Taylor and I decided to surprise the kids with a trip to
California for our fall break. They kept asking if we were going to do
something fun and we said most likely. We told them maybe we could head down to
St. George and visit cousins. The night our flight was supposed to leave, we
got a text from Mikelle saying she had surgery. We told them St. George was
out, but we would find something else fun to do. We were all in the car going
“out to dinner” as a family when Taylor received a pretend text from a friend
that needed a ride home from the airport. Needless to say, the kids were pretty
bummed and not too excited about our fall break. As we waited for a text from
Taylor’s friend when waiting for him to come out of the airport, Grandma Woobie
pulled up from behind, ran up to our car and said she had been chasing us for
miles and couldn’t reach us. She said we had forgotten a few items. The kids
slowly got out of the car a little confused and with sullen faces. She started
grabbing luggage pieces out of her car. I started calling out the name of the
luggage piece it belonged to. They still didn’t understand what was going on
until Taylor finally told Jayden he would not be going to scouts that night.
His eyes widened and he finally understood! “We’re going on Vacation???” Skyler
continued to look a little down and confused until I told him I had brought his
homework with us for him to complete. Then we saw the first smile from him. It
was a great surprise!
The first day, we went to the LA shopping district where we
enjoyed the day finding great deals. Then it was back to the hotel for swimming
and pizza.
The next day was Six-Flags, Magic Mountain. They had a lot
of bigger rides for the older kids so we split up for a while. Taylor and the
boys headed to the crazy big rides, Aysia and myself headed to the more mild
rides and Grandma Pikus and Auri ended up in kiddi land where they had crafts
and fun Halloween activities for the kids. We left just in time before the
zombies arrived for “Frightmare” night.
The next day we headed to the beach. We randomly found
Manhattan Beach which was incredible. The weather was perfect and due to El
Nino, the water was exceptionally warm for being October in California. We packed
a picnic and played all day long. It was a great relaxing day, other than a
parking ticket we ended up with for not putting enough money in the meter. We
were able to walk down to the end of the pier where a little aquarium museum
was located. The kids were able to touch and hold sea urchins as well as the
sea cucumber. Then it was out to eat for a great seafood meal and then back to
the Hotel for a needed good night sleep.
The next day was Sunday, so we went to church. We then
headed down to San Diego to visit the Mormon Battalion Museum. They recently
renovated it and made it very entertaining for the kids. The history behind the
Mormons that were asked to help fight in the war and settle California was
incredible. We brought a picnic lunch and found a park to play and eat at. Then
we met up with Andy and Sabrina and their little girl at a park as we headed
back to Las Angeles. It was good to visit with them for a few minutes. The last
day, Monday, we had a late flight scheduled so we decided to go buy lunch and
take it to Aunt Pat’s for a visit. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable trip
all around.
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