California Day 3 - Church and Family Pics

Sunday was a beautiful and relaxing day. We found a nearby church and headed over for sacrament meeting. Of course we walked in and sat down without realizing it was a Spanish ward, but at least we tried. We ate at KFC for lunch then headed back to the condo for nap time. I spent the entire afternoon getting everyone ready for family pictures. I found a photographer through a friend of mine and she was kind enough to do pictures for us on the beach. We took them at Crystal Pier near La Jolla. It was half way between us. It was crazy busy bc of Labor Day, but she was amazing and was able to photoshop them all out of the pictures. I am completely in LOVE with the pics. She did an amazing job! After pictures we headed back to the condo where the Bloxhams met up with us (Javier has been staying with them in LA since we flew in). It was fun to hang out with them for the evening and order the biggest pizza I've ever seen!

California Day 2 - Beach

Of our entire 12 day vacation, this day was my favorite. It was absolutely perfect in every way. We all slept in, then Brayden and I walked down to Subway to get breakfast sandwiches. After we ate we headed out to Walmart to buy food for the weekend and anything else we needed. After lunch we put Brielle and Britney down for a nap and took the other 3 kids to the beach. Our video monitor reached the edge of the beach so we were able to spend 2 hrs playing with the older kids. It was so much fun to focus on the older ones and just play with them. We played in the water, threw the football, built sand castles, Josh and I laid out!!! and didn't have to be watching a baby!!! It was great! It gave me hope that in a few more years we will be able to really start enjoying life with the kids without the stress of entertaining a baby and a toddler. Anyway, I went and woke up the girls and brought them out and we played for another couple of hours. It couldn't have gone any better. After we all cleaned up we went for a walk down the street and loved seeing the ocean and everything going on. Because it's Labor Day weekend there were a bunch of parties on the beach and it was fun to hear the music. We ordered pizza (and street tacos for Josh), played at the park while we waited, ate dinner, and crashed for the evening. Such a perfect day!

California Day 1 - Travel Day

Yay!!! Our trip finally came! We have been planning this trip for 9 months so the kids were more than ready to head out! We got to the airport in the evening and wow it's a lot of stuff to bring for our family...car seats, strollers, luggage, and of course the kids. Luckily the older kids are able to help this go around and Javier came with us as well and was a huge help. At the airport we hung out while we waited for our plane. The plane ride went pretty well. The 3 older kids just watched their iPads the whole time while Josh entertained Brielle and I took charge of Britney. The last half hour was rough, but we made it! We got to LAX at 9pm their time, which was 10pm our time. It was late and the kids were tired, but excited to be on vacation! We quickly found our car shuttle and headed to Hertz. I lucked out and got a great deal on a minivan through the better rated company so we were glad we didn't have the lines of the cheaper places. However, they didn't have a van ready for us so we ended up with a Nissan Armada. It took me 25 minutes to get all our luggage and car seats in, but we managed to do it. I was a little bummed we didn't have a van, but we fell in love with the Armada and are convinced that we will upgrade to one of those very very soon. After we loaded up we set out for the 2 1/2 hr drive to San Diego. The kids slept the whole way and Josh and I had a relaxing drive. We made it to our condo at 12:45am (1:45 our time). We got the kids situated and had a great night's sleep!