will be of Travis and Olive playing tag with the waves. Her shrieks and belly laughs are what pure joy is made of.
You know what Monday night means.......
Fish at the Harbor!!!!!
My favorite meal of the year!
We made our sure our monkey was all bundled up for the chilly night that turned out to not be chilly whatsoever!
I think those jowls rival a certain beloved apostle!
Okayy, funny story here. After we got back to the beach house, Abbey text us all this picture.
The first thing I thought when I saw it was how heavy I looked. I moaned and groaned about it, and Abbey tried to assure me that when you stand on the edge of a group picture, something about the way the camera works makes you look wider than normal. I wasn't sure I believed her, but then I had to leave to go put Tanner to bed. When I got back to the living room she had sent the picture again. I glanced at it, sort of thinking that I looked even bigger and leaned over to show Marcie how fat I was. I could tell she had a weird look on her face as she shot a glance over at Shelley at Abbey but I had no idea what was going on. Finally, she busted up laughing and said she couldn't do it. She had to tell me what they did. I guess Abbey has an app that can adjust your face or body in a picture. She was using it to try and make me look skinnier, but then Shelley saw and made her change it to make me look fatter. Hahaha! They couldn't believe I thought I really looked this big. Whatever! Big is big, lol! When I took a closer look at it I did have to laugh. My booty is LARGE and in charge! I wanted to defend myself... "Hey, the camera adds ten pounds!"
FRIENDS quote anyone??!
"Just how many cameras are ON YOU?!" :)
Divas!
Destructors!
You can't tell me girls and boys are the same!
We tried another new joint called Swami's.
I was so full that I decided to just order an acai bowl.
Come again!
Look at that bowl! The picture doesn't do it justice. It's the size of a serving platter. Covered in fresh berries and fruit, coconut and bee pollen with granola underneath.
Nektar will never be the same to me.
I could not find a hat that fits this boy! And he even has an above average sized head. Even baby sized hats flop over his eyes. Then I had an idea. This little cap came with his blessing outfit and fits him perfectly! It may look like a temple hat, but who's judging?! Haha.
Our little train conductor.
Jeffy wins the handstand contest, no question!
Abbey was consoling a wet and tired Olive until she just plumb fell asleep.
As much as I love the sun beating down on me, THIS is my favorite time of day on the beach. The sun is setting, the air is quiet and all the colors are soft and cool. It's so serene and calming. The beach really is such a magical place.
More bonus points for Marcie and Grandma!
We played Ah Heck, Ripple, Lucky Unders, Code Names, Scum and The Game of Things (hilarious). Our family can be rather comical!
I can't remember if it was this night or not, but a quote to remember is when Shelley was venting about the difficulties of being a girl and turned to the boys sitting in the room and venomously declared, "Yeah, if you guys even KNEW what is was like having crotches!!!"
Hahahaha. Um, what?!
Johnny Mananas carne asada fries. Heaven in a styrofoam box.
Wednesday morning we all drove to Knott's Berry Farm! It was about an hour away. I had no idea it was so close to Disneyland. Kinda hard to be driving by Disneyland and not going TO Disneyland!
But I was excited. We haven't been back since the day we got engaged here! Kinda crazy.
So us moms took the little kids and headed to Snoopy Camp for a couple of hours while the rest went on some rollercoasters and that heinous pole ride with the huge free fall. Not at all sorry to miss out on that puke fest!
We ran into some people from Mesa and while I was visiting with them, Shelley took Olive and Lindi on this swing ride. She ran up chuckling about how they were both freaking out. I walked over to this scene....
They were HYSTERICALLY crying. Hyperventilating even. Reaching for me like they were being taken to the slaughter. A worker came over to make sure they were buckled in and glanced at me, wondering if I was going to do anything. I contemplated rescuing them, but I knew they were safe and would have fun once it got started. So I started reassuring, coaching and pleading with them to calm down.
Lindi settled. Olive took it up a notch.
I definitely looked like a heartless mom as I snapped pictures and video while continuing to tell her she would have fun. I told her I would stay right where I was and wave each time they spun past me. I think that did the trick. She kept her eyes glued on me and waved every time they completed a rotation. By the third spin she was giggling and smiling and having a great time.
When the ride ended and I hugged them, a lady walked by and said, "Oh wow, I was worried about those girls. I kept thinking, what kind of a bad mom would do that to her kids?!"
