California knows how to party

What I wrote before the trip:

Our world these past 12 days has been focused on one thing only: a trip to California. We decided to take our kids on their first bonafide vacation, and their excitement has nearly killed us all. We did do some things when we lived in Austin, but they were both too little to remember. So here we are, on the three-day countdown, and you would think they've been waiting years. I don't know what I'm going to use as bribery once this trip is over . . . "If you don't keep your room clean this week, we won't go to California" . . . "You can earn two quarters for your Legoland jar if you help me with the dishes" . . . "If you guys don't stop fighting, I'll take a dollar from your Legoland jar" . . . and so on.

And after:

We talk about California all the time. Because it was wonderful. And memorable. And a very much-needed vacation. On the drive home, I told Leif I just wanted to stay until I was ready to go home, and I definitely was not ready; I was sad.

So here it went:

You know how you have a leaving time in mind when you're taking a trip? Like, we will be on the road by 10 a.m. or people will be left behind dagnabbit! kind of thing? Well, I decided it would be funnest to pick Gavin up from school as a family, and bolt. So I made it a big deal and got the kids excited for this so that I would have to be seriously on the ball to make it happen. We were leaving over fall break and Wednesday was the last day of school that week. Well, I am happy to report that I was ready--it was super hard--and it really was a fun way to start the trip. When Gavin got out of school, he found his family standing by the van cheering for California.

 Leif did a job in Brian Head for some people who live in Murrieta who offered for us to stay with them. It was kind of funny because Leif had never met them in person, but they were good friends via phone calls, and the lady hugged us when we got there like we were family members. Murrieta was a six-hour drive from Hurricane, and we stopped once in Primm for food and to put pajamas on the kids.
It wasn't uncomfortable staying with Larry and Jeanne Cusack, and it turned out to be a blessing for them because their water heater broke the day we got there, and Leif saved them a ton of money by installing their new one for them. This also made me feel better about staying at their house.

So we went straight to bed that night--and by straight to bed, I mean that Dax fell asleep an hour before arrival so he was wired all night and we didn't sleep at all--and we had an entirely lazy morning Thursday. The kids watched real live TV, not Netflix! And they loved it. Leif went to a grocery store for some breakfast stuff, then we ate and got ready for the beach. We drove just under an hour to Oceanside and paid $8 for a full day of parking right on the beach complete with playground, restrooms, and a pier. Can't beat that. You would think the kids were swimming in ice cream and running through sugar, that's how happy they were. For hours and hours. Dax, my fearless daredevil, was surprisingly timid at the water's edge, for which I was grateful. It made it easier to watch him. The waves were a little too aggressive, I guess. I slopped together a bunch of pbj's for lunch, and Leif took Dax for a walk in the stroller so he would fall asleep.

Leif's brother Jed currently lives in Ontario, California, so we invited his family to come play with us. Jed was at school, of course, but Leona brought her kiddos. Although we had been there three (four?) hours already, my kids gained fresh staying-energy when their cousins showed up. (*I put my camera away when Leona got there because I figured I could just get her pictures off of her better camera. This is why I don't have pictures of cousins playing together. I should've just taken some!) We learned how to boogie board, dug in the sand, played tag with the waves, and hunted for any sign of sea life. Leona and kids stayed on the beach while Leif and I took our kids on the pier. Funniest thing happened--Dax's head got a little snap from a huge pelican. I was dying that I was holding my camera and missed capturing the moment.

*The bird sign reads: "Please stand back! We are wild brown pelicans. We bite stupid people.
*Dax's post-snap face. So funny. Maybe he's mad they called him stupid.

Well, it was inevitable--we got hungry. It was time to clean up and leave that blessed day behind. Clean-up took awhile because that uber-fine sand is nearly impossible to brush/wash off. We found a Denny's nearby and fed all the bellies, said a temporary good-bye to the cousins, and headed back to the Cusacks'. I had to "bathe" the kids in their swimming pool hot tub while Leif installed the new water heater, and I was shocked that I had to drag them out of the water for bedtime! Apparently, eight hours at the beach isn't enough for some people. Cute kids.

