Our story of California

When Austin went out to sea I decided to head to California where the sun shines a lotttt more!  And because I have family there that I love being with and spending time with. Although I miss my Husband terribly much this is a great time for the kids to spend with their Grandparents and for Mommy to get a little break!!  I am so happy this will be the last time he is out at sea.  He has 3 years left in the Navy on shore duty and then he should be pretty close to finishing up his RN.  I am so excited to see what God has planned for us!!  It's a little scary not knowing, but trusting in God to lead us in our lives is definitely an adventure.  Okay well back to the California adventure!  My sister and I started driving on May 19 from Bremerton, WA.  Desiree rode with Theresa in her car and Ricky was with me for the first 2 hours.  Then we stopped at McDonald's to get lunch and Ricky was screaming as I yanked him away from the play structure.  I think he mostly did not want to go back in his carseat (I didn't tell him he still had 12 hours left in it).  The kids fell asleep pretty quickly after that and about 3 hours later my wonderful parents flew into Eugene to help us drive the rest of the way.  We stopped in Ashland, OR at the La Quinta Inn that night.  I usually stay there on the trip down to Cali because I know they're clean and they allow dogs so poor Lucy isn't stuck in the car all night.  She can stretch her legs out with the rest of us!  The trip the next day went really smooth.  The kids did so great in the car.  So we got to Santa Rosa on a Tuesday and on Thursday we began driving to San Diego.  Another 10 hour drive!!  Fortunately we stopped in San Luis Obispo to stay at my brother Greg's house.  Which broke the trip up in half.  We were also in my parents truck and camper so the kids were able to get out of their carseats every once in a while to play in the camper which helped a lot.  My brother, Kenny, graduated from San Diego State on that Sunday.  It was a lot of fun having all the family there to recognize his achievements!

   We stayed in a condo right on the beach from Friday until Tuesday morning.  It was so much fun watching the kids play at the beach.  The boardwalk was right out the front door so there was a bustle of people and lots of shops!  

  

  

Although Desiree loved playing in the sand she did not like getting sand on her so she insisted on wearing these goggles while playing on the beach and as you can see Ricky on the other hand could care less where sand ended up on him!

                                          

After Tuesday we moved from the condo to a house that was a little more private but still had an awesome view of the ocean.  We spent the rest of the week there with my Mom's family and collected seashells and played volleyball.

At the end of the week Ricky took a wipeout while riding on a skateboard with his cousin.  He is one tough cookie though because he didn't cry once and 30 minutes later he was outside trying to climb on the skateboard again.  Fortunately no one had any broken bones!

He healed up really fast.  The scab was gone in 4 days and you can't even tell anymore that anything happened!

Well, that pretty much concludes the San Diego trip.  It was so much fun spending time in the sun and being with family and friends!

We drove back to Santa Rosa on June 1 and will be driving back to WA on June 30.  The kids love going to the park and Ricky screams and cries every time he has to come inside the house.  He just loves being outside. 

The kids love playing with their cousins, which are twins right in between their ages!

 

  We took a trip to Sacramento and Carson City for 3 days.  That was fun.  Desiree got to ride a horse. 

 

Ricky loved playing video games with his cousin.

And the kids went to their first baseball game.  

We got to see my GG (great-grandma) which Desiree has a really special connection with.  She will just sit there and hold her hand and sing songs to her.  It was a really sweet moment.

Well that's about it for our trip up to this point.  We have had a lot of fun being in California but will be ready to come home to Washington when the time comes!