California Trip

I am a little behind on blogging because we have had such beautiful weather here. As soon as the good weather hits, we are outside constantly. So now I have to play catch up.

A few weeks ago we took a much needed trip to Southern California to visit family. I decided to be brave and drive by myself. I drove to Vegas where I met my Aunt and Uncle and family. They were at a Highlands Festival here. Patrice's son Dallas Christopher plays the snare drum in a Scotish band. It was so cool to watch him. Then from Vegas on, my boys were lucky enough to ride in their Motorhome. So the drive was awesome. We did soo good. And the drive was so worth it for the whole week of fun that we had.

We spent our first day in Redlands at my Aunt Patrice's house. She is only 6 years older and has been my best buddy since we were little. They were nice enough to let us stay with them and she definitely spoiled us. My boys did not want to leave her house. She has so many fun things to do and her kids are so much fun to play with. We played by the pool for the first half of the day. My boys were in heaven.

The next day I convinced the boys that we had to leave to go down to San Diego! My sister, Milissa and her 3 kids went with us. But on the way we stopped at my family's farm to see family there. Max, Porter and Mika got to play on the huge tractor for a bit while we visiting with family. I forget how much I miss being around everyone. I have such a fun family.

We finally made it to San Diego and we headed straight for the beach. I love the beach!! I could spend the whole day, everyday there. And I think my boys feel the same. We had a blast. My 3 brothers met us there also. They are so much fun to be around and my boys love playing with them. We had such a nice afternoon. It was absolutely beautiful there.

This is my baby bother, Mike. He is the youngest of us 5 kids. It was so fun to see him.

Max and Mika (Milissa's little girl) playing in the waves.

My brother Matty playing with the kids. They had so much fun burying eachother and building sand forts.

Porter is not a huge fan of the water. But he sure loves the sand.

That night we watched my brother Matt play softball and then had dinner at Mike's house. It was a wild evening. All the cousins had so much fun playing together. We spent the night at Matt's house and then spent the next day at the beach again. What a life, huh! It was another beautiful day. The beach was basically empty and the boys could just run and play. Matt's girlfriend Lori changed her schedule around for us and came down to the beach to hang out with us.

The next day we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Here's a picture of our crew. My uncle Dallas, Aunt Patrice and their four kids (and a boyfriend), my sister Milissa and her three kids, and not in the picture, my Aunt Dana and her three kids.

Max and Aiden. Aiden is Patrice's youngest and was born 3 months after Max.

We were there for the Butterfly festival. It is amazing. You enter an Atrium that is filled with thousands of different kinds of butterflys. It was really cool.

All the younger cousins monkeying around.

Austin is Patrices' third little boy. He is so much fun. He gave Max a piggy back ride most of the day.

At the end of the day we found a splash park. The kids had a blast getting soaked :) I think the best part of the whole day was running around with the cousins.

My uncle Dallas became Porter's little buddy. Porter would not let him out of his site. And Dallas is so sweet. He held Porter and took him around wherever he wanted all day. This is the gift shop at the end of the day. Dallas just sat down with Porter and read him books. It was so sweet. We had a great day. And it was so fun to hang out with family all day.

The next day we picked up Matt at the airport and headed over to Santa Monica to hang out with Matt's brother Alan, Michelle, and their three girls. We love hanging out with them. We spent the next day at the beach with them and then went back to Redlands to visit with my family before we had to hit the road on Sunday. We were lucky enough to have Matt on the return trip. The trip home is never as fun!! But we had the best week. We will definitely be making another trip like that soon. Thanks so much to everyone for making it such a fun week. We miss you guys so much already :)