California, Days 9-10

After breakfast with the Trepaniers, we had to make our long trek home.  We drove to St. George and stayed in the Titensor's vacation rental.  Some of us went swimming.  It was just Mal and me that went of our little clan.  Then we spent the evening cooking up the last of our camp meals we hadn't eaten and sharing them amonst each other.  Some of us watched the U of U basketball game.  Dad and I watched Pride and Prejudice.  It's one of my favorite movies, and it was nice to watch it just he and I.  We went to bed pretty late and enjoyed real beds instead of blow up mattresses and sleeping bags. (though, honestly, we have a really nice blow up mattress now and I didn't have much trouble sleeping as long as there were no trains or rain!)
We stopped at the petting zoo in Scipio on the way home and saw some ragged looking chickens and llamas.  We swapped kids between cars to keep them a little more entertained being able to be with their cousins.  Then we unpacked at home and crashed from our long fun 10 days in California!
This trip was so awesome!
It made me want to go to the California coast more often!  But I know part of what made it so fun was having other people there to help with the kids. And having all the company of family.

Nothin much for pictures this day. Just this cutie in the back seat.

Then with a diaper on her head to keep her head phones on her ears instead of her neck.

Laura.  Looking so weird looking back, because she's 32 weeks pregnant right now! 

Elliot and Nora in Grandma and Grandpa's car for a little change of scenery and company.

California, Days 7-8

Aw, man, this was such a fun trip.  It's so fun to reminisce writing this!

Anyway... Our camp was right on the beach, so we woke up and ate breakfast right there watching the waves and the sun come up.  Then we made a giant sand castle.  Everyone was in on it!  We even had a kelp king and queen to go in it.  It had a bridge and a mote and multiple levels.  The kids thought it was the best.  (Well, so did I.)

Breakfast on the beach!

The king and queen and flag on the castle

Then we packed up and headed to La Jolla in San Diego.  We met up with my aunt Lisa and cousin Noah.  La Jolla shores was such a great beach with the kids!  It's quite a long shallow beach, so the waves were really easy for them to play in.  I spent many many minutes just watching Malcolm play.  (He was once throwing sand globs into the ocean and insisting he was throwing "poo".  Ah, little boys...)  We boogie boarded over and over and over and tried a little surfing, which is just drowning hooked to a surf board.  We saw two old ladies that were like 65, wearing their adorable swim caps boogie boarding in the waves!  I saw Laura and I's future right there...  It was SOOOOO fun!  I'm a beach-a-holic.
We had sushi for dinner and then headed over to La Jolla coves to see the sea lions and walk along the rocks and the park there.  So gorgeous!
That night we set up camp in the dark again.  This time up on a bluff above the ocean.

The moon over the ocean when we got to camp was spectacular!  Here's a super crappy photo to show you. (ha)

The next morning, we packed up fairly early and headed to Sea World!  When we got there, Malcolm must have been so hungry. He was so cranky and didn't want to look at any of the animals.  So I force fed him jerky and fruit leather at the penguin exhibit so we could all have a more enjoyable time.  

We saw all the shows and rode a few rides.  My favorite is always the dog and cat show, which is silly because they're not even sea animals!  It had been years and years since I'd been to Sea World.  It was fun to see their new exhibits.  Including fish that will eat the dead skin off your hands.  Well, they'd do other people's.  I couldn't get any to feed off mine.  I think it was the mass amounts of sunscreen from applying it to not just myself but my children and husband.  

The day was wickedly hot!  We baked in the sun for a lot of shows, and sweated our brains out.  I would highly recommend a hat at Sea World.  It is miserable without one! 

That afternoon/evening we spent at the Trepanier's (Aunt Lisa I talked about earlier).  It was so fun to just hang out and chat with my aunt and uncle and cousins.  We slept that night on the floor on our blow up mattresses.  

In the skyride, type ride at SeaWorld.

malcolm rearranged all of these stuffed animals so they were all approrpiately grouped together.  It was hilarious!

