California

We just got in from the long drive home from California. My little brother John was graduating from... I have no idea what its called... he was graduating from his army class where he learned to speak french. So his wife asked if the boys and I would come down as his graduation present. It was supposed to be a surprise but apparently the army doesn't like surprises so he found out last minute. I packed up late Tuesday night to be prepared to leave Wednesday morning. I left somewhere around 6:30am it is supposed to be a 8 1/2 hour drive but I knew since it was just me alone with the kids to plan on more like 10. It took 12 hours!!! I was so tired that I had to pull over and rest twice and on top of that my GPS got me lost and made me travel through farmville to get to their house. I was so glad to finally be there and so were the kids.

John Graduated Thursday morning. I can't believe how grown up little scrawny Johny looks in his uniform! It was exciting I was so proud of him. Even if I could barely hear anything above the screaming of my tired kids. Unfortunately the Army didn't ask me when my kids nap time was so they could take that into account when planning this event! We all walked down John's class room where the students and teachers we all gathered for a little celebration. Its amazing how well they speak french. I took several years of french in High School and in College and can barely remember enough to introduce my self and ask what time is it! That is when my camera broke... don't know what happened to it? It was working just fine and I set it in the stroller and picked it up again and it just wouldn't work so we had to head out and get a new camera (no I cannot live one day without mine). John and Heather took us out to lunch and the best part is finally getting to know my sister in law. John and Heather got married in December and we have only met a few times. We have talked on the phone and online but being the only sibling (minus John now) living outside of Utah I really never got to spend much time with her. Turns out Heather has the same hobby as me... Teasing John :)

Being with family is so fun the kids were all giggles and smiles with all the attention they got from their aunt and uncle. Friday they took us to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. We had so much fun playing on the beach, (it was too cold to get in the water) riding park rides and eating really really unhealthy food! Landen and Brayden both got to ride their first amusement park rides. We took them on the carousel. Landen loved it! He rode twice and was just so happy to feel the wind in his face and the motion of the horse going up and down. Brayden liked it at first but as it picked up speed and his horse started pulling him up away from Heather he started to cry! I love taking the time to do things with Landen that he enjoys even if it takes a little extra time and money. Just to see that smile on his face and his eyes light up just brings me joy! John and I rode a roller coaster together I haven't ridden one since before I was pregnant with Landen. I miss being so close to Lagoon! We had fun reminiscing about Lagoon and the fun things we did as kids. It was a really fun day I even tried a bite of John's deep fried heart stopping extremely bad for you twinkie it was delicious but not quite as good as the deep fried heart stopping oreos. Between the fried food and the rides we were lucky to survive the day!

Saturday and Sunday we went to the beach and played some more. It was grey and cloudy the whole week we were there but even with the gray clouds the ocean is still beautiful! Saturday was Seventeen mile drive and Pebble beach which was beautiful. Brayden loved the wet sand he would hold onto my hands and run town the beach toward the water. He would smile and laugh as long as the water only got his toes if it touched his diaper he would cry. It was really cute. Landen was having a bad day and didn't want to come out of the car much so Heather sat in the car with him while Brayden, John and I explored.

Sunday was Carmel beach which was beautiful! The houses around are so cute I want to live there! We actually weren't their very long although we did manage to wear ourselves out. Landen was in a much better mood and enjoyed the texture of the sand. He would pat it and pick up handfuls. We had to keep stopping him from wanting to rub his face in it. Brayden was a silly boy he loved getting his legs covered and stealing everyone's attention. John even got in the water. We even saw a little bit of sunshine which was enough to BURN poor Heather. Some how we managed to fill every crevice with sand and take it home with us.

Just hanging out at the house with John and Heater was so much fun. I miss being around family. Our family has always been so close and both John and I are far from the rest of the family. We teased and talked and just hung out. I even stayed an extra day, Monday, John had to work so it was the perfect time to get to know Heather more. The trip home today would have been much shorter then the 12 hour trip there if it weren't for me leaving my wallet and only realizing it after I got 45 minutes down the road. I put over 1100 miles on the car this week and 24 hours traveling but it was well worth it! The only down side was missing my husband who didn't get to go with.

Now we are planing on going to the Grand Canyon on Friday to meet up with my sister who gets there with her 5 kids tomorrow and then having them spend a day here. I'm so excited!