California Dreamin

We just rolled into town from our School's out, summer kick-off spectacular! I am beat. We decided to go to California right after the kids got out of school to celebrate another school year in the books. The kids got home around 12:30 p.m. and we got ready to head out. I got home early from work and got the car all packed while Rachel was at school helping with the kids and all the last day of school stuff. The kids got home and were going nuts. I remember the last day of school and how excited I was. I still get very excited for the last day of school because I love hanging with the kids and watching movies and swimming late. Summers rule! The kids brought home their yearbooks and I was able to look through them. It is cool that they have year books at this age. I don't think that I got my first year book until high school. We got everyone loaded into the car and then began our journey. We have everything we needed and did not have to turn around and go get something we forgot. Rachel is so good at getting a list of everything that we need. If it were up to me we would have to turn back to the house 20 times until we had everything that we needed and then we would still forget something. Rachel has made an art out of travelling.

The trip went smoothly. The engine light came on because one of the spark plugs is fouled, but as long as I babied the car it ran well. We got to the outlets in Cabazon and parked for our usual stop. I got Rachel a new Coach bag that was so cute and so in season! (I am pretty sure that I am utterly METRO!) We also went to the Quicksilver store and loaded up on cool clothes as my kids call them. I would rather take them to the NIKE store or to the Polo store, but that is simply not cool. I am pretty sure that I did not start to care about clothes or brands until I was in high school. Of course, there were no Tilly's stores when I was a kid so maybe that is why. The outlet trip took over an hour and that actually worked out for the best since we missed most of the traffic. I am convinced that there is never a really good time to travel into Los Angeles, but we made pretty good time. It was great to see Danny again and to be in Camarillo. It was 65 degrees when we got there and we were all freezing. It felt wonderful, but we were all still freezing. We hung out and watched Iron Man and then headed to bed.

When I woke up in the morning I thought that maybe we could go and hit Six Flags again. The kids had no idea and they were totally excited to go again. This time we would be taking Sophia so I was not sure how she would do. We travelled the 40 minutes to Six Flags and got right into the park. We brought our cans of Coke so that we could get half off. Half off ended up being $27.50 per person! Better than $54 per person. The kids ran for the big roller coasters. I don't know how they are so fearless, but they are. We went to Goliath first. This thing is a monster. Aubrie and Boston were big enough to ride it, but Ethan and Sophia had to watch. Rachel and I would take turns with the kids and then do a parent pass and jump to the front of the line when the other got off. We had a blast. We ended up staying at the park for 7 hours and were beat by the time we hit the parking lot. Sophia was able to do a lot of the little rides and Ethan also had a great time. Aubrie and Boston made it up the rock wall won a prize. Ethan also won a stuffed bear playing a boardwalk game against Sophia. I was the biggest loser. I tried to win at the claw game. They had a nintendo ds and psp in these boxes and the crane simply could not pull it up and lift it over the edge. I am sure there was some camera somehwere in the park pointed at me and people were laughing at the loser who was trying to win at the claw game. I am addicted to those things. I am the master of the claw machines at WalMart, but no match for the claw machine at Six Flags. We ate a bunch of junk food because that is all that was available! One of the funniest things that happened at the park was that I caught a lizard and then Danny fashioned a leash out of a plant and we walked the lizard around the park. People stopped and stared and asked if that was real. Do they think we brought a mechanical lizard into the park? It was pretty funny and we got a great laugh out of that. We finally headed for our car. On the shuttle bus trip ethan let go of his bear and it fell off the side of the shuttle. He started to scream and cry. When the shuttle came to the next stop I got off and ran to get his bear. The bear survived without harm and Ethan was very grateful. We spent the next 5 minutes looking for our car. Nobody paid attention to where we had parked and so we had to walk around like morons looking for their car. I felt like sun city grandpa at WalMart. We finally found the car and headed home. We watched Kung Fu Panda and then headed off to bed.

The next morning we woke up and had a lazy morning. I think I actually woke up around 9:00 a.m. It was awesome! We got up and had breakfast and then headed to the beach. We usually go to Ventuar Harbor and go to the beach and shops there. It was very windy which made it cold. It also made for a nice sandblasting. The sand was whiping around pretty good and we only managed to stay for an hour. The kids still had a great time playing in the sand and looking for crabs. Tyler helped Aubrie and Boston find some crabs that they brought back and tried to put on Danny. After the beach we headed over to our favorite fish taco place there at the pier. We all ate a great meal and then headed to the toy store there, where the kids had fun looking at the prank toys. They decided on a socker pen, so beware if they offer their pen to you! We then headed back to the house. That night we had some Baja Fresh and Subway. Luckily for us they were right next to each other and we only had to make one stop to make everyone happy. We got back to the house and swam and hung out.

The next morning we decided to go down to Santa Monica and to the famous pier. The drive down was not bad until we got close to Santa Monica. The traffic was terrible since it was Memorial Day Weekend. We ended up paying $20 to park at some hotel and then headed down to the pier. We first got something to eat and then headed down to the beach. I think the kids had a great time. The beach was very crowded and we stayed out there for 40 minutes while the kids ran around and had a good time. Ethan loves to dig in the sand and build castles, but everyone kept running through his work and he was not having it. Boston was tired of the beach and wanted to go up to the boardwalk to play games. Sophia kept talking about the carousel non-stop. We headed up to the boardwalk and walked around. There are always lots of interesting characters around there and the street performers were out doing there thing. We walked over by the games and Sophia and Aubrie had a contest. Aubrie won a pillow and gave it to Sophia. Boston spotted the bottles that you knock down with a bean bag and said that he really wanted to do it. I paid for him to do it and he knocked on bottle over. I told him good job, but I think that he was embarrased that he only knocked down one. We walked to the end of the pier and found one of the picture machines. We crammed all of the kids into it and had their picture taken. It kind of turned out, but it was pretty washed out. We almost got everyone in the picture. It was the memories that matter most.

crowded beach

sophia loving the water

boston trying to make the most out of things

aubrie not so sure about the mango

We got back to the car and then headed back to Danny's. When we got there we had a BBQ. I ran to the store with Danny and we got the provisions and then picked up Tyler and headed back to the house. We ended up having chicken and corn on the cob and lots of other little fixings. It was fun to sit around the big table and have a good meal together. After dinner we played catch phrase for a while and then watched Deadliest Catch on tv. The kids had a great time and it was fun to play games together.

The next morning we got up and started packing up the car. I think that Danny wanted us to stay longer, but we still had things to get done and needed to get home at a decent hour for work tomorrow. We headed out about 9:40 a.m. and headed south to Laguna Beach to see our friends the Hellewells. Traffic was great the whole way! I could not believe it. We got to the Hellewell's house and got to visit for about and hour. The kids had fun playing with their kids and it was great to catch up with them. We have known them since college and I am glad that we have stayed such good friends. We went and ate awesome fish tacos and then got Thrifty Ice Cream and then loaded up and headed for home. The drive went well. We had to pull over twice for pee pee. Sophia loves to go because I hold her feet as she leans against me and she goes. She thinks it is hilarious. I am starting to not mind stopping as much. I used to not stop for anything or throw a fit if I had too. The kids are just being kids and when you need to you YOU NEED TO GO! We skipped the outlets on the way back and only stopped for gas. We got home around 8:00 p.m. and unloaded the car. I am good at getting everything into the house and Rachel is good at making sure that it all gets cleaned. We make a pretty good team. Better than we know I think. I am lucky to have her. She is wonderful!