The fish that eat off your hand skin

California Days 5-6

We woke early early to everything soaked and cold.  Then as soon as we were in cell service, my dad got a voicemail from our surf instructor telling us he was cancelling our lesson.  We called him, and apparently the health department does not recommend swimming, surfing, or playing in the ocean after the first rain after a long time of no rain.  The storm drains all get washed out to the ocean for the first time in weeks and people apparently get sick.  So we drudged back to camp where we were locked out of the campground.  Dad quickly guffawed at the tire deterrants and ran them over with his big thick jeep tires.  Then when we arrived at camp.... sure enough we hear "ssssssssssssssssss", and one of his tires is deflating.
After the kids had all gotten up and with no clean ocean to go to and a popped tire to get fixed, we headed over the hills inland to a city called Thousand Oaks to find something to do. (Laura later that day, "what's this place called again?  Plentiful Maples?" haha!)  We found a tire store, then a Walgreens for some forgotten items, and then a park to each lunch at.  After playing for a while in the park, we found a splash pad on the internet and headed there next.  The next park was really very nice, and it being a weekday and a school day we had it to ourselves.  We played frisbee, splashed a little bit, it was still pretty cold from the rainy weather, played on the equipment with the kids.  It was a very slow paced and relaxed day.  I still missed the beach, but we had a good day anyway.
We stopped by Taco Bell on the way home, and then we took the Mullholland highway back to camp.  It's the windingest road I've ever been on next to Lambard Street in San Francisco.  This was natural curves along the hillside, but they were hairpin and non stop.  It was a lovely view of the California hills though!

We wandered the tide pools again before dinner.  Then after dinner we had a family Lip Sync Battle.  Now we were the noisy ones in camp!  Luckily it was at like 7 pm and only for a short while.  It was so much fun!  So fun!  We set up a stage by the campfire, and took turns as families performing our somewhat prepared lip syncs.  It was hilarious!  Mom and Dad did Sonny and Cher's "I got you babe" with costumes and spoons for microphones.  Ry and I did a Nickel Creek song, "Hayloft" complete with air madolin and fiddle.  Then MiQuelle and Jordan did Katy Perry's "California Girls" and MiQuelle modeled her "bikini" (aka pink bra) over her sweatshirt.  I laughed so hard!  Then Laura soloed the Harry Potter spoofed "Uptown Funk" that is, "Darklord Funk". She wore a swim cap to make herself bald and had a "wand" from a stick.  We got it all on video, don't you worry!
Such good times!

Yeah, that's my dad out on a rock with my daughter in his arms.

We packed up camp quickly the next morning so we could catch a ferry to Catalina Island.  It was most of our first times going to Catalina.  It's a fun little spot with lots of history.  Elliot fell asleep in my arms on the ferry ride over, and Malcolm had fun with Denali and Grandpa exploring every nook and cranny of the boat.
After we arrived on the island, we at lunch at a diner breakfast place, because we knew the kids would eat pancakes. From there, we separated.  Dad, Laura, Jordan, Mom, and I headed to rent dive equipment from a dive shop, while Miquelle, Ryan, Andrew, and the kids set off to wander the island and find some entertainment for themselves.  I think it was a pretty boring day for them, honestly.  It was a nice sacrifice of the spouses to let the rest of us go diving.
The diving was quite cold, as it is in the pacific.  But the visibility was good, and the kelp forest was AMAZING! So cool.  We saw many varieties of fish, some random sunken things they put down there for fun, lobsters, starfish, and one really huge grouper who's been nick named charlie.  He hangs around for free handouts from the divers.  Mom didn't get to see it though, she ended up getting pushed by a wave into the handrail on the stairs going into the ocean and got a good gash in her head!
We had to tote these ridiculously heavy carts back and forth from the dive shop to the dive park entry area.  Laura and I shared the load of one and had a good laugh at how silly we felt heaving this heavy cart while waddling around in wet suits up to our waists.
We made it back just in time to catch our ferry ride home.  We even caught a shower from a public shower house.  It was fun!  Once back on the mainland, we stopped at McDonalds, because it was close.  We drove on to our next camp where we set up in the dark and then hit the hay.  This camp was right on the beach and we could listen to the waves roll in as we slept.  That is, until the commuter train across the street rumbled by.  We had been told about a Tsunami warning when we arrived.  The risk was quite low, they'd told us, so I felt completely comfortable bedding down for the night literally yards from the ocean.  But when that train came by I was sure we were dead.  I woke from deep deep sleep to this raging noise and I was sure my family and I were about to die a terrible death drowning zipped into a tent!

Just wait... it gets better...

Mom's head!

My 'rents are so cute.