Ryan went to Augusta, Georgia to see the Masters and so I took the kids and headed for a fun vacation to California. Although it would have been so much better if Ryan was able to come with us, we still managed to have a little bit of fun!
I absolutely adore how much Emry loves her cousins. They are just darling together.
Ryan helped us get to the airport and checked in and everything since his flight was only a couple hours after ours on Tuesday. Thanks goodness too because I don't think I could have done it by myself... We boarded the plane only about 10 minutes late but then once everyone was on the plane, they had to fix a flat tire and so we sat on the plane for an hour before we even moved. With that and the 2 hour flight, I decided we could survive a longer flight than I thought. Wesley refused to take a nap but as soon as the plane started going fast, the sound of the engine put him right to sleep. He slept most of the ride and Emry played on the IPad with her big headphones. They both did incredibly well and I was so proud of them.
The first day and Grandma's house was very relaxed. Our cousins came over, we had dinner, and the kids played outside.
Wednesday we went over to Grandma Donna's house in the morning to visit. My mom and I went to get our toes done while Grandma Donna watched the kids. Emry took a little dip in the pool and then when Cameron and Cadence came, they played in the pool even more. That afternoon we went to the new trampoline place by my parent's house. It was a fun little place for the kids and we all had a blast there. After some dinner we played and then Cadence and Cameron stayed at Grandmas too for a "sleep over." Emry has loved doing sleep overs with her cousins. She just thinks they are the coolest things ever.
Thursday morning we got all ready for a day at the beach. I had heard of a place called "Mother's Beach" in Long Beach and so we went there to try it out. Let me say it was so much fun!! The beach is on right on the harbor kind of so there are no waves, plenty of sand, and a big play ground. It was perfect for our young kids. They played in the sand and a little bit in the water. I could have stayed there all day, we had a blast! Wesley was so funny in the sand. He loved it! He would pick it up and try to get the sand castles. He was too cute at the beach! I'm not sure we will ever go to another beach again until we have teenagers that want the waves. I loved it! After the beach, we came home and ate dinner. We had ice cream cones with Thrifty's ice cream for dessert. This was just my favorite day ever. I had so much fun and the kids did too. Perfect day!!
Friday was Cadence's birthday! We were supposed to go meet them for breakfast at Kelli's house but didn't quite make it fast enough so we just went to their house for a second and then hopped back in the car for a day in LA. We headed to the American Girl store for Cade's birthday. She got her first doll. It was fun walking around and reliving my childhood with all the AG stuff. I was so tempted to buy Emry her first little AG baby but I resisted and I think it's for the better. When she is older and can take care of it, we'll think about it again... After we were done shopping there we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory: YUM! I think all the excitement and no napping of vacation started to get to Emry because she threw a massive fit in the restaurant. That was fun... We decided to split the kids up on the way home so Emry would actually sleep in the car and it turned out to be a great idea because getting home we had horrible traffic. It took us 2 hours to get home. Thank goodness both Wesley and Emry slept almost the entire time. I was going a little crazy in that LA traffic but we survived!! After playing the rest of the day at Kelli's house, Emry wanted to sleep over at Cade's house so she had another sleep over. Those kids are just too fun!
Saturday we decided to go on a hike in the morning with everyone so we met Bri, Kelli, and the kids out in Brea area. Apparently the kids got up at like 5 AM so Emry was pretty whiny on the hike. I better get that girl toughened up a bit... After some rest on the way to Grandma Donna's house, we were ready for another day of swimming fun! We spent the afternoon in the pool, had a BBQ, talked, relaxed. Wesley loved the pool so much, it was adorable! Emry was doing so good with her floaties. She would swim all over the pool by herself. I was proud of how brave she was. After swimming the adults just hung out talking while the kids watched movies and played in the playroom. I couldn't help but think that Emry was seriously living a day of my childhood. I have such great memories of days just like this playing in Grandma's pool, eating lunch poolside, and playing in the play room while watching a movie. I'm so glad she gets to have those memories because they are some of my very best memories I have.
The second I put him in the car and handed him a cracker to tide him over before we could eat lunch, we was out. Cracker in hand and all. He cracked me up!!
Sunday we finally had a day where we could just stay home and be. It was a change of pace from all our other days that have been busy busy busy. After church, we had a fabulous family dinner and then everyone came over for dessert for Cadence's birthday. The cousins played and played while we just hung out and chatted. It was a great day.
Wesley was laughing so hard playing with this balloon. Such a happy boy!
Grandma shared her cheesecake and he was loving it!
Hanging with our favorite Uncle Scottie!!
We saved Disneyland for our last day there when the Whitaker cousins were back in school. I'm going to save that for its own post. We had a blast in California and we are already planning our next trip, this time with Ryan accompanying us!
