Legoland Day 5

We had to hit Legoland first before any other attraction.  The boys love their Legos.  I am okay with them liking Legos because there are much worse things you could like doing.  You can get pretty creative with Legos and being at Legoland proved that.  I am amazed at what they can make out of Legos. 

This was my attempt to get a selfie of all of us at the entrance.  1st one we are missing Elijah.  Second one missing Sadie. Third one we got everyone but the sign.  

A Ninjago ride that I couldn't handle.  

The next few pictures are of a place in my old stomping grounds while serving a mission.  It would be fun to show the kids the real life casinos in Vegas. 

The kids built their own boats to float down the river.

Josiah was so good to ride the airplane with Elijah.  Elijah loved it.

These two are the braver ones of us and rode this roller coaster.  

This is the best picture ever.

The knight

Everyone got to drive their own cars.  I think Elijah did better than anyone at this.  The thought of either of them driving at this point is scary. 

In the evening we hit the beach again with Nathan this time.  

Sadie and Nathan getting their feet buried in the sand.  

Day 4

First thing Monday morning Nathan biked off to work.  The huge downside of coming along on a work assignment is that Nathan wouldn't get to spend much time with us.  However, on the upside we would get to see him every night.  I went grocery shopping before the kids woke up.  Our mainstay for breakfast the first week was pancakes to keep things simple.   I was so sick of pancakes and still can't seem to make them again.  I set up a deal with the teachers.  The kids to brought homework along so they wouldn't be too far behind in school.   This didn't go over well with one child but he sorta of tolerated it.  Most mornings they had to work on homework before we played.  The rest of our Monday was spent in a pool and on the beach.  Yep, we had it so rough!  

Elijah was quite proud of his ability to go under water for certain amounts of time.  

                                          

Josiah and his fortress.  This sand is so fine and nothing like we have on our beaches in the Puget Sound.  It was fun to play in.  

A live sand dollar that he put back.

Day 3

On Sunday we packed back up and headed to church.  We were astounded at how many youth were in this ward.  There were 10 priest age boys who sang a song in sacrament meeting.  Looking around in the congregation there were tons of young women age girls.  

Then we headed the rest of the way to SD.  I loved the excitement in the car as we saw more and more palm trees. 

Then an actual sign that said SD which means we had to be close right?  The site of the ocean is what really got the kids going and wanting to be there.  I loved hearing them talk and get ecstatic.  

This was Nathan's office for the two weeks.  The ship that is.

The view going across the bridge to Coronado.

We headed straight to the place we were to stay but a key wasn't left for us.  Luckily Nathan had all contact numbers and come to find out that place had some major plumbing issues.  It looked like a mess all around the apartment complex.  However, they had an alternate place set up for us.  We were glad the other place didn't work out even though it would have been fine too.  

This condo had so many mirrors all over the walls.  It started to make me feel self conscious.  I already know I need to lose weight but didn't need reminded of it every time I looked around.  Ha Ha! 

This place was amazing and we were even more spoiled with beach access and 4 pools.  This place didn't cost any more than what the original one would have.  We just happened to be lucky.  

We couldn't resist going down to the beach to check things out before retiring for the night.  Our condo building is in the back ground.  

Day 1 and 2 of trip

There was so much excitement from everyone as we headed out on the first stretch of our San Diego trip.  

Then we ran into this on I-5 outside of Tacoma.  Bleh!  I really don't like the freeway in this area.  This traffic set us back about an hour. 

We saw some beautiful sun set changes along they way.  

The goal was to drive all night long if we could handle it.  We attempted to sleep in the car at a rest area for a couple of hours.  What a joke!  There was constant movement from the back of the van or some slight arguments of someone touching the next person.  Luckily Nathan was able to sleep some while I was driving so he took over the wheel again.  It didn't take long for the kids to go out once the car was in motion again.  We probably won't try this idea ever again.  

We made it to a Denny's near San Francisco about 6:30 am.  Isn't this a comforting sign.  While we were eating Josiah was determined that he and Nathan should go make sure our van was okay.  It was.  Jarom wasn't feeling good at this point because of car sickness so his breakfast went untouched. 

We thought we were going to go across the Golden Gate bridge but we laughed as we saw it off in the distance but instead crossed this cool bridge.   It would have been nice to go over it but I think we just wanted to get out of the car for a while and didn't care to back track.  

We stopped in Palo Alto to visit some good friends.  The Bingham's have three of their children who have or will have heart transplants.  They are an amazing family and it was humbling to me to be with them in their circumstances.  I really enjoyed our visit with them.  You can read their story here.   There is a link to their blog that is updated. 

We continued on our journey in the afternoon and found a motel with a pool in the early evening.  We played and then crashed for the night.  

The Suprise

Well we pulled off one of the best surprises, so far, for our boys.  Nathan will get sent to different places to work at times.  Recently he was asked to be in San Diego for a two week stint.  It didn't take us long to decide that all of us should go on this one, especially since it wasn't going to be long and he doesn't seem to travel as much anymore.  The original dates were after school let out however, dates tend to change and this time they got moved up.  We hadn't said anything to the kids at this point and planned to keep it mum especially since they would end up missing two weeks of school.  Sadie ended up needing to know so she could make up work beforehand if possible since it would effect her more than anyone.  I love that she is so good at keeping confidences/secrets  If Josiah had known he was going, his teacher wouldn't have gotten any work out of him before we departed.  He is so done with school right now. There were many times we  (Sadie and I) almost let the cat out of the bag but the boys somehow never caught on. As time got closer I was getting so excited to let the boys know.  May 20 finally came and I had us all packed up and ready to go once the kids got out of school for the day.    We were gathered in our family room and started to discuss what we were going to do that night.  Josiah and Jarom came up with a few ideas but this video tells all.  Sadie was our video guru.   It was fun to reveal the secret.   I don't think Josiah was convinced till he saw palm trees the next day.  If you watch you may want to make it big to see facial expressions.  After it was revealed both Josiah and Jarom were thinking back at accidental comments that were made about the trip.  For instance when I said to Nathan as Josiah was sitting at the table "how am I am going to find my way around in California when we go (no GPS or smartphone)".  Josiah's head jerked up and I realized what I had just said.   Nathan saved me on that one by saying he was going (which was true).   Then Sadie said at dinner one night "I am going to miss so much school work when we are gone." Neither boy paid attention to that comment and Sadie had no clue what she had said while in their presence till I mentioned it later.   I reminded the boys continuously that they will want to save their lawn mowing money and not spend it now.  Anyway it was a fun to keep it a surprise for them.  

Sadie's friends and teachers felt sorry for her that we were driving down but it wasn't too bad.