California Adventure

We spent an amazing week in California during April. I am always so grateful that my parents welcome us with open arms every time we visit and somehow manage to find a place to keep us in their already full home. This time our visit to California was initiated by the funeral of my grandmother's husband Jerry. Although it was somewhat of a heartbreaking event to attend, we still managed to spend plenty of enjoyable time with family and friends during our visit.

Our mob of children for the way down. We took Adam's cousin Alli with us on our trip which was a ton of fun. You can see she was the only one unaware of just how long our trip was going to be......

James in his rearward facing car seat. He is not a very good sport during car trips. Something about being one and not understanding the whole safety while driving thing.

 

The day after we arrived I was blessed with the opportunity of attending my very own baby "sprinkle" thrown by my sweet sisters in anticipation of baby number four. Alli was there as the guest of honor. She loved every minute of it as did I. I have such wonderful family.

One of the big ticket items at my parent's house is my dad's fountain in the front yard. It is, of course, the perfect height and depth for drowning small children so I live in constant fear while we are there but the kids don't seem to understand my hesitation. As you can see, Caleb thinks it is the most perfect toy ever.  

James was delighted as well.

And thought he should crawl in just to check it out.

"Don't climb on the fountain!"

Adam's favorite activity at my parent's house was the trampoline. He actually reminds me of my brother Taylor who used to spend long hours on the trampoline jumping and making explosion sounds while having his alone time.

Aunt Kimber was especially fun for the kids this trip. She opted not to get on the trampoline because of her growing baby bump. Smart girl.

Brothers jump better together.

Adam and Alli.

Our Alli is very much a girl which is so strange for me since all mine are very much boys. Perhaps Heavenly Father knew what he was doing after all......

Not a great picture of Kimber but I had to document how attached Alli became to her while we were there. They were the best of friends and spent lots of girl time together.

Adam, Caleb, and Alli picking strawberries. They were out there a long time.

Mouths full, voices quiet........weird.

Caleb had buried himself in the strawberry plants.

James and Adam in the dirt around the strawberry patch. Yes, James is using the nipple on his bottle to draw in the dirt. Gross, gross, boys.

Happy strawberry eating Alli.

Caleb getting an ear massage from Grandpa. He was in nirvana.

I think Grandpa is trying to protect himself here from flying limbs. Smart man. This was their watching basketball moment. Caleb loves to watch basketball with grandpa.

Caleb "flying." He LOVES this swing.

Alli pushing James on the swing. Alli makes James laugh all day long.

Look at that dirty-happy-swinging face.

Nobody pushes as high as Uncle Eric, much to my distress.

A mess of grandchildren with more on the way. This picture makes me tired....

If I would just give him the camera he would take some great shots.

Double kisses for these cute cousins.

Loving how distracted they can both be at the same time. Hello boys!? Hello!?

Who wouldn't want to be touched with that hand. Lots of dirt translates into lots of fun. I have to admit we took ALOT more baths while we were in California. 

Alli and her new bubble-wrap shoes. So talented.

James discovering the grandness of sprinklers. The kids would come in soaking wet everyday after playing in the sprinklers. I couldn't figure out why they were going on so late in the day and then my dad discovered that one of the four-year-olds had messed with the timer. What smart children. And really, who wouldn't want to do an extra load of wash a day.

Love this boy.

Alli helping to feed the turtles. Her face says "please stop making me look into the sun."