back back to cali cali

So my Grandma and Grandpa wanted to escape Idaho winter and go down to Cali. I wanted to go hang out, show off my kids and show them around since my parents had to work. Then!!!... Cody's brother decided to buy a truck from his sister in Grant Terrace! So The kids and I flew out there planning to drive the truck back. The kids were so good on the flight, I couldn't even believe it. and Cody got a gate pass to help me back to the plane. It worked out sweet.

 It was so nice to see them and its hard to get up to Idaho from here. They were really surprised when my Dad walked in the door with us on Friday night. Sunday My Grandpa gave a fireside to the ysa ward about his bear attacks. It so neat and horrible to hear at the same time. But Heavenly Father definitely had more work in store for him. Its just crazy my Mom was 7 when it happened and she could've been a totally different person. and My grandparents have been on hmm... 4 missions together that I can count. anyway we loved our time with them.

Sunday night we also got to see some of the Bowlers for a while, with plans to reunite at the end of the week.

Monday Rowdy went to Kindergarten at my Dad's elementary school in Desert Hot Springs and we met them out there later to go to the... Desert Hot Springs. My dad found a sweet old school resort/spa with pools for the natural hot water. He rented us a little room for the day and we hung out in the hot tubs. There was a kiddy one that was perfect for our little ones. It was like a foot deep, and Elliot dug cruising around on her own. It rained and it was so perfect and cozy warm in the water. We even got a rainbow.

Tuesday Rowdy went to pre-school with Yaya and the rest of us went to La Jolla...(we didn't have enough room in the car :) he loved it. It was the most beautiful day... of course I feel that 99% of the time I'm in San Diego. There where tons of animals in the cove! can you see the huge-o pelicans on the rocks?

 We went down to the beach and had a picnic lunch. My grandpa loves birds. I remember in Idaho he used to have an aviary full of pigeons and we used to go in there and try and catch them to give them a kiss. So of course grandpa threw the gulls some bread. there were 4 different kids of gulls begging. My favorite part was Ezra yelling at them, "Don't poop on Mommy's shoes!" My sandals were not on my feet.

 Kids as always had a blast in the sand

 The sea Lions were out basking and barking

 There was a cool tunnel with a few tide pools at its base and on top there were a ton of the ginormous pelicans they had the coolest red and yellow throats too.

 Saw some dolphins on our trek around the cove. 

and this is where my heart sunk because I was distracted by the dolphins and lost sight of Ezra and was sure he had fallen through the railing. Instead he had climbed up it. Whew

 after that grandma kept him close :)

 I liked this cool lifeguard mailbox

 The pelicans all took off after we left the beach

 Can you guess what Elliot is looking at?

 On the other side of the cove there were Harbor Seals!

 We had a good time and since this was an amazing animal filled day I should also mention La Jolla has fearless squirrels. One of which scampered right up to Elliot while she was in the stroller and stopped looked at her, and you know how Elliot gets when she sees animal she is all flailing and excited. The squirrel licks her shoe. Ezra is right by the stroller. The squirrel comes over and sniffs Elliot's hand and Ezra starts to reach out his hand to pet him and then he scampers off. I was paralyzed with amazement giggles and little fear. Do squirrels still have creepy diseases like I was told growing up? or am I just paranoid?

 There's Grandpa coming back from the retaining wall to get a close up of the seals. It was so nice having Grandpa around to scratch my back.

 Then we went to the Mormon Battalion Center in Old Town. Wow, they re-did that place and it was awesome. Although I do feel like there was a nice room to ponder in before. But it was really fun and well done.

 Ezra even panned for real fool's gold. There was our sweet Sister missionary from Boston

Rowdy and my Mom came and met us later and we spent the night. It another amazing day. It was so amazing we even got close free parking and I didn't even have to parallel park Tad/ Dee's ginormous truck on a very busy day at the cove!
so.. more to come. but if you are a Californian reading this and are sad we haven't seen or called you, we are sorry. We needed to come home early. but we will be back this summer....Syd is getting married!