General Conference + Oceanside

 We have never taken our kids to General Conference and it was finally time! Now that Tanner is 8 we can all go in the Conference Center! We can't go in April because of Easter pageant so we knew it would have to be October. We put in our request with the stake right after last conference and we were given several options of tickets. We picked Sunday morning because that worked out best with our schedule. Collin and Weston missed the last day of school before Fall break and we headed out Friday morning. I was laughing at all the family names I saw on the trip! I didn't get my camera out in time for Abbey Inn or one other I can't remember now. 

We were in a hurry to get to St. George before it closed so the kids could do baptisms. The temple wasn't open on Saturday so that's why we left Friday. I can't say it enough... its such a gorgeous temple!!! We walked through the visitor's center and did the Families are Forever exhibit. They used to have it in the Mesa visitor's center before the remodel and it's a favorite. Old fashioned but gives you all the feels. 

Tanner and I hung out in the temple foyer and outside while we waited. 

Cubby's for dinner and Nielsen's custard for dessert was perfect. I love these people so much.

We spent the night in St. George then loaded back into the car and drove 3 hours to Spanish Fork, listening to the first session of general conference. The plan was to spend the afternoon at a big pumpkin farm, Cornbellys. But it was raining cats and dogs! Boo. So we stopped at the cheapest place we could think of for lunch... Costco.

Not going to lie, Costco pizza hits the spot. And Collin educated us on the beauty of their cafe chocolate chip cookies... um yum! Dip those in their vanilla soft serve and you got yourself a stinkin good dessert!

It was still raining, so to pass the time I would tell the kids the first person to spot a Christmas decoration in someone's cart gets a dollar. That didn't take long so then I said socks. And kept changing it til everyone had a few dollas. I Spy for teenagers. 

Well, the rain was really pouring out of the heavens and we didn't know what to do. The weather app made it seem like it might blow over. So we drove the 15 min. to Cornbellys and it was closed! Wahh. I didn't want to give up and drive into Salt Lake so we parked on the side of the road and listened to the afternoon session of conference in the rain. Right as it ended, the rain did too! Cornbellys wasn't going to open for another hour but I realized we were close to another pumpkin farm and I called and they were open! Wahoo! It was called Gordos and it was small so I thought the kids would pooh pooh on it, but it actually ended up being so fun. There was hardly anybody there and plenty to keep us busy. 

They had a little bike powered rollercoaster that was hilarious! Collin was too big but all the other kids took turns. 

We walked around, feeding the animals, playing the games and who knew kids loved sitting on tractors so  much?! The weather was magical. A crisp, clean feeling in the air and perfect temperature. This was the fall I remember falling in love with at BYU with gorgeous mountains in the distance. It honestly felt like heaven. 

The corn pit was fun! And this picture will forever make me laugh. Like, why does Weston look like he's 500lbs?? It was unintentional and not even a wide angle picture. We died laughing. The kids did races in the corn and buried themselves and played with the cars. I love when little kid activities amuse everyone.

Then we listened to the first hour of the evening session of conference while driving to Salt Lake to eat at the Red Iguana! (Say it in a growly voice haha)

So glad I had made a reservation. Everyone was a fan of what they got. This place never disappoints! Then we unloaded at our hotel and drove to another Nielsens. When in Rome, right?! 

Sunday morning we got up early and decided to walk to the Conference Center since it was only a mile and that way we could avoid traffic and parking. It was a good move. We needed those steps with all the food we'd been eating! Your tickets only put you into a certain section but they aren't specific seats so the earlier you are there, the better, to get closer. We were in an upper balcony and sat 3 rows back. Not too bad. We had just found out Bron was there too with Steel and Ivy so we met up to say hi and then went to lunch afterward at Mozz. 

The boys didn't have the best attitude about this going into it, but afterward they said it was better than they expected and were glad we did it. Yay. I love this family picture! It was interesting to see how fragile Pres. Holland and Eyring were with their wheelchairs. And at the time we didn't realize we were seeing the last conference talk President Holland would ever give. He "sang" Amazing Grace at the end and it was so so special. 

It was a different conference in that we didn't have a prophet at the time. Pres. Nelson had died at age 101 on Sept. 27. A new prophet had not been sustained yet. It was kind of a bummer. 

