After Christmas!

The morning after Christmas, we packed up our teeny tiny car (hopefully our last family trip in it!) and headed off to California! We went to stay with Ben's sister, Emily, in Mission Viejo. She's moving in a week or two so we're glad that we could go see her before she did. We haven't seen her since before Kade was born and the kids love their Auntie Em! We also got to meet her boyfriend, Don (aka Donald Duck as my kids would say). They were so nice to put up with us! We went to the beach to play a lot and even got to see dolphins! It was the first time that I had actually seen them in the ocean-I was so excited! Emily & Don also watched Skylar & Nick so that Ben, Kade, & I could go to the Wyland Studio so I could drool over the beautiful artwork. I'm definitely gonna have to save my pennies so I can buy something there someday but for now I'm happy with the calendar I got.

This is Ben & I right before we were hit with a wave-notice it's under us!

The Tongs were also down in California so that Spencer could hook up with some of his old surfing buddies. On Saturday we met them at Balboa Island to hang out. The kids were so stoked because we actually got to take our car on a ferry to cross over to the island. At Balboa we went on the merry-go-round and ate lunch. I also found my little dream cottage (where I will someday house that Wyland statue I want). I'm pretty sure the price tag is at least 10 mil but one can dream, eh?

Afterwards we headed to Newport so we could go to the beach. We got to watch Spencer surf-someday I will join him but not in freezing water! The kids didn't seem to mind the water though. They plunged right in and had such a blast! Kade even ditched his wet pants & ran around in his diaper as happy as could be! And the best part-we got to see more dolphins! Yeah!!!

We decided to beat the New Year's drunks and head home on Sunday. We were so sad to go, especially me. We had so much fun and Emily & Don were so great to have us there! I love California and the beach like crazy! It ended up being wise for us to leave because Kade started coughing and Nick had a fever the whole drive home. I guess freezing cold ocean water + bad parenting = sick kids. Ha ha. We stopped off in St. George on the way home to visit Lisa and her family. They made us some yummy dinner and offered for us to stay, which I wish we could have, but we decided to get the kids home to their own beds and not spread our germs any further! The only storm we hit the whole trip was on the way home around Fillmore, which set us back a bit. We finally made it home at 2 am!!
So New Years Eve we were exhausted beyond belief and Nick & Kade were still sick. The kids were also so ready to just chill and actually get a chance to play with their Christmas gifts-as was Ben. We let Nick & Skylar stay up until 10 to watch the ball drop in NY. They were so excited to ring in the New Year! For Christmas Ben got me Super Mario All Stars for the Super Nintendo-so old school but so much fun! Ben & I stayed up and played original Super Mario Bros. & Ben kicked my butt. He almost won the entire game but we decided to turn it off to ring in the New Year ourselves. Regardless of the picture of drunken-style Ben we remained totally non-intoxicated! It wasn't the most exciting New Years we've had but it was nice to have the time to relax after our vacation because it seems that is often hard to do. Anyway, Happy New Years Everyone!!