California!

We went to California for almost 2 weeks the beginning of this month. It was our best trip out! I hardly know where to start... I thought the flight out was going to be a disaster (as you would think below) but it wasn't!! Once we took off and got settled in our seats the kids were great!  

Jackson and Ivy didn't miss a beat getting reacquainted with their cousins. And we spent just about every day with them. Here, we were able to go to Jake, Hallee and Baylee's school carnival!

We spent lots and lots of time in the pool of course.

We were able to watch 3 of Jake's baseball games! His team made it all the way to the championship game! It was so fun watching him pitch and bat... he is was the cutest boy out there!

All the little rug-rats enjoying treats at Nate & |Dara's.

One of the days we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific with my mom and Jeff and Hannah. We took Baylee along with us as well. It was very neat, with lots of hands on things. Jackson will say his favorite part was petting the sharks but he also spent a lot of time with the jellyfish as well. I love how Baylee is posing in this picture and how Ivy way trying to copy her. 

Feeding the birds was a hit as well.

We were able to drive down to Fallbrook for a day to see my Grandma Gerry, my aunt Sue, my cousin Rachel and her darling little girl, Taylor. It was so nice to spend time with them and see my Grandma. This is one of the reason I wish we were just a little closer! So we could visit more often. 

I snuck out to a movie one night with these two lovebirds. I've never enjoyed being the 3rd wheel more!

We had a campout in my brother's backyard one of the nights. They set up their big screen and the kids watched a movie while they were in the pool. We set up tents and everyone stayed the night outside! Ivy and I were in a tent, Jackson, Baylee and Jake shared a tent, Nate, Dara and Hallee were together and Jeff and Hannah. It was pretty fun. The kids tent was a little lopsided and Charlie (Nate and Dara's dog) was sitting on Jackson's head at one point. Around 11:00 Ivy was yelling back and forth with Nate through the tent... so besides my kids being totally sleep deprived it was a total success!

We spent a day at the LA Zoo! And I think we picked the hottest day of our trip to go. But we enjoyed ourselves and seeing the animals and being with our family. 

The flight home had the potential to be a nightmare. It was completely full... overbooked even... so we were totally squished, but the kids were dreamy and did great! I need to stop stressing about these flights!!

I really can't say enough how nice this trip was. We stayed with my mom so we were able to spend a lot of time with her. We spent a few days swimming at my dads and visiting with him. They both almost always joined us over at Nate and Dara's where we were most of the time. It's so nice to see my kids get so attached so quickly and makes my heart hurt a little when they ask for Grandpa or Grandma or Uncle Nate. I just know we will make California a standing tradition each year so when they are older they will have fond memories of their summers in California visiting my family.

We were also able to visit with GG and Gramps while we were there. I took the kids over one day and then visited with them just by myself on Sunday afternoon. My grandpa had recently had a procedure done and wasn't in the best of spirits but by the time I came by on Sunday he seemed back to his old self again, which was really encouraging. I'm already looking forward to our next trip out!