We took a two week trip to California in August. We decided to make the journey via car, 16 hours driving over two days. Some new things discovered on the car ride including this new, huge Terrible's gas station outside of Vegas:
After two days in the car, the kids were thrilled to see the ocean
San Clemente Pier
All fun and games until...
Someone gets knocked out by a wave!
One day we took an excursion to San Diego
Kids dipping candles:
Hanging out in Old Town San Diego
Riding the trolley
Waterfront Park
Kids did not like this statute as much as Auntie Amanda
Back in San Clemente, Jack found a wedding ring one morning. His hopes were high that it would be worth a lot of money.
This is the look of sheer disappointment as we found out it was a stainless steel ring, worth less than $20
Thankfully there was fishing to raise his spirits again. Nothing like grossing out your sister by removing a hook:
18 fish caught in one night!
Happy boy!
Another day we met up with friends at Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach
After the kids were thoroughly bored of the playground, we took them to the beach
And after the beach, we had more swimming at the pool!
Another night on the pier
Our friends from Switzerland were visiting San Clemente at the same time, so we got to spend a few days with them:
Even my aunt Kristi came and joined us at the beach:
And my parents...
So much fun, it was exhausting!
Plenty of time for boogie boarding
And playing in the sand:
After we left San Clemente, we headed to Brea to visit with some long-time family friends:
Then we headed to Mema's 80th, "Mema Day" party. Totally 80s themed Luke:
And more swimming
The next morning we all had brunch at Goofy's kitchen:
After Goofy's kitchen, we went back to Jeff's for one last swim session. It was here that we had our closest drowning encounter. At some point after this photo was taken, Josie decided to take off her life vest that she had always worn for the last two weeks, and jump in the spa. All the adults were sitting just feet away, but no one noticed her jump in. Thank God I looked at just the right time, and saw the empty life vest on the side of the spa, and Josie in the middle. If it had been seconds later, it would have been a different story, but thankfully I grabbed her before she had aspirated any water. It was days before my heart finally calmed down.
After California, we headed out to Vegas and stopped (again) at the huge Terribles gas station
Kids always love visiting new hotels
Dinner with the cousins:
Family:
On our way home to Colorado, we hit 200,000 miles on my car! Such a great car!
