California Trip

We drove to California a couple weeks ago. We drove a ton while there. It took us 2 days to drive to San Luis Obispo. The morning after we got there we drove 3.5 hours to Irvine. We spent the day here and then drove the 3.5 hours back to SLO. We stayed in SLO the next 2 days then drove about 5 hours to Sacramento. We stayed there for most of the next day then started driving home. We drove 5 hours that night then the remaining 8 or so the next day. So on our 8 day vacation we drove at least 5 hours on 6 of the days. With 4 little kids. While sick. We were very ready to be done driving when we got home. Why did we do all this driving? Doug was offered a job in both SLO and Irvine. We were really considering the jobs, but then decided we'd rather stay here by family than move away to somewhere with nicer weather.

Still happy on the first day of driving.

When we were in Irvine, Doug had to go see the office so the kids and I went to the Irvine Spectrum for lunch and some shopping. We ate and shopped at Target. Then we walked around outside. It was an almost perfect weather day, in my mind. It was warm and overcast. And even a little rainy. I love warm rain.

There is a place where water shoots out of the ground. The kids liked watching it and running around it.

We decided we should let the kids have fun while on the vacation, instead of just driving, eating, sleeping, and shopping so we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner. The kids loved going to a new on and doing the different things they could do there.

Jackson loved this ride. I remember loving one like it when I was young.

We stayed in the Pismo Lighthouse Suites in Pismo Beach by SLO. It was a nice hotel. We had 2 separate rooms and a little hallway in between the rooms where Kenzie slept. So we loved it. There was also a minigolf, badminton, giant chess and checkers, and ping pong. The kids and I spent a morning doing that stuff while Doug checked out the office in SLO.

We didn't actually play ping pong because we didn't have any quarters to buy a ball. Everything else was free.

Kenzie got in the way a lot when the boys were playing checkers. She wanted to move the pieces around and mess up their game. So I had to find something else to distract her.

This chair worked to distract her. She loved rocking in it.

After Doug got back from the office we went to see some monarch butterflies in Eucalyptus trees. There were tons of them. Jackson was looking at one on the ground in the picture above.

The butterflies. They're hard to see in the picture. But they are there.

That evening we walked down to the beach by our hotel.

Kenzie doing thumbs up with her pointer fingers :)

When Kenzie first took her crocs off on of the sand she said "icky." I don't think I'd ever heard her say that before. She says it kind of often now though.

Kenzie wasn't very happy when we were at the beach. She didn't like the cold, wet sand.

Jordan wanted to get in the picture with Jack and Doug.

The next day we went to see some elephant seals. This was one of our favorite things we did.

The beach was covered with them.

It was bright.

After the elephant seals we went on a nature hike to a cliff by the water.

I was surprised how brown everything was.

After the walk we went to Avila beach. It was really nice. The water was freezing, but the weather was perfect for sitting on a towel and building sand castles.

Jordan holding up a big rock.

Jack was the only one who wanted to play in the water. He loved dropping the boat in the water when the wave would come up. Then he'd follow the boat until it stopped in the sand. And he did it over and over again.

Jordan and I built this sandcastle. I had to make Mackenzie her own castles to knock down so she wouldn't knock Jordan's and mine down.

That night one of the guys Doug would have worked with if we moved to SLO showed us around the farmer's market. It's a big event there. We saw a musician (I don't remember what he played...), a juggler on a unicycle, the kids jumped in a bouncy house (pictured above), and there was lots of food. We got some yummy donuts, similar to ones in Seattle that we always get when we go to Pike's Place Market. Doug claims the SLO ones are better, but I thought they tasted the same. He thinks everything is better in Cali than here though.

Jumping.

In Sacramento we stayed at Doug's brother's house. Our boys love it there. They love playing with their cousin Avery. On Saturday we went to the park in the morning and a hike to a lake in the afternoon. This is Kenzie on the hike.

Avery, Jack, and Jordan.

Avery. She's a great poser for the camera.

Tyler and Avery.

We threw/skipped rocks in the lake.

Lila, Jordan, Kenzie, Jackson, Avery.