 

We had another pretty restless night of sleep with Dax (at least Gavin and Paige slept well the whole trip), and I got up to go for a run Friday morning. It was lovely but pretty short. . . . Breakfast, get ready . . . off to Legoland. We took it nice and slow most of the day because we were going back Saturday, so we didn't need to rush to fit it all in. Dax was tricky, of course. We took a bunch of snacks, but when we realized we were really hungry for lunch it was 3:10, and one of the park restaurants feeds kids for free after 4:00. If you've ever seen pricing on an amusement park menu you'll understand why we wanted to wait for this. So we ate all the snacks I had packed (jerky, string cheese, clementines, fruit snacks, crackers) and went to do a couple of rides before eating for real. For some reason I missed the memo on park closing times, and suddenly it's 5:00 and the park is closed. Huh? Crap. Good thing we were going back Saturday because we had a bunch of stuff yet to do.

It took us what seemed like a week to get food, but we were happy to stumble upon this pizza joint that had pretty awesome and unique pizza. We took it back to to hotel and gobbled it up--we were so hungry--then we visited the pool for a spell and went to bed. Oh yeah, we got a hotel for the last two nights. It was three miles from Legoland and only a few minutes from the beach. Hampton Inn. I chose it for its location and full breakfast. Dax slept better at the hotel, thank goodness. Saturday we were doing half beach day, half Legoland day, so off we went to find a good spot in Carlsbad. This second beach was not as fun, but it was fine for the amount of time we spent there. This beach was shorter and steeper than Oceanside, so the tide was unpredictable and strong at times, which meant Dax wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't love it because it made me nervous with Paige and even Gavin. They had to stay really close to me.

Leif got in some snorkel time by the rocky area and brought back a big starfish for the kids to see. There was a little family right next to us, and I heard the mom tell the older kid to practice his Chinese characters in the sand, so I bribed Gavin to go say Hi in Chinese. When he went over and said, "Ni-hao," the mom looked so surprised and looked over at me like, "Why would this little white boy know to come over and speak Chinese?" So we had a good conversation about our immersion programs in Utah and Arizona.

 

   

 We were only at the beach probably three hours this time, then we headed back to shower and take naps at the hotel. Leif took Gavin and Paige to the pool while Dax and I slept. We tried a different flavor of pizza for lunch, which was also delicious, then we donned our cheesy family Halloween t-shirts and headed back to Legoland. We had a lot more fun there the second day despite the insane amounts of people there for their Halloween bash. It's called Brick-or-Treat (Lego pieces are called bricks), and the kids got to wear their costumes and trick-or-treat at stations throughout the park. There were lots of fun decorations and characters. We didn't ride any real roller coasters the first day, but we found two Saturday, and the kids thought they were amazing. Legoland's rides are very kiddie-sized, which was great for my kids' ages. We will make it to Disneyland someday. . . .

We went through the park's (aquarium with about a half million other people, yuck, then we ate at the aquarium restaurant before going out to find more fun among the crowds. We ended the night by being on the last boat for the "Ghost Cruise." We were pretty much the last people out of the park. Fun.

 After breakfast and check-out Sunday morning, we headed south to San Diego to visit the Mormon Battalion and walk the grounds of the temple. Good Sunday activities; enjoyed both. Then we drove to Jed and Leona's for lunch/dinner. Jed made ribs. It was a yummy meal, and it was fun to stop by to let the kids play together again. Then we hit the road begrudgingly, reveling in the happiness of our first official family vacation. (When I was the driver I listened to the audiobook Flowers for Algernon.) We made it home about 1:00 a.m.

Paige loved the beach more than anything and asks to go back on a very regular basis. Gavin doesn't talk about it a lot anymore, but he informed me today he wants new Legos for Christmas (Ninjago, to be exact). I love, loved the beach so much, and I long to go back, too. It took me off-guard; I hadn't been to California in about 10 years, but I knew I loved the beach--it just surprised me how much I did not want to leave it.

We're hoping to make it a biennial, if not annual, trip.