Best Vacation Ever!!!

Ok the BEST may be a bit presumptuous, I couldn't possibly know if it's the best vacation ever without reliving all the others but I'm pretty sure it ranks in the top 5. And no I'm not talking about camping. Camping was fun and being with my family was great but it was still camping and camping takes A LOT of work... California was much less work and a lot more relaxing.

So here's out it all played out (minus all the juicy details since I have lots and lots of laundry and housework to get to):

Wednesday: Arrived at about 11:15 pm - said hi to everyone and went to bed in probably the most comfortable bed in the world and that is not an over exaggeration.. it was amazing, the only that could have made this vacation better would have been more time spent in that heavenly bed.

Thursday: Originally we were going to go to Disneyland but after getting in so late and everyone being tired we decided to put it off one more day. So the highlight of Thursday was just hanging out building sand castles and playing in the ocean. Oh and Seth decided to try to sea kayak with his glasses on and surrendered them to the sea gods after a very graceful tumble. (He will argue that he didn't have them on but he had them before and not after so where else could they be?) So that resulted in a trip to Costco for new contacts so that he could enjoy Disneyland on Friday.

Friday: Disneyland from 8am 'til midnight!!! McKay's Favorite: Meeting the princesses. Kimball's Favorite: The Carousel. Seth's Favorite: Riding Dumbo and the Carousel with the girls. My Favorite: Watching the girls experience the happiest place on earth. And watching Seth and his two high school buddies push around strollers all day and carry babies in snugglies, so uncool by high school standards, we have a great picture of them looking like very nerdy dads!

Saturday: We went to the beach, got lost going to Target (just the girls) and put the kids to bed early to enjoy some quiet time (which ended up being just as loud as having the kids up but less annoying)

Sunday: Church at a gorgeous chapel over looking the ocean, clean up, pack, family pictures (thanks Viv!!), lunch, one bee sting and on the road.

I only have a few pictures because I forgot to charge my batteries before I left but guess what was waiting for me when I got home... My brand new camera (Seth earned it in a sales contest at work!!!!) As soon as I figure out how to use it I will have some great pics to post.

One of the houses

The small pool, the girls referred to the ocean as the "big pool"






They never need to go when we stop but in the middle of no where the can't posdsibly hold it for 5 more minutes




Oh the fun waiting to be had.......

Here and There

Ok so we just got back from camping on Monday and we leave for California tonight. So why in the world am I sitting at this blasted computer posting? Because I'm addicted.

So camping was great. Much better than the last experience. We went to Fools Hollow Lake right outside of Show Low. It was a family reunion for my side of the family. There were 11 adults, 17 kids and 2 dogs. Needless to say we ended up having more than one run in with the park ranger but made it all 4 days without getting kicked out. I was lazy and let all my siblings take the pictures so I will post more on that when I get them (probably in 6 months!)

Tonight we're headed to California for Seth's 10 year high school reunion. If you're thinking "wait a second, I thought Seth was from Utah" you're right. His high school reunion is in Utah this weekend but he and 4 of his close friends decided that instead of enduring the whole h.s. reunion scene they would take a little trip together. So we're going to the beach and disneyland. 5 couples and I think 10 kids. Should be fun.

So I guess I should get back to the laundry and packing and the crying baby.

Bargain Basement

I am so cheap. I never pay full price for clothes. I used to be so embarrassed by my mom and her cheap ways, now I get it. She had 5 kids, she had to be cheap. So I was at Target a week or so ago and they had their kid's t-shirts on sale for 2.96 or something like that, but I knew that sooner or later they would be even less so I passed. Well what usually happens is I don't make it back until they're all gone (which means I save even more money because I don't spend any at all!) Well I went to Walmart today (the cheap-erton's haven) and found shirts for $1!!! I know it's Walmart, which means they won't last all that long and I'm supporting that evil big box industry but hey they were a dollar!!! Plus, they're guaranteed to last longer than my kids can keep them stain-free.

Lovely Little Luc

Poor little Luc has two silly sisters. But the truth is I don't feel bad for him. See my brother was an only boy, with 4 sisters. People would always say "oh you poor thing, surrounded by all those girls." And I always thought "oh give me a break he loves it."

I'm sure he would have loved to have a brother, in fact when my youngest (and last) sister was born (in the pre-ultrasound days) my dad very calmly and probably with much sympathy (my dad is also an only son) told my brother that my mother had given birth to yet another sister he slapped my dad. Slapped him. I guess it wasn't the news he was looking for.

But I never heard him complain when he dated at least one of each of our friends and kissed half of my college roommates. He was surrounded by girls and as a teenager and young adult what more could a boy ask for.

So while Luc will have to endure the princesses and tea parties, I'm sure that sooner or later it will all be worth it.

The results of being "decorated" by his sisters

Hang'n out with dad

Committment

Each week I committ myself to updating my blog more often. I figure it can't be too hard to post once every couple of days. Heaven knows I look at everyone else's blog a couple times a day and silently curse them for not having a new post. So when I just opened my blog and saw that's its been a week I had to "regañar" myself. (Your assignment is to figure out the English translation for regañar because my brain isn't functioning properly and despite not speaking Spanish for weeks I can't think of it in English)

McKay turned 4 on Friday! I can't believe, one that she is already 4 and two that we have had two more children since then. She is such a sweet girl. She has her moments (meltdowns have been a bit of a struggle for her lately) but for the most part she is a sweet little angel. She loves to sing and dance and of course boss her little sister around and make her be the prince or king even though she always gets to be the princess... hopefully Luc will eventually get to play the prince and kimball can move up in the ranks. Anyway, Happy Birthday to our Baby!

Witty

It's only Monday so I don't have anything all that exciting to blog about but I had to post a couple pictures.

Maybe I'll think of something really cool to write about later (it usually comes to me while I'm cleaning) and then I'll have this whole thing going through my head all day and I'll be so excited because I'm so creative and witty but I'm cleaning or doing laundry so I won't have time right then but I'll do it in just a minute but then Luc will wake up so I'll have to feed him and then I'll see that my tomato plants are looking rather sad so I'll go water them and then I'll notice that the laundry I started is still sitting in the washer and so on and so on (ok and once or twice I will check my email and read other people's blogs) I might even sit down and work for a few minutes and all this time I will convince myself that I'll remember my witty blog idea because it will be really good and then finally at about 9 or 10 tonight I'll sit down at the computer to write about it and I wont' have the slightest clue what it was or why I thought I could remember it.

So since I'm already sitting here now, I'll just post some pictures and hope people think my kids are as cute as I think they are.

My perfect little angel baby!!!

Kimball doesn't always show her love real well, especially when Uncle Bj is being a little bit of a pest. Look at that glare! (from Kimball I mean, not Bj's head.)

McKay and her cousin T.Jay's cake after a little book throwing by Kimball in the car. Princesses and transformers...