Our California Vacation

Newport Beach 

June 2013

We had the funnest trip!  Traveling with 3 little kids can be stressful and end up not being fun but we actually had a great time.  

We started off by visiting our good friends the Robles in La Costa/ Carlsbad area.  They moved about a year ago from Utah.  I love this family!  The plane ride there was successful!  We met up with Jenna shortly after getting there and we immediately packed up and went to the beach.  Heavenly to be at the beach! The weather was perfect! To sit and relax at a beach was seriously a slice of heaven.  We picked back up right where we started with the Robles.  After the beach we went to this amazing resort that they are members at called "La Costa".  Holy amazing!  It has water-slides, multiple pools, splash pad, beach sand pool, hot tubs, etc.  Wish I had one of those memberships :)

The first morning there I ran 10 miles in the jogger because my baby decided to wake up at like 5:30 a.m. and I didn't want to wake up others so I thought I might as well? 

That night we had an awesome BBQ dinner and roasted mallows.  California weather is just so perfect.    To sit in the back and just relax and have our kids entertained by their cute boys Carson and Tyler was so relaxing. 

 We had to say goodbye to the Robles and headed to Newport to meet my family.  The cousins reuniting was so cute! 

The morning after we got there we headed to Disneyland.  Man, this disneyland experience was so much better than our first one.  The kids had so much fun and we enjoyed it as well!  Big mistake at first was to go on the Mr. Toad's wild ride.  It was a stupid scary rikity ride that made Stockton apprehensive to do anything else the rest of the day.  He still did great but had to stick to rides like trains, submarine Nemo ride, Buzz lightyear ride, cars autopia ride, small world, tea cups, etc and then we watched the parade a few times and went to a tangled show and Beauty and the beast show.  Mckaylee was in heaven with all the princess's and Stockton was in heaven with the disney characters.

We had a great day!  We left the park just after 7:30pm.  Most people stay til midnight but we were tired and kids seemed like they were ok to go.  They immediately passed out in the car once we got in!

The rest of the vacation was spent with the cousins and we had a blast!  We made forts in the place, went to church, went to the beach, went swimming, played around at the resort, golfed, did crafts, went running with the jogging stroller, ate dinner at the beach, etc.  It honestly was a super fun trip...aside from my baby Kace being so super sick!  

The nights were a nightmare.  Kace has super high fevers, chills, cried a lot and couldn't sleep at night.  The only thing that would get him to calm down was to go walking in the stroller.  Almost every night I went out from like 3-5am so walk him and console him.  It's hard being a hotel with people right around you because I felt more anxious to not wake people up.  It was so sad how sad he was.  I ended up at the doctor eventually because he was so miserable.  I hate that he was so sick and sad.  We still had a good vacation because my amazing mom took him while we were at disneyland and while we went to the beach so we still were able to enjoy but having a sick baby puts a damper.  I sure love that boy though!

My one saving grace was that Kace was luckily happy in the stroller so I was able to go running a lot of the mornings with him.  I didn't go disneyland day or sunday but I went 3 times while I was there and he was great. One of the funnest things was to meet up with my friend Caisa.  We were staying at the same resort ironically!  We ran past the cutest little town right down from our hotel.  Love running with this girl!  

Mckaylee is my little fish and Stockton wouldn't even put his feet in the water.  They are so different!

Dinner at Newport Pier.  Tay had to leave me on Sunday and we went home on a tuesday.  He had to get back to work.  It was sad without him.  Luckily the kids still had a great time but we sure love daddy!  

Flying home with 3 kids by myself was quite the challenge.  On my way to the airport I got a phone call from my father in law saying he couldn't pick me up from the airport anymore.  I literally was pulling up to the airport when I was told and didn't know what to do.  Three little kids and lots of luggage and me is a hard thing to pick up.  After many phone calls and desperate texts our cute buddy Jake Anderson came to my rescue! 

So the plane was so interesting.  The kids were honestly great and considering how sick Kace had been he was great too but just the logistics was so hard!  My bag walking on the plane is hitting everyone, it was hard getting the kids treats and entertainment situated across the isle while holding my babe, changing a poopy diaper with 4 kids in a tiny airplane bathroom was interesting, having to put Kace down in the isle while doing anything for the kids, etc.  Luckily I had the nicest man sitting next to me that had never been on an airplane before nor had pretzels but he held Kace a few times to help me out. People were really nice but it still was hard and I was so relieved to get off that airplane!!  Such a fun trip and our kids are totally getting a little easier and more enjoyable in circumstances like that.  

I LOVE NEWPORT BEACH CALIFORNIA!!!