California!

We returned last week from a wonderful trip to California! We had such a wonderful time staying with my sister Laura and her family and going to the beach, Disneyland, seeing old friends and family, and then ending up for the last couple days in Las Vegas. The only tragedy of the whole trip was that on the very first day I had taken out my camera - we were at the beach - and it suddenly stopped working after taking only a couple pictures! Some type of lens error - I don't know - but it's probably dead. So we had a fabulous trip but hardly any pictures of it! I was / am so sad, but what can you do? Luckily my sister has a few pictures and we might be able to get more later - but for now I have very few pictures to post.

So I want to do a kind of run-down of our trip if for nothing else so that we remember it well!

We stayed a night on the way there in Mesquite to break up the trip - its actually really not far from our house in Santaquin to my sister's in Yucaipa - only like 8 hours! We're gonna have to go more often! But we got a late start on Friday so didn't want to drive all night.

We arrived at their house Saturday afternoon and were so excited - my uncle David and his wife Blythe and their new little boy were there that night also and we all had a great time watching basketball, eating, and just visiting!

Sunday after church my cousin Bob and his wife Tiffany came over and hung out with us all that night which is always fun - they are a blast as always!

So Monday morning we headed along with Laura and her kids to Newport Beach - not really sure how it would be since it had been cloudy and rainy all weekend. But it was crazy - almost as soon as we got to Newport the clouds just stopped and it was sunny! It wasn't extremely warm but it was perfectly beautiful and comfortable! The coolest thing was that we had the whole beach to ourselves! There was practically no one else to be seen the whole day. It was such a fun time for my boys (including Spencer) to experience the beach. Tanner had an absolute blast playing with his cousin Max and just exploring! At one point Tanner yelled out randomly "I LOVE THIS PLACE." I was like wow. Benjamin on the other hand struggled, as he did much of the trip. He's going through a difficult time lately where he wants to be able to run and play with his brother and cousin and do everything he see's them do, but obviously he can't so well. So we have lots of tantrums and screaming fits. But hopefully he still enjoyed himself. So anyway, it was a fantastic beach day and SO beautiful.

Did I mention how beautiful Southern California is this time of year? Driving out to the Shirley's house is awesome since its a little farther from the big city - its just green rolling hills. So green. So beautiful. I think Spencer was really surprised - it wasn't quite what he expected! (It was his first time to California.)

Tuesday and Wednesday were our Disneyland days! We had such a blast. Tanner especially. He was in absolute heaven. Spencer also loved it - so much so that he was like - we need to come here at least every other year! I was very surprised how much they loved it actually - I guess the Magic of Disneyland really got them! But yet again, Benjamin struggled a lot. Ok he was actually a disaster at times. I think it was just too much for him and yet again he wanted to walk and didn't like lines, and he was fine on rides but just expressionless. There was no way I could tell what he thought. He did like "It's a Small World," and also surprisingly toon town since he could walk around and explore there more. He also really liked meeting Mickey which made me happy!

My one picture I took with my phone camera!

My one mistake with Tanner was taking him on Space Mountain for his first ever roller coaster ride. He was so brave going up to it, but afterwards I think he was just a bit scared and it was a bit fast for him since you can't see where you're going. I was sorry I did that but he really wanted to. . . . He really loved Thunder Mountain though so that's good.

Anyway so Disneyland was a great fun time with the Shirley's. Now we'll just have to go back someday and hopefully Benjamin will like it more.

Thursday we were able to go up to Santa Monica beach and meet up with our old friends the Forsyth's whom we hadn't seen since before Tanner was born! It was so great to see them again now with each of us with two kids each. After meeting on the beach we went up to the Promenade - a way cool place in Santa Monica and had dinner. Kind of a crazy place to be actually with kids - but it was really cool. After that we followed them up the road to see the Los Angeles Temple and walk around it with all our kids and everything. I tell you what, that temple is HUGE and beautiful! It was so crazy to be right in the city and then all of sudden you see that temple - its just awesome. We were so happy to go there with them and see and visit with them again! Great friends.

Friday morning we had to sadly say our goodbye's to the Shirley's who were so nice to put up with us all week and head to Las Vegas. We met my parents as well as my brothers Nate and Trevor and his girlfriend Nicole there and hung out for a few days. We went to a MWC basketball tournament game there - BYU's of course - but it was not so great. Our kids were exhausted - in fact they both slept through the whole game which is not like them - and I now have a huge dislike for UNLV and much of their fanbase and will never go to a tournament game there again. We'll just leave it at that. But we did enjoy our time there going on some fun hikes out at Red Rock and just hanging out at our hotel. We stayed in Henderson actually and did pretty much everything around there - we didn't even go to the strip so it was kind of nice! We even had our first experience at Buffalo Wild Wings much to Trevor and Nicole's delight which was actually pretty good.

We headed home Sunday which was kind of awful since it was daylight savings - so we lost 2 hours that day! It took us a while to recover but it was all worth it! It was a great trip filled with some great family memories. That's what's it all about - new experiences and great memories!