Beach Break

In between unpacking boxes we took a break and went to the beach.  This was on the 4th of July (second day in our house) so lots of other people were at the beach too.  We went to Palm Beach in Watsonville.  For that beach it was a bit crowded but for, say, a Rhode Island beach on a summer holiday it was practically empty.  :)  At our house it was sunny and hot but overcast and a little chilly at the beach.  Typical marine layer action.  :)  We didn't even wear swimsuits or bring towels (I don't know where all the towels are currently) but we still had fun and got plenty wet and sandy.  Here we are on top of a dune heading down toward the water.

Despite the chilly breeze Matthew, Anna and Grant waded (or more) in the water and had a great time.

Matthew was pretty cold at first but eventually got used to the water and had fun.

Grant got very wet.  I think he fell down in the water at one point.

Scott held Emma who was too cold to be interested in exploring.  She was nervous about the sand too.  Kinda like Grant used to be.

Cold Emma and John.  At one point John headed down toward the water with me.  He almost touched the water but had a change of heart at the last minute and came back to huddle in my sweatshirt.

He peaked his head out once in a while.

Toward the end he wanted to look around for rocks to throw in the water.  We couldn't find any rocks but found a sand dollar instead.  He was unimpressed with the sand dollar and immediately threw it in the water.  :(

Here's Grant after falling down and getting very wet.

The kids didn't want to leave and asked if we could go back again the next day.

The Move to End All Moves

We started this move over a year ago.  Scott got out of the Air Force.  We moved out of our house in Illinois and Scott started his job in California.  We had trouble finding a house and ended up having one built.   And due to various factors, getting from one end of that process to the other took a long time.  But now the house is done.  The time has come to move in!  It took some time to pack up our things in Utah, and I'm sure my parents will be finding stowaway cars or forgotten Legos for a while. Before we left Utah we said goodbye to Grant-pa Reeve (my grandfather).  

My parents generously offered to drive our stuff in their van from Utah to California with us.  

We just barely got it all in there.

And the van, heavy laden with all our stuff, made it over Donner Summit!

Here was our route.

Goodbye Salt Lake.

And Hello California (see how I skipped over Nevada there?)

The kids traveled amazingly well.  They hardly said a word or asked for any snacks the whole time.  With the exception of Emma, who fussed and cried a lot on the trip.  She had THE WORST bed hair (or road trip hair?) situation I've ever seen (after 9 or so hours in the car).  I think she got some gummy worm in there somehow.  It took lots of baby wipes and elbow grease to tame her gummy worm/road trip hair do.  Here she is at Chick-Fil-A in Vacaville, CA with her amazing hair.  Scott's college and Air Force buddy runs the Chick-Fil-A in Vacaville Commons, so we try to patronize his place when we can.  It's a pretty nice Chick-Fil-A.

And on that last stretch...

We got to our house about 8pm.    It was still light and the kids were able to take in the new house in some daylight.  They were all very excited.  It was hard to get everyone to go to sleep that night.

I felt pretty overwhelmed when I saw all the boxes.  I mean we have done this so many times with the Air Force so I don't know why it seemed so daunting, but we've got a lot of unpacking to do.  We took some breaks to ride around the neighborhood a bit.  Matthew and Anna especially were so excited to be reunited with their bikes!  We have yet to locate the bike pump unfortunately.  We'll find it soon.  Emma loved all the bikes too.

Scott and my dad went to work straight away and ended up installing six (yes, SIX!!!) ceiling fans in one day, plus changing out an electrical outlet to be compatible with our fridge.  It was quite a feat!  The fans look great!  And thanks to them we were able to have refrigeration!!

Matthew rode his bike around a lot and got sweaty helmet head from it.  It was warm, but it gets cool at night, much to the kid's surprise.  I need to remember to bring sweatshirts with us wherever we go. They grow a lot of garlic in our town and when it gets harvested (now) and other times too you can smell the garlic in the air.  We knew all about this phenomenon before choosing to buy here.  I actually like the garlic smell.  We also get nice ocean breezes through the pass.  We live about 20 miles from the beach but it takes a little longer to get there because of the Santa Cruz mountains right in between.  But I love that we get the coastal coolness in the evening.

