A Last Minute Trip to Cali!

So a long lost friend, Frances, called to inquire about some tile we had installed in our home in Southern Cali way back when. I hinted for her to call Rich to have us come down and install it for her, wink - wink! Well, push came to shove and she had me all geared up to make the trip to help with the remodel of a bathroom myself.

B- U-T, there is always a "but" included at the end of a sentence when it comes to these things. Frances offered room and board (with a pool!) Yipee!

The list of those involved were: Myself, Logan, Rileigh, My Niece: Demi and my Mother in Law Barb. Nellie got booted off the list when Grandma Thatcher offered to take her for the week. Huge Kudos to "Ama" for taking the monster and giving us a way better trip than previously anticipated. By day 9 I was crying and missing her beyond words. Wow, it was hard to leave her for that long.

The trip was to entail: Sea World, the Beach, Demi's 15th Birthday, Remodeling a bathroom, Swimming in the pool, visiting my Sister in Law Tami and attending a Luncheon at Tami's church.

Well "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray" and thank goodness they do. Because we got to go to Disneyland TOO!

The trip started on April 1

First stop...

In - N - Out in Barstow, CA. Dinner on the drive down.


We arrived in Hemet, CA at Tami's house in about 11 hours. It turned out to be a very blissful ride considering we didn't have a 2 year old and were expecting the worst. The kids did awesome on the drive and were so excited to see cousins, Noah (4) and Katie(2).

The next morning we ventured to our old corner of the neighborhood, San Jacinto, CA.
Our old house was a little run down, vacant and up for rent.

Rich and I re-landscaped this backyard once, oh all our hard work...

In the back yard of our old place I tried to bring back memories of living there. Logan and Rileigh could not remember a thing. They were 23 months old when we moved out of that house. Kind of sad they don't remember.

We then made our way out to Oceanside to reunite with old friends and stay for the week. We were going to be staying with Frances and her son Christopher. And YES, we oversaw the remodeling of a bathroom at Frances' boyfriends house. The boyfriend was out of town (we secretly slept in his fully furnished pad).

Where Frances resides is with her Sister Diva, her daughter Dolly, other sister Jenny, her son Shayden and daughter Suzanna. Oh, and their Dad Dave. What a place they have, it is run mainly by the kids and was so fun to spend time with them all!

Sunday we went to the Beach and met up again with Tami, Barb and the kids.
Cousin Noah
Aunt Tami, cousin Katelyn and Grandma
No kidding, this is the only picture I have of Frances, center pic!

The weatherman was totally clueless this day and had predicted crap weather. So we did not take bathing suits to the beach. Except for Logan's, because I knew rain or shine that kid would get wet. We borrowed some suits at the last minute and had the most beautiful beach day.

We then sanded off and took a walk down the pier to Ruby's Diner, it is a 50's style diner and a must eat when you visit the beach.


Close-up of the beautiful Birthday Girl!


Monday, which was Demi's 15th Birthday, we went to Sea World with 6 kids between the ages of 5 and 9.
Sea World was fun, we saw three shows and went on some fun rides. Once again the weatherman was wrong and we had a gorgeous day!

Demi had eye balled a Oreo ice cream cake from the store the night before. So I dropped in to get it for her. We had six children holding their breath so she could blow out her own stinkin' candles...of course Logan had to blow them out twice before she got to make a wish for her 15th Birthday.
She was wishing we spent every day at the beach, that was her favorite day and she loved her sun burn.

Tuesday was a lazy day by the pool...and a little work here and there on the bathroom. Oh, poor us.
The final results of the bathroom. I just get credit on giving some advice here and there. We did do a dang good paint job!
Wednesday my friend Frances went into work so we planned another beach day. But, there is that "but" word again, the weatherman was right for once and it was yucky weather. We thought we would hit some museums or shopping malls in San Diego. B-U-T Jenny, Frances' little sister, offered us two adult Disney tickets. WaHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I had the guilts and did not want to go without Rich so I called him and he was like go back to Sea World, since we have tickets to Sea World for the year 2010. I replied B-U-T Jenny gave us two Disney tickets, so Rich was like well go then. I felt bad and said that we would think about it. 1 1/2 hours later we were at the ticket counter buying tickets and Rich called a little bummed out he was missing out on the fun.
These boys stayed up a little too late playing Play Station. A well needed nap to make it through 8 hours of DisneyLand.

Oh Boy was it fun!
Thanks to Jenny and Anthony!

Thursday was a cold day again so it was laundry and homework day.
The sun peeked out for 20 minutes and sure enough the kids were in the pool diving for dominoes!
Friday morning we ventured back to Aunt Tami's and put on our pretty's for a Lady's Luncheon at her Church. Chris, her husband my brother in law, is the Pastor at the church. So she was the speaker at the Luncheon.

Tami is very talented and is such a people person. She sang and spoke about how her and Chris courted and then later married and have fought through some of life's battles and have had two beautiful, very energetic, kids. It was so neat that we got to be their, her Mom especially, and support Tami.

She taught me how to make Shrimp Tortilla Soup. Saturday she made Sugar Cookies with my kids. It was a great visit.

I am pretty sure my kids will remember this trip forever.

Thanks to Barb for driving us home I so did not feel good and wanted so badly to be home to see my baby, husband and my bed.