California Vacation Day 1

 We decided to change things up a bit this year and go on our first Clark Family- family vacation! We have always only gone to AZ or ID and back- to visit family, but felt we needed to get out and PLAY- and see some other places. So, after not much debate from the kids, we booked our hotel and destination- Southern California! My parents met us there, driving from Idaho to Vegas to Cali.

We woke up early Monday morning and drove to Carlsbad, California. Our first stop was getting gas, which just happened to be where the navy seals were gassing up their trucks and boats. Their truck were HUGE and they let us take a picture by one...

Then we met my parents who were on their way into town at Taco Bell for lunch before hitting Lego Land. We were very excited!

Can you find Halli?

 Luckily, Halli was able to ride quite a few rides seeing as she was 34 inches tall. (Not all, but some.) Tyli could ride most, except for the ones with water and roller coasters because of her broken arm. The boys could ride everything!

Like I said- Tyli couldn't ride some of the rides because of her arm so when we went on a roller coaster which she and Halli couldn't ride (Halli was much too short!), Grandpa Ruth took the girls over to get their faces painted.

Thanks Grandpa!

Mom, you are looking a little sunburned- even though it was mostly overcast! Just waiting in line- something we did most of the day. Good thing my kids are patient!

I'm pretty sure this was Halli's favorite ride! She kept saying "I go up, I go dowm. I go up, I go dowm." (down)

The kids all earned their drivers liscences- except Halli- she was too little. 

McKade did have a small issue with road rage after someone cut him off. Pretty funny! He threw his hands up in the air like "what do you think you're doing!?!" We all laughed at him.

The boys favorite display- Harry Potter.

This is only a small fraction of the pictures we took. I'm having a hard time loading the others. Anyways, we headed out and to dinner before going back to the hotel and crashing for the night- everyone was exhausted!

California Vacation Day 2!!!

Day 2 of our adventure had the girls and I up early. Cauley and I got us dressed and after discovering the boys and Mom and dad were still sleeping, headed down for breakfast. After eating, we walked a block from our hotel to the ocean. It was a big bluff with not much sand to walk on, but hey, it was still pretty cool! We found a few shells before heading back to join the others. Once we were all ready we went shopping at the Carlsbad Outlet Mall. After a quick lunch, we all headed back to Lego Land where we started off the day at the Sea Life Aquarium. It was fun, but I don't know if it's worth the $ to go again.

We were excited to be going back!

Halli in front of the Japanese Spider Crabs. They are HUGE!! Their bodies (you can't tell in this picture at all!) are the size of basketballs. McKade took one look at them and RAN!

In the tunnel with sharks, eels, rays, and other fish I can't remember.

 We finished the aquarium and headed back into Lego Land. We hit a few rides we had missed the day before...

and met a few people we hadn't yet seen...

before we headed over to the water park. It was HOT- mostly muggy. The humidity didn't bother me at all compared to what I thought it would! Since Ty couldn't go to the water park, Grandma stayed out with her. McKade took off running once we were ready to go play and biffed it badly- scraping up his knee and legs, his face, and taking a good chunk out of his hand. Good thing I had packed water-proof/seal band aids in the first aid kit I brought with us that day! He still was miserable, but was able to enjoy himself a little. Halli sure had fun, as did Grandpa and Dallin who rode all the slides together. We finished the water park and went and got Grandma and Tyli who had ridden a few more rides and played a while in Duplo Land.

Then we headed down the street to Costco for a pizza and some diapers for Halli. At the end of eating, Halli, who was sitting next to me on the bench, fell off backwards, landing on her head. Luckily, it didn't split it open when she hit the concrete. She also landed funny on her arm/hand which worried us. She was super tired and wanted nothing but to go to sleep- which scared me. In the end, she was fine- just a HUGE goose egg on the back of her head. We decided to hurry back to the hotel where we grabbed jackets and then walked down to the beach. We took a few pics before heading down the bluff to the water.

This one really captured the fog. It was pretty foggy most of the days, especially at night.

This one makes me laugh SO hard. It was really dark and you couldn't see what you were taking a picture of, but my dad still tried. He didn't quite capture the whole family though. You can see Cauley's chin and McKade's shoulder!

 We took off our shoes and walked out just a bit. The boys still had their swimsuits on, but us girls didn't. The waves got us pretty soaked a few times. The water was so cold!!!

trying to walk up the slippery rocks to find a dry spot to put our shoes back on.

