Spring Vacation

The view from our rental house deck

We chose  to go to California for spring break this year because flight tickets were too much to go anywhere else.  I don't really love California but this vacation turned out to be one of our best ever.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because last year, we tried to see too much and ended up driving way too much so we purposely avoided that and we were more relaxed and easy going about it all this vacation.

The kitchen and dining room.  This house was perfect for us except for a few minor issues with trying to do dishes

Day 1: We found our rental house, went shopping for groceries and made the best spaghetti dinner ever.  (It just tasted really good because we'd traveled all day, I guess)  We also drove to the beach to check it out.  It was really close and so beautiful.

Day 2:  We spent the morning playing at the beach which we had all to ourselves for the most part.  I loved this!!  There was serious sandcastle making, catching crabs, finding a dead seal, AJ getting in trouble by the coast guard, (he was venturing out on the rocks too far and going way too fast for the coast guard to catch up with)   highlights:  hogan fence, AJ being a 90 yr. old lady,

Frosty with his little crabs.  Frosty could have spent all 6 days on the beach and been so happy.

We spent the rest of the day kayaking up the Long Beach harbor.  It was a really unique place.  We could just leave our kayaks on the docks and go shopping because the canals were behind the shopping centers.  We found a Mexican restaurant and ate lunch/dinner there--the best Mexican food I've ever had.

On the ferry

Day 3:  We had planned to take a ferry out to Channel Island National Park.  Mario had originally gotten it into his head that we were going to camp out there.  I am crediting my wanting to go to the Ellen Show for getting us out of that.  (Long story).  It was a pretty long, cold, ferry ride and then they dropped us off and said they'd be back in 4 1/2 hrs. to get us.  We had that long to explore the island--we did not need that long to explore the island.  There were so many seagulls on the island that you could not walk or sit anywhere without being in their poop.  On the edges of every part of the island were shear cliffs and I'm kind of a mess whenever that's the case.  Anyway, we made some memories there and it will be talked about for yrs. to come, which is what we want from a family vacation, right? 

Highlights:  granola man telling Isaac to respect the seagulls-- it is their nesting season.  Frosty saying :I think the ferry is coming (about 20 times).  Mario's sunburn in weird places,

Channel Islands



We had A LOT of time to kill and we took a family nap with flies on our faces.  Mario says he slept with his mouth open and the inside of his mouth got sunburned.  This was his main complaint for a couple of days which I thought was hilarious.

Day 4:  We went to Magic Mountain 6 flags.  On the way, we passed so many strawberry fields and stopped at a stand and bought a half case.  I thought it would last a couple days at least but we went through it fast.  They were incredibly good!

I wore a hat most of our vacation so when I had to take it off for the rides, our kids made a lot of fun of me.  My hair was pretty scary.

Mario and I officially acknowledged that we have become old geezers.  We can't handle too many serious rides anymore.  I was fine until I rode "Riddler's revenge".  I was feeling the revenge for the rest of the day.  Highlights:  Attack of the Canada goose, "I'm scared",

Hanging out on Venice beach

Day 5:  We really had planned nothing for Fri. so we took a drive up the coast and stopped at a couple of other beaches.  Then we drove to the LA temple to see what it was like there.  We were in the visitors center and a sister saw Mario and yelled, "Hey, you set me apart".  She was from our stake and Mario had forgotten that she was there.  We had a great time talking to her.  She was so impressive and I'm sure, is a great missionary.  Highlights:  watching the new church video and seeing sister Phillips

In front of the LA temple

Our family with Sister Phillips

Lori making scones for everyone

You know Mario is tired when he sleeps through the prophets talk

Day 5:We flew home and went to Lori's house to watch conference with them.  She fed us so well and real food always tastes so good after a vacation.  We had our traditional scone making that night after priesthood mtg.  Highlight:  real food


waiting for conf. to start

Day 7: We had tickets to go to the afternoon session of general conference.  Lori's family came with us and I was so glad that we had the chance to do that with our whole family.  It's not something I would want to do every time, but once in awhile is a great experience.

Highlight: sleeping in our own beds that night.