part 6 - the end - California

Oh boy, let's wrap this up.

Spencer and I were a little worried about the heat of the Mojave desert with a sketchy AC system in the motorhome. And worried about traffic. And just wanted to get out. So at 5:30 a.m. I picked up Sadie from her crib and laid with her in the back bed while he started the motorhome and drove away from Bryce Canyon. It was dark and the kids either stayed asleep or woke up and went right back to sleep. Sadie slept until 8:30!! Coupled with her nap later, she slept almost half of the 8 hour drive - hooray for that.

When all the kids got up I carefully got them food and we got to enjoy the drive that we almost never do anymore (but that I did all the time as a kid). We pulled up to my parents' house around 2:00 and decided to hit the beach. It was WARM and beautiful and it was a good choice.

I manned the camera while almost everyone else went swimming/boogie boarding...

That night we finally celebrated Papa's birthday (it was 3 days earlier) - with hamburgers and hot dogs. The new neighbors across the street joined and are super cool - it was really fun. The cake was pretty incredible...

The kids had the time of their lives. Oh man.

Spencer worked and worked and WORKED on my camera. No go. A Costco trip was on the docket for the following day.

On Saturday morning we all headed to the beach. The water was warm-ish again, and even though I was on camera duty I decided to cave to peer pressure and went in for a bit. I couldn't really catch any waves (they were pretty lame, and I'm not that good) but my kids saw me get in and getting "boogie boarding tips" from my 8 year old boy was pretty awesome. They have no idea how much I used to play in the waves with my friends when I was their age.

Sadie thought the waves were amazing. Tyler actually got really brave too.

Tyler stepped on a bee and the grumpiness from that took a while to wear off...

We went home after lunch and napped the little kids. Spencer and I ran to Costco and I resolved to buy a new camera body because I already had perfectly-fine lenses. I was happy with that decision. We all got ready for the reception.

This reception was SO fun. The food was awesome, there were SO many people I haven't seen in years and years, and it was just the perfect set-up. Sadie ate her salad like a good girl...

then went for the unhealthy stuff later. Fine by me! Tanner spent a lot of time playing with Kami and his much-older cousins.

After that the kids were sacked out and we were all tired. On Sunday we were going to go to church but my parents' ward wasn't until 12:30 and I was frankly just DONE. Being gone for 11 days (most in a motorhome) is exhausting. We left and 9 and came straight home. HOME!

This trip was so good for us. It solidified to us that we will never own a motorhome. Our kids got to be in three different National Parks. We did a TON of walking. We spent a ton of time together. Sadie learned that this is her life and she'd better enjoy it. We had a fabulous time! And of course the wedding!