The girls are off track, Chris was going to be out of town for 6 days so I declared it the perfect time to go visit my parents in sunny California! Let me tell you how excited we were leading up to the big moment. I was a little nervous about driving so long with the girls by myself but didn't let that stop us from going. I decided to stop for the night in St. George to break up the drive and visit my sisters. Woohoo what a great time! We got to St. George with no problems and we were all happy to see the family. We ate dinner at Bajio (LOVE!) and then played at a fun park by Martsi's house until dark. Then swimming at Tiff's pool until way too late but hey, who cares :)? Ava slept on the floor next to my bed for the first time in her life without a crib or porta crib. She did great! She's following the same growth pattern as Bella and is super tall so she has out grown the porta crib. We woke up bright and early and were off to Cali. This drive was shorter than I thought it would be but very stressful at the tail end of it. My phone has a navigation system that will talk to me. This would be the first time I have used it. Everything was fine and dandy until it told me to go on a toll road. I have never been on a toll road. I merged onto the road not realizing my mistake. I guess you have to carry cash or buy a pass of some sort if you want to use them. I didn't have either. I was freaking out and it was too late to take another route. Besides that, I had no idea where to go besides where the navigator lady was telling me! So, on the road I travelled without paying and I kept thinking I would have a policeman behind me any second. I was so relieved to hear when we would finally merge onto a normal freeway. Navigator lady got me right to my parents door step and we hadn't called my mom to tell her we were almost there. We walked into their complex without knowing their house number. Luckily for me, my mom had already put out a fall decoration so I spotted their house immediately. The girls rang the doorbell and screams and hugs broke out when my mom answered the door. What a great reunion. My Dad pulled up about an hour later and the sheer joy and excitement on Ava's face was priceless to see. Such happiness!
The first thing we wanted to do was walk down to the beach. They live in a gorgeous part of Laguna that is so lush with flowers and greenery and just a short walk down the street lands you in a park with a lookout to the ocean. Absolutely beautiful. A short walk past that lands you on the beach. We used to have a life long family tradition of going to Newport Beach every summer. Sadly, this has stopped for the last 3 years due to the expense. I was so ready to see my girls at the beach! It was late afternoon when we went for the walk and I didn't even think to put on swimsuits.... What was I thinking?
Fully in the water the minute they saw it! If you look close, you can see Ava who had fallen down and was being hammered by the waves. I got this shot which is kind of blurry because I ran to rescue her. These waves are not like Newport waves. They are SO powerful and knocked us down plenty of times. The day after this shot, we were all in the water, my mom included. We thought we'd get brave and try to go deeper. I was holding Ava. All of the sudden this enormous wave comes and takes us all out. Poor Ava was sucked under me, under water and I could not get my footing. It was a site to behold. The beach is like this private cove so it never gets crowded except this day happened to have three families there and when we were able to get on our feet, we noticed the three Dad's all sitting at the edge of the water playing with their kids in the sand. They were all witness to us being rolled around in the water. It was VERY embarrassing. We came out of the water looking like drowned rats with enough sand all over us to make a sand castle!
Here we are at the lookout point. Such an amazing view!
Bronson came to the beach with us this day. Um, why didn't we have someone else take this picture so he could be in it? Chelcie met us back at the house with their cute dogs, Boo-Boo and Abby. It was so great to be able to spend time with Bronson and Chelcie. The girls absolutely adore these two. On Sunday after conference, we went to their house for a BBQ. The last night in Cali, we went to their beach for a bon fire. Very cool to be sitting on the beach in front of a fire. We roasted hot dogs and smores. I'm not sure why I didn't bring my camera.
Have you ever seen one of these? They are called sand crabs. Every year growing up on our Newport vacation, I would dig for hours to find these and collect them. The girls did the same thing! They would get so excited to find different sizes so they would have a whole family. Aren't they just creepy?
Ava on one of her many trips to the ocean to wash off her sandy hands. This child was in heaven.
Look Mom, my hands are clean :)
Just our luck, it decided to rain for 3 days while we were there. My Dad had been there for a couple months and had barely seen a cloud. We took the girls to the Long Beach Aquarium to give them something to do. Have you ever been? It was so much fun. They have touch pools where you can touch sting ray, sharks, starfish, and other sea urchins. We spent hours exploring.
Ava had a slight obsession with the hand sanitizer, I had to get a shot of it :)
When we walked out of the Aquarium, we were so happy to feel the sun shining down on us. We raced home to put suits on and head to the beach for a few hours.
A little fact about Bella you may not know... She is a toy car fanatic. She will play for hours, parking them and driving them around on the carpet. It really is so cute. I love that at almost 9 years old she hasn't gotten tired of it. I told each of the girls to pack a bag with things to entertain themselves. She brought 10 cars and that's all :) This afternoon, she wanted to bring one car to the beach and make a land for it in the sand. Very creative.
Mya and Ava with the family of Sand Crabs. Our last day at the beach was awesome. There was a baby seal that would come play in the waves just a few yards away from the shore. It was so cute to see him ride the waves and then surface to look around for a second. He would then dive back in and do it all over again. We also saw a ton of dolphins. They stuck around for a long time just playing around. Mya was so excited. She wanted to tell someone about them so she found this guy walking on the beach with his dog and told him the whole story of the seal and dolphins. She is my social butterfly and is not shy one little bit. Bella would rather die than have to talk to or approach a stranger.
Ava was out cold as soon as I put her on the couch with her three "Blah's" In case you don't know what that is, it's her blanket's. These were a baby gift when Mya was born from Jody Young. With three girls you re use many clothes and blankets. Ava latched onto these blankets and will not part with them. The original two have been ripped several times. I take them to Britt to sew but the last few times, they were not fixable. My mom made her a new "Blah" while we were visiting. It is the hot pink one with brown edging. It is taking her a while to love "new Blah" as she calls it. Thanks to my mom for still being my go to person for crafts and projects even though she lives in Cali :) We had one other project for her while we were there. Bella had a school assignment to dress this peice of paper shaped as a person in a Halloween Costume. My mom created the cutest clown in the world. Bella is thrilled.
We had the time of our lives on our grand adventure to visit my parents. We love them so much and are so grateful for all they do for us! I told them to be ready for lots of visits from The Morley family. Next time, we have to have Chris with us. He was miserable and lonely at home without us. Poor guy. His out of town job got pushed back a couple weeks the day he was suppose to leave. It left him home for 9 days without his family.
Thanks to my parents for an unforgettable trip! Memories to last a lifetime!
