Fambly Vacation! Part Un

All of us were looking forward to our family vacation. Holy cow, were we excited. I was more excited than a kid on Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa Claus to bring the holy grail of presents. 
Bug was equally excited and since she can't quite say "San Diego", it was dubbed "The SanDegeigo Trip!"
I was also pretty concerned on how we'd make it all 12 hours to San Diego with all five children, especially since we have a hard time traveling 15 minutes on the interstate to visit the grandparents.
Good Grief.
   We wanted to visit my family in Arkansas, but Cary didn't have the vacation hours to travel all that way. We would have made the 3 day trip to only stay for 2, which seemed a  bit ridiculous. So, we decided to go to Arkansas another time and visit my other home, San Diego, California this time.
Oh, how I love it there. Cary and I went about seven years ago, and I fell in love with it. The people, the temperature, the weather, the beaches, the ocean, not so much the traffic, but everything else.


Cary was even more worried about the drive than I was, so we decided to take a very leisurely trip. We stopped a couple of different places and stayed in Primm, Nevada (about 30 minutes south of Veags) for a night going down to California and coming back to Utah. We were able to score a super sweet deal, but I man do I hav regrets about not going straight to California! The kids were exceptionally well behaved for the majority of the trip, can you believe it? We bought dual DVD players for the van and each person was able to choose a movie to bring. A seriously brilliant moment for us. The kids did not know what to do with all the smoking, drinking, tats, language, etc. going on all around us. It was interesting watching them process everything. Cuauhtli did come away from it saying that he knew he would never smoke or drink. I truly hope that sticks with him.

These photos were taken in Vegas. It was disgustingly hot and I wouldn't live there, even if I was given a free home. Although, I would totally take the home, sell it, and move to San Diego. :)

A little Lag in BlogLand.

Cary and I were perusing the internet together the other day. No, we don't usually do this, but we were uploading videos and photos we had taken in San Diego. He let me know that I had not done any blogging in "quite some time!" I assured him that it had only been a short while, but he did not believe me. He pulled up my blog and sure enough...I was wrong. How could it be? 3 whole months? Oh, yes! Summer happened! Who has time to sit down and blog when you have five adorable, yet quite demanding,  kiddos hovering over you? Not this old gal, anyway. I have missed it, though, I must confess.

So much has happened since that last day of school. It has been a summer full of fun, fits, melt-downs, sunburns, ice cream cones, family picnics, and beaches. The real beach even, complete with rip tides in the Pacific ocean and life-guards that make you want to pull out your parka while sunning yourself on the beautifully warm sand. We met three life guards and spoke with them at length about the tides, the surfers, and the amazing waves that crashed around us. I've never really watched BayWatch, but I assume they could easily hang with the likes of Pamela Anderson and all of those other sun-kissed people who run in slow motion down the beach.


I will be posting some of the cutest videos and photos of my kids that you have ever seen, very soon.
Very. Soon.


Our summer went  by far too quickly for the kids, but they are settling back into routines pretty well. We have passes to the Lehi outdoor pool and the pass of all passes, so we were never hurting for activities. We were also lucky enough to go to Cowabunga Bay. You know, the place with all the brightly colored slides and the cars spouting water that you can plainly see from I-15?  Bugga had only asked me to go about 14593 times, and she was elated when we drove up to the gates.

Tonathiu went to his very first Boy Scout Camp this summer, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Cuauhtli, Yoalli, and Gabby went to a week long camp as well and they were all thoroughly missed by those they left behind. It was completely bizarre only having two stinkles hanging around instead of five.

Cary and I didn't go to camp, but I kind of wish there was a Parent Camp. It might be kind of fun to hang out in the mountains together. Oh, the stories we could share!


I know I'm leaving things out of our summer, but at the moment I am a complete space cadet.

Tonathiu started 7th! grade on Monday. He is not enjoying Jr. High, but I have a feeling that it will start getting better as he gets used to it.
Cuauhtli is in 6th grade and is loving it. He has decided to be on the Science Demo Team and is playing soccer, really really well. He is an amazing player and I absolutely love watching him play.

Yoalli is in 5th grade and, as usual, loves it. She's also playing soccer and thinks that it is the best sport ever! She has quick feet and if she's able to follow the ball she'll be an amazing player as well.
 Gabby started 3rd grade! Unbelievable! She really loves school this year and already has a field trip coming up!
Keeleigh is now in first grade and thinks that school lunch is the best invention in the history of the world. Personally I think she just likes not eating her veggies.
That makes for one quiet house during the day. I'm able to do whatever I want! Sweet Freedom! This past week, I simply caught up on all of the chores that I've neglected.
This next week I think I'll start tackling some bigger jobs. I want to finish our laundry room, and I think I just might see how good I am at applying drywall mud. It sounds exciting.
Does that make me weird?

My birthday is coming up. Far too quickly for my taste. I will be 33 whopping years old. Holy. Crap.
I'm having a hard time with that number. It's far too high and I feel like I should be 26.
26 is a good number.
Old enough to get car insurance discounts, young enough to not be 30.


Betcha didn't think this post was going to be so completely full of randomness, did you?

How was your summer? How was your first days of school? How is your sanity?
I've missed you, my blogland friends.
I'm back!