The First Leg

I prepped and prepped and prepped...physically, mentally, and emotionally. I stressed, wrote lists, procrastinated, and we counted down the days until the day of our big summer adventure. We had one week of down time between Drew getting out of school and our departure. Thursday I packed and loaded the van which was only made possible by my wonderful sister Shelley. We picked up Bry from work around 3 and headed to Cali. It was a long ride. Andrew is still my dream traveler. Carter is my "are we there yet" and Maylee is my tiny bladder child. I keep a potty seat and turkey oven bags in the van. Lifesaver! I makes for a lot less stops!

Our Cali weekend was filled with lots of fun. We had so much fun at Brett and Krist's house eating pizza, swimming, and riding the quad! The boys had a BLAST. Carter was super excited about the clothes he got from his cousin Nicholas.

Of course there was plenty of time to love on Grammy and Poppie. Maylee went to my mom and dad right away. SO sweet. 

Saturday we made it to the beach. I was super excited to take the kids. It was a little chilly, but still fun nonetheless. There was a zip line there and we let the kids try it before we got to playing in the sand. I didn't get pictures, but goodness I wish I had. Drew went down on his own (I think my heart stopped for 10 seconds while he went down). He made it almost to the end, but right before he made it to Poppie waiting at the bottom he dropped and face planted into the sand. He popped right up and with his cute little sand covered face he said "I'm okay!" Love this kid! Carter didn't want to go; I swear the child is a mini me when it comes to these things. Maylee wanted to go and with some encouragement from Grammy and crazy thinking from me I took her. I held her in one hand and gripped the rope knot around in the crook of my arm and week took off. I slipped a bit in the beginning, but held tight and we made it to the bottom. Maylee loved it.
 

They loved the water, the sand, and the breeze....Ahhh the beach - I love it!

Saturday night we went to the Beach Boys Concert with Bob, Dianna, Josh, and Caitlin. It was SO fun. They put on a great 3 hour concert. We danced and froze. I didn't realize it would be outside and like 50° so I was a bit chilly in my short sleeves. Grammy and Poppie watched the kids while we were gone. The little stinkers were playing on the elliptical and Carter Cakes got his finger stuck. It was all a bit traumatic, but now we have this sweet picture post injury so I'd say it turned out okay!

The ride home from the concert was less than pleasurable. My lack of sleep and extreme exhaustion caught up with me and I got sick...in the car....yuck. Sunday morning we headed out about 9, made a pit stop so the kids could see Grandma and we were on our way to Utah. The kids did MUCH better on this leg of the trip than the drive to Cali. Thank goodness. I was tired.