California Vacation - Day 2: Los Angeles & Newport Temple

Today most of us went to Los Angeles. First Corey left with Melodie and Ethan to go visit the Colburn School and the University of Southern California. Corey wanted them to get excited about the possibilities out there, but his real intent might have been to solidify their resolve to go to BYU, which is what actually happened. On their drive back to Newport, Ethan was on the phone with Joseph asking to borrow $ so he could go to the BYU Summerfest music camp next month, cause music might be his most secure path in. I'm glad they're thinking about it and working on it.

While they were touring the schools, the rest of the kids and I drove up to LA too, except for Wesley and Abi, who volunteered to stay at the hotel because we didn't have room for everyone in the van. Our quest was to go visit the La La Land "Lovely Night" place so Joseph could take some sweet pictures for social media. But after spending forever not being able to drive to Cathy's Corner, despite Google's best attempts to give us directions, we finally gave up. A drive-by of the Observatory was the best we could do.

So our whole excursion there was basically a fail. But we tried. We ended with a stop at McDonald's while we waited for Corey and his crew to finish up, thinking we'd drive back to Newport together. But we ended up not getting together with them, and we just headed home after McDonalds. 

I took a lot of pictures of Daniel, as usual.

He just looked so cute there with his fries...

He looked serious, like he was deep in thought...

Or like he was trying to solves a mystery, like how his fries pile kept disappearing - "How is that possible when I've been dipping and licking ketchup off of this same fry the whole time?" Ah, the mystery hand from an older brother sneaks in to grab another fry -

Five more pictures, just for fun -

Cause I'm sure when I print up the blog book I'm going to have over a thousand photos and am going to have to split the year into two books anyway

So might as well post all the photos that I want to.

Studying the fry sauce...

Everyone else was done 10 minutes ago, little D still working on it.

After we got home, Corey told me that Joseph and I should go to the temple. I took him up on his offer. Joseph forgot his temple clothes, and remembered as we were 45 minutes into our drive down on Monday morning. He asked if we could go back for his clothes. We said no. But he could probably borrow Corey's. So that's what happened. The Newport Beach Temple is beautiful and it was really wonderful to be there with Joseph.

This was his second time after being endowed last Saturday. Before I left, I went to pick up our names that we had brought - and this lady who worked in the recorder's office noticed our last name on the cards - they had Joseph's name there as the person that submitted them. Her name was Mary Warren, but her maiden name was Wride! She had 3 sisters, one of which has passed away and said that her dad thought he was the last Wride. I told her nope, it's not the end of the Wride name - we've got atleast 6 boys to carry it on! I stayed up a bit tonight and sent her an email after looking on family search to figure out how we are related. She had mentioned a George, so after my quick research I figured it out - So, Corey's grandpa is Wayne Prior Danson --> his father Lewis William Barry Wride b. 1862 --> Barry Wride b. 1833...

Lewis William Barry Wride and George Thomas Wride b. 1874 are brothers. Mary didn't verify this yet, but I think that one is hers, George, son of Barry Wride 1833, and that George Thomas's son George Marden 1912, is her dad. George Marden married to Ella Cosby 1913, and Ella is Mary's middle name, who we met tonight, so I think that's where we connect!!

Her George Thomas and my Lewis William Barry were the only boys, Lewis is the oldest, then 3 sisters and then George, this will be fun to explore more! I'm glad we met tonight!! Way to make it happen, Joseph! What a good kid, going to the temple AND taking his own family names! Go go Joe!

He's gonna start taking pictures of himself at each temple and we'll see how long it takes him to get all 170 LDS temples worldwide (159 plus 11 under construction (...but not counting the 19 announced!)) If he does two a week, he should be able to get there, right? Haha, yeah, though that's not counting the distance in travel. Still, you got your first two taken care of, you're well on your way, keep up that pace.

Corey had taken the kids to the beach again while we were gone. When we were all back, we sat down for family scriptures and for a quick visual lesson that Corey had prepared. (I love the extra long couch our room had! We need one like this at home!)

While at the beach, Corey got some sand. Actually it might have just been left over sand from our shoes and stuff. But Corey gave each of us a small sample of sand and told us to count how many grains there were ~

The still shot helped me, but I still gave up after counting up to 14... Like what is the point! Some kids guessed 200, I think more like 2000, but really, there are way too many to count and keep track of.

You might say that there are grains of sand without number. And that was the scripture Corey wanted to share. Moses 1:33 -
And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.

- and also verse 35
innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.

