Vacation Time

WE JUST HAD THE BEST VACATION EVER!! I only wish I had take a ton more pictures. And that I had a better photo camera. But thats besides the point. I didn't write this last Sunday, so this is two weeks worth. Okay, so I spent from Monday, May 21st until Friday, May 25th cleaning the house and getting ready to go on vacation. I'm not sure what milestones the kids hit during that period, I was kinda space-cadet-y. On Friday Sam went to work in the morning while I finished packing, then I went to pick him up, and we intended to hit the road. But then we realized we had a screw in our tire and we had to spend two hours at Costco while the gave us a brand new tire (the other one was beyond repair - thank heavens for warranties!) We drove down to Winslow (10 hours) and spent Friday night there, then on Saturday morning we kissed our kids adieu and headed off to California. (Sam's mom is a teacher, and since school ended that week both she and Samuel's 17 and 15 year old sisters were home all week tending our kids. That should explain why I have no pictures of them.)

Well, we were intending to head straight to LA, where we were going to meet my little sister Lissa, but it turned out that when she and her husband hit Vegas their transmission blew. So, instead we headed up to Vegas to pick them up and then went to LA all together (another 10 hours). Funny story! Lissa and Severin had spent the night with a relative in Vegas, right? So we had to get a code to enter the gated community, we parked in the driveway, and proceeded to spend about 30 minutes re-arranging suitcases to try to fit all of their stuff in our car. Well, just as we are getting in the car to pull out, this wet, hairy man with a button, collared shirt opened except the bottom two buttons comes over and starts interrogating us. ("I don't know you. Who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing here? What are you doing at all? How do you know Lindsay?" The last of which Severin answered proudly, "She is my dad's, dad's, sister's, daughter." True, but very fishy and funny considering the situation!) Finally the guy asks Severin, "Do you have any ID? [pause] Because I do!" and he flips out his wallet to show a cop ID - just like you see on TV!! Anyway, he saw Severin's driver's license, announced that he'd know who to come after and let us go. We got in the car and laughed all the way to LA. So, if you ever want to rob a house, get the gated community pin code, the key to the home you want to rob, park in the driveway, load all the person's valuables into suitcases, and spend forever rearranging them. Then, if you are caught, explain how you are distantly related, show ID, and they will let you go! How bizarre.

So, we got to California in time to have dinner with my Grandma Baker (we stayed there), and then go on a barefoot, sunset walk along the beach. It was so beautiful. Once again, I regret not taking pictures. On Sunday we went to church with Grandma and enjoyed family dinner and games with aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Monday morning the whole family met at my Grandpa's grave, then had breakfast at Uncle Dave's house. The food was fantastic. Not that you care, but it was. We watched a movie that afternoon, then went to an Angels game that night. They played the Mariners and were killed, but we still had fun. Especially because a new guy had just joined the team (I assume he was just barely called up from the minors) and had his first at-bat. He got on base (and actually ended up getting a run), so his batting average went from .000 to 1.000. You don't get to see a perfect batting average very often! :)

Tuesday we went with Lissa and Severin to Six Flags. School isn't out yet in CA, so the lines were, well, non-existent. It was mostly teeny-boppers on field trips. Anyway, Lissa and I drugged ourselves up with dramamine, but still ended up absolutely ill. And I pretty much thought I was going to die almost the entire day. Severin and Samuel had a great time, though. Good thing they had each other! My favorite coaster was Goliath. One big old drop (near vertical, 255 feet), then just plain fun. There was this one ride called X that scared the living daylights out of me. Normally after the first drop I can open my eyes and enjoy the ride. Not this one. Every time I opened my eyes I saw death and quickly shut them again. The coaster is attached in the middle with two floating seats coming out on each side. The seats can rotate 360* and you never see the coaster. Just FYI. So you start out with the seats reclined and they pull you up backwards. Pretty much you lay back and relax while staring at the sky. Then suddenly they flip you so you are face down seeing nothing but the ground and dropping nearly 200 feet at 76 mph. AHHHH! And for all of you who say I exaggerate, I looked this up on the Six Flags website just to verify my information. So there. We ended the day by going on a log ride six or seven times and getting soaked to the bones. You get so wet on those rides when you weigh about 700 lbs all together! (ps. if you want to see a not-scary-looking-at-all video of the X coaster, go to: http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/X.aspx and click on the green "Video" button on the middle left part of the screen.)