Hahaha. Well, tell me how you really feel!
I guess THIS bad mom would!
Meeting Snoopy was a highlight for Olive for sure. She hugged and hugged on him and kept going back for more. To this day, she remembers Knotts Berry Farm as the place she got to meet Snoopy "for real!"
Lunch was a bit of a debacle. We seriously walked ALL OVER that park looking for a place that didn't have a ridiculously long line. There were some senior class groups there on a trip, making it much more crowded than they were expecting. This BBQ place was really expensive and really not very good.
I love roller coasters. And this one is a GOOD one. You are definitely pulling G's at the end. I must be getting old though, because I felt sick afterward. My aging body can't handle that sort of whipping around and pressure anymore. Travis was whooping and hollering the whole time. I wondered if my brain was getting squeezed out my ears. I kind of wish I had bought the picture.
Abbey and my dad volunteered to stay back with the kids. We kind of figured that since half of them were old enough to not run off and the other half were strapped into strollers it should be OK. Abbey tells us later that a minute after we left, my dad announced that he was going to go get Dippin' Dots for the kids and just left. Which made Abbey solely in charge of 10 kids under the age of 10. What the heck, Dad?! She said she was handling it fine until about ten minutes after he left, she looks over and see's a baby in a stroller a little ways off and thinks it looks like Della. A closer look reveals that yep, it's Della! All by herself. Stranded by Grandpa. Fortunately, she was happy as a clam, and not stolen by a stranger.
The highlight for me is this beautiful scene of deep purple and powdered white. Aka, a boysenberry funnel cake. We got two for our family to share and were licking our plates afterward. Bless the boysenberry gods.
The rest of the family somehow managed to have room in their stomachs for a chicken dinner at the Knott's Berry Farm restaurant, but we just headed home.
But first,
a family picture under the water barrel!
The place where this marriage began.
Actually, I think he proposed somewhere off to the side of it, but it's where we took pictures right afterward. I guess they don't have water coming down from it anymore.
This day, 11 1/2 years ago was a stressful one. I have very strong memories of the phone calls I made after I got engaged and how hurt and sad I felt. I don't think I've ever written about the beginning of our marriage on this blog but I don't know that I want it recorded. Maybe it would be therapeutic, but reliving those first couple of years is painful and hard. It brings back anger and so much loneliness. So the fact that we returned to this spot so many years later under such drastically different circumstances is really nothing short of a miracle. It's ironic, for sure. But mostly a miracle. I guess I'll just say I'm grateful. For a husband that could forgive and for family that could change. My life is better right now than I could have ever dreamed or hoped it to be. I'm very very lucky.
Collin actually stayed with the group for dinner so that we could have room in our car for Jefferson. When they got back to the beach house, Collin claimed that he hadn't fallen asleep. He was ADAMANT that he hadn't. But we had proof otherwise! If you zoom in, there is actual drool on Lane's shirt, hahah!
Back to the Beach Divas.
One morning, the husbands were gone, either surfing or golfing, and us moms didn't want to just sit around. We enlisted the help of Grandma and Grandpa and went on a walk to Carlsbad for some breakfast! We saw the train pass by, got some good advice from a sign, and stuffed our faces in acai bowls and benedicts. Oh, and Tanner had a blow out. Lovely.
Mr. Landon!!! Oh, he is scrumptious! He got a balanced diet of sand and sea shells that week!
I had such great plans in mind for this flamingo! We were going to ride the waves on this pink bird! Then, Trav blew it up and it was actually the size of a child's toy. Waaaaa.
Andddd the kids popped the head before it even made it out of the beach house. Double waaaaa.
We got it blown up again just for some pictures. The kids thought it was a GRAND time. For about 30 minutes.
Jay's Gourmet Pizza on the beach on the last night.
Saturday morning I woke up and could feel something was off. My bottom lip was swollen and puffy. Who needs botox? Just get sunburned!
Then, as I was walking up the stairs with Tanner, my foot slipped on sand and with all my weight on that foot and my momentum already leaning forward I knew I was going down. I tried to hold Tanner's body close to me and just land on my arms and legs. I messed up my toe somehow and had some awesome bruises on my legs.
I also decided I needed just one more day of creme brûlée French Toast. Enough to share. ;)
Just in case we didn't eat enough. It's always Phil's to top you off before the drive home!
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