We drove to Las Vegas after lunch and it's always cool to see the strip as you're coming in. Especially now with the Sphere. We stopped at Tacos El Gordo for dinner and waited an hour in line. What a racket. I'd never do that again. Or I guess we should have just gotten the adobada because that line wasn't as bad. The carne asada line was ridiculous. 

The kids had never seen Vegas or the strip so we went slightly out of our way to drive down it. All the lights and hotels are pretty spectacular. I made sure to tell them that Satan likes to dazzle but all this glamour is just ugly regret in the morning. ;)

Unloaded to the third hotel. Oy. All this loading and unloading was getting old. At least they had a solid continental breakfast we could load up on before the last leg of our journey.

It took us foreeeeever to get to Oceanside. It's only supposed to be 5 hours but it took us 7. Travis was trying to avoid toll roads and we hit bad traffic too. After 10 hours in the car the previous two days, I was crawling out of my skin. But I did get a lot of blogging done so at least there's that. 

I had made a large grocery pick up order that we pulled into Walmart to get first. 

It's been at least 3 years since we've been to California and this sight brought back all the happy memories!

Travis's family has been coming to North Coast Village for many years over fall break but we've never been able to. Karen was pretty persistent this time so we figured, why not? 

We got unloaded and the kids ran down to the beach for a couple hours. 

Fish tacos at the harbor is a favorite tradition. If only our kids would get onboard. I think Olive was the only one who got fish and the boys all got corn dogs or chicken fingers.

I was stuffed and needed to get Tanner to bed but everyone else walked into town for ice cream. I love the bond that Livy and Olive have.

Weston LOVES to fish so we thought it would be a fun treat for him to get to fish in the ocean. Travis orchestrated all of it and invited anyone who wanted to go. So they all headed out Tuesday morning for their fishing adventure! I got a picture as I started my run. Why is running on the coast so enjoyable?! I love it. 

The weather was too cold all week for my liking, so I sat on the beach in a sweatshirt and sweatpants mostly. Never got in the water. The nieces and sisters in law tried to convince me but that was a hard no. Reading in the sun was still lovely though. 

They were out there for like 4 hours and everyone caught some fish!! They paid to have it filleted and we ate it for dinner a couple nights and it was sooo good! The most tender fish I've ever had. Good job, boys!

We saw their boat as they were coming back to the harbor.

Skim boarding was the activity of choice for these boys all week! They also boogie boarded, but the road rash from that seemed to drive them to skim boarding more.

Sanchos Tacos for dinner was yummy.

And when you can't decide what flavor to get at Handels, just get a 4 pack sampler!

One morning on my run, I stopped at Buccaneers to get my favorite acai bowl! It was good, but turns out, now that I have TruBowl in my backyard, I like that one better!

Travis and I snuck away to Harney sushi one night for dinner. They changed the name from Miso Harney to just Harney since we last came! Haha!

Since we had just come to Knott's Berry Farm in July, I wasn't thrilled to be back but it's the cheapest theme park and everyone else was going. It was better weather and not as crowded so it ended up being fine. Everyone bought the food package so we were all timing our snacks and meals together to maximize the cost. I didn't ride much but I did do the Silver Bullet and the water log ride.  

It was all decked out for Halloween and they had trick or treating stations in the morning.

Everyone went on a mild rollercoaster together and I ended up next to Carrie. The difference in space between our knees and the front of the ride was comical.

We got dinner at Pizza Port and while the parking was like Carvana, I would go back here again. Sooo good. 

On this morning run I came back with Parlor Doughnuts. Although, I'm sad to say they were not great. What happened?! I used to think their cronuts were amazing. Totally subpar now.

Last day on the beach, soaking it in! Tanner doesn't have any cousins his age, but Dimitri made him into a scorpion which he loved. Then as a finishing touch he added two rocks for eyes and Tanner looked down and said matter of factly, "Oh, boobs". I DIED. He was so embarrassed and tried to act like he hadn't said it. Still laughing about it.

Saturday morning we packed up to go and stopped at Primo Market on our way out. These burritos cannot be beat. Best decision and enough food to last us for two meals. 

I'm so glad we got to do this trip. The first half was really fun being just our family. We don't do that enough. I love the ages our kids are at. I feel like we're at the best sweet spot and I'm not taking it for granted. It was nice to be back at the beach and get to spend time with cousins. It's Liam's last hurrah before his mission and the boys loved being with him. I'm feeling so so grateful for the memories we made this week.