Wednesday the four of us headed to Disneyland for the day! Once again, California schools are still in session, and since we went after Memorial Day weekend, the lines were perfect. We had done pretty much everything we wanted to do by 3pm! My favorite ride is still Splash Mountain. In case you care. The new Space Mountain (I haven't been to Disneyland in three years, so it isn't really that new) makes me motion sick. Too bad, I used to love that ride. We did the Buzz Lightyear ride for the first time. I thought I would be good. I'm not. Severin got some 120,000 points, Samuel about 84,000, Lissa about 68, 000, and I got 8,000. Ouch. Those were pity points, too. I found out that if you shoot over and over really fast, for every five or ten clicks you get 100 points. Even if you don't hit anything. LOL! The highlight of my day was when I told Lissa and Severin that one day Samuel and I would buy mouse ears and wear them around Disneyland all day. I have always wanted to, but always been too cheap to do it. Well, just a couple hours later while we separated as couples so Samuel and I could meander down Main Street, we passed through a discreet side path and won mouse ears as part of the Disneyland Year of a Million Dreams! Well, my dream came true! The rest of the day Disneyland employees would randomly say to us, "Congratulations, winners!" (The mouse ears were unique so that only winners could get them, you couldn't buy them. That is how they knew that we were winners and everyone else were losers.) We continued the tradition by ending the night soaking from Splash Mountain!

Thursday was more relaxed for us - Lissa and Severin rented a car to head back to Vegas and pick up their now fixed car. Samuel and I went out to lunch at Inca Mama's with Derek and Denise (my uncle and aunt). The food there is so amazing, I mean SO AMAZING. Derek actually took us there when Samuel and I were engaged. We ate, then hit the road for home, and ended up with latino-food gas the entire car ride. Talk about humiliating for a not-even-married-yet couple! Okay, I got distracted. After lunch we went shopping at the Oakley store and got (gasp!) shorts! Neither Samuel or I have owned shorts since we've been married. Bizarre, eh? These are Samuel's first since he was 19, my first since I was 12. We also got some shirts. I feel so cool right now. :) We walked on the beach again that night. We were going to go swimming, but spent the afternoon going back to Disneyland to find Samuel's lost cell phone. Luckily they had it safe and sound at the lost & found!

Friday morning we drove to Phoenix (6 hours) and attended Paige's (Samuel's best friend cousin) sealing and wedding dinner. We saw the kids for the first time in a week that afternoon. We had just gotten out of the temple when they came walking up with Sam's sisters. Seara saw us from a distance and squinted her eyes, trying to see if it really was us. Her eyes got big, her jaw dropped, and she smiled the biggest smile I have ever seen! I picked her up and she kept saying to me "the mama! the mama!" She wouldn't let us put her down or pass her to anyone else for nearly an hour. Elijah, of course, didn't recognize or care about us at all, but much to my relief he was still interested in nursing. In fact, he's a little too interested. Its been all he's wanted to do for the last three days! After all the festivities we drove back up to Winslow (3 hours) to spend the night.

Saturday morning we packed up and headed back home (9 hours). I hate our car. I have been in it waaaay too much over the last week! Anyway, we were relieved to get home. The house is a cyclone, but I'm using the sabbath day holy excuse to not do anything today. I'll start tomorrow. It takes a week to prepare and a week to clean up for vacations. The before and after are longer than the vacation itself! Anyway, I was thrust back into motherhood today when Samuel woke up deathly ill and I had to do church alone with the two kids. I sure missed them on the vacation, but I think I'm over that now! :) Oh, I have a running bet that no boy ever reads this blog, so if you are a boy and happened to have read this entire novel, please "comment" on it!

So in the time that we were gone Seara learned what door knobs are for and how to use them (although she's not strong enough to actually make them work yet). She also learned to say "Come on!" and "ginx zuh wecome" (that is a hard g, by the way, and it means "thanks you're welcome", which she says as a pair, not individually!) Elijah learned how to pull a bottle to his mouth and hold it there for a few minutes, and was loved and held so much that he un-learned how to roll over! Ha, ha! My kids suffered no lack of love this last week! So my novel is done, and life is beautiful!

*Although this post is published under May, it actually covers until Sunday, June 3rd. Just an FYI to myself for when I am old and get confused.