Last Week In California

Boo hoo. Our last week in California. :( We really missed Justin so we were excited to get back, but I knew it would be hard to go back to cold, inside all day, bundling kids, driving in the snow...and I was right. THE DAY we got back the weather went from sunny and +5 C to -40 windy, and snow. For a week straight. Welcome home. It is nicer again now, so I can't complain, but we still really miss all our our cousins, my parents and sisters, and +25 C weather!!

Here's what we did the last week!

Mer Mer read them stories every night.

Zach loved doing this doll's hair...mom found these on clearance and sent one to our new sister in law Jessica. She JUST started hair school. :) Perfect for her to practice on! Ha ha!

Then Zach got a hair cut of his own...he wasn't too impressed to be on this side of things. ;)

 Papa and Mer Mer took each of the girls out on their individual birthday dates. They LOVED it and felt SOOO special. They took them each to McDonald's and then let them choose where they would go after that. Kara wanted to see Rapunzel's castle. :) Dad found something that kinda looked castle-ish for her, but she wasn't fooled. "It's so small!" :) She was such a sweetie too. She made sure to bring home a cookie for Zach and Kate. She really is a sweet heart.

 Kate went to McDonald's too and then wanted to go see horsies so dad took her on a drive through the horse area of our little town. She loved it!

Zach with Papa and Mer Mer modeling his new sweater right from the beach side stand on our whale watching trip. :)

 We went to the park with cousins. This was the night before we left. :(

 Zach and Michael are buddies. It will be hard for him to go home and not have all of these cousins around to play with.

 The night I was packing up all of our stuff, Mom and Dad decided to head out to Utah and bring Cody and Jessica and Katie's family some heirloom furniture...My parents are so spontaneous. :) Dad magically fit EVERYTHING in the truck. I had to remind him to leave a bit of room for our suitcases! We drove to the airport at 4:30 AM packed TO THE BRIM, seriously. Dad said this was THE LAST crazy thing he was ever going to do. :) We'll see. Luckily, we got a gate pass so my parents brought us right to the gate where we got on the plane and took off to Salt Lake City. There we had a 2 hr layover. A nice worker was there to help us get to our next gate...across the terminal of course. The hardest part was taking them all to the bathroom by myself...I was a bit scared, but I finally decided to just ditch all of our luggage in a semi hidden place (the play area they had for the kids) and took them all to the family restroom. It was all great, but then 10 minutes later Kate had to go again...of course...so we ditched our stuff, again. 

 Kate enjoying the sunrise on our way to Salt Lake City.

The flights with the kids were okay, but they were SO TIRED again and that second flight was getting a bit scary. Each kid wanted to sit with me and I was stuck again with the same problem I always have...1 of me and 3 of them. We survived and Daddy was there waiting for us with open arms. It was SO good to see him again. Kate was rolling a carry on behind her and when she saw him she dropped it in the middle of the walkway and ran to him. These kids LOVE their daddy. EVERY NIGHT they would say they wanted to go to daddy's place. :) But they also didn't want to leave the beach or their cousins. Tough choice. Daddy won out though. Life without Daddy isn't complete. I never want to be away for more than a week again!

But now I can say...

I SURVIVED A (self-imposed) FLIGHT WITH 3 KIDS 4 AND UNDER AT FROM 4-11 AM WITH A 2 HOUR LAYOVER ON 4 HOURS OF SLEEP AT 25 WEEKS PREGNANT!

I know. I am crazy. And I am HOME!!