A Little Somethin' Somethin', California Style

Where to begin?!? I think about writing an update at some point everyday and you can see how well that has gone. I've noticed that it seems to be a trend too -- blog posting seems to have lost it's appeal or something.  I am not quite sure how I had time before but I feel strong promptings to recommit to writing on a regular basis. This is my only form of a journal (I know, shame on me) so I need to do it even if I am the only one who ever reads it.

I guess I will begin catching up with our biggest event. The last week in September, we flew with the kids to San Diego, California. We left Thursday night. My thinking was that the little kids would sleep on the flight and make it easy on Josh and I. It seemed to work out great! When you have a lot of little kids you get to cut in line at the airport and get lots of special attention. Emmett absolutely LOVED taking off and giggled and clapped his little heart out! It is one of my very favorite memories from the trip! Josh and I were able to sit together with the kids in the row behind us. It was a perfect arrangement. When we arrived in San Diego a little before midnight and the kids were rested up and excited. I had reserved two cars, as some people wanted a convertible to drive in and I had a hard time finding a vehicle to seat eight. But, much to our dismay, I happened to book with a really unprofessional, though well known (cough, ahem DOLLAR, cough), car rental company. And even though I had called from DIA to make sure they had our reservation and were going to pick us up, they never came. There were many other rental company shuttles there picking up customers but I didn't want to make a snap decision and really, really, really, didn't want to have two cars to deal with the whole time in a strange land. So after a $70 shuttle ride to the hotel, we settled in our hotel. As if dealing with our stranded-ness wasn't fun enough, my little children were WIRED and had no interest in sleeping. (Note to self: In the future, schedule flights AFTER naptime and not near bedtime! No sleeping on planes allowed!)

Eventually, everyone fell asleep and Josh got a large van rented for us to get around in.

 

(I didn't take a picture of all of our bags -- but I should have. Eight people need a mountainous amount of stuff. We only had two checked bags so there was a lot to get on and off of the plane.)

 

 

 

Beautiful California sky. We didn't see a single cloud for the first four days.

 

Coronado Bay

 

A North Dakota friend recommended we visit there and we are sure glad we did! It was absolutely lovely and we really enjoyed walking around and being tourists. We noticed that everyone seems happy in California! Maybe it's all the sunshine and salt water!

 

Really fabulous pizzeria we ate at. The owner and staff were wonderful with all of the kids and treated us really well! This was a breath of fresh air, considering the restaurant next door did NOT treat our large family well and we didn't end up eating there. They were completely snotty! It's too bad too, because Josh is a really generous tipper.

After our deliciously gluttonous meal, we headed to a store to buy sand toys and boogie boards!

My family seriously, seriously loves the beach. I would like to love it but rather find it quite stressful, actually, trying to keep track of everyone. (And keep sand out of my camera.) But I do love watching them have fun!!!

 

 

(Getting a decent picture of Brooklyn is like trying to photograph a... simile is not forthcoming. She's super fast. That's what I mean.)

Lexi is such a tremendous help. I don't know if we could have taken all of the littles anywhere safely without her along. We wondered if people thought she was the nanny since she looks sooo much older than the rest of the kids. She kept Emmett from being swept away in the ocean. The water was cold and active and he absolutely loved it! It was a little bit scary but cute at the same time.

 

 

We left just as the sun was setting over the ocean but I didn't get a picture on my big camera. I have yet to upload pics from my phone. As we drove along the highway headed back north, we turned a corner and saw this -- The San Diego temple! It took my breath away! It is unbelievably gorgeous! It's like something out of a fairytale and all my children want to be married there now!

 

The sky was much darker in real life and the sight was even more dramatic than these pictures. I am sad to admit that Josh and I didn't have the opportunity to visit the inside because it happened to be closed. Sad.

(More to come...)