Pretty incredible to ponder and think about. An appropriate ending to an evening at the temple. It's impossible to understand the infinite number of God's creations, but someday in the life to come we will. As for now, I will continue to have faith and believe that it is true. I've had many witnesses, the greatest of all is how Christ and his gospel bless my life and make my marriage, family, and life better and happier. If that were the only proof I had, it would be witness enough.

California Vacation - Day 1: Hotel & Beach

Day one in California. Highlight of the day was going to Crystal Cove. I'll talk about that first. The kids loved playing at the beach in the sand and waves.

We took the trolley/shuttle ride down there. It was good service that took us to a great drop off stop.

Daniel grabbed and held my finger as we left to Crystal Cove, he is so sweet.

It was a little breezy and cold at the beach, but the kids still loved it.

Owen is a little bit like toddler Hyrum and was wary of the waves. He wasn't out of control like little H though.

Something super cool was that a pod of dolphins swam by!

My big and little guys rolling in it. 

Mel and Sophi making mud pies.

Corey burying Ethan

Natalie loved the waves.

Natalie and Sophi looking for something~

Wesley's turn to be buried. It looks like someone lost their head!

Owen stayed in the stroller most of the time, a safe distance away from the noisy waves.

We had waited until the last shuttle to the beach, so we also had to leave after just an hour to catch the last shuttle back. We spent most the rest of the evening as we'd spent most of the morning ~ exlporing the hotel and swimming. This morning Owen and Daniel were ready to go check everything out at the resort.

They started by pretending they wanted to go to the other room. We had to get two, and they were only 4 doors apart but it was kinda a pain. When I showed Owen the direction to go, he came toward me and made it there on his own. Daniel, however, decided to go the opposite direction.

Come back here you little stinker! Silly kids.

When we were in the room, the patio made a good cage to contain them.

Just kidding, we didn't lock them out there. But they loved exploring the new environment. Owen didn't swim today, but he liked playing ping pong.

He mostly liked throwing the ping pong ball into the fountain, over and over and over again.

Corey fishing out the ball again, what a fun game!

I took a turn with the toddlers while Corey took at turn at the pool. Owen and I went to explore some more. Over to the west gate of the pool...

Owen liked it there.

Then back to the east gate by the games - Owen and Daniel playing chess.

I enjoyed discovering new and interesting looking flowers!

Rose bushes

And these pretty purple things - flower in a flower!

I took Natalie in to the bathroom for a potty break. After 4 minutes I started to record a video of her, cause she was cracking me up, just jibber jabbering to herelf like Bo on Monsters Inc. I might post t to youtube later. So funny.

And after 10 minutes she's finally done! Wash your hands and let's go silly girl.

Everything is fun with these kids - we're ready for more fun tomorrow.

California Vacation - The Drive Down

We are in California. We left early this morning. The plan was 5, I could have done 4, but reality was 6, cause I live with a bunch of sleepy heads, so even 6 was really pushing it. We took two cars. I had all the girls plus Wesley and Daniel.

Wesley taking his turn in the coveted front seat

Corey had the rest of the boys in his car (Joseph, Eth, Hyrum and Owen). We made it to Mesquite on our first leg, where we filled up and let the kids have a late breakfast at McDonalds.

I do not like McDonalds. I do not like fast food. I do not like to spend money on fast food. Yet, here we are for convenience sake. Corey put money on each older kids' debit card and put them in charge of buying food for themselves and one of their younger siblings.

Which was an ok idea for practicality purposes, but the CFO in me was freaking out about how much they would spend without me supervising (that breakfast cost us $99.75! ...so heads up to the frugal witch in my soul that there's a good chance we're going over budget, so keep those thrifty expectations low...) Pretty soon it was back in the car. It was a long drive. There were two places where traffic was super backed up - on the way out of Las Vegas clear up through the mountain pass, and then again in California, we found out at the end that there was an accident near Cajon Junction, and it had the freeway backed up all the way to Hesperia and Victorville. That added an hour too. It's a pain to be in slow traffic, it was esp painful after already spending 9 hours in the car, but better to be waiting in traffic than to be the person with the totaled car or in the ambulance, so we'll count our blessings. The kids were troopers. They did a good job sleeping. After the traffic and after his second nap, Daniel seemed to be okay that we were still trapped in the car, up until the last 30 min. He was so cute and for some weird reason kept saying "HAPPY!!" then a pause... then "HAPPY!!"

We were all happy when we got to the hotel. Time to unpack and unwind.

Are you glad that drive down is over! Yes, he is HAPPY!