California or Bust

Our California trip was quiet the experience.

This was our average gas mileage for
the trip

The number of miles that we actually
traveled

The number of HOURS spent in the
Durango.

Our first destination was a place called Lake Jennings.  It was interesting to try and find this little "lake".  It was more of a reservoir type place.  You couldn't get in the water because it was used for drinking.   The campsite we had was very dry and desert like.  Not at all what came to our minds when thinking of California.

 When we got there I had filled a water jug full of water for the trip.  I did not, however, take into account the fact that we would be going up and then back down in elevation.  Therefore the water had made it's way out of the water jug and onto many of the things around it in the trailer.  Thankfully none of our bedding was involved.  Unfortunately some of McKenna's clothing was. So we quickly strung up a clothesline (which was probably against the park rules) and got things drying out.  Mine and Ty's scripture bags were also part of the wetness casualties.

When we arrived we were tired but happy to be there.  The kids had made that long trip really well.  It was towards evening so thankfully it was starting to cool down.  We had a very large group of campers next to us who weren't exactly quiet.  They were very nice though because when it came time to blow up our air mattress I couldn't get our pump to work so I went next door and asked if they happened to have one we could borrow.  Sure enough they did and they graciously let me borrow it.

 As we were setting up camp am SUV came down and pulled into the campsite across from ours a little too fast and ended up high centered on the cement block intended to stop people from driving into the campsite any further.  Ty attempted to pull them out with the Durango and some rope but the rope snapped and we didn't have a chain so they ended up having to call a tow truck to come and pull the off of it.

We went to bed to the sounds of our neighbors partying it up but we were too tired to care.  We awoke to the sounds of one of the young kids in that campsite getting sick.  His tummy was not happy and he thought he was going to die and was voicing that opinion, loudly.

While exploring our campsite George spotted a heart growing in the cacti.  It was pretty cool!

Cactus Heart

The next morning we woke up had breakfast and got ready to drive into San Diego to visit the L.D.S. Temple there.  It is breathtaking, so beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect.  A beautiful blue sky created an amazing backdrop for this beautiful building.

Our forever family in front of the
San Diego Temple

Here is a picture of Ty and I in front of the temple.  I have a WHOLE other blog post coming about this picture alone.

The catalyst

This is one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip.  I did a shot like this with each of the kids but it was George that gave me the inspiration.  He had these mirrored lenses and I went to take a picture of him with them on when I noticed the reflection of the temple in them.  I need to print them out and give them to each of the kids.

Always look to the temple

The temple itself doesn't have a visitors center but there is a Mormon Battalion Historic Site that you can visit.  When the kids found out about that the decision was made to make that stop.  It was really a neat place that told more about the Mormon Battalion through a live action type production along with videos.  It was pretty interesting. 

After the presentation they let you pan for gold in the courtyard.

Kenna and her "gold"

The kids standing under an arch at the
Mormon Battalion Historical Site

Then we were on our way to the beach!  Our kids had never seen nor been in the ocean before this trip.  They were pretty excited to get there.  We have cousins that live in California who drove down to the beach to meet us.  When we got there it was still bright and sunny.  As soon as we got to where we were going to park and find a spot to set up the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up.  Our cousins told us that in California this is called "June Gloom" so usually the only people that you see on the beaches in June are tourists because it's still so cold.

The kids were bound and determined to get in that water.  Unfortunately they left me behind so I didn't get any actual pictures of their first time in the ocean.  They were pretty surprised by how cold it was.  We met up with my cousin Tammy and her family.  They had brought a boogie board and a wet suit to use and they were super nice and let Jillian give it a go.  Then when it was time to head out they let us keep them so that we could use them for the rest of our trip!  It was so nice!

Standing in the O-chin!

Before we left on our trip our neighbor told me that when we got to the beach to go to the waters edge and look for little v's because there were little sand crabs that you can dig up.  He said that his kids thought it was so cool to do this.  Sure enough, our kids thought it was pretty awesome!  This is George holding a handful of sand with the little critters in it.  When you pick up the sand they dig down and you can feel them hitting your fingers.

I guess regular beach people call them Sand Lice.  I prefer to think of them as tiny sand crabs.

Love the look on G's face!

 It was a lovely day even though the weather turned off cool.  It was a wonderful start to our vacation.

Ty walking in the ocean

However the smiles and happiness of this day were short lived.  We had a rocky road ahead of us the next day.  One that had nothing to do with car troubles.  One that almost cut our trip short.