And here we are in front of our new house!  There are lots of kids living in the development and everyone is very friendly.   I think the kids are enjoying the new house...and enjoying being reunited with their old toys.  It's like Christmas.  My mom stopped at one of the farm stands nearby and brought us some strawberries straight from the field...plus oranges, artichokes etc.  Lots of local deliciousness.  I love the amazing local produce!

So we survived the move and and are still working on the unpacking.

This was our last move affiliated with the Air Force in any way.  The Air Force moved us one last time.  We decided where to move and now we can decide how long we stay and where we go next.  For now Scott is enjoying his job.  He's got a lot of responsibility at work and they keep him pretty busy, but things are going well for him.

And thus begins our new California adventure...

Em-mazing!

Emma didn't like having her picture taken when we did family pictures in December.  And, unlike the other kids, she didn't have any school or sports pictures this year.  So I had been wanting to take her back to get pictures of just her before we moved away from Utah.  Photo sessions in Utah are a pretty good deal from what I've seen in other parts of the country.  So I wanted to take advantage of that before we moved to a more expensive area.  Unfortunately Emma, who is now almost 20 months, is deep into the separation anxiety phase.  If you meet her, don't take offense if she is stand offish or flat out cries if you approach her.  It's just the age...and being in the nursery has made her extra nervous.  And I'm sure moving will make things worse for a while.  We'll see.  So when she entered the studio for pictures, she immediately started crying.  It is nothing short of a miracle that there are so many passable pictures from this photo shoot.   Our photographer was amazing!  Here are some of my favorite Emma pics.

So most of the time, things were going about like this.  Poor Emma.

But there were some good moments and the photographer was quick to capture them.

Emma even warmed up a little at the end and did some marching.

I'm glad we were able to get some good photos.

She won't stay this small forever.  And its nice to have some quality pics to remember.

Keeping Cool

After Anna washed the car the kids have discovered the spray nozzle for the outdoor hose.  It has a bunch of different settings and the boys in particular love squirting each other when they get too hot.  I put my life (or actually my phone's life) in danger to take these pictures.

Grant thinks its hilarious to get people wet.  You'll notice he is laughing in most of these pictures.  We usually don't let him have the hose. But he had the sprayer on mist, so it wasn't too bad.

In the end Grant and John were definitely the wettest.

Gotta keep cool somehow.

Temple Square

Last week I took the kids up to Salt Lake.  I had to get my computer from the Apple Store at the shopping center right across the street from Temple Square (City Creek).  There is a closer Apple Store in Murray but the one in Salt Lake could see me before I had to go to California last weekend...so I went up to Salt Lake.  When I got back from California my computer was ready to be picked up.  I took all the kids with me and thought we could play in the water fountain there and then walk over to Temple Square.  I didn't get a lot of good pictures on this trip (see another Temple Square trip HERE).  But back to Apple...

I love the Apple Store.  The kids got to play on iPads loaded with kid games while I waited for my computer.  It only took five minutes or so, but none of them wanted to leave.  I'm sure they would have pressed every button in that store if I let them.

We went outside (still at the mall) and ate sandwiches while playing in the fountain.

John and Grant got the wettest.  Emma reluctantly made a friend.  A little girl her size kept coming up and trying to engage with Emma.  Emma was very wary of her.  She's at that separation anxiety now big time.  Going to the nursery has only made this worse.  She is suspicious of strangers.  Which is probably good.

So once my two little boys were completely soaked  from the splash pad/water fountain we walked over to Temple Square.  John sat on a wood bench in the visitor center and left a wet spot.  I didn't think he would get that wet.  It was a warm day so we went outside and he dried out a little.

Watching a video in the visitor's center

Got all five of them in one shot.  None of them looking at me except sort of Emma.

Can you see John and Grant's CA bear flag shirts?  I'm excited about California.

The kids all liked the model of the temple.  I thought it was pretty cool too.

Inside the tabernacle.  Grant very badly wanted to go upstairs.

I tried getting a picture from the side of the kids and the Christus statue.  Not the best picture.  A nice lady offered to take a picture of all of us (top picture)...and here it is again.

Had to go see Temple Square one last time before we leave Utah.  Some of the kids wanted to walk over to the conference center, but then people started melting down and fighting so we headed back to the car and got some smoothies on the way.  I'm glad we went but I was also ready to call it a day by then.