 After we got back to the hotel, we gave Halli her warm bath we promised her after conking her head. Then we had her lay on a bag of ice.

California Vacation Day 3!

Day 3 of our vacation had us up early and headed South to San Diego. First stop, Old Town San Diego. Nothing was opened yet and so we sat around and waited for quite a while. We sat, and sat and sat...

Hahaha! Sorry Dad. I HAD to put this one on!

Once thins opened, we made our way around to a few of the buildings. In the print shop I got a job as the type-setter person, as it was one of the only jobs women would be able to have back then. I learned that everything has a place and that I can't read the print they wanted me to set. Haha! Dallin was "hired" as the person to work the printing machine. It was really neat. He got to actually work the oldest butterfly print press in the west! He inked it up and then put it to the paper.

 After we went here we walked around a bit before deciding to head up a block to the Mormon Battalion place. (sorry- can't remember what it's really called.) I cannot tell you how amazing this was! Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. I won't ruin it for those who haven't been there yet, but it was semi-interactive. They start by telling a small portion about the LDS Church, leading into the exodus west, which leads into the Mormon Battalion and their journey and purpose. It was really neat! Dallin got picked to go up front in our group to put on the issued "clothing" that each man got from the government. (For those who don't know, the government didn't have enough clothing to outfit the battalion, so most received a $41 clothing allowance which was sent back to their pioneer families to help with the costs of crossing the plains.) The gear Dallin is wearing, everyone received, including the riffle, which they got to keep once they were mustered out.

 After the presentation, the kids got to mine for gold and work a water pump.

 When we were done, we headed down the street to a very yummy, very authentic Mexican restraunt! Seriously, so good!!!

After lunch it was time... Time to head over to Coronado Island to go play at the beach!!! This was my first time playing at the beach, and I can't tell you how fun it was! My mom said her favorite memory of the trip was jumping in the waves with me- which was my favorite too! We laughed so hard! The water was cold, but that didn't stop Halli. Good thing Grandpa kept a tight hold on her! (the riptide kept trying to take her out, and she was happy to let it!) Dallin had a blast on the boogie board! Cauley loved body surfing. McKade didn't enjoy it as much as his hand and scraped knee from the day before hurt in the salt water, but if you ask him now, he LOVED the boogie board! Tyli didn't get to play in the ocean as much because of her broken arm, but she played a lot in the sand and made friends with some kids...surprise, surprise! I really loved just standing in the ocean and letting the water hit me. My mom and I got brave (I am a chicken around water!) and went out far enough that the waves were bigger than us, and we jumped them...most of the time. We played and played and wore ourselves out before calling it a day.

Grandpa keeping Halli up with the boys playing nearby. Can you see Cauley's head out to your right?

One of my favorite pics of mom and dad!

Learning to ride the waves

Looking at the giant ship coming out of the mist. (upper left corner)

Poor girl. This is her set-up for the beach. Sand would have been a nightmare in that cast so we bought some sweat bands which I took 1 and stuffed it part way into the top of her cast and then folded over her cast. The other one went over the top of the first one. Then on went the bags which we taped to her skin with athletic tape. (2 thick bags.) She truly did stay completely dry and sand free! (even after getting covered in a few giant waves!)

California Vacation Day 4

Day 4 of our vacation was very laid back! We slept in a little bit and get ready to check out. We said our goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa and they headed back toward Las Vegas and we headed back to San Diego. It was rainy off and on so we skipped the temple and went to Seaport Village. First we walked around the harbor area and looked at the different ships and boats. Cauley really wanted to take a tour, but we didn't.

After looking at the ships, we headed over to Seaport Village where we looked through the shops and ended up eating a picnic lunch of all the leftover snacks from our trip before heading home.

This is the pirate ship that was part of the harbor tour. Pretty pricey, but looked like fun!

We drove to Yuma, AZ where we stopped for dinner at Golden Corral. (My kids LOVE buffets!!) This is a picture of Dallin's ingenuity where he covered his ice cream cone with chocolate before filling it up. What a mess! The kids were SO happy that they could choose cotton candy as a dessert! After eating, we headed back to home, with a few bathroom stops. Just outside of Yuma, however, we saw the beginnings of the big dust storm. We drove right into it, and with our luck, it wasn't too bad. We then drove into the big rainstorm that followed it. By changing directions from freeways and roads to get home, we were either in the dust storm or rain the entire way to our house. (about 3 hours of driving.) We finally made it home, exhausted and happy around 10:00 that night!