California

As with many of my posts, I end up with way too many pictures. But this trip needs to be documented and we had such a great time that I just didn't know which pictures to leave out! Alyson and I took the girls to California. We had planned to go the previous week but Alyson's Grandma passed away so we changed our plans. We left Saturday afternoon after the funeral and drove straight through. We got to Lawni's at about 2:00am. The girls did great on the drive and the time went quickly. We had a very busy, but very fun week! We took advantage of the pools in Lawni's neighborhood, we went to the Urvine Spectrum, we went to the beach a few times, had a birthday party for Taeya, and just played and played! We were sad when the week was over and we had to come home. Here is the log of our trip: 

Brielle has twin cousins that have given her several hand me downs, so Taeya and Brielle got to be "twinners" all week!  This was Sunday right before church.

Poor Lawni had extra laundry to do when we left because I'm pretty sure Taeya never really wore her own clothes, and as you can see in this photo, they added a few extra layers to be silly.

Twinner jammies - we only let the kids sleep all together in the playroom two different nights.  We figure that way they go to sleep better and don't wake each other up in the morning!

At the Irvine Spectrum - Bryce was in heaven on the train, all the girls enjoyed it too! (Notice everyones matching braid?)

Can you spot the girls? We spent way too much time in Old Navy as always!

Kira, Brynn, Brielle, Taeya, Bryce, Alayna, and Anastyn - enjoying the fountain.

Silly glasses!

On the Merry-go-round.

On the giant ferris wheel - we let Brynn supervise this one to save a few bucks! (the kids were seat-belted in)

Twinners again - these two sillies carried around these dogs the whole time!

Tuesday was spent at the splash pad right across from Lawni's house - so amazing!

This is the life - eating PB & J's poolside!

Kira, Taeya, Brynn, and Brielle - first ones in the pool after the potty break.

Apparently it was a little chilly for Anastyn.

We got smart and showered all of the kids at the pool shower before heading home.  Saved us so much time and so much water at Lawni's house!

Kira, Anastyn, Bryce, Brynn, Brielle, and Taeya - when we first got to the beach Lawni commented on how high the waves were - I didn't think anything of it cause I don't have that much experience at the beach.  We set our things down and the girls quickly ran into the water.  Not a minute later a giant wave was headed for the girls.  It was truely a baywatch seen next, Lawni dropped her gear and started running for the girls at the same time as the life guard was running for them also.  They each scooped up a Taeya and a Brielle and got them safely to shore!  It was quite an exciting few minutes.  We ended up going further down the beach where the waves were quite as big and we had a great time!

Alayna, Kira, Brynn, Brielle, Taeya, Anastyn, Bryce and Cade - the whole gang! So cute!

Brielle, Taeya, and Anastyn

"Look at me do the splits mom!"

Lawni - the gracious host.

Cute little Caders.

The view of our beach for the day.

The next day we went to this fun place called "Pretend City." It was adorable, had a doctors office, grocery store, library, cafe, garden, house, mailboxes, a stage, the list goes on and on.  We could have stayed for several more hours.  Anastyn was enjoying the bed in the pretend house.

Taeya was making us lunch in the cafe.

There was even an arts and crafts room where the girls painted pictures.

We probably spent most of our time in the pretend grocery store.  I was the helper who kept putting the groceries away.

Anastyn was the customer while Taeya was the cashier.

Taeya and Brielle in the pretend doctors office. 

Happy Birthday Taeya - how many lucky girls from Utah get to be at the beach for their birthday??  We stopped first at the Doheny Beach but after we got situated and the girls played in the water for a few minutes we decided it was way too rocky so we packed up and drove to another beach.  The girls had fun pretending to ride the rental bikes.

Taeya was so funny - this whole trip and she kept asking for my camera and she would take pictures of EVERYTHING just to she could "remember" it all.  Silly girl.

This is the surprise birthday cake the girls made for Taeya.

I made a sad castle with the girls - this is the only kind I know how to make.

They just couldn't wait to destroy it - I had to get a picture of the castle first!

After the beach we went to a pool in Lawni's neighborhood just to get de-sanded and shower the girls:)  Then it was home and jammies for presents and cake and ice cream.

I don't know if it was the elevation, or the humidity or what but my chocolated whipped cream cake did not turn out as good as usual!  No one seemed to mind.  It still tasted good.

Brielle, Taeya, Kira, Anastyn, Bryce and Brynn

Happy 7th Birthday Taeya!

On Friday morning we went for one last swim then got packed up and ready to go - we thought it would be fun to let Taeya's balloons go. 

There was not quite enough helium left - they were slow to launch!

Taeya was good and didn't even cry when we left - we were all sad to go home.  We planned to drive straight through and get home at around 2:00am, but traffic was AWEFUL! So about 8 hours later we finally made it to mesquite and stayed the night there.  What a fun vacation.