Fun with the Fam

We've recently returned from a fabulous 10-day trip to my beloved home town of San Diego.

Note: This was, in fact, a trip, not a vacation. You can't call it a vacation when there is absolutely NO down time for yourself, or when The Man doesn't come along.

That's right, the kids and I braved the road alone this time. It actually wasn't bad at all -- may the good Lord bless whomever invented portable DVD players. Mini Man slept almost the whole way. Babies are usually great like that. Although I must say, our usually 30-min. lunch/gas stop turned into almost an hour and a half with just me to pump gas, take everyone to the potty, order food, nurse the baby, make sure everyone ate at least a few bites, and feed myself. I discovered having just one other adult cuts a tremendous amount of time out of all of our travelling chores.

We skipped on Disneyland, Sea World and the Zoo this time so we could spend our time visiting family. We spent our first week swimming, playing with cousins, eating at The Pit (a deep pit bbq restaurant owned by my brother-in-law's dad and run by my brother-in-law), shopping, and going out on Papa's boat.

(Devil Child fell asleep sitting up. There's something about sailing that makes everyone sleepy.)


At one point when Papa was getting the sails ready and I was steering the boat, Devil Child looked up at me and said, "Mom, you like a pirate! You drivin' a boat like a pirate!"


(Passing by some seals on a buoy - the girls thought they were so awesome!)

And I even captured pictures of Miss Priss' biggest acheivement while we were there ... SHE LEARNED TO SWIM!!!!





I think I might be more excited than she is. Having three kids that don't swim made it nearly impossible for me to take them swimming by myself. I always needed someone else to help out a little. Now that Miss Priss can swim, and Devil Child is fine by herself with arm floaties, I can actually take the kids to the pool WITHOUT a panic attack! Hooray!

It took only two days at the pool before she caught on. Yes, she's had swimming lessons before, but she's NEVER done it by herself before. I'm so proud!

Devil Child's biggest acheivement while we were there ...

She stopped using the potty. I guess that's the opposite of an acheivement, but whatever. It was a HUGE pain. But I'm happy to report that after returning home, she's back on the pot again. Now, if we could only get her on it in time for #2. But I digress. That's another story for another day.

(Mini Man LOVES his grandma!)

We had a birthday party for their cousin at my sister's new house where she has a pool, and it was awesome. More practice for Miss Priss. Our last three days were spent at her house where we swam some more, played with their cute little puppy, Sammy, went shopping, and rode Plasma cars. The girls had so much fun on those things! We might be asking Santa for a couple for Christmas this year.

The weather was so great down there. It was nice to get away from the heat. Unfortunately, we were gone for the beginning of the monsoon season at home, so we didn't get to see some great lightning storms, and missed a bunch of rain. I love those summer storms where it's raining like crazy but it's still warm outside, and when the lightning lights up the sky all night long. I've never been one that's afraid of lightning. I've always just thought it was really neat. The trip was a lot of fun, but it's the longest we've been away from The Man, and it was SO GOOD to get home to him! We talked every day, but sometimes that's just not enough. Next time we'll make sure he gets to come along!

This weekend we're off again (this time WITH The Man) for a reunion up in Utah. We're going camping, and we're all really excited. Cross your fingers for us; it's the first time we're taking a 4-month-old camping in the mountains. We'll post pictures when we get back.