vacationing

We've spent most of the last two weeks out of town, hence the lack of posts (I don't like posting when I'm out of town--not just because I'm on vacation, but for security reasons. I know. I'm weird.)

(This picture has nothing to do with vacation--this is a shot of the converted trailers we slept in at girl's camp, now that I've finally downloaded my pictures.)

Two weeks ago, while Dan took a flight to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a conference, I took the kids up north to stay with Grandma. (Much more fun to play with cousins than to be the single parent).

We got to celebrate my mom's birthday--and Dan's, and my niece and nephew's--that first Saturday, before Dan left.

We went to the museum of Natural Curiosity (after waiting in a forty minute line)--the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Especially Oliver, who got to play with water, climb around on blocks, and then get soaking wet outside (had I realized there was an outdoor water component, I might have come better prepared).

My mom also got us tickets to see the Ogden Temple Open house, so on Wednesday we left Oliver with my dad and drove up with my brother's three oldest girls. We took a slight detour to see the Ogden Eccles Dinosaur park--the life size dino statues were neat, and the kids loved it, but my mom and I were a little underwhelmed.

The temple, however, was amazing. It was fun to watch the girls (esp. Justin's oldest two) get a bit starry eyed in the bride's dressing room. And the celestial room was exquisite. I am glad, though, that I didn't have to chase Oliver through the temple, as I think it might have ruined the spirit there a bit.

Thursday, we drove back home (with Sarah's two oldest girls in tow--we seemed to have a thing for ferrying nieces that week). We were home less than twenty-four hours, essentially enough time to wash some clothes and pack up again.

And pick a few peaches from our plum tree.

Then we drove to San Diego.

The kids have been looking forward to it all summer. I was both looking forward to it and dreading it--I knew we were going to spend a lot of time at the beach and I had nightmares about spending my week rescuing Oliver from the ocean. (Come to think of it, the day after we got home I had a nightmare in which Oliver was first almost drowned and then almost smothered when his siblings buried him in sand. I suppose my subconscious was still recovering!)

But it turned out even better than I'd hoped.

We arrived a day before Dan's family and spent Saturday morning at the San Diego Safari park. It was fairly busy, but we did get to ride on the safari tram around some of the wildlife enclosures and saw a baby rhino. It was adorable--but at one month, it outweighed my eight-year-old!

 Who is this monkey, anyway?

Oliver started off loving the tram, but after twenty minutes, he wanted out and we spent the last part of the ride holding on to legs, sleeves, etc. to try and keep him in the cart. We also saw some tigers and condors, both pretty neat, though by this time Oliver was getting tired and was not impressed with anything that required him to sit in the stroller (until the very end, when he nearly fell asleep in said stroller).

That evening, we took the kids to the ocean. Unfortunately, we hadn't planned on actually getting *in* the water, so we returned back to the hotel with three very wet children. They splashed in the surf, played in the sand, and, in Oliver's case, got knocked over by the waves more times than I can count. I left that night envisioning a very long trip rescuing Oliver repeatedly from the ocean. (Luckily, the next day he got knocked over by a particularly big, cold wave and decided he didn't love the water *that* much.)

Sunday was a quiet day. We went to sacrament meeting and then took the kids to an aquarium, where the highlight for the big kids was getting to touch an actual shark. Sarah arrived that afternoon, so we hung out with them for a while and had a nice dinner at the condo with Bubby and Poppy.

The real playing began Monday morning--once more at the beach.

Sarah borrowed boogie boards from her brother-in-law and they were the hit of the vacation, particularly with the older kids (Jake, Katie, Andrew, and Lydia). And, surprisingly enough, I really enjoyed them too. I don't have any pictures of me on the boards (maybe Sarah will share some of hers), but riding the surf onto the beach was pretty exhilarating.

 Evelyn loved it too--until she got swamped by a wave and decided she liked playing in the sand better. (check out her face in the second picture below).

  Oliver and Maggie bonded over the beach. Especially over filling the little watering cans in the ocean and dumping them back on whatever sand creation they were working on.

We also had a round of musical hotels--two nights each in three different hotels. Our last hotel was right on the harbor, near where a pair of sea lions appear to have taken up residence. (Our last night in Oceanside, we were awakened several times by a chorus of art-art-art as the sea lions were joined by another pair or two. I didn't mind it as much as I normally would have, because there's something kind of romantic about being kept awake by sea lions).

Oliver playing frisbee with his daddy on the beach.

In between turns at the beach, we went swimming, we ate fish tacos (really, they're delicious, and this is from someone who's pretty meh about fish), we ate ice cream, we played games, and generally enjoyed not having any real responsibilities.

We were supposed to come back on Thursday (not incidentally, the kids' first day of school, but something we did not realize until well after planning the vacation and scheduling our hotels), but no one wanted to leave.

So we threw in one last hurrah, at Legoland. I'm glad we went--the kids have been wanting to go, given their new obsession with legos--and I think this is the last time we'll go. The park is perfect for the 6-7 year old range. Evelyn loved it (it was her favorite thing about the vacation; apparently the beach is too sandy). Andrew liked it too, though he's almost too old for the rides. Even Oliver had fun, though he's too young for many of the rides. Hence, a lot of my pictures are of Oliver, because Dan and I had to divide and conquer.

But Evelyn did get to see her beloved Star Wars characters.

So, we had a wonderful time. And now we're home, and trying to recover from the mountains